Hello again! We wanted to do something a little different this month, and introduce a new topic which we'll be posting about periodically.
For now, we'll be referring to these posts as "What’s New in the Workshop", a place where Kris and I can talk about what we've been working on and give you a sneak peek of potential new products that will make their way into our shop. This will be where we discuss (or rant about👀) our trials and tribulations, tinkering with new methods and processes we’re learning, in order to produce our fun products.
So, what’s new in the workshop?
Well, the last few months for us have been spent organizing and improving our workshop; adding new tools and learning methods to unlock new possibilities, as well as trying to make our workshop as efficient and safe as possible. It’s a work in progress to say the least, but we’re scaling operations up, and learning SO much along the way. Aside from that though, we have been working on some new products that we're excited about! For simplicity's sake, we think it may be best to break up our projects and talk about what we're focusing on separately.
Danielle
Faux-Neon LED Lights
Over the past few weeks Kris and I have been learning a lot about LED lighting, mounting, wiring, programming, you name it, we’ve been working on it. After some shopping around for different types of LEDs, we came across faux-neon LED lights which can be used to create a low maintenance, low voltage, realistic looking neon light.
After doing some research we decided to purchase a couple of different colours of lights and try our hand at creating a neon light prototype. As someone who has always had an affinity for neon lights and has always wanted to know how to make them, I was really excited to take on this project!
As with any project there is a bit of a learning curve, something I was reminded of at about every step when making this prototype... The first prototype I started with was a bit too ambitious, I thought choosing a simple cursive font would be a great choice for creating a neon sign - the lights come in one long roll, and the letters are all connected in one long line, makes sense, right? Wrong!
The tracks I made for the LEDs to sit in were cut exactly to size, which looked great but left no wiggle room for wiring. After a lot of swearing and small number of soldering iron burns I decided to simplify our Neon sign, using just one word this time and use it as a reference for testing out different fonts. Though the current design is far more simplified it’s been a great opportunity to try out different wiring and mounting techniques – not to mention a great way to practise my soldering skills.
Spooky Kitty programmable wall hanger/light
Keeping with the lighting theme, I thought it would be fitting to talk about our first project with wiring LED lights: our “Creepy Kitty Light Up Wall Hanger (the name is a work in progress)! This project gave me a chance to brush up on my long-forgotten soldering skills, and it turns out it’s like riding a bike. This project was a group effort, Kris managing the light controlling chip, and taking the first crack at wiring, and myself managing the final wiring and assembly. Our spooky kitty gave us a lot of great insight into how the final product was going to work and what setbacks we hadn’t previously considered. After a few hiccups with LED placement our kitty is looking very spooky and we’re thinking of making a larger prototype with some new and improved features....🙀
Kris
Action Figure
Back in December, somehow word spread that we were manufacturing fun and interesting products, and we were contacted by a shadowy mysterious figure, with a new challenge for us.
The ubiquitous, mysterious, and talented Toronto street artist “Urban Ninja” reached out to us to ask if we could make him something unique. He explained that he didn’t have much time, but was hoping that we could help him by coming up with a product for him to unveil at an upcoming art show that he was featured in. After much creative brainstorming, we came up with the fun idea of producing an action figure version of his “Urban Ninja” character.
The challenge? Produce 20 high-quality action figures. The timeline? We only had 72 hours to work our magic. We accepted the challenge and got to work. Danielle and I toiled around the clock to fulfill the order. Sure, we made mistakes, we had setbacks, there were moments of frustration where we thought we might not be able to deliver, but we learned important lessons, improved our skillset, and we managed to deliver with only a couple of hours to spare before the show began.
The resulting product went over amazing well with Urban Ninja Squadron’s audience, and we were flattered to learn that our sleepless nights of work paid off. Not only did he sell out of every action figure he produced, but he had to start a waitlist for people asking for his next release. That’s right, we just got another order, and started brainstorming ideas of how we can make this one even better!
We don’t want to give away exactly what the next release holds, but let’s just say that we’ve been learning a lot about product packaging, DIY injection moulding, and electroplating. Speaking of which…
Electroplating
Here at We Have Fun, we have an insatiable thirst for learning interesting processes, which we can then apply to unique and fun products that we design. We’ve wanted to understand how to do electroplating for a while now, but I’ll admit that we were hesitant to try it out, especially due to the chemicals and strong acids involved.
So, what were we to do? Should we give up on our dream of making shiny metallic objects out of real metals or find a safer method? Neither! Always up for a challenge, we instead opted to study and understand the electroplating process in-depth, so that we could do it both confidently and safely. We spent many nights pouring over textbooks, watching videos, and reading as much as we could find on the various methods that go into plating metals. Once we felt ready, we pulled the trigger, ordered the required supplies, tools, chemicals, upgraded our workshop’s tooling and exhaust, and most importantly; we ordered the required safety gear.
We might’ve gone a little overkill in terms of safety, but I guess we’d rather be safe than sorry. The precautions that we take today will not only pay off in terms of streamlining processes we use in the future, but it also protects us so that we can continue bringing new fun products to life. Would you guys be interested in seeing these products, or similar products using these processes in the shop in the future? Which is your favourite? We’d love to hear what you think, and as we said, we’re always up for a new challenge.