Iguanadon

Lookin' good Roly. Hard to believe that Christmas season is upon us.

Hey Frank, they're simply Harvey's patterns shrunk down to 60%.

In advance of a 2 day event, Friday evening and all day Saturday, I'm putting strings through the holes I drilled in the ornaments that @Sam777 cut for me. I look forward to displaying them for the first time. Fingers crossed, see how it goes. New event/venue, so I have no idea what to expect. It's a wine festival. Drunk people shopping, I figure it was a good risk. ;-) They turned out fantastic.

Hi Nancy, Ruffling feathers now and again is good for blood flow. You're always welcome here. And you hit the nail on the head in everything you said, but especially when you said "To me, that's different than if someone simply wanted an animal that wasn't currently available, but would be suitable for anyone. In that case, I would think they would expect that the designer would add it to his inventory. They are simply paying a premium to get it before he got around to drawing it for general use....if he ever did for that animal." I've had a couple of requests for breeds of dog that Harvey hadn't already drawn. The customer paid the $20 fee and Harvey absolutely added it to his inventory as I would expect him to. The ones I recently custom ordered for myself, the PIG and the COW that say BBQ... I paid $20 each for those and I expect him to make them available if anyone were to want them. I paid to have something made that wasn't available based on my specific need. If someone else likes it and wants it, great. I'm glad they saw it, liked it and wanted it and it was now available. My 2 cents. Iggy

Nothing is ever simple any more, especially on the internet. LOL That's fine, I just smile and continue along my way.

I'm beginning to not like you too much Jim... LOL!

Duke has shown his fabulous version of the fairies, and here are my plain, unpainted, boring versions. There are 3 new patterns from Harvey, but these two were a big enough pain in the ass to cut, I may not even do the third one, it looks even more tedious. But they are beautiful. Harvey does nice work.

There is a site that does sell some of Harvey's old, original patterns in groups of 10 or so. It's some site that he first worked with about 2004 but he rarely sees any type of payment from them. Most of those patterns he has updated or re-drawn.

FYI - Quick update. I picked up some spray clear finish and I like how easy and quick it was and how quickly it dried on my painted bases (using watered down food coloring). I'm also testing spraying the bottoms of the feet of all of my puzzles. As many of you know, I use mineral oil to dip my puzzles in to bring out the color of the wood but it of course never fully dries and while I have never had anyone mention or complain about the oil, I've always been slightly concerned about it being set on a piece of raw wood/furniture. I did a quick test of 2 puzzles I recently cut and oiled. I sprayed the bottom of the feet on one and not the other and then sat them both on a paper towel. The test went very well. No bleeding from the one sprayed. I'm still open to any other suggestions or comments. Thanks to all who have provided info so far. Iggy

Hey Kevin, Personally, I'd bought over 150 of Harvey's patterns from Wooden Teddy Bear at $3.00 each plus shipping ($4.95 per order or .50cents each to have them emailed), prior to me working with him directly. I'm offering them for $2.50 each with no shipping costs. There really isn't any more room for discounting without taking money out of Harvey's pocket. Yes, woodimals are out there, but quite frankly they aren't nearly as good a quality as Harvey's work, but that's a call each scroller has to make as to what they want to offer their customers, it's certainly an option. As to the "most popular", that would vary based on region of the country, or the country you're in (I'm selling the patterns all over the world lately). Specific dogs tend to be more popular than others in different places. My top sellers are of course the sea and beach creatures... etc. I'll think about coming up with a bundle of popular 15 patterns for $30 and I'll simply forfeit the tiny amount that I keep from each one (50 cents) Iggy

Hi Terry, funny you ask, but Harvey just drew a custom pattern for someone that is the Fairy Tale of the Bremen City Musicians. If you email me, I can provide the email of the person that purchased it and I believe she is offering it to those who are interested. WoodcraftByScott@gmail.com

Oh... and my latest batches of watered down food coloring, I've been making darker and actually happy with the color. But I guess I could just maybe spray lacquer or sealant of some sort to keep it from fading and also give it a bit of shine?

Keep the comments and ideas coming... including the jokes. ;-) Doing some searches on Amazon, came across this... has anyone used it before? I also need green and figure I could make my own by mixing blue and yellow. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01J2NO2OA/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATXQXNB6MHBOF&psc=1

I need to find a new/better method of "painting" the bases of some of the animal puzzles that I make. My method, while simple, just isn't good enough (watered down food coloring). It fades over time and I'd like more vibrant colors. I know several of you do various coloring of puzzles and other projects and I'd like to hear what you do, how you do it, what it needs to be mixed with, etc. In speaking with Harvey Byler this morning, I asked what he uses and he said Aniline Dye. How about others? Please share with me what you use, how you use it, what it needs to be mixed with, how you apply it. Keep in mind, I'm lazy and I want the simplest method possible. :-) Harvey said with the Aniline Dye, he dunks the pieces in and lets them dry, just as I do with my current method and process. Thank you in advance. I look forward to learning some options so that I can test them out this winter once selling season is over. Iggy

Eerie... Harvey just called me and one of the things he wanted to discuss was the fact that he has over 1500 custom/personalized patterns on file that he's done over the years and he wondered if there would be interest in some of them at the usual price of $2.50 since they're already drawn. You'd need someone with a kid named Ethan who is into Elephants though as just one example, so it would be a very tiny possibility on a pattern by pattern basis, but you never know. I had an example one I kept on display that was a Poodle named Pepper, and someone came up and said "Wow, that's my dog!" and she ended up buying the display puzzle. The tough part is, 1500 of them... and they aren't currently cataloged or listed anywhere, so creating a master list (by hand since he's Amish) would be quite an undertaking. He and I will continue to discuss the possibility. P.S. Mrs. Iggy and I plan on doing a roadtrip, probably in May and the primary destination along the way is so that I can visit and meet Harvey. I just want to meet him, see his shop and shake his hand. He's been fun and great to work with.

Yep, passed on to the customer... I charge $25 for my puzzles "as is", or you can customize with a personalized name for an extra $20. Obviously not everyone is willing to pay $45, but many people are, and if they aren't, more times than not they end up buying the regular puzzle "as is", so it's no harm to me. The $20 goes straight to Harvey, I don't take a cut or add anything more to it. Over the past year, I've probably done 100-125 customs. I have 2 examples on display at events to show people that ask about personalizing.

$20. Custom name, hand drawn for an individual, one time use. Top image shows 4 examples of ones I've ordered and made. The standard animal pattern with the breed/type of animal are $2.50. The bottom image shows the standard patterns. Customers like to personalize with their pet name or the name of a child or grandchild.

You're exactly right Roly... I just added this statement near the beginning... ..."I hope this proves beneficial to you in some way. Some items may seem obvious or common sense, but in the whirlwind of getting started, sometimes you forget or get sidetracked from the obvious as you focus on the many tasks ahead of you."

Very nice Roly. Thanks for sharing your improvements to my "design", and I use that term loosely since I simply slapped together some wood haphazardly a year ago. :-)

Hi Gang, For those of you buying Harvey Byler's patterns from me, and even if you aren't, I wanted to be sure everyone knows you can take advantage of Harvey's amazing artwork by requesting custom names within any dog breed or animal. I get a custom order or two every event that I do and if you are selling these puzzles or are thinking about it, you'll get requests also. I created a new category on my website for ordering. Harvey charges a flat $20 for each one. Allow 1 week for him to draw it, mail it to me and then I'll scan and email it to you. https://woodcraftbyscott.com/collections/all-puzzles/products/custom-animal-puzzle-names Thanks and let me know if you have any questions. Iggy

Excellent, Rob, enjoy your first outdoor event and I hope it goes well. Dog lovers go nuts for the wooden versions.

Yep, I had figured I'd sell 10. I sold 22 Saturday at my 5 hour farmers market, so, combined in 8 hours, I sold 34. Very pleased. Goal is to do double that at the wine festival next weekend. It's Friday evening and all day Saturday.

Feeling older every day Paul. ;-) I'm 53. Here's a recent snapshot I took because my day job boss wanted to be sure we still existed (we all work remotely). Event coming up this weekend is a wine festival. Perfect weather, so, worst case, enjoy the day and the wine...

A local brewpub, literally 2 blocks from my house had a little crafts event at their place this afternoon, free of charge for vendors, so I decided to do it. Only 3 hours long. No tent, just a couple of tables, nowhere to put my giant banner, very barebones, but a nice venue, relaxing afternoon and I actually sold 12 puzzles, so I was happy. Here I am, along with Mrs. Ig as well.

Nicely done. Let us know how sales of them go.