hobby dragon

[ElizaLeahy]

We do the occasional handcraft market. Noticed a lack of things for little boys, usually lots of things for girls. So making some simple push cars and I thought "hobby horses???" My friend loves dragons. So, hobby dragons instead. I'll probably do unicorns and horses as well though.

First draw it, then transfer it to wood, cut it out on scroll saw (you will notice that dragon is different from the others, didn't take a photo of "Roman" in this stage), sand, then paint. I undercoated with gesso, and painted with non toxic acrylic paint.

[Ozkaban]

That's pretty cool Eliza.

Can I be thick and ask what you do with them?

Cheers,
Dave

[ElizaLeahy]

Like a hobby horse. Kid throws leg over it and holds on to the handle between the spikes and runs around like a crazy thing pretending to ride a dragon.

You know, what kids use to do before they all had computers and Wii's :)

[Ozkaban]

Like a hobby horse. Kid throws leg over it and holds on to the handle between the spikes and runs around like a crazy thing pretending to ride a dragon.

You know, what kids use to do before they all had computers and Wii's :)

:doh: Of course!

Look very cool. Hope you do well with them.

Cheers,
Dave

[artme]

Cool tool ELiza.:2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:

[munruben]

Like a hobby horse. Kid throws leg over it and holds on to the handle between the spikes and runs around like a crazy thingWell it beats walking eh? :) Nice work Eliza:2tsup:

[keju]

Bet not just little girls would like to ride a dragon....
Have you thought of a sea horse? The dragon kind of reminds me of one and little girls love seahorses.... think of little mermaids riding one.... :)

Juvy

[Charleville]

Very nice. :)

There is a bloke in Ireland who seems to make a pretty good living making odd sorts of hobby horses, not unlike yours, and exporting them to order around the world...

http://hobbyhorsetoys.wordpress.com/


The thing that I notice about his hobby horses is that, whilst being interesting shapes, they are very replicable because the form is simple to make and very templatable ( if that is a word :D). That means that he can scale up production very easily.


I made my little grand-daughter a less scalable very girlie hobby horse design at last Christmas and I am told that that hobby horse makes its way all round the house, including into the parents' bed every now and then. I admit to being pleasantly surprised at how well the few wooden toys that I have made the kids have been received by them in the midst of an ocean of electronic, talking plastic things that fill their house.


I reckon that boys will love the dragons. :)


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[ElizaLeahy]

I've made a unicorn (in purples with a gold horn) and I'm making my second dragon now.

Bev pointed out that the pine would break - and he was right. So I've switched to laminated wood. It's thinner, but I don't think that matters.

Yes, seen the guy in the UK. Nice woodwork, don't see why he doens't have the same problem I would have with the pine - cross cutting like that is going to cause weak bits and kids do throw down their toys.

Each one of mine will at least be unique. I couldn't do two the same if I had to!

Dragons, unicorns, seahorses - each comes with a little certificate with a story about it, and a space for the child (or parent) to write the name once they have named it.

Somehow I don't think Aussies are going to pay 70 EU for them though :)

I was thinking $70 AU though, and they can talk me down. What do you think?

[Charleville]

I would think that the opportunity to use thinner wood would be a good thing to keep the weight down.

I would have no idea about pricing except to remark that when my daughter was working at an ABC shop, she said that parents with cantankerous kids would pay pretty well anything for a toy to shut them up.

That was before the global financial crisis. Not sure if the discretionary dollars still flow like that. I know that we don't have unemployment problems but I suspect that overtime, extra hours for casuals, and bonuses would have been cut a fair bit as a precautionary step by business generally and that might have an effect on discretionary spend.

However, Christmas is just around the corner. You just need to give the paint plenty of time to harden as when kids drag things like hobby horses upside down on the concrete, as they do, new paint rubs off pretty easily.


Good luck with the dragons. I suspect that you will do well with good quality dragons with the add-ons that you suggest. :)


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[keju]

sounds like a good price to me......
by the way.... had a look at the other dragons ...... I like your's heaps better.... theirs are just too skinny.....

Juvy