Laying out the products

I am still looking to see what items we want to make for the Mermaid's Chest. For those of you who haven't heard the back story, this is a fledgling enterprise. We have been slowly buying the needed equipment and converting a very old garage into a viable workspace.

The overall goal is to open a shop, but first we want to sharpen our skills with some events and flea market visits. I have in mind the bi-yearly Renaissance Faires held at the Greater Gulf State Fairgrounds. Mind you, we have great interest in fantasy art so that genre should suit us. The products we want for those venues will be graphic intensive.

tee shirts jewelry
laptop cases cellphone cases
puzzles throw blankets
mousepads tote bags
plaques

The other concentration will be on selling items in the beach community where we live. A good friend has a tourist shop and we are collaborating with her to place items on consignment. Those items will be more photographic and personalized in nature. We hope to supply items for beach weddings as well.

flip flops tiled boxes water bottles
sports towels bbq aprons car flags
golf club covers backpacks huggers

And, as my husband is a plumber and tile installer, emphasis will be placed on marketing tile murals for kitchens and showers. There are also a lot of kitchen and household items we can image:

light switch covers cutting boards wine boxes
pillows coasters framed artwork/plaques
serving trays backsplash murals clocks
mugs glassware plates

And, this is only a partial list of product ideas. I'll bet right now you think we are spreading ourselves a little thin with such a large range, but that is the beauty of dye sublimation transfer. We can buy the items as few or as many as we need, thanks to our great supplier, Conde Systems (www.conde.com). And our imprinting setup allows us to print one at a time or in production mode to fill large orders.

Plus, Conde offers customisable flyers and catalogs in which we can insert our logo (when we decide on it). We can use their artwork and product photos, too. As good as any franchise without the surrender of control.

Well, I really must see what kind of logo I can create. Next blog will be about working with graphics. Toodle-oo.

Springing into action

Well, my title is kind of optimistic, as the weather is NOT springlike today, but we do have hints of the beautiful season coming up, so I am in planning mode. We are first going to be finishing the bathroom for the workshop. Since the particulars of those plans are rather mundane, I will skip ahead to some product ideas I have had:




Flip flops! Now to be known as "Graphic Sandals", which I predict will become the craze of summer! These are the coolest, really. Regular, thick soled, well made flip flops with any photo or motif printed on them. Think of the possibilities:

• Beach wedding: send all the guests these cool shoes as "Save the Date" reminders.
• The Bride herself will love these sandals imprinted with her vows (like a "cheat sheet")
• Swim meets and teams can have photo shoes for fundraising
• Tourists will love collecting these sandals from each cool place they visit.
• Family reunions can imprint them with old photos of the dear departed ancestors

The come fitted into a pad, the whole pad is 11" x 17" and you can imprint the whole pad and break out the shoes when the wearer is ready. The pad serves as a display, an extension of the message and photos and becomes a permanent holder for the end user.

I found these cool dye sublimation imprintable flip flops at Conde Systems (http://www.conde.com/). As a beta tester, I can tell you they imprint just like mousepads, easily and nicely but with a lot of burnt rubber smell, so I do recommend good ventilation for big production.

The shoes also require assembly, of course, you have to pull the straps through the holes. And, since nearly
everyone has had a pair of these sandals before, you know it's not that had to squeeze the little knobby thing through the hole, but if you rip the hole the shoes are useless. So, there is a tool for that part of the operation, so I recommend you get one of them, it is much safer and easier if you have it.

So, now I am working on several templates that I can use to show potential clients. Conde has flyers I can use with my own logo...uhoh...I guess I need to come up with a logo....hmmm, see ya'll soon!