OUR MAKER JOURNEY
"Uh, what???"
"I bought a laser. A GlowForge."
"Um, okay... Wow."
"Yeah. You ready?"
"Yeah... yeah... YEAH!"
Up to this point, "To the Root," our first business, was focused on infant and child products, hand-sewn by Janelle. The laser was our entry into a new adventure—a scary adventure with a $12K ticket that HAD to work! But it was also a medium that I (Shaun) could work with as well.
It didn't take long for us to exhaust the small pile of materials provided by Glowforge as part of our purchase. We quickly sourced more materials, developed some designs, and got to work. Our first product was Christmas ornaments designed by Darryl Aspin. These were fantastic but took some learning on our part. We first had issues just getting it to cut out. Then we had issues getting it to stay together, as some of the spots were so thin they were too fragile. Then we got so many orders we panicked! And we shut it down. "Breathe..."
That first year, we applied to as many markets as we possibly could. At the same time, our house was under renovation, I was working full-time in Barrie for a company called Mintent, and part-time for Georgian College, teaching computer programming. Add on the 8 children we had, and you can safely assume we were busy.
We tried to refrain from using the ever-popular designs from the many talented artists and created many of our designs. Signs, ornaments, some IoT things, as well as some game boxes, such as our Uno box and the Widow Box. But sales continued to decline, and it was becoming more and more difficult to sustain the business when the materials were costing us more than we were able to charge for many things we were making. For my birthday, in 2020, Janelle bought me my first 3D printer. I had brought it into Mintent to allow the staff to use it, but when Covid shut everything down, I wound up lending it to my boss at the time. He had the machine for 2 years, then finally bought his own and returned it to me. We had decided to try our local market, selling some 3D prints, a few hand-sewn items, and some 3D-printed planters. They took off. That first weekend we did very well, and an idea was born.
I began researching 3D printing, knowing I wanted to sell 3D prints, but it was imperative it was prints I was legally allowed to sell, and the artist was being compensated. I managed to source our first two artists: Flexi Factory and Artflex. You've likely seen their models either at the market or on our website. Flexi Factory's Flexi Dragon is an amazing model that has the mechanics to allow it to stand up on its own. Artflex makes the model for our Sidewinder Rattlesnakes, with an articulated mouth. Both these models are amazing, and only two of the many, many, MANY, models these talented artists produce that have gained us so much attention at the markets. However, they're also quite popular amongst other merchant printers, so we needed to set ourselves apart.
Since then, we have created relationships with Zou3D (she makes most of our micro creatures), Mat Mires Makes (the Pixar guy), Toonz Factory (Velociraptor), Cinderwing (Crystal Dragon), and a few others, that have really broadened our product base. While these artists create the models, my contribution is the painting (digitally) and printing. To define ourselves, we've focused on quality. We print slow. We print with small layers. We print mostly in color, or with interesting materials. We buy premium filaments to ensure stability. We also refuse to sell defective prints, though we will often give them away to prevent them from landing in the garbage. We also print in PLA unless it's for a functional part, as PLA is biodegradable, and therefore more environmentally friendly than toys from the big box stores, which are primarily printed in ABS.
This brings us to the website, our next adventure! And we couldn't be happier to bring you along with us. Our goals are big and involve becoming a leader in this industry. We want to grow to a point where we can bring on more support and be a viable option for parents looking to give their kids a better, more environmentally friendly gift of enjoyment.
Thanks for being with us!
Cheers,
Shaun & Janelle McKinnon