Scroll Saw Blog

I did get those alphabet bookmarks cut out.  26 sets of 7 each, followed by 26 pictures, followed by 26 entries into the Tuliptree Crafts website.  If you’d like to take a look at them, the Alphabet Bookmark category is here.
Normally I’ll do at least 16 and preferably 21.  Why 21? Well, when I cut [...]

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I cut out a set of bookmarks with a Gothic capitol letter on each. Pictures to follow, with possibly the pattern afterward.  Took 2 sheets of 1′x4′ 1/32″ plywood to make 7 copies of each letter.

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Looking at the comments, the center hole for hanging the bookmarks looks like a no-go.  For the display, I’d really like to stick to standard parts (think “pegs”) as much as possible:  The design of the part has already been debugged, and it’s much cheaper (read labor costs!) to purchase then try to make my [...]

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Getting ready for the marathon weeks, I’ve been stocking up on butterflies and bookmarks.  The latest issue of Creative Woodworking had an article on “Gift Card Holders” that had some cute and simple patterns.  So I grabbed them out of the pattern and put them in my own bookmark template.  Obviously I can’t give the [...]

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I’ve had several requests for a dragon bookmark.  I finally got my courage up to cut one out.  The first picture below is the Dragon.  In the previous post I talked about adding an additional hole so the bookmarks could hang from a peg.  To get an idea what this would look like, I photoshopped [...]

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One of my consistent sellers has been bookmarks. They make around 15% of revenue, while material costs are rather low–~$0.10 each.  Labor costs are also low, as I can cut around 60-80 and hour. The big challenge here is to have many different designs–and to display them.
Right now I have two trays, one showing 22 [...]

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I was looking over the results from the Dayton Railfest, and was noting the number of bookmarks sold.  In most cases, they were in groups of 5 or 10 (where I have price breaks). It’s getting closer to Christmas time, and the bookmarks tend to do well as inexpensive gifts and “momma-canna-have-somethins”. Scrollsawing the bookmarks [...]

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I got around to chopping up another piece of 1/32″ plywood into bookmark blanks last night. Today I cut up around 7 different patterns to replenish the bookmark tray. I decided to take another shot at a piano bookmark (since I play the piano ). I ended up doing a silhouette of [...]

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Another area I’ve branched into is custom bookmarks.  At Artistry in Wood I had a local businessman come by and ask for bookmarks with his company’s logo on it, along with an apple.  Since these will be Christmas presents, I’ve blurred the actual logo.
After he sketched out the intent, I drew it into a pattern [...]

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Probably the most profitable-per-time item I sell are bookmarks.  I sell them for not too much (About $2 if you include tax; I also sell at a discount for 5 and 10 bookmarks), but they also don’t cost much to make either. Cutting the blanks, though, tends to be a little tedious.  Last weekend I [...]

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