Hello all!
my 1st post on this site.
me and another magician have gotten into building illusions,
since the economy sucks right now and his magic shop is\'t producing much revenue. even the stage shows havn\'t produce a very good audience. and we have diffrent magi 2x a month.

we have started with the dove carousel and are almost finished with it.
I have a very strong wood working background, we have all the tools needed.
Also a HUGE plus has been I know a guy who made them commercially in his cabinet shop for years. along with many other clasics.

anyways we have tons of plans and many resources.
my questions are these:

what\'s a hot seller right now?

the only place I can find a dove carousel is either used or made in china.
seems everyone want\'s the zig zag girl.
any other suggestions on a good item to build.

also a outlet or medium to sell/ market these?

and on the pattern for the material for the carousel?
we have a few sewn up and was wondering what patterns would be a good seller? What I or my buddie like may not be what others want.

anyways sorry for the long post. any advice is welcome.
later
Rich

Good luck with your endeavor, Rich.

I\'ve been out of the loop for quite some time and am just coming back to the magic circle after a decade out. As a result, I can\'t give you any tips on what\'s \"hot\" right now.

However, I can offer you one suggestion that has helped me in a manufacturing venture I am involved in. That is customization. As Matt pointed out, a few stock photos on a web site is a good starting point. From there, make it known that your customer can choose thier own color/pattern. From there, you would just purchase the material for your client.

Good luck. Looking forward to seeing some of your work!

OK thanks for the replies..
ya we want to customize them. right down to the paint the msgi can choose. (color wise) and pattern of material.

We have our 1st one about 1/2 finished. we haven\'t spent alot of time on it. Mostly still seting up and moving our tools to the magic shop.
but we are making progress.
any suggestions on wood?
the original builder says birch... but he was also a full time cabinet maker and finished all his illusions in formica.

Also any demand for the Abbot Slick post?
I built one for myself and it\'s a sweet piece. the audience really ROARS when it\'s used.
anyways once again, thanks
Rich

ya, birch is what we are going to use.
we have one built and working out of regular plywood. It works so now we are going to build them from birch to sell.

I\'ll post some pix in the next few days of the working model we built. it\'s unpainted but finished and works.

later
Rich