Has anyone engraved a wooden rose?

[Leigh Costello]

Hi, everyone!

I have a customer who would like to engrave a bunch of wooden roses with words. They are made from birch shavings, and are dyed. I only have this picture and not a sample to toy with. Any suggestions?

[Joe Pelonio]

Yikes, that could be tricky. I'd say use the same settings as for engraving on thin veneer, manually focus, and keep the lettering small and confined to the center of the flattest area or it will lose focus. This could be one of those cases where the air assist tube and/or autofocus plunger have to be removed or will hit the other parts of the rose.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Perhaps careful use of a rotary attachment?

[Leigh Costello]

I talked the customer out of a sample, so she brought it over and hovered. I really get antsy when a customer hovers. I gave her a magazine and some coffee. After a practice piece of birch was covered with failed attempts, I found a setting. 90% speed, 25% power, 400DPI and 2 passes. I used painters tape, low tack, to hold the flower in place.

Turned out so well that she placed her order snagged her sample for me and left. No pics. Well when I get the others finished I will take a few pics.

Thanks for the help.

[Leigh Costello]

Okay, here are a couple of pictures of the engraved wooden roses. What do you think?

75% speed, 25% power

[Mike Null]

Leigh:

Splendid work. Where did you get the material. Did you dye it yourself?

You have a winner there!

[Leigh Costello]

hi Mike,

I purchased the finished roses off of the internet and just engraved them. They are a big hit. Going to laser some special orders tonight.

Thanks for the input.

[Scott Perry]

Leigh, nice job.
How much did the roses cost ya? How much are you charging to engrave them? I am guessing it took less than 15 seconds to do each, close?

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Okay, here are a couple of pictures of the engraved wooden roses. What do you think?

75% speed, 25% power
Hi Leigh,
Very nice work. Did you make a special holder for them? Are you doing one at a time or many lined up on a jig/fixture? How much do you add for the lasered text?
Thank you,

[Leigh Costello]

I made up a jig to hold one at a time because the roses would shift too much if I tried to do multiples. Still took very little time to set up. Average time for multi word sayings is about 30 seconds. Single words or names in about 15 seconds.

The roses cost me about 13 cents per rose, buying 1,000 at a time.

I found that you can make a lot of sales with generic sayings and selling at $2.00 each. Cu$tom co$t$ as we all know and depending on the request, $3.00 to $5.00 per rose. I have no idea if there is much of a market beyond Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or weddings or birthdays.

With the brisk last day sales (on Valentine's Day), we were able to double our money spent.

Now to get someone to purchase the remaining hundreds.... Mother's Day should be a good time to sell more. We sold our display vases - without engraving - so we are going to engrave a few vases for then also.

[Mike Null]

Leigh
Everyday is somebody's anniversary.

[Leigh Costello]

Mike,

You know, I have even had 19 of those anniversaries and never thought of adding Happy Anniversary to our roses until now. d'oh...:rolleyes:

Thanks for the input.

[Michael Kowalczyk]

Thanks Leigh for the reply. I am thinking of ways to wholesale them so the generic text is 1st on my list so I will try to configure a fixture setup for multiples. Thanks again for sharing.

[Leigh Costello]

Mike,
Good luck! I have had such a great response for the roses as they are and am still receiving custom orders. Hit the Mother's Day retailers such as gift shops and florists. You may want to even try a vendor booth at an outdoor market.

[Ginger Bosak]

Did you use a rotary attachment for the roses?

[Carol VanArnam]

did I miss it- where did you buy the roses from? Would you share your source? Please please please....... PS- they look very nice. You did an excellent job.

[Leigh Costello]

Carol,

I got them off of ebay, in a wholesale lot of sellers choice (very nice selection of colors, but odd colors and styles thrown in). I am looking into some other sources. The ebay roses cost $0.13 each. I will probably have to spend more to get the colors I want. I am looking into www.keypromotionsusa.com (http://www.keypromotionsusa.com) as a possible source.

Good luck!