Texrocks, San Antonio.

Sandcarved Stones.

There are four phases of our company development.

Define, Design, Develop and Deploy.

Texrocks will be a business that will specialize in sandcarved stones. Sandcarved stones come in many shapes, colors, sizes, and an unlimited number of marketing opportunities.

1. 1) Garden stones: 10 to 20 inch stones with inscriptions of a generic nature.
2. 2) Desktop stones: 3 to 6 inch stones, with kanji, inspiration, college, or company logos.

3. Introductory stones: 2 to 3 inch stones with words, kanji, logos, or our company logo.
4. Pet Memorials: 10 to 16 inch stones memorializing a pet.
5. Wine bottle engraving: Special occasion or company logo etched on wine bottles.
6. Real Estate Address Markers: Large stones, 16 to 24 inches, with address number.

Minimum equipment to start up.

Sandblast cabinet.

Air compressor

Sandblast pressure pot.

Silicon Carbide blast media 140 grit (100 lb.)

Shop Vac

Media collection system

Computer for artwork

Software for creating images and artwork

Printer capable of 600 dpi printing. Deskjet or Laser.

Letralite photoresist exposure unit.

Photo resist in assorted thickness.

Photoresist development board and pressure hose.

Assorted masks, hoses, acetate, and small bore ceramic tips.

Our concept is that a design can be reusable.

For example, a college design could have two concentric circles, and in the top portion the word TEXAS, and in the bottom portion, the word LONGHORNS. In the center would be artwork of a longhorn. That design could then be used for HOUSTON, COUGARS, and the interlocking UH.

Once an acetate is printed (the positive), it can be held in an image library, and used again to create a new negative.

We must learn which type fonts do best at sandcarving in various sizes.

We must learn what the minimum line thickness is for each material. We realize that some stones will cut with more clarity than other stones.

We must which thickness of photoresist will give best performance.

We must determine which glues to use that will not cause damage to the stone or finished product.

We have been experimenting with a large assortment of stones. We have determined that the best stones are of fine granularity, smooth texture, and medium to dark in color.

Light, rough, chalky materials usually have resist failure, and are unsellable.

Etching glass, using 3 mil photoresist, the artwork must be of a minimum width.

We are writing to the various colleges to obtain written permission to use college mascots on our stones.

I have given away samples to friends and business associates. Ian has taken a few samples to his place of work, and his coworkers have given him orders. People who see these stones like what they see.

We want to identify Nursury stores, and gift shops that would be interested in carrying some generic stones on consignment.

We want to develop a real estate salesman program, where a repeat customer gets a discount for each stone based on cumulative purchases.

We plan to create a sales brochure to leave at veterinarian offices to promote the Pet memorials.

We plan to market with the use of TexRocks.com as an online catalog.

Eventually, it will become a re-order system for retailers. We will list the stores that sell our products.

We do not want to attend flea markets, craft shows, etc. We want to supply sellers.

April 15^th, we purchased minimum equipment.

May 1^st, purchased printer capable of 600 dpi.

May 25^th, received first boron carbide tips from Seven Stars. 1/10" bore.

May 30^th, Finished the first complete web page.

July 2^nd, Obtained Assumed name certificate, Fed Tax ID, and state tax permits.

New marketing ideas:

1) Rock Stars Name above and below star – no circle.

Erv & Velta (above)

Westhause (below)

Media Separator

Blast cabinet with constant recycle of materials.