Ornaments

[Cindy Rhoades]

I was aproached today about making 200 christmas ornaments for the city's 175th anniversay but they want to be able to sell them for $10. I am having a hard time finding something that would fit into the price range that doesn't look really cheap. Does anyone have any ideas of what to use or where I could find something. It is a city of about 4K people.

[Jeff Belany]

Why not do a cut out ornament from thin wood or plywood? I do many standard Christmas designs, many from free scroll saw designs. Also, making a custom design is not all that hard -- do they have a logo you can work into the design? Even a logo in a stock shape like a Christmas ball can look nice if you use a nice piece of wood. And anything you do like this can also be made with 1/8" acrylic.

Jeff in northern Wisconsin

[Shawn Conklin]

Had a customer bring in elcheapo ornaments from Ikea. They are red shiney and red matte. Plastic. However, for whatever reason the plastic they are made of engraves to an interesting grey, almost a shiney pewter look. In contrast to the red from anything more then 18 inches away they do look classy if you have the right design.

I beleive she said they were $1 a piece. She was giving them away. Don't know that I would try to sell them for $10 but ya never know.

[Martin Boekers]

There was a lot of ornament designs posted here last year this is just one link,

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=127048&highlight=ornaments

I'm sure you could adapt something like this, a "creeker" I believe George Perzel
sells wood thins. It should'nt take more than 2 minutes per piece
to engrave and cut. So you ought to be in a good spot to charge $3-$5ea
They look nice Iv'e done ornaments in the past. They don't take long.
If your really ambitious, you can get some ribbon and thread the finished
ones while the others are cutting:D.

The ones I made in the past were well recieved, so you should be able to
make this work.

Marty

[Josiah Gallo]

I second the idea of creating your own wood ones - very affordable, should be able to sell for much less than $10 each. You can see my site for many of our designs. We do a lot of corporate ornaments incorporating the company logo or name into a unique design with cutouts and engravings, if you need any help/ideas let me know.

[Bruce Clumpner]

You could do something involving the city's seal reversed on clear plexi, or a local landmark and some text celebrating the anniversary, and just vector cut-out around it. Easy to do, but could be time consuming. Stock for 1/8 or 3/6 should run around $125 for 4'x8' sheet plus cutting.

Something like the key chains we've discussed in the past.

-bc

[Terry Swift]

I've done a few different ornaments using 1/8" acrylic of different colors from TAP Plastics. The have solid, transparent, and tranlucent colors that make some interesting ornaments in an shape you want. Throw some glitter or glue stick on and for $3-$4 ; you've got something unique. I even did some College Logo ones nad sold a few. Even doing Police & Fire Department ones too.

[bob pfohler]

Just bought some really cool AA Christmas trees from Chewbarka, I think it was $12 for 24 pieces. Maybe they have other Christmas shapes as well.

[Dee Gallo]

Check out this thread: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=63757&highlight=glass+Christmas+balls

You can engrave on regular Christmas ball ornaments, they come in glass and plastic.

cheers, dee

[Cindy Rhoades]

I would like to thank everyone for their input so many good ideas now just need to sort them out and make the committee come to a decision. Once again the creek has come through for me, I would be so lost without you all.

[Steve Burk]

Here is a bad picture of some ornaments I am making for some local schools for their PTO fundraisers. They are on basswood so they are cheap to make, I can get about 7-9 per 12x24 sheet and I sell them to the PTO for $2 each and they sell them like crazy for $5 each. I think alderwood would make a nicer ornament but the cost for that doubles. Anyone know a good (read cheaper) place for 3/32 sheets of alderwood other than LaserBits?

[Bruce Clumpner]

I've always liked their products.

[Joe Motley]

Check out Franklin Art Glass at www.franklinartglass.com (http://www.franklinartglass.com).
Beveled glass in a variety of shapes and it engraves beautifully.

[Joe De Medeiros]

Check out Franklin Art Glass at www.franklinartglass.com (http://www.franklinartglass.com).
Beveled glass in a variety of shapes and it engraves beautifully.

Drilling holes in glass is slow and tedious, believe me I do it every day. A good quality drill bit runs around $12, and is usually good for 75 holes. It helps if you have a precision drill press with a Foredom, a Dremel just doesn't cut it.

[Howard Garner]

Check out Franklin Art Glass at www.franklinartglass.com (http://www.franklinartglass.com).
Beveled glass in a variety of shapes and it engraves beautifully.


If looking for glass, go to the source.
Kokomo Opalescent Glass is the manufacture of most of the stained glass made in the USA.
http://www.kog.com/
They had some laser engraved sheets on display this summer.

Howard Garner