This is just a quick post as a comment on the coasters I sell over at my lil’old art shop The Design Droid.
When I sell prints of my art one thing I must get right is that the quality of the print must be as close as possible to the original; whether that be from a digital source or from a more traditional pencil, ink or painted piece.
In my quest to add products to my shop I stumbled across a company who were selling coasters but unlike any coasters I’d seen before, they were aluminium in construction with a middle section made from a polyethylene material. I can attest the attributes are as seen, they’re really good!
Technical Specs:
- Aluminium top and bottom, sandwiching a polyethylene core
- 3mm thickness, super sturdy
- 10cm x 10cm with rounded edges
- Lightly textured surface
- Shatter-proof & water resistant
- Easy to clean
I took a punt, created a print file to the spec required and set about ordering a batch based on my Atari ST Inside Out illustration which origanally was inked for The Colouring Book of Retro Computers Vol.1.
When they turned up I was so impressed! For the size and the type of printing the result was awesome, however there was a problem… Somehow within the delivery box there were what appeared to be metal shavings, ranging from 1mm wide curly bits to little smaller pieces and… well… they had scratched most of the stock I’d ordered! I can only guess during the sheet cutting process there was no care or attention made to remove any of the offending metal fragments from the coasters and in transport ruined what was a great product. I felt totally let down.
The company immediately apologised and sent a full replacement set, all was great no issues! So I thought, I know, I’ll order some more, the Amiga 500 and ZX Spectrum with the C64 to follow once I’d coloured up the original illustration. These turned up and I’d say about 95% of them were okay but there were still a few duds. Alas after that order the company stopped making them so I never got to order a set for the C64 which left me really frustrated as I’d love to have had some! I suspect the manufacturing process was too time consuming and prone to logistical mishaps to make them profitable , so that was it! No more aluminium coasters.
I kept a few back for myself but the Amiga sold out pretty quick, the Spectrum not far behind with only a handful left in stock . I still have a fair number of the Atari ST ones left so if you want one please head over to my shop and grab one before they go for good. They don’t take up much room in the Stoodio but anyone in business will tell you holding stock of items for too long is not a good practice.
I am looking at restocking coasters but I need to make sure the new ones I sell are going to last and are of the right quality. Watch this space! Oh and mouse mats! Now that’s something I really need to sort out!
