It’s been awhile since I put one of these tutorial videos together, so I thought I’d do a quick pattern tip video. Docupton on Scroll Saw Village shared a portrait pattern he was working on using GIMP. He did an amazing job on it and really captured his subject matter. The only comment I had was the amount of space between the girl and boy. Naturally, he was working from a photo and didn’t have any control over the composition. But in this video, I demonstrate an easy way to close that gap between the two subjects to create a stronger composition.

If you’d like to learn how to make your own scroll saw portrait patterns using the free program GIMP, there is a free class at Scroll Saw Village.

Spring time is here and people are gearing up for craft shows.  One of the most common questions that gets asked is “what should I charge?”  Here is a little article I wrote for the Scroll Saw Village newsletter back in September 2009 that may shed a little light on the matter.  Enjoy!

 Pricing Your Work

Your walls are covered and your shelves are overflowing with your scroll saw projects. Then it finally dawns on you…maybe you should start selling your work. But what should you charge? This is a tough question to answer. After all, you want to make it affordable so people would actually buy your products. But at the same time, you don’t want to short change yourself. While pricing structures can range from picking a number out of the air to complex formulas, here’s a good way to come up with a price for your scroll sawn art.

First, you must decide what your time is worth to you. Are you happy making $15/hr? $30/hr? Be sure to keep this figure realistic. While it would be nice to make $150/hr, chances are that my work isn’t worth more than $15/hr. Once you come up with a number, this becomes your target income goal.

Next, figure out what it would cost to make your product. Figure in your time and material cost. Material costs not only includes the materials used to make your product, but it also includes expendables like scroll saw blades, masking tape, paper, and printer ink. Figuring out the costs of your expendables might be a bit of a guessing game, but try to put a ballpark figure on it. While you’re at it mark up the material costs by about 20%. After all, you still have to hoof it over to the lumber store, pick your stock, haul it back home and organize it.

Don’t overlook expenses that occur in the sales process. Are you going to craft shows? Chances are, you’ll be spending all day trying to sell your wares. Be sure to compensate yourself for your time. Plus there’s booth fees and travel expenses to figure in too. Online markets charge listing fees and take a sales commission. Plus any time that you spend listing your products. See where I’m going with this?

Now its time to figure out what price to charge for you product. So take your time multiplied by your target income goal plus material costs. This is your price. But wait. We’re not quite done yet. Now that we have a price, we have to figure out if the market can bare that price.

When you come up with a number, compare it to what others sell similar items for locally. If others are selling it for more, raise your prices. If they’re selling it for less, decide if you’d be willing to take less. If not, see if you can reduce your time or cost to get the widget price closer to the market price. There are many times where it just isn’t worth your time to make that particular product. But there are many other items that you can make that has a nice profit margin. You may also concider the law of averages. Perhaps one product has to sell below what you’d be willing to take, but another product is selling for more. These two products may balance each other out in the long run.

Naturally custom work will cost more than items that can be “mass produced.” Making several of one item is usually more time efficient than making them one at a time. If you do portrait style cuttings, be sure to stack cut your items so you get 3 or 4 copies. Other items, make jigs where possible to speed up production. Also keep an eye out on how to reduce material costs and any expendables. Often little compromises result in huge savings, thereby increasing your profit margin.

And lastly, know who your customer is. Flea market folks won’t pay $35 for a free standing puzzle, but a patron of an art museum would. Be sure to research your customers and what others are doing. Find someone who is doing well and copy them (their method, not their patterns). No need to re-invent the wheel.

Hopefully these tips will get you on your way to selling your wares. Its nice to earn a little extra money to keep yourself in sawblades and buy a new tool on occasion. But if you don’t sell anything, don’t worry. After all, its the journey, not the destination that counts.  —by Travis Cook

I’m pleased to announce that the Ornaments For Charity eBook is now available! The last couple years, designers from Scroll Saw Village donated original ornament patterns not available anywhere else. We compile these patterns into an downloadable eBook. You can download the eBook for free and check it out. If you decide to keep the eBook, we ask you to donate to your favorite charity (we’re on the honor system here). Remember, this isn’t about “buying” an ebook of patterns, it’s about giving to a worthy cause. So dig deep when donating to your favorite charity.  I hope you enjoy the eBook and what I hope will become a long standing tradition at Scroll Saw Village.

Awhile back, I created a classroom series on how to design your own scroll saw patterns using GIMP and Inkscape. This class was freely available on Scroll Saw Village in the Village University forum. It included a video tutorial along with written instructions.

Recently, I started working on a new website; How To Design Scroll Saw Patterns (http://www.designingscrollsawpatterns.com). Quite honestly, its the exact same information as provided in the Village University. So why create a new website? There’s a couple reasons:

• First, I wanted a more pleasant presentation of this information (I wanted it to look pretty ). You’ll find the layout much easier to read and view the videos. The illustrations in the written instructions are also easier to see. I think the navigation is much easier too, moving from one lesson to the next.
• Second is for search engine purposes. While the lessons in the Scroll Saw Village do show up in search results, this new site is better optimized for search engines. Hopefully this will make the information a bit more visible. At the end of the day, I really want people to find these lessons and learn to create their own patterns. I think it adds a whole new dimension to the scroll sawing hobby. I’m proud of these lessons, and I want to share it with as many people as possible.

I added a couple new features to the new website. At the top of each lesson, I’ve added links for you to download the actual video file. I get a lot of requests for this option, and I find it easier to provide a link rather than explain how to do it. I also have a link to the written instructions in PDF format for you to download. Many people find it easier to print the instructions and follow along with a hard copy.

Just to be clear, the information in the Village University will remain there. I’m not closing that section down. All classroom discussions and questions from How To Design Scroll Saw Patterns will still be directed to the Village University forum.  The new website is only there for concise reading.

So there you have it. The new website. If you have your own website, feel free to link to http://www.designingscrollsawpatterns.com (It would be much appreciated). If you know anybody who wants to learn to make their own patterns, please direct them there too.

Enjoy the new website!

With all the news of toxic chemicals in toys made over seas, child-safe finishes have become a hot topic.  Cynthia Lewman from Toymaker Press put together a really nice tutorial on how to make your own non-toxic, child safe finish for toys.  This finish will display the beauty of the wood, but won’t hurt the little ones if they decide to chew on the toy before playing with it.  Be sure to check out Toymaker Press for some really cool toy patterns, too.

As crafters and artists, we get to the point where we start selling our work.  Either at craft fairs, or word of mouth.  But, since most of us don’t make a living at selling our work, options like accepting credit cards is practically non-existent.  Until now.  Square is a really neat credit card processing service that allows anybody to take credit cards.  This works especially well for crafters and artists who want to sell their work.  When you sign up, they send you a free credit card swiper that plugs into the audio jack of your smart phone (supports Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad).  Then you link your bank account to your Square account.  That’s it.  You’re open for business.

When you make a sale, you simply swipe their credit card.  You type in the amount, description and even take a picture of the product you’re selling.  Hit submit, and you’re done!  You can even email or SMS the reciept to the customer.

When Square processes the payment, they charge you 2.75% transaction fee (all credit card processors charge this if not more).  The next day, the money is transferred into your bank account.

Hardly anybody carries cash anymore.  Now you can say, “That’s OK.  I take plastic!”

Check it out!

Many of us are afraid of painting our projects.  You may not know where to even start.  Well, here is a really neat series by Sheila Landry.  She shows you each step of the way from preparing the pattern, stack cutting, and painting a snowman for a winter scene. You can find the pattern she’s working on here.   Speaking of which, be sure to check out her other patterns, too.  She has a lot of great designs. On with the show!

Short on cash, but still need a scroll saw?  Build your own!  Kurt built his own scroll saw based loosely on a Roy Underhill design.  He documented each step in an Instuctables tutorial.  Even if you don’t build your own scroll saw, it is really neat to see how to put one together.  You’ll definitely come out understanding the mechanics behind this simple tool.  Check it out!

Natural wooden toys are becoming more and more popular, especially with the concerns of toxic materials in toys made overseas.  Here’s a neat video on how Sherman Francisco builds a toy car that he and his club donates to Toys For Tots.  He’s using the Ripsnorter pattern from Toymaker Press.  Be sure to check Toymaker Press out.  They have a lot of great desigs and even a couple free patterns you can try out.

Daylight Savings is right around the corner, so what better way to celebrate warmer weather ahead than to have a Mini-Clock contest?  We need something to set forward on March 14th, right?  Cut or design a mini-clock and be entered to win a copy of Miniature Wooden Clock for the Scroll Saw, by Rick Longabaugh.  If you’re a pattern designer, I have made available a Mini-Clock Template for Inkscape.  The template is free, but the design is up to you!  If you’d like to learn how to use Inkscape to make mini-clocks, you can check out this video tutorial.

The contest is being held by Scroll Saw Village.  Details for the Mini-Clock Challenge can be found here.  Good luck.  But more importantly, have fun!