Moving On

Thanks for your interest in my blog! My husband and I are working hard on a new business plan.  VinAlly has run its course. I got some great feedback on my products, and learned lots in terms of what doesn't work for marketing.  I probably should have gone to trade shows and if I was still passionate about it, tried to list on Amazon and Etsy wholesale.  But! my heart's not in it.  Looking forward to what is ahead.

This blog is the summary of my observations and research in working with recycled vinyl tarps, and I hope it might prove useful to others who might also be interested in working with this material.

New listings

My Etsy shop

I had some inventory hanging around unphotographed so I finally got them processed. I was inspired by a recent podcast interview of a successful Etsy seller, and by a complimentary message from a recent customer. Next up is to finish up the ones that are cut out but not sewn.

Swing Arm Binder Attachment from Sailrite

Test sewing a strip of 1" vinyl binding

 My recently-acquired swing-arm binder from Sailrite! The challenge was to find the right size of machine bolts to fit my Yakumo TDU N62 sewing machine. After visiting all the major hardware chains and specialty bolt supply places, I finally found 3.5 mm bolts at PM Hobbycraft. Sailrite recommended a dry lubricant sprayed inside the binder if I was going to use vinyl instead of fabric.  Otherwise the vinyl tends to catch inside the binder and what a mess.

I purchased a swing-arm binder because I need to backstitch at the end of a seam.

Youtube video on my new binder is here.

Swing-arm binder, 3.5 mm bolts and Glidecote lubricant

24 Tote Bags

I finished sewing 24 tote bags from a client's recycled vinyl banners. Great to have a repetitive project to hone one's sewing skills. For a few of them I was able to preserve the grommeted edge. For the majority of the bags I used a seam binding made from another piece of vinyl. The client is going to give them away as prizes for a Stampede barbeque. 

Sugru/Oogoo Design possibilities

I was mending some iPad charging cables with homemade Sugru and didn't consider the further possibilities until just recently.  Shown is my first test piece, a glass jar.  I had been thinking of making baby food jars into lunchbox snack-food containers that were shatter resistant and dishwasher safe. Sugru fits the bill for that purpose.

When I was mending my charging cables, the excess sugru stuck to my vinyl tarp used as a dropcloth.  Then I realized I can make iPad cases with silicone corners. I don't have to have all those fiddly shapes to sew to make openings for the speakers, audio port, cameras and charging port -- which is why I haven't been making iPad sleeves to this point.  fixing the tablet with flexible corner mounts is much better.

The sugru would also make a great stylus holder.
My ideal iPad case has a stylus holder, macro lens holder, bottle of screen cleaner, and charging cable storage. And of course the ability to prop it up, plus being an artistic statement. These attributes I will ponder. 

Lower image is from instructables.

Yet more design iterations on the Soap Caddy Bag

I made the seams flat in the soap drying mesh so the seams don't dig into the soap, and added a loop for razor storage. I've also downsized the bag to fit a local store's soap bars.  I've now been reinforcing the handle attachment points by doubling the vinyl. They just keep improving, folks.

I created a mesh with beehive hexagons to go with the theme of the store and made a decal out of their logo. It was a very intricate logo but I got it to work.

Look how great this customization is! Hotels, campgrounds and RV parks could use this for ongoing advertising! Wish I had more time to market the heck out of these.

Panama Concrete wall blocks, the patterns therein

Recently I enjoyed visiting Panama. I noticed that their concrete divider walls and windows had more variety of patterns than I find in my part of the world. I sketched as many different ones as I could when I was there.  I used Paper 53 as my notepad. Then for this composite image I used Photoshop Touch on the iPad. These patterns might end up in future soap caddy bags. also here.

Hey I don't know if anyone actually reads this blog, but I moderate comments because it seems like most of the comments I have been getting are linkback spam.  That is, the comment doesn't seem to have anything to do with the blog post, just general flattery, or something to do with a key word in the most general way, and the purpose of the comment is to generate traffic for their own website. That's fine with me as long as it's a legit comment. 

Soap Totes at The Beehive Calgary in Kensington

 Soap totes now available at The Beehive Calgary in Kensington, on 311 10th Street NW. Free parking behind the building, accessible from the back alley.

While I dropped off the soap totes, I purchased some Midnight Jasmine soap and Grapefruit Vanilla. Thanks so much Sandra for giving this retail experiment a try!

CD player decals for the vision impaired

My mum has macular degeneration, and so she reads books on a CD player. The buttons on the edge are black on black. Hard to read, even for a sighted person.  Product designers should ask themselves if their buttons can be read by a person over the age of 43, when close-up vision becomes more of a challenge.

So, I dug out some black adhesive vinyl and made some decals for the functions. Their positions on the top surface corresponds to the location of the button on the edge.

As usual I used my Cricut expressions machine with Sure Cuts A Lot. [But you can't get that combination any more, if you were to start out now you'd have to get a different cutter if you wanted to use SCAL.]

I will create a pay-it-forward listing on my etsy shop for the decals at cost if you want to do the same for your vision-impaired loved one. 

Soap Tote = A Niche Market

I talked to someone today who was like, "No offence, but...." and then she proceeded to run down my product. "You can get it at the dollar store," she said. No, you can't. "People just use hotel soap." Really? All people use hotel soap and there aren't any people out there who have special needs and preferences who would like to take their own soap? Or even people who would like something to take that wonderful hotel soap home?

I've heard those arguments before, and while I acknowledge that while the soap tote is not for everyone, it may not be even for most people, but it is for some, and it is for those people I make the soap tote. 

In fact I have heard from those people; they happen to be my customers. Here's another comment from one.

The real question I am now asking is, why did I stay involved in a one-sided, unfruitful, conversation for so long?

Plant Hanger

Here's another project that would work with recycled billboards. Many leather projects will also work in recycled billboards.  If the particular billboard is not thick enough, perhaps two layers glued together would be stronger.
 

Link

Red and White Comic and Toy Expo

Hi if you are visiting me from the link from the Red and White Comic and Toy expo, my comic and fine art is actually at this website, http://alisonlait.yolasite.com/

This particular blog is about my adventures in recycling vinyl billboards. If you are interested in my recycled billboard products, check them out here and here.

Thanks for visiting me at the comic expo. I had a nice time and I got some good feedback on my ipad art.

Boxed Corner bag for sheet music

Sheet music bag

My dog likes to chew cardboard and paper. I needed to get my sheet music protected from him. Before we had that tiny table ON TOP of the piano. Didn't quite look right up there! So I made this boxy-shaped bag out of an old billboard.

I needed it to fit in the space under the small table which meant the space was 9X9X13". 

There are only 4 seams on this bag, I will reveal the secrets of the box corner bag in my next post. Maybe I'll even make a little spreadsheet so you can enter the dimensions of the bag/box you need so you can make your own.

Hanging Soap Boxes

I'm calling this new soap tote a Hanging Soap Box, due to its 3D shape and boxed corners. I also changed the closure so they have a notched flap and a tuck strip instead of velcro.  Less sewing!

Hanging soap box with 3" diameter soap

I created a new section on my website for them: http://www.vinally.ca/soap-boxes.php
They are not currently available on Etsy, only on my own website at this time.

I'm only using the square cutout mesh for these at the moment. The squarish font for the silver-colored soap decal was selected to coordinate with the square mesh. Unity within the design!

Front view, closed

Back, closed, showing closure system

Side view

I like how the drying mesh is held out and open so as to be easier to receive the soap.

Chads

I have been busy in my studio making a bunch more soap totes. I have a new design that I'm excited to launch, as well as a new online venue to list with. When the meshes are cut out, a lot of confetti-like chads are left over. I once thought to bag it and sell it as reusable confetti, but I didn't really want to bother with doing that.   

Shampoo Bar

Well I always wanted to learn how to make soap. For my first attempt, I made a lemongrass-scented shampoo bar with a recipe from skincarenaturals.com. Also pictured is my latest design for the soap tote, designed with thicker, larger soap bars in mind.

My goals for soapmaking are twofold. One is to have soap to sell along with my soap totes. I think that would make a neat, all-in-one gift. Just add a bow! Plus the "packaging" is reusable after the soap is used up. 

Another goal is to learn how to make soap and shampoo bars suitable for use on the guaifenesin protocol. I was bored with the soap options available to me and decided to learn how to make soap. Standard soapmaking oils like coconut and olive oil have to be changed to ones that don't have salicylates, as they are absorbed through the skin, blocking the effectiveness of the guaifenesin.   For those who are interested, the allowable oils are corn, rice, rye, oat, wheat, and soy. Not allowed are common soapmaking oils like olive, castor and coconut oils.  The protocol works for me  -- I've been on it and benefitting from it for 4 1/2 years now -- and I'd like to keep it working by using only the allowable oils.  But if you put forth that question on a soap making forum, you get more than a few dissenting opinions, I'm just sayin'. However, I will continue to heed this warning:  "Salicylates are readily absorbed through the skin and intestine when introduced from medications and supplements including plant oils, gels and extracts. Individual genetics determine ease of blocking but all patients should assume a high level of susceptibility and take no risks." So, I will be doing some experimenting to see if I can make a shampoo bar that has only the allowable oils.

I had some bloopers with my first batch of soap. My soap got stuck in the PVC pipe mold, but released a day later. Soup can + rubber mallet = splat! Overall it was a successful experiment.

SKU numbers

I'm preparing to get my products onto an additional online venue. They want SKU numbers. SKU stands for shop keeping numbers. This is going to require some thought as to what scheme I'm going to use.

So I logged all of my products and I'm thinking about that. Since all of my products look unique unless they are made of a solid color tarp, they will each need unique numbers.

On this spreadsheet I put pictures onto the description by formatting the comment code to a picture. When I mouse over the cell, I see a picture of the product.

Update: well, they stopped responding to my emails. If an ethical business does that, are they still an ethical business?

Tarp Cutting test

I don't know why I didn't think of this before, but it makes sense when you are testing a vinyl to do a cutting test to see how many passes it takes before the vinyl is cut all the way through. It is such a pain when the cut is incomplete because you have to put a lot more time into the piece to get the pieces (chads) out, and then that can leave a fibrous hole.

The photo shows results on a test tarp for one, two, and three passes. In this case, the 3-pass cutting test is the best. No hanging chads like in a Florida election. Some tarps you can get lucky and only have to cut once or twice to get a decent result. This is with the highest pressure, fastest speed and deepest blade depth.

If I was going to cut a bunch of items out of the same piece of tarp I might experiment with the other settings such as speed. But I usually get bored working with just one color and I go by my experience.

Making a Shampoo Bar

I thought I would try my hand at making a shampoo bar. It seems to me that a soap tote plus a shampoo bar would be an ideal gift-giving combination. I was able to find the oils I needed for the recipe I'm using at Community Natural Foods in Calgary. 

I'm going to use a proven recipe for now and I'd like to develop different soap recipes later. I am on the guaifenesin protocol for fibromyalgia and I could not use this kind of shampoo bar long-term, because common soap-making oils contain salicylates and they block the action of the guaifenesin. So another goal down the road is to make soap and shampoo bars that are sal-free.

Hanging Soap Box design

I have been thinking lately about how to make soap totes for thicker soap bars and shampoo bars.  This because I have been thinking that perhaps the soap tote needs to be sold along with a shampoo bar, making the combination a slam dunk for gift giving and travel.  And shampoo bars are made thicker in their shapes, I am observing. I'm even looking into shampoo bar recipes to make and sell along with the soap tote.

One of my early Soap Tote designs was a boxy shape. I have decided to revisit that design, and I'm nearing completion of that task.  I used the tips in this tutorial to get the box corners instead of sewing a bunch of pieces together like I did before.

It will feature a boxy shape for both the upper part of the bag and for the drying mesh. As you can see in the photo, the mesh bag is held in an open position, which makes it easier to drop the soap into after use.  I'm happy with the proportions and I'm ready to start producing these for sale.