Creating the "It's a Cinch Drawstring Pouch"

Some thoughts on making the “It’s a Cinch Drawstring Pouch” that Glowforge sells in its catalog. Good simple design and easy to set up; however several caveats that the user needs to be aware of. The cut is quick, about 52 second that it took me.

The design won’t fit on the Medium natural leather, so I shrunk it slightly to fit. That leads to the problem that when you try to assemble you really do not have enough material to properly gather it into a pouch. It cuts 2 circle bands, with one for the drawstring. Unclear what the second one is for - another string? extra?

You can also tell enough from the diagram that the drawstring gets woven through the cut holes, but there is nothing that gives you any guidance on this. If the company is going to sell these patterns, it should at least take a few extra steps in a document talking about what the user needs to do to finalize the design, especially since many users will be brand new to this entire process, including post-cutting leather. Finally, the picture shows a red pouch - what does one need to do for this? the leather I have feels pretty stiff to work with - does it need to be painted? waxed? I’d like to see recommendations here.

Pouch video

It would also be helpful saying that it needs X by X sized leather at a minimum.

Given that this design one has to -pay- for, there should be a little more info that just ‘here ya go’.

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I didn’t purchase that one, but did you check for instructions in the […] icon in the top row?

I did not. Again, another design issue that doesn’t readily make itself apparent to a user. But that file does answer some of my points raised. Frankly, this info should be made available in the catalog file, not just hidden on the cutter.

Looking at the video it is obvious in an instant that both strings each go through all the holes and that it what opens and closes the pouch.

My question is the opposite one of "why are they charging money at all for such a simple, obvious, and ancient design.

I turned down buying one of those knife cutter machines because there was so much emphasis on selling you designs a child would come up with playing with crayons but it was copyrighted with very limited use and would never get to your computer to modify in any way.

It was the old game of selling the record player cheap, but making the money on a limited set of high priced records, or the color printers that also were cheap to buy but the ink was a fortune and could buy it only from them.

I dearly hope that as the machine is ten or twentyfold the price of the color printers or knife cutting machines that Glowforge will not go down that path .

PGmaterials are great but if they are very much more expensive than alternatives it will be very much worth the effort to find the settings for stuff from other sources. If there is a design for something complicated like a carousel, that would certainly be worth paying for, but not something as simple as a circle with some holes, and would I be in infringement of copyright if I made my own circle with some holes?

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Then don’t buy it?

Obviously there is a market and target audience for it because the OP bought it. You just might not be the target market for it. Maybe you want to sit down and draw it out, maybe someone else just wants a super quick, 52 second cinch bag without any design time needed - just load material and hit the button.

The catalog has some simple designs and some not-so-simple designs. The designs I’ve bought have been great for adding to how I think about and approach designs.

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My point as not about the market, I am sure there is a market for disks that are labeled “Round Tuits” but I would not copyright and sell the pattern based on my choice of font text location and circle size, even if I imagined I was the first to think of the joke. There are extraordinary designs donated for free (but actually worth paying for) that also teach important approaches. I have talked about design concepts that my current lack of a laser means I cannot try, but believe I am giving back to the group in exchange for what the group has offered in ideas as well. I would even like to sell designs in the market but there will be a lot more to them than Kitch flowers, string pouches, or round tuitts.

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The catalog has some great designs…some are deceptively simple like the pouch, but they are included so that people can personalize them to suit their tastes. (Think about that design with a beautiful hand-drawn mandala engraved on it…it would be sweet. If I had any skill in that direction, I’d probably have bought it too, rather than building one of my own.)

We’ve all got different skills in different directions. They have technically challenging designs in the catalog as well as simple “customize-able” ones. :grinning:

I’m hoping the catalog grows bunches, and I might take a shot at offering a design or two for it, but I’m well aware that not everyone is going to like my style of designing. There is so much more to offer to real artists who can actually draw, who might just want to buy an inexpensive base to display their artwork on, rather than learn to use more software for themselves.

It’s all good. :wink:

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As I cannot as yet see the catalog it is hard to understand anything but the fears of what it might be and at what prices. I probably would have purchased the cutter to cut what the laser cannot (thin soft copper, vinyl, etc) if they had not put up their catalog of designs and the rules for using them, and the challenges for doing your own designs.

As the golden email day approaches my anxiety grows like a weed, but from the forum I know I am not alone in that.

Oh, they’re not bad at all, price-wise. I picked up a lot of designs with the free $50 credit we get, and could have gotten even more but I wanted lifetime licenses for a couple of the designs. Most of them offer a “one-time use” option for a couple of bucks, and an unlimited license for about five times that.

Cool stuff! :wink:

I sell these designs for unlimited use but you just can’t sell them or give them to others. Most of what sells is the landscapes that are eight dollars but a lot is as low as a dollar.

Unless you know how to jailbreak your knife cutter machine :wink: . If anyone has an original edition Cricut and knows how to use VirtualBox, dropping me a message for more details may lead to a delightful outcome.

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You’re comparing apples to pomegranates just because they’re both red. The glowforge catalogue and proofgrade materials are an extension of the cutter. Totally not essential for operation. They are intended to make it quicker and easier, but there are plenty of people not using either.

Think of them as optional add-ons or upgrades. Without them, you still have an awesome thing that makes awesome things.

Side note, as someone who licenses designs full time (not to or through glowforge), whatever someone wants to buy is what I want to design and sell. There are buyers who want your complicated carousel and there are buyers who want basic shapes and designs that can incorporate into their work.

That’s like saying “a sandwich is easy and quick to make, why would anyone ever buy a sandwich?” Obviously, because they don’t want to make a sandwich and are happy to pay for the convenience. You would never criticize the sandwich maker for filling that role, even if you don’t buy a sandwich. I think its kind of rude to criticize whoever designed this project for the same reason.

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Or if you’re a Silhouette user get the Silhouette Connect plugin for Illustrator/Corel :spades: :spades: :spades: :+1:t2: :grin:

Rule #1 in the Design Professional world: Talking crap on another designer’s work is bad form.

The work may be simple but the distinguishing factor that separates the professional from the rest, is the ability to promote and earn a living from it. A 3 year old can not earn $140 Million from paint splatters like Jackson Pollock.

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Making a sandwich is a lot like changing a tire. The actual “doing it” part is simple and fast, but it is the getting what you need to where you need it, and cleaning up after that takes all the time, planning, and effort. But I get your point.

As to the difference in approach, I have been very frustrated not to be able to see the catalog, and for quite a while thought it was me that I could not find the catalog page. For that reason I could not tell what the situation was.

I presumed at first that it was as you have said, an added service providing materials and designs, but providing owners a market for difficult or original designs, and though I did not think of it then, being cloud based and exclusive you can control how it is used. If I sell something as no copy on Kitely it never leaves the Kitely servers so it cannot be copied, while an open system it goes to their computers and they can’t sell it legally but there is no technology preventing it.

The reason I sell more landscapes than chairs and tables is because the texture program did not sell well when it was new and is now long extinct, and thus I am the only one selling such landscapes, while many folk sell chairs or tables, and common designs are available free.