If you ever find yourself at a market and you are looking at the different wood-burned pieces you may notice that some pieces look more uniform and consistent; like they came out of a factory. Other pieces look more rustic and rough like someone burned them by hand. If you have seen this, your eyes are not deceiving you, the former was probably done with a laser engraver whereas the latter would be done with a hand tool.
When I started this business one of my goals, like most things in my life, was to uphold a level of quality that I expect in the products and services that I seek out myself. This comes from a lifetime of being an overachiever and always having to do “just a little better” than the last time. This can be a double-edged sword as you can tweak and tinker until you’re blue in the face but eventually, the product needs to ship. Here I am going to share with you some of the goals I set for myself when it comes to the quality of my products and the consistency of my process but still get things out the door.
I came up with the idea to create this series when I was looking back on the past two and a half years as a small business owner, thinking “What are the things that I wish someone had told me about starting a business.” Creating is a full-time job in and of itself and running a business is like adding another full-time job on top of it. Hopefully, this series will help guide you through some of the preliminary steps. Full transparency: if I recommend any products I will include affiliate links so, if you decide to buy any of them, I will get a small kickback. Don’t fret, though, that has not swayed my opinion and every one of the products I recommend is something I fully endorse because I use it myself.
Sometimes the best way to get an audience is to put yourself out there. Pop-up markets are a great way to do this as they are generally a low cost of entry, most cities and towns have several community organizations that run them, and, if you find the right one, they are a great way to connect with an audience. Today I’ll be going over some of the things I wish I had known before my first market.
Hey gang. It’s almost Halloween and we thought this week we would give you our five tips for creating Halloween wood burns
What better place to start a series like this than the one thing that scares people the most when starting a business. The legal aspect. We are not lawyers so remember to check with your legal advisor on the rules specific to your business as well as your state / country. These are the steps we took for our business
The biggest barrier to being a maker is tools. There are so many tools that can make your life easier but obtaining them can be both cost and space prohibitive. We do all our work in a small garage. Our workspace is shared with gardening tools, camping equipment, bicycles, and automotive tools. Renting a space …
One of the questions I often get is about how I get hand burn pieces using images on the computer. When I tell people it is using a laser printer, I’m not going to lie, I get quite a few puzzled looks. It is not intuitive how you can go from a digital image to …
After several years of doing pyrography, it never fails to surprise me all the things I have learned along the way. Below are five tools (and one bonus tool) that have been indispensable to me as an artist. If you are new to wood-burning, or even if you are a seasoned pro, I hope these help make your life easier.
Tips and tricks to make better pet portraits
