Starting on Etsy

September 5th, 2014

Prices for horns have now been updated across my FA, Weasyl and DeviantArt galleries as well as my homepage compact price list.

As I may have mentioned, I’m aiming to move to an Etsy-based business setup selling horns I have already made rather than making them on demand.

The shop is located here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/StarborneWorks

While I will still take customised orders as well, I’m hopeful this arrangement will get more orders out, faster, and reduce the amount of micro-management I found myself doing.

As an aside, during my preparation for Etsy selling I thought it best that I tidy up my spreadsheet of casting recipes, which also holds my costing calculations. While doing so, I found a mistake that’s been buried there for a couple of years, effecting all my costing calculations in that trickle-down way only spreadsheet formulae can.

Without wanting to go into details, it can be summed up with; “Oh, so that’s where all the money’s been leaking away.”

The horn pricing was being adjusted to more sustainable levels anyway, but the larger horns have gone up a little more than originally intended to account for the corrected costings and difficulty producing successful castings in those shapes and sizes.

With a view to providing buyers with clear information, I’ve also produced a “datasheet” for the first type of horns I’ve listed on Etsy, the #10 Springbok.

#10 datasheet

I will be adding horns to Etsy in type-batches like this as I need 6 pairs in the various colour and effect combinations to photograph together for each datasheet.

Which ones do you think should come next?

An update!

July 11th, 2014

Okay, long time no speak!

I’ve been away, trying to get my life in order. Mostly this has involved getting an awful lot of loose ends tied up. And I think they’re now sufficiently reduced that I can open my doors again.

Fresh resin is on its way to me!

There will however be a change in the way I do things.

For starters, I’m going to be selling through Etsy from here on. It should make the ordering process a lot easier for folks, and less paperwork for me.

That in turn means I’ll be holding a stock of pre-made horns, and only listing them when available. Not casting to order anymore, so shipping times should come WAY down.

I’m afraid it probably means no more custom colour mixes though. I may open specifically for custom mixes now and then, but it’s not something I’ll be doing via the shop and it’ll likely run a lot pricier than the £5 a pop extra it was.

I’ll be doing a standard colour set of plain, brown and black for the horns and I’ll be aiming to keep one set of each in stock at all times. The black/brown colour wash will likely remain an option.

The fill selection will be changing too. There’s only a few grams difference between regular and hardened foams, so I’ll be switching to using hardened foam exclusively (except maybe on the very largest horns).

Other items will be re-emerging once that’s all set and running. New claws, paw-pads and noses are in the lineup, as well as hopefully a couple more horn varieties including some smooth toony ones.

I hope you’ll spread the word once the shop starts up properly next week! A couple of test items, clearing out old stock bits, will probably go up first.

I hope to earn your patronage once again soon. 🙂

Temporary closure

May 6th, 2014

I’m sorry to say Starborne Works is not currently open for orders.

I’m currently trying to work out a way to stay in business at all, and it is likely this will mean redoing almost everything involved from scratch.

Hopefully I should have better news in the upcoming weeks. Please check back later.

Thankyou for dropping by.

Best wishes,

Sci

May 24th, 2013

WordPress updated & Twitter sidebar fixed.
Also note it contains links to my YouTube channel where I’ve started doing video work-blogs. Will try to get them crossposting to the main blog here automatically if I can.
http://www.youtube.com/user/StarborneWorks
https://twitter.com/StarborneWorks

November 11th, 2012

Just a heads-up for anyone trying to contact me; I’ll be away from the computer until thursday.

Plugin test

October 19th, 2012

I acknowledge I’ve seriously fallen behind in using this site for updates. Trying to fix that. Excuse me while I fiddle with the plugins a momment..

Progress report

February 16th, 2012

Maybe I should do these weekly? What do you think?

Anyway it’s warmed up a little. Workshop’s averaging about 10c when I get down there. Done a couple of test-casts and they look alright.

Will be casting up some from the still-intact moulds tomorrow with a view to ship on Saturday. Others are in progress.
The first couple of layers of filler have gone down to get the new moulds sorted. Another couple of days of that and they should be built up and finished enough to start laying on fresh silicone. After that I make up the new fibreglass jackets. So all being well, should able to cast the full range again by the end of next week.
Only potential delay I’m aware of will be if I run short on silicone or fibreglass resin. Should have enough of all regular resins and foam to fill current orders.

That said I know I’ll need more silicone to account for some more new items, but I don’t want to do piecemeal orders and get charged a tonne on separate shipping. Since TOMPS can get it to you in 2 days, it’s not worth it. I can just find other things to do in the meantime.

Webshop prep has stalled a bit again, but I’m aware we may be loosing internet here for a short while near the end of the month as our phoneline has to be physically dug up and replaced. Launching only to be unable to receive orders would not be good, so it’s not a huge concern. I would still like it to tie in nicely with a complete set of new moulds though, plus some stock on hand.

New soldering station also arrived on Monday, so with the donated oscilloscope and a repaired multimeter, I’m good to start work on the mecha-ears project again, as well as a few other ideas people may be interested in.

Also a complete fluke-find has gifted me with a LOT of leather in a texture that’s almost identical to vinyl leather I’ve previously used for texturing paw-pads. There’s enough I should be able to revamp the whole range and keep the distinctive look as well as push the foam-filled prototypes to a standard item.

The horns update!

November 8th, 2011

Finally as promised, an entry about the horns!

Okay, so some of you will have seen these at MCM Expo, surface-finished, mounted up to headbands and listed in three price bands. Since then I’ve got the final blank horn prices sorted. They’re all individually priced now, along with their various options.

These horns are made for costume use, so are designed to be lightweight. They have a thin outer layer of polyurethane resin to preserve surface detail, which is then reinforced within with a rigid polyurethane foam. This provides a good balance between light weight, excellent detail reproduction and good damage resistance. The horns however can still be trimmed to length with a serrated knife or junior hacksaw.

Use of a double-density reinforcing foam is available as an option, but will increase item weight. Integral resin colouring is also available.
Foam-rubber is sadly not yet available due to poor surface reproduction, and issues getting them out of the moulds fully intact.

Please see this image for examples of surface detailing effects: EXAMPLE

Here’s the group-shot:

 

Basic pigments (Red, Blue, Yellow, Black, White, Green, Orange): £1.00
Custom pigments (each, per order*): £5.00

(* Per order means a single £5 charge whether the custom colour mix is used on just the horns or a match set of horns, claws and paw-pads, etc)

Type #1
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 230g (pictured examples 190g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 210 x 175 x 55mm
Base price (GBP): £30.00

Double-density foam: £3.00

Type #2
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 160g (pictured examples 106g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 275 x 160 x 40mm
Base price (GBP): £22.50

Double-density foam: £3.00

Type #3
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 130g (pictured examples 100g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 220 x 140 x 30mm
Base price (GBP): £17.50

Double-density foam: £2.00

Type #4
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 90g (pictured examples 54g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 185 x 135 x 27mm
Base price (GBP): £12.50

Double-density foam: £2.00

Type #5
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 280g (pictured examples 240g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 190 x 170 x 120mm
Base price (GBP): £35.00

Double-density foam: £4.00

Type #6
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 70g (pictured examples 64g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 185 x 115 x 25mm
Base price (GBP): £10.00

Double-density foam: £1.50

Type #7
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 70g (pictured examples 56g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 135 x 185 x 35mm
Base price (GBP): £12.50

Double-density foam: £1.00

Type #8
Maximum weight (pair, untrimmed): 50g (pictured examples 41g)
Approx dimensions (outer): 95 x 145 x 25mm
Base price (GBP): £10.00

Double-density foam: £1.00

Postage
Will be sent 1st Class Recorded within the UK and Airsure internationally. Please ask for a shipping quote.

EDIT: Prices adjusted. Used old formulae sheet. Oops.

Expo’s over..

November 2nd, 2011

..and I took 24hrs out to rest up.

I’ll have some pics up in the next day or so of the new horns, but in all the rush to get things ready in time for Expo I let some existing orders slip behind. Most of them should be taken care of shortly however.

Someone give me a kick up the bum if I don’t get pics up soon.

Boy, I’ve really got to sort out these post categories too.

But anyway, Expo went okay and I got to meet up with some great people, new and old. Next time I hope there won’t be such a mad preparation-rush though.

Expo’s a week away!

October 22nd, 2011

If you follow my personal twitter you’ll know the last few weeks have been hectic. Family crisis, deadlines, financial issues and a whole bunch more. The final deadline is now MCM Expo in a weeks time, where I’ll be manning a dealers table for Fatkraken while she costumes. In repayment, I get to sell some of my own items on the table.

It’s Halloween, so I’m selling horns.

Presuming the roto-caster I’ve built in the last week starts working again, I should have a number of each. Some of the first final tests came out today.

Yes, there’s a lot of black there. I was testing some calculations for bulk-casting. Meant mixing up a lot of resin in one colour and black shows any defects better. The two “beige” unicorns horns though actually contain UV and GlowInTheDark powder.

The unicorn horns are cast from a hand-made master. These long ones are 8.5″ long and the shorter ones are 3.5″ long. I’ll be making them up in a host of *co-pony-ough* colours, with the fleece at the bottom either black, white or grey as it’s all I have to hand. They’re a shell casting that’s infilled with rigid PU foam. Will likely be putting them on simple elasticated headbands.

These horns are made in the same way but the moulds are taken from real animal horns. These ones are some breed of goat I believe (of the 8 I got, only 6 had a specific species noted). There’s more coming from Jacob, Heriden and Dalesbred breeds of sheep, but the fibreglass mould-jackets are being tricky. This variety will mostly be mounted on headbands and barrettes, though I may also make a few up in foam rubber.

Once Expo’s over I’ll be selling them directly as loose castings for people to use as they will.

Well after after-Expo, when I wake up from the coma.