Pet Loss Gift
30th Jul 2020
Pet Loss Gift
What Makes a Great Pet Loss Gift?
Affordability
The first consideration when giving someone a pet sympathy gift is probably going to be the price. There are a lot of great ideas out there, ranging from a simple card, to flowers, to memorials that can be placed in the yard. Obviously the cheapest would be a text or phone call, but you will probably be doing that anyway.
I wanted to make something that would be meaningful, well made, but very affordable as well so I try to keep the prices as low as possible. In addition to the price, you always have to pay attention to the shipping. Because of the small size and relatively light weight, ornaments are $3 to ship. In comparison, a $20 bouquet of flowers can cost $15 to ship.
Handmade Craftsmanship
I feel like the most meaningful sympathy gifts are those that have at least some hand made element and craftsmanship. It can be difficult to tell, but most gifts of this type are produced on a mass scale with a lot of automation. Technology is great and machines can make amazing items all by themselves, but I have tried to incorporate modern technology with craftsmanship into my ornaments.
I was fortunate to be able to build a plasma cnc that I use to cut out all my designs. While it does a great job, they are far from finished after the initial cutting. Each piece goes through multiple steps of cleaning as well as hand grinding to perfect the design and remove sharp edges and corners. Many people opt for personalization and all the metal stamping is also done by hand.
Made in the USA and Direct from the Artist
It's getting more difficult to tell what is made here and what is made overseas. A lot of the equipment used to make things in the United States is also being used in other parts of the world. The difference is their labor costs are much lower. Often the quality is different as well though. I see this a lot with jewelry type memorial gifts. For example, there are American made hand cut silver pendants that are $80 along side very similar looking ones being offered for under $10.
If you see a lot of people offering very similar looking or identical items at a very low price point, they are probably buying them in bulk and importing them versus making them. Unique, more expensive items have a higher price point for a reason. With higher quality materials and skilled labor, they cost a lot more to produce. The end result is worth the added cost and would be obvious when seeing the products side by side.
Personalization
I have made pet loss gifts of various types for a few years and from the very beginning customers were asking if the memorials could be personalized. I did not offer the option initially, because I didn't know how to be honest, but I eventually figured it out and now most ornaments are stamped with a name.
The challenge with handmade items is that adding a name is not easy, especially on steel. It took me weeks of practice and experimenting with different tools and techniques to be able to stamp a name into these ornaments. Getting the spacing of the letters just right was a huge challenge because each letter is stamped individually and the stamp prevents you from being able to see the relation with the other letters. Not to mention the fact that special stamps are needed because the steel is so hard and the letters must be pounded in with enormous pressure to get a deep and visible letter. It is real easy to make mistakes and I have piles of mis-stamped ornaments laying around that I now use for practice.
Something to Keep Forever
There are plenty of gifts that either do not hold up over time, or they are just temporary by nature, like a bouquet of flowers. I have always tried to make memorials that do last and can be kept forever, while often still being priced lower than gifts that may be enjoyed for a few days.
There are a lot of pet loss gifts available and I really appreciate you taking the time to look at the ones that I make. If you have any questions feel free to let me know.
Thanks
Richard
