We are very excited to announce two new outlets for our Eiffel tower model.  In the US, the 6″ and 12″ versions can now be found in the gift shop at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). The DMA online store currently offers the 12″ version, with the 6″ soon to follow.

The 12″ tower has also just appeared in the online and print edition of the Grand Illusions holiday catalog.

Grand illusions is a specialty retailer that deals in elegant, ingenious and beautiful items, from time honored illusions to mind bending science toys. A number of of our favorite things on our toy shelf have come from them, and we are genuinely honored to be included in such an amazing collection.

Here, Grand Illusions founder Hendrik Ball shows off the tower:

This is a double first for us – our first time in a print catalog, and since they are a UK based firm – our first international distribution.

First, I want to offer our deepest and most heartfelt congratulations to Chris and Elida.  I cannot think of a better way to start off your life together, and may it be a long and very happy one.  I also have to say thank you again for letting us be a part of it.  It was an honor, and a privilege.
 
Now, on to why we are congratulating them. Every once in a while, a project comes along that you are just honored to be part of.  If I have a complaint about this one, it’s that this client has made life more difficult for every poor schlub who has yet to propose to their girlfriend.  Is it really fair to raise the bar *that* high?

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This is a construction piece we did in conjunction with Padgett Printing and Register Marks.  The invitation is for a Casino themed event benefiting Braille Ink,  folds into a conventional square format for mailing.  The piece was printed by Padgett using PMS colors, with a silver and gray grid pattern on the inner face.  On receipt, the piece can be folded into a cube.  The laser cut voids in the face expose the patterning on the inner surface, reenforcing the dimensional feel of the piece.

Since the piece would have to be folded and unfolded multiple times, laser scoring was not an acceptable solution.  To achieve a stable mechanical score, the piece was scored and perimeter cut by Register Marks using a traditional steel rule die.  We took the perimeter cut pieces, and cut the detail elements, using dots printed in the drop areas as registration marks for the vision system.

While not as elaborate as some of our other dimensional pieces, it is an excellent use of the form, and makes for an interesting piece that is likely to garner a place on the recipient’s desk or shelf long after the event.

This card is based on the iconic Old Red Courthouse in downtown Dallas.  This is the second in the “Dallas Landmarks” series that began with the Dallas Skyline Cards.  This one was cut on 105# red metallic cover with a citrine metallic insert (tip-in). Read more

The new website is live.  It’s still a work in progress, but we’ve been sitting on a good bit of new content until the launch, and we decided it needs to go up.  So here she is, and we can also announce that we have moved to a new web host.  We’re extremely pleased with them so far, and the site is almost 10x as fast in our benchmarks.  For those who had to endure the old one, we sincerely thank you for your patience, and you should find the new site and server a much less painful experience to deal with.

Special thanks to our designer Veronica Ramos for working so hard to get it into a launchable condition.  Also a shout out to CutLaserCut.  Their brilliant “How it works section” is (obviously) the inspiration for our Process page.  They are a great shop in the UK that makes stuff that is at least as interesting and ( almost :o) as cool as what we do.

That’s it.  Next up is the stuff that is actually interesting.

In honor of Bastille Day, we chose today to launch our Kickstarter project to bring the Eiffel Towers into full production. If you like the project, and would like to see it widely available, please check it out.

Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing crowd funding site. If you like a project, you can pledge your support for it. If the goal is met, your card will be charged via Amazon payments when the campaign closes. If the goal isn’t met, the project doesn’t fund and you never get charged a penny. Projects offer a variety of thank you gifts for your donation, often including the first products off the production line.

You can support our project by pre-ordering one of the 6″ or 12″ tower models, or if you pledge more, we are making some non-production versions available, including the original, more elaborate version featured on the main page.

Beyond pledging, you can also support us by spreading the word about the project. We only have 30 days to make our goal, and the more people that see the project, the more interest we can generate, the better our chances of fielding this product and using it to finance more cool stuff.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1776521681/laser-cut-eiffel-tower