General Entertainment Opened my own drink coaster shop online

[Emblazon]

Over Christmas last year I had gotten Triage an FDM 3D printer because she’s always wanted one for her cosplay. A few months later and she still hadn’t touched it, so I started messing around with it. Started printing some things here and there, eventually picked up a resin printer (whole other story), and then got to thinking what could I print, that I wanted to print, that I could also sell and there would be a market for. 
 

I have a background in design, and really only had to teach myself how to use specific aspects of Blender to go from design to 3D model, to printing software, to physical print. 
 

I’m big into Sea of Thieves. Really big. And I had found a few drink coasters for SoT on Thingiverse, printed them, but wasn’t happy with the quality or detail. So I decided to make my own, from the ground up. I went to the SoT logos and redrew/modified them all, and made two distinct sets of 4 coasters—a general set, and an alliance set. 
 

But then I thought, what good are coaster sets without a case? For SoT, I originally wanted to replicate the in game rowboat, but that went beyond my 3D modeling skills, and I fear would have priced my product out of the desired price point. So I went with something a bit simpler—a box with two halves, with the top half having an inset logo. Doing this allowed the top box to be two tone, same as the coasters. I added cork to the bottom of all the coasters, felt padding in the inside top of the box, and rubber feet on the bottom of the box. For the SoT sets I sanded both the top and bottom of the box to give it a more weathered look. 
 

Once I was satisfied with my SoT sets, I started thinking about what else would I like to make, as there’s no logo I can’t design/replicate. 
 

Horror. That was the next set. A mask set, all glow in the dark, of three of the most iconic masks in movies. The box top had no previous design and was created by me from scratch. 
 

Then, I recalled one of my friends owns a comic shop, so I reached out to him and showed him the sets—he loved them and couldn’t wait to feature them in his store. Which was beyond cool! Once we found the right price point, the sets flew off the shelf. 
 

Now that I have some sets in an actual store, I wanted to do something more comic/superhero related, and a bit closer to a larger copyright holder (we’ll see how that goes)… and that’s how the Batman set came to be. 

 

I do have an Etsy shop, and business was really slow going at first, but it seems to be picking up as I’ve now gotten 6 orders in the past week alone. I’m not making much money, but it’s really cool to see a market for something that’s really more of a passion project for me—I’m happy knowing there are people who want to own these coasters. 
 

Anyway, just thought I’d share. Here are some pictures: 

Album — Postimages

POSTIMG.CC

 

[Mercury33]

Oh wow those are really good

[Derek]

I'd put my drinks on those! At this point, though, I'm just trying to make patterns with the rings I already have on my wood coffee table.

[Keyser_Soze]

Upvote for knowing how to use blender.

[Emblazon]

I’m selling the Batman set exclusively at the comic store right now, because I’m a little hesitant to see just how quickly my Etsy store gets shut down if I put them up there, but if someone from here would like one of the Batman sets, just purchase one of the sets I have up on Etsy and let me know you’d prefer the Batman set and I’ll ship that one off instead. I’ve got 5 full sets of that one ready to ship off to the comic store, but I haven’t sent them just yet. Here’s my store link:

 

HoistTheSales on Etsy

ETSY.ME

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[Captain Pickle]

Good job man.  Too bad you can’t sell Star Trek ones online.  Those would sell like hotcakes!

[johnny]

the horror coasters are so sick