Featured Pagan Packs Member: Breath Of The Dragon

Business Name: Breath of the Dragon

Business URL: www.breathofthedragon.com

Facebook/Twitter/Other Social Networking Sites:

www.facebook.com/breathofthedragon

www.facebook.com/turnpeacearound

http://breathofthedragon.blogspot.com

What is your primary line of business?

I create unique and customized wooden gifts with pyrography, or wood-burning. From keychains and magnets to larger items like boxes and wall plaques, I can make just about anything, and I can put your name or favorite saying onto it.

What can you offer customers that others cannot? Or how can you add value to your customers’ orders?

I love doing custom work, whether it be full-sized signs for your brick & mortar store, or a recipe box with your family name on it or a design that matches the recipes cards going into it. I’ve done lots of custom cell charms and keychains with the recipients’ chosen image/wording, as well. As long as your chosen image is not copyrighted, I can burn it onto whatever wood I can get my hands on. If it is a larger project, I always share updates and in-progress photos with my customers as well, so they can see just how their finished item is evolving.

 

When/How did you get started? Tell us a bit about your history.

I first picked up wood burning in 2006, shortly after getting out of the US Navy, when I was looking for something creative to do to fill my now-empty time. I was gifted a burning pen and an oval plank (with bark on the edge). After practicing on the back, I did this yin-yang design on the front. From then on, I was hooked, both on the smell of the burning wood, the ease of which this soft wood burnt under the heated tip, all of it. However, I was not supported or encouraged (bad relationship at the time), so it was something that got put away and forgotten…

Until the holiday season of late 2007. That was when I had gotten away from the bad relationship, and was now surrounded by creative and encouraging people. Still jobless, I was seeking ways to make money on my own, so I picked up my pen again, along with some blank wood pieces from the thrift store, and started burning simple kanji symbols. As I was helping my mom vend her booth at a craft show in the mall, I was surrounded by other people selling their crafty wares, so I put a price tag on my few pieces as well. I actually got a custom order the same week of putting prices on my first pieces, and was stoked when the customer loved what I had done. That’s what really got me interested in selling, and after that craft show at the mall, I set up shop on Etsy, January 2008.

Since then, I’ve set up and displayed my work quite a few times, at first as a side thing in my mom’s booth, but more recently being able to fill up a space on my own. As of January 2011, I no longer sell on Etsy, and you can find my items for sale exclusively on Zibbet. I also plan to do some more local shows in the coming year to gain more exposure for my work.

Do you have any specials you’d like to share?

Each week, I put something different on sale in my shop, as a ~Special of the Week~ promotion. New sales start Monday morning and run through Saturday night. Aside from there, my keychains and small charms always have free worldwide shipping.

Do you have any upcoming plans or exciting things coming up in the future for your business?

Other than trying to do more local events, there isn’t much planned in concrete just yet. I do have hopes to expand my reach through sampler programs, like The Little Black Boxes, Sample Z Box, and Pagan Packs. Just depends on cash flow – if I can’t buy the supplies, I can’t send in the samples.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

The holiday season is just around the corner, and I have lots to pick from in my shop. If you want anything customized, you need to have your order in before Nov 1^st, to ensure completion and delivery in time for Christmas gift-giving. As long as there are no snags in supplies on my end, turn-around time is approximately one week from finalized design.

Another side note: While my main focus is on woodburned gifts, I have another hobby that you will find in my shop – the Turn Peace Around movement, which spreads a message of a positive (albeit flipped) peace sign, focusing on the things we want, rather than what we don’t want. For more information on this movement, check out the separate Facebook page (linked above).