Walnut Spatula and Spoon
So far I have made one pair of the spoon and spatula utensils to sell. These are made from walnut with a madrone wood inlay in the shape of a rose. They are the same thing as the last few posts: the madrone spoon and the madrone spatula, which I kept for myself. I really wanted to keep these walnut ones too, as they turned out so beautiful, but I only need a certain amount of spatulas and I think I have hit my personal use limit for this particular design (I have two).
Instead, I offered them for sale on Etsy and my website for $45 (for the pair) plus shipping. One of my friends in the Bay Area bought them, and shipping was about $8 to get them from Truckee to Los Gatos. I really appreciate all my friends, former colleagues and acquaintances in supporting my woodworking by buying some products. It greatly helps me out!
I think $45 is a really reasonable price for the two items, but I will likely have to up the price to make it more worthwhile to make them; probably $35-$40 per item, plus shipping. I’ve talked to some other woodworkers and they say I could probably do $50/item, which would work out fine if I include shipping.
I was trying to avoid selling on my Etsy Store and going direct to the consumer via my Corbin’s Workshop website, as Etsy charges a 6.5% sales fee, in addition to a $0.20 listing fee. I tried charging a little less on my site to accommodate this, but in the end, people seem to like Etsy better. I may pursue Etsy more, and my website less.
I’m hoping to do some small production runs on the design once I get my new CNC machine totally setup. Currently I’m waiting on some tool holders that are being held hostage by UPS. UPS doesn’t like to drive in my neighborhood. I heard they had a bad collision on one of the roads a few weeks ago, and totaled a truck. It has been pretty snowy around Lake Tahoe this season!
