It's been a little while since I posted about the Wreath Maker Templates on my blog, the sets have been evolving since Si made me the very first set last year, and I'm thrilled to be rolling out the new style template set today. As you can see from the photo above, we’ve updated the original version of the wreath template to allow for the templates to be stored together. The new design templates have holes in each template that allow you to thread the templates on to a Cable Ring to keep them together, we've sourced the perfect Cable Ring and one is included with each template set purchased. Going forward we won't be producing any more sets without holes because we think that the 'holey' ones are better, and with the holes you have the option to store the templates on the ring or off it.
The Cable Ring supplied is 50mm in diameter when both ends are connected together, the rings are made from stainless steel cable and they have a screw head lock fastener to close them. It’s the perfect way to keep your wreath templates together when not in use, so that you don’t wind up losing one of them to the Crafters Bermuda Triangle! I have lost 2 sets already, don't ask lol! Not any more though because my templates now hang together just next to my desk.
As a bonus, you can also use the cable rings to keep Tim Holtz Layering Stencils together and organised, or they can be used with tags to create colour swatches for inks, if anyone is interested in purchasing extras for these purposes we can make it happen, just ask.
This design change came about when I noticed that occasionally my template would slip in the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform, it didn't happen often but it was annoying when it did. I put my thinking cap on and realised that the slipping occurs because the template has a shiny underside and the stamping platform does as well and sometimes when the two meet it has the skates on ice effect and slipping can occur.
What I decided was needed was a means to keep the template in place, I had tried washi tape but it started to leave a sticky residue on the platform, easy to clean off but it can be a pain when you are working on a project. By placing a magnet in the recess the template is held firmly and more securely. The slip doesn't happen in MISTI platforms because the black foam in the MISTI grips the template in place and prevents it slipping. I think this tweak will be the last for the circle templates because there isn't anything else that we can add.
Price Increase
It's not all good news though, we have to increase the price from £10.00 to £10.95, we like to be upfront about our costs, many of you have said you can't believe how cheap the sets are and we've pointed out that we are not out to make a massive profit or take advantage of our customers, but we can't be out of pocket either.
When we first began selling the template sets we posted them out second class post, that meant it took longer for the package to get to customers. I knew if customers were anything like me, once they placed their order they would want it as quickly as possible, so I started posting them out 1st class so they get to you the customer faster.
However we’ve only been including the cost of 2nd class postage in the original price, and now there is also the additional cost of the cable ring and we'd forgotten about the PayPal fee! So we are hoping that customers will appreciate our reasons for the small rise and not mind that the cost of the set has increased, if it ensures an improved product and faster posting? If you take a look at the video below, you can see a little demo of how the templates are made, the video also has a few facts that you may find interesting.
On the 3D printing front, we've now got a 2nd printer up and running and Simon has begun constructing a 3rd, recently I was trained in the art of starting prints to keep production going, allowing us to send out orders faster. We've also been contemplating colours, the new style templates are now a golden colour, we hope to keep to that colour but we hope that customers won't mind what colour they receive because that means we can alternate between several colours at times when the main colour goes out of stock at the manufacturers end.
Getting hold of the purple PLA that we originally started printing in is getting harder, so we've this week started printing in a golden hued PLA. We did dabble with a fuchsia colour but that's run out now and the supplier says its currently out of stock pffft. The gold is nice and bright making it easier to find on your desk, that part has been inadvertently tested on numerous occasions, I lost the purple ones frequently lol!
Finally a little inside gossip, the Man that Can and I put our thinking caps on and we've been experimenting with templates to create different shapes, a new set of templates to make a new shape that aren't circles will be available in the not too distant future, there's some more testing and some sizing to sort out. I've been playing with the new shape today and its gone back to the 'Man that Can' for tweaks and changes, its fun to be developing these templates together. I don't want to reveal the shape yet, all I'm saying is nobody is currently selling this shape and you're going to love it! 😁
Thanks for the info, can't wait ...lol
ReplyDeleteOooo sounds very interesting ... Steph x
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