Ornaments - Questions and a Proposal...

[Iguanadon]

I would love to be able to offer animal ornaments along with the puzzles I sell but quite frankly I don't have the time... nor the experience cutting them... nor the right wood, or blades, etc, etc.

So... The latest Iggy idea... Does anyone want to be my ornament maker?  I'm imagining starting with my top 10 selling dog breeds, which Harvey already has patterns for (and I'd provide of course) and also I'd modify 6 to 10 existing patterns, shrink them down, for all the other popular items I sell... Sea Turtle, Dolphin, Mermaids, Unicorn, Dragon, Elephant, etc, etc.

Attached is a sample pattern set from Harvey along with his recommended "instructions".  I'm thinking of just doing the outline version, no lettering as that could get quite tedious and time consuming unless it's something you'd be interested in doing.

Anyone experienced with doing ornaments and/or work with 1/4" wood interested?  If so, message me and we can discuss compensation, etc.  You would tell me how many you're comfortable stack cutting, and I'd order them in that quantity, for instance if you say you can do 5 at a time, I'd order in multiples of 5 for each animal so that you'd be maximizing your output rather than doing 1 or 2 at a time.

Let me know your thoughts... I'd enjoy giving someone here some work if you could use the income or are looking for something to do.

Iggy

_Ornament Instructions.pdf

[rjweb]

I would like to cut out sample but right now I am out of town won't be back till Sunday, if I can help out in any way I will, Retirement is a bitch, I don't know how I had time to work, RJ

Edited September 20, 2017 by rjweb

[Iguanadon]

I got a couple of quick responses and am working with one SSV member on a test stack.  I'll let everyone know if I end up needing additional assistance.  Thanks!

[kmmcrafts]

I don't think you will be disappointed in offering up a few ornaments... I don't know how you intend to package them up for the customers but I just thought I'd share what I do..

I  put my ornaments into a small jewelry display box with a clear top.. these come with cotton inserts.. and that is what i use.. however I cannot remember who it was but I think it was ROLF that uses some colorful paper or foam sheets cut to size.. which really makes the ornament stand out.. since I just sell online I don't fool with that and the cotton acts as a padding protection from the careless mail workers.. If the ornament pattern is too large for the box...I resize it so it does fit.. they make real nice gifts ready for gift wrap in those little boxes..  I'll post a link to the boxes below..    

P.S. Good luck with the show and your ornaments

Clear Top Boxes

[Lucky2]

Iggy, I'm not trying to bust your bubble, but don't you think it'll be awfully hard to make money off of something you have to pay another scroller to cut? The other scroller will want to be paid, did you take that into consideration? Selling ornaments is a hard way to make money, you may do alright because of the type your intending to sell. If you don't mind me asking, how much do you intend to sell these ornaments for? And why cut them out of 1/4" bb plywood, why not use 1/8" bb pw? I use to sell ornaments, I made them all out of plywood. I sold over 5000 of them over three years, I charged anywhere from $4.00 to $15.00 for them. At the time I was in a well to do community, and people didn't mind spending money. Now that the three mills and mines have closed, you can't sell a thing because money's so tight. It was a farmer's market that I sold at, I usually sold about$200.00 per week. I forgot to mention, the plywood I used I made myself. I only used 1/8" bb for certain ornaments. My plywood was only 1/16" thick once sanded, I usually stack cut six of them at a time. I used nine different types of veneer, they made for a nice color selection. I don't think I could have made any money off of selling these ornaments, if I had had to pat someone else for cutting them out.

Len

Edited September 20, 2017 by Lucky2

[SCROLLSAW703]

sounds like here where i live. an agriculture community, & money is tight. but, if you have the right name in town, folks will buy. typical small town.

[Iguanadon]

4 hours ago, Lucky2 said:

Iggy, I'm not trying to bust your bubble, but don't you think it'll be awfully hard to make money off of something you have to pay another scroller to cut? The other scroller will want to be paid, did you take that into consideration? Selling ornaments is a hard way to make money, you may do alright because of the type your intending to sell. If you don't mind me asking, how much do you intend to sell these ornaments for? And why cut them out of 1/4" bb plywood, why not use 1/8" bb pw? I use to sell ornaments, I made them all out of plywood. I sold over 5000 of them over three years, I charged anywhere from $4.00 to $15.00 for them. At the time I was in a well to do community, and people didn't mind spending money. Now that the three mills and mines have closed, you can't sell a thing because money's so tight. It was a farmer's market that I sold at, I usually sold about$200.00 per week. I forgot to mention, the plywood I used I made myself. I only used 1/8" bb for certain ornaments. My plywood was only 1/16" thick once sanded, I usually stack cut six of them at a time. I used nine different types of veneer, they made for a nice color selection. I don't think I could have made any money off of selling these ornaments, if I had had to pat someone else for cutting them out.

Len

Hi Len, yep, I took into account having to pay the cutter and I can still make plenty of profit selling them for $10 each.  I'm in a tourist/beach community and have no trouble selling my puzzles for $25 and this will be a nice inexpensive alternative enjoyed by the animal lovers especially with the holidays coming up.  It may end up being a seasonal offering.  I'm just trying a couple of different things.  I average a very decent amount in sales per event currently in my first 15 months of doing this.  If I can bump it up a little, great.  Otherwise I'm happy with my current business model.  But why not try to find other revenue streams.

I have come up with my top 10 dog breeds and top 10 non-dog animals as a test run, doing 5 of each.  If these 100 ornaments don't do well, so be it, but it's something I'd like to try.  And it will also let me know if it's something I should take  the time to cut myself or continue to have someone else cut them for me.  I'm pretty much maxed out right now cutting puzzles considering I have a full time day job.

Edited September 21, 2017 by Iguanadon

[ike]

Are you trying to make theis a job not a hobby?

IKE

[Iguanadon]

25 minutes ago, ike said:

Are you trying to make theis a job not a hobby?

IKE

I'm trying to make the most of my hobby by maximizing my potential sales by offering things I think customers would like.  If I'm at an event, why not sell whatever people will be interested in buying.  I'm there anyway, I might as well bring home more $$$.

I won't be quitting my day job, they're foolish enough to pay me way too much.  ;-)  But if they were to ever boot me out, I'd like to have the option of doing this full time.

[Iguanadon]

Snapshot of the first test batch.  Going with 1/8" for several reasons.  Labrador's.  @Sam777 did a great job

I'll share pictures of the others when I receive them and now I need to build something to display them on.

[amazingkevin]

On 9/21/2017 at 9:23 AM, Iguanadon said:

Snapshot of the first test batch.  Going with 1/8" for several reasons.  Labrador's.  @Sam777 did a great job

I'll share pictures of the others when I receive them and now I need to build something to display them on.

nice !