Thanks for taking a look at my blog. I am going to use this blog to document my adventures with the processes involved in the creation of these excavation kits along with the journey of developing new products to help to diversify my audience.
For this post I will do a quick recap of the journey thus far. Here we go!
This journey began at the end of 2020 after my oldest son developed an intense love of two things... rocks, and breaking things. We used these two loves to try to channel his focus into something productive, that didn't involve him bringing home every single rock that he could lay his eyes on, or tearing down the house around us. We introduced him to the excavation kits that could be bought at various big box stores or at everyones favorite online retailer. We made the discovery that these kits were either way too easy or way too difficult for a school aged child to complete, not to mention the items that were buried within, were not of the best quality. This led to the analytical side of my mind trying to figure out a way to create these kits to be not only affordable, but also provide quality items and would be difficult enough to keep kids occupied but not be too hard to cause intense frustration.
Here began the multi-month long challenge of experimentation to determine the best formula. After numerous failed attempts we were able to rule out quite a few material types as well as figuring out what materials did work. Success! We found an affordable combination of materials that held together well! Next came the experimentation on formula.This led to quite the amusement. The first batch that we made ended up being WAY too hard, as our tools continuously broke, and we ultimately ended up needing to use a real hammer and chisel to reach the center, and remove the treasures within. This later became our expert difficulty. The next batch ended upbeing WAY too soft and came close to crumbling with minimal effort. This is now our easy difficulty.The third batch came out just a tiny bit too hard, leading to the formation of our hard difficulty. We had finally narrowed into the right formulation. Yay!!! The next challenge was how to make the kits colored without having the colorant bleed out or alter the curing process. This was an incredibly difficult process and this is STILL an ongoing process. At this point, I have found a few products that work, but they are somewhat difficult to obtain.
Once we finally mastered the formulation, we began the initial process of diversification by adding our Animal, Insect, Ocean, Dinosaur, and Dinosaur Fossil kits to the current line of Gem & Minerals. The next round of new products came with the addition of our mini kits as well as the discussion with a friend that led to the experimentation that developed the hidden message kits. Our mystery kits were next. Once we fleshed out our small line fairly well we started the experimentation with our larger kit sizes as well our holiday shaped kits. Once the larger kits were completed, we were able to experiment with new hidden treasures. Finally, we were able to add our Dinosaur Fossil Model Kits, and our Glow-in-the-Dark Dinosaur Fossil Model Kits to our product line.
So what's next? Well, currently I am experimenting with some new technology to be able to bring an entirely new line of products in to the shop. That being said, keep an eye out on this blog as well as my Facebook page to keep up with the progression of these new products. I may also be creating some polls to help gauge what types of products you all would want to see created next!
Well, if you made it this far.... thank you!
Until next time,
Kira