TODAY'S GUEST BLOGGER IS....

DragonBright – quality tools and supplies for craftspeople

Hi!  My name is Alison Lloyd, and I’m one half of DragonBright Ltd.  Along with my business partner, Nigel, we’re a new company stocking and making tools for craftspeople.  We also carry some basic supplies, and we’re focussing on lamp workers to start with.  Jill has kindly allowed me to post an introduction as a guest post on her blog.

Our flagship product at launch is a low-cost extraction system.  We have spoken to a number of glass workers, and we’ve tried to tailor the extraction to what they asked for, but this would also be suitable for any craft that needs to remove fumes from the work area.  The prototype version is running on our glass bench!  The base extraction system consists of a mains-powered fan, 2 meters of aluminium ducting, a hood, and a gravity grille cover (to keep birds etc. out of your ducting).  We also include a mounting stand for the hood and a mains cable with 13A plug for the fan, as well as complete assembly instructions.  The system is designed to be installed with the outlet exiting through a hole in the wall (6” diameter), but where this is impractical, the end of the hose can be temporarily draped out of a window or other opening when in use.  The fan is capable of up to 230m³ per hour flow rate, draws a maximum of 25W, and is almost silent.  At launch, we expect the entire system to retail for £60 plus delivery, with additional options (such as multiple fans or more ducting) available.

Our tooling line is specially manufactured by ourselves, and we have lots of ideas that we will be developing in the near future.  We can supply threaded mandrels in almost any size, and we will be launching with a speciality 2-part 18” mandrel, that breaks down into 12” and 6” parts; this allows a bead to be made in the middle of the mandrel, without the difficulty of having to fit an extra length of rod into your kiln.  We are also working on a rod holder (to make using the last little bit of a rod easy), made out of stainless steel, that should be available shortly.  We don’t have firm pricing just yet, but expect these tools to come in around the £20 mark.

We can also create custom tooling, to your specifications.  Examples include tungsten shapers and rakes (with custom or selectable end shapes) and mandrels with thicker sections or other add-ons, right through to more complex systems, such as electric mandrel turners (to save your wrists).  We are planning to stock a range of sundries, such as nuts to be used with ring cabs, as well as a line of 90 CoE glass.  If you have an idea for a tool, or you have a problem we may be able to help with, please drop us a line – you can contact us via our website (http://www.dragonbright.co.uk) or via email (info@dragonbright.co.uk).

We have some great ideas going forward, too; we’ll be working on new

tools, but we’re also looking to set up a line of work lights.  These will be 12V LEDs, designed with flexible (gooseneck) stands, to allow positioning on the fly.  We’re working on the design and manufacturing, but the finished system should be flexible, with a single power supply capable of running multiple lights, and a variety of fixing methods (screw down, magnetic, etc).  At this stage, we’d like to launch the lighting system in the second half of 2013, but you can see a prototype version in the picture of our bench above – it’s mounted just to the right of the extraction system.  We are also looking at display systems for beads, primarily made out of wood.  These will range from simple, cheap stands to custom, one-of-a-kind hand-crafted versions.

As you may have gathered, DragonBright is passionate about what we do, and want to make a difference to craftspeople in the UK and beyond.  At the time of writing, we are sorting out the final logistics, but we intend to launch officially in the next few weeks.  Our website is http://www.dragonbright.co.uk, so please look us up.  As always, we’d love to hear from you!