Perhaps what is so exciting about the new direction our industry is taking toward personalized products are the possibilities—today’s offerings are virtually endless! With the technologies, materials and blank products available to us there’s really no limit to the custom products you can create and sell, and that means there’s great potential for finding new customers. |
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If you have a laser, making ornaments is easy. Start the process by creating simple vector art to cut the ornament shape. All graphics programs have clip art and symbols that you can easily modify to create a vector outline for a hanging ornament. Stars, sports items, religious themes, holiday themes and interesting shapes can all be used depending on the application. Laser-ready clip art collections are also available. LaserBits, for example, offers a CD with over 100 CorelDRAW-compatible templates for ornaments, including holiday themes and various shapes. |
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Creating a tent sign involves using a strip heater to bend a piece of plastic into the desired “A” shape. Strip heating machines consist of a work table with a long, straight heating element mounted on it, and are available from industry suppliers such as Johnson Plastics. A bending fixture is a helpful accessory for thermobending signs which you can easily fabricate yourself, e.g. using a couple of strips of acrylic clamped to a workbench. As far as the material, in general any material that can soften to a bendable state under approximately 300º F-450º F will work. This includes all types of flexible plastic engraving stocks and acrylics. Most people prefer to engrave or print the sign prior to bending to avoid any holding or leveling issues. The process then involves heating the plastic in the strip heater in the area of the bend, placing it in your bending apparatus and allowing the sign to cool. Voila! With a little time and a piece of plastic, you have a simple product that has a solid place in the signage market. ID Plates for Pictures ID plates for framed pictures and artwork is an often-overlooked market, and one that is pretty big. Every picture framer in the country needs those little brass (or plastic) plates that attach to the frame or are mounted behind the glass of a hanging. Think, too, about the art galleries and museums around the country that need ID plates for pictures and artwork. Actually, any business, organization or place that displays pictures or artwork is a potential customer in this niche market. The late Mort Tuller, founder of Tucson’s Tuller Trophy Factory, became famous years ago during a visit to the White House by pointing out the poor state of a brass nameplate under a portrait of President John F. Kennedy. His comments led to an order on the spot, which subsequently led to repeat business making presidential portrait tags for the White House. Mort secured a similar order from a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Brass plates are the tradition for this application because of their classy, upscale look. You can fabricate them yourself or purchase custom decorative plates from a source such as Identification Plates Inc. Ultra-thin plastic (1/32") such as Rowmark’s FlexiBrass is another option for applications where the engraved plate will be mounted under the glass. FlexiBrass is easy to read, looks exactly like brass and can be laser engraved and cut to any size. |
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Sublimated Tile Murals Murals are big business and they are good business. Combining the highly salable personalization aspect of a custom photo with a highly salable décor item, murals offer a double whammy that appeals to many different customers. These colorful works of art can be used in homes, eateries, businesses, museums, public buildings, parks and many other places to create interesting, vibrant and eye-catching displays. There are literally thousands of applications for murals. Many businesses, for example, use murals to create ambiance in the entranceway, waiting areas, showrooms or restrooms. Owners of grocery stores and meat, fish and fruit markets love ceramic tile murals because they display their products vividly and artfully. Although murals can be made using different processes and materials, sublimating tile is a very popular option that can produce stunning results. All you need to get started is a drawing or photograph and a graphics program such as CorelDRAW to prepare the artwork. You can choose from a variety of tiles depending on the look you want to achieve. For instance, gloss ceramic tiles have a very shiny surface and are often a good choice for photographs and graphics where bright, vivid colors are needed. Tumbled stone tiles, on the other hand, provide an “old world” look that might be appropriate in a pub. Other options include matte tiles, glass tiles, and metal and hardboard tiles designed specifically for sublimation. Once the tiles are sublimated, you can use several different techniques to mount them. For instance, you can create a changeable mural by fitting the tiles with a magnetic mounting or you can mount them to a wall using 3M Command Strips, silicone adhesive or some other mounting method depending on the weight and size of the mural. You can also mount the tiles in a picture frame and hang the mural like a picture. Pet Tags Pet products are a multi-billion dollar business in the United States and it’s an area that only continues to grow. According to the American Pet Products Association, pet owners in the U.S. spent $60.28 billion on pets in 2015, a figure that is projected to grow this year. If you want to get your share of this lucrative market, then pet tags are a great place to start. Every dog and many cat owners need tags for their pets and although there are already some sources for these, you can easily step in to be one of them. Why not visit your local pet stores, veterinarians, rescue centers and animal control shelters—anywhere that sells or gives away pets. Put a small rack on their counter displaying flyers offering your services. People can either come to your shop or order by phone, by mail or from your website. However you do it, it is a product line that is inexpensive to get into and lucrative to boot.
These tags can be engraved using either a rotary or a laser machine. If you have a laser, consider offering custom tags made of anodized aluminum which laser engraves very well and very quickly. Average engraving time is probably about one minute per side. For stainless steel tags, use a rotary engraving machine or a laser markable coating to engrave them with your CO2 laser and the tags will sell for five times what an aluminum tag does. Sublimatable tags are also available. Chewbarka is one company that has a wide selection of pet tags available.
Rubber Stamps
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