Spooky 1.1

So I had a plan and a design I drew up, I had some complimentary products designed and was all keen to get into production, but one problem, I’m no 3D designer and it was proving difficult to put these plans into action without being able to create my ‘master mould’ from which I could cast my product. I need the master mould as from this I could create not only the main product, but also I could customise that to create others. I had the idea to now only create my product, which was going to be cast from recycled aluminium from several cast off computer heat sinks and other components, again giving life to quality used parts no longer fulfilling their primary purpose but too good to go to landfill. I also wanted to customise the mould to make candles, these would the same shape and size as my product and a good companion product

Candles are not only very popular but a lot easier to mould than aluminium, the melting point of aluminium is approx 660°C and will require specialist equipment I’ve yet to purchase. Candlewax on the other hand is approx 50–70°C depending on the type and blend that you use. This can be done indoors in a kitchen with the correct safety precautions and ventilation, unlike casting aluminium. There are other bonuses with candles too, they’re a lot easier to colour and customise than metal casts, and the other bonus is that once burnt – the customer hopefully comes and buys more! So repeat business is almost automatically built into the candle business

The candle side of the project may also lend itself to some other complimentary products I can create alongside to make this a larger and more popular part of the business model. I’ve not decided what yet but there are ideas wizzing around my head and these will start to form at some point, the best thing is to start and then see what happens, sometimes other ideas just come at the same time, sometimes others follow or happen by accident

So I needed a master mould and for this I looked to fiverr.com. I’d used Fiverr a while ago with mixed success but as I wasn’t going anywhere with the 3D modelling program Blender I decided to call in a pro. My first few attempts at locating a designer were mixed and not very reassuring, the first attempts all failed. The first sounded promising, I got a good feeling with the communication but after sending my brief so they could quote it all went quiet, I then got a blunt ‘not interested’ reply. The second was also promising and after stating they couldn’t start for a week, something I was ok with, they then cancelled the contract due to ‘personal issues’, fair enough but after ghosting me for over a week I was a little put out. The next came on strong and even sent me some preliminary designs before I’d even accepted the job, then they disappeared off Fiverr altogether, worrying I was asking too much I asked a friend to see if they were just blocking me but no, they’d quit Fiverr for good and left the platform, good job I hadn’t spent any money on that job

About to give up I thought I’d give it one last go so I searched carefully for a designer who I thought would not only be up to the task but also checked out more of their previous work to ensure it was 3D printing related, similar in style to what I was after, and not only that their English was quite good. This is something to bear in mind and may not be as relevant on some tasks but if you are speaking to the designer and they don’t understand you, and you don’t understand them then that can be a major issue. One of the designers didn’t understand the word ‘flute’, and fair enough in their language I didn’t understand anything – at all – but as we know English can be a hard language to learn and the double meaning of several words like flute, that can mean an instrument or in this case an ornamental groove, can lead to confusion when you are trying to put your design ideas a cross to the designer you are working with

Thankfully I then hit upon a guy who not only was keen to take on the project, he gave me a good price. This doesn’t mean he was cheap or the cheapest, it wasn’t an expensive contract by any means if I’d have walked into a fancy London designer company I’d have a bill of thousands of pounds. But I was also wary of those promising to do the job for $15 and then realising they’d undersold themselves and backing out. I was therefore happy with the price and the 20 revisions he’d allocated to the job