Some Tea 🍵 with your August Preview

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’ve all been doing well! ☺️ July has been a super busy month with events for me, but I’ve also been toiling away behind the scenes at some new collections, stickers, and print designs, as well as finalizing the vector work for Princess Uranus, Link and Zelda. I swear I say this every update recently, but it’s just a nonstop grind of me tabling, grading and packaging pins, and prepping stickers, backing cards, and mini prints for pin club. I did get the latest batch of pins which I’ve been unbagging, grading and packaging between tasks since they arrived last Friday and I’m making pretty quick progress since I bring them with me to events to grade and pack between customers. Speaking of the latest batch of pins… go grab a cup cause I’ve got some tea for you! 🙈 If you don't want the tea, feel free to skip to the end for next month's previews.

THE TEA 🍵

As many of you know, I’ve been fairly frustrated with our main manu since around November 2022. If you may recall, I started noticing that while production time seemed to be the same as always (about a month to complete a design), communication and the timeliness of our manu shipping was steadily declining (2-3 months between shipments). Although they’d show me photos of finished pins, they’d fail to ship them out to me upon completion for sometimes 2 months.

Before I dive in, here's some context for you all. My rep for 4.5 years is a man named Bill, overall good communication both in email and on IG. I am telling you Bill's name because at this point I'm pretty sure that Bill is no longer even my rep. The only time Bill's communication was lackluster was maybe a month of slow response/no response back in May 2021, which I was understanding of since at the time he had said he just got married, and traditional marriages in China can be a long celebration, so I'm like yeah, that tracks.

Anyway, fast-forward to early November 2022 where I ask "Bill" why it takes so long to ship me pins that are already finished. Bill tells me he is sorry for how long it has taken but he has just gotten married. Now this seems odd to me because while it's not impossible to have gotten married in May 2021, divorce and then marry again in November 2022, it's kinda unlikely. I ask Bill, "Oh, really? I thought you just got married last year." They tell me they didn't get married, so I just shrug it off as me somehow getting confused and congratulate them on their new marriage.

Another couple weeks it's late November and my finished pins are still just sitting in the factory so I inquire about it."Bill" says "oh, so sorry, I just had a baby, I’ll ship to you this week.” So I’m thinking, “Oh wow, they just got married, kinda a shotgun wedding situation?? Maybe he had to divorce his first wife and because he cheated and found out he was having a baby.” 😳 Not that it’s any of my business what my rep's personal life is, but also it kinda is if their excuses are interfering with my business.

I once again congratulate them on having a baby, but then two more weeks go by and we’re inching towards January when the manus go on holiday for 2 weeks, so I inquire why my pins haven’t been shipped. They say “I got Covid!” Of course I want them to take care of their health, especially if they have a newborn in the picture, but at this point I’m still concerned there are so many excuses as to why they haven’t shipped out the pins that have been finished since OCTOBER! Finally by early January, we get the pins in, manu goes on holiday, and when they get back I try to be very clear that I need better communication, pins sent in a more timely manner to which they agree. Things are a little slow but that’s kinda the norm after the lunar new year holiday in China. I don’t get the next batch of pins til late march or early April? But again, communication and shipping has not improved. And in May they request me to send payment to a new email address instead of the one I’ve used for Bill for 4.5 years… 🤨

I finally confront them, firmly but gently basically saying “Hey Bill, we’ve been working together for a long time and I’ve loyally made pins with you almost exclusively for nearly 5 years. You said you’d improve on communication and shipping speeds, but I don’t see any improvement. If I don’t see improvements, I may have to start using different manufacturing partners which I don’t really want to do because I value our working relationship. I do have suspicions that you are not in fact Bill, who I have worked with and trusted for many years as they always had good communication. Can you confirm you are in fact Bill, and not a coworker taking over his work load?” They replied “yes I am Bill, I’ll get better.”

I honestly didn’t believe them because I have heard of other reps taking over when one rep gets fired or quits, but I still give the benefit of the doubt. In July, I still don’t see any improvements in their communication or shipping speeds despite always saying “I’m shipping next week” only for 2-3 weeks to pass. So finally about 2.5 weeks ago I said, “Look, I really don’t believe you’re Bill. Bill has always been good at communicating, good at shipping within a few days of when they say they’ll ship, good at replying both in email or IG. If you are not Bill, I am fine with moving forward working with whoever you are, but would appreciate honesty if Bill is no longer at the company.” They reply insisting they are in fact Bill and will ship out the package tomorrow. They do finally send out the package (like 4 more days later). And in the past I’ve always gotten packages within about 3-4 days—I pay a lot for speedy delivery. This time around it takes about 8 days, which hey, customs. But here’s the real confirmation of my suspicions. The package arrives and instead of seeing the sender name as Bill which it has been for all these years, the sender name is SARAH! Who the hell is Sarah? This would make a lot more sense that Bill married twice because really Bill married once and Sarah married once. And perhaps when Bill said he had a baby, he didn’t mean his wife had a baby, it was Sarah who had a baby! 🤯

😤😤😤 Needless to say I was (and still am) pissed when I saw that, and the real nail in the coffin is when I see that she shipped UPS ECONOMY! I paid $815 for the primo shipping (that usually arrives within 3-4 days) I’ve had for years. This is why it took 8-10 days and I have zero doubts they pocketed the rest.

I did email the person I believe is going by Sarah the other day (while still using the Bill email they've been replying with) and said “Hi Sarah, I noticed 40 black nyango were missing from my order. I also expect my Sailor Moon remakes (about 100 were flawed in the shipment in November last year) that you’ve promised to send me over 6 months ago in the next shipment. Please confirm.” Normally, I'm more patient, but maybe I'm just feeling sassy because I just worked a long weekend of events so I just emailed again since it's been 4 days since I emailed saying "Sarah, Are you going to respond or take a long time to reply and ignore me except when you need my money?" Funny how as soon as I wrote that they replied within 10 minutes and said "I replied the other day. you didn't get my message?" to which I said "No, Sarah, I did not." They promptly replied, "By the way, I'm Bill, not Sarah." So I said "That's weird, the package I got had the name Sarah." and they replied, "Oh I used the wrong name, sorry." And all I can do is think, Sorry you used the wrong name or sorry you got caught? 🤔

I did chat with a fellow pin maker friend and she did tell me her manu is actually the parent company for the company Bill worked for and that her rep also changed in the last few months. Together, we suspect that the company that our manus worked at got bought out by a larger company and probably let go of all the old employees, but rather than be honest about the buy out, are pretending everything is business as usual to the customers. I really cannot understand why honesty is not the policy because sadly this means I no longer want to really work with them moving forward.

So what does this mean for the club? Well, even before I got my package from SARAH I already began chatting with another manufacturer who I’ve seen does great work for another reputable maker who also runs a monthly pin club. I went ahead and sent the July Pretty Winkers to them and within a day she had mold photos. Before beginning the work relationship with them I also was really clear about why I was moving factories after years of loyalty and upfront about my business expectations by working with them. I feel hopeful even if I’m a bit apprehensive moving the Pretty Winkers over to a new manu since I’ve made every single one with Bill. Whether the rep I've been working with recently is still in fact my long-time rep "Bill" or a new rep named "Sarah," I just don't feel comfortable trusting them with most my designs anymore. Unfortunately, because around 100+ pin designs are at the factory we've been working with for 5 years and I will need to restock a lot of our original designs, I will have to still give them more work from time to time. A lot of manufacturers won’t restock your old designs unless you order at least one new design with them, and we’ve been getting more popular with wholesale at museums and cultural stores, so I’ve needed to restock original designs more often. Truthfully, the quality is still good, but it’s mostly on principal that I don’t want to give them anymore business than I have to moving forward. Had they been honest from the get go, I’d be more willing to work with them. I am sure you all understand how I feel as we’ve all probably been in situations where our trust has been compromised.

I do truly hope that I never have made any of you feel this way. I always try to be transparent about what’s happening behind the scenes and I always appreciate you all for understanding and caring. 🥹 And also, if any of you thinks I'm just crazy for thinking my old rep isn't my old rep, please let me know 'cause I'm not trying to burn a working relationship, but I just feel unsure about it. >_<

AUGUST DESIGNS

Ok, now that all that tea is finished (for now), I do want to show you all the new designs for August. I'll start with Pretty Winkers, because Michiru honestly looks like she's about to spill the tea! :p I decided we'd do Michiru even though normally we'd do Mamoru, Setsuna or Haruka next. But since we'll be dropping extras of Princess Pluto soon and opening preorders for Princess Uranus as soon as I finalize the vector, I thought we'd move along to casual Michiru next to balance things out. I don't know about y'all, but I just adore whenever she has her hair up and thought it'd be perfect for her more casual Pretty Winker design. Do you all love her with this look too? (I hope so!)

Next up we have dumbcute baddie, Aluminum Siren. Taka kept changing the pose for her and originally made her more serious looking like in the manga, but after I showed him a couple Stars episodes, he recognized her ditziness and love of food, so we added in a cute little bento like she has in the first episode she appears in.

For Pretty Winkers: SG, I'm returning to Chihiro, this time as herself and not under her name of Sen. With the Sen design, she looks hopeful, but still a little unsure. With my Chihiro design, I wanted to tie elements from the beginning and the end of the movie. The sweetpeas she holds are from the beginning with the ribbon tying the bouquet together at the base of the pin. The background is when she's sitting on the train, with cute little baby mouse Boh looking out the window. Finally, I feel her facial expression is a little more happy and confident than in the Sen design.

Finally, for Moujuu club, I wasn't sure if it was too soon to do another bird, but we are doing a Hou-ou, or Phoenix. Unlike all the designs so far this year, the Phoenix is a mythical bird, but used in a lot of Japanese imagery, especially atop mikoshi (the small portable shrines carried during festivals). This phoenix feels somewhat reminiscent of Ito Jakuchu's style, an ukiyo e artist famous for his animal paintings, and one of Taka's favorite ukiyo e artists to draw influence from. Don't worry if you think it has a somewhat rooster-like or peacock-like feeling, that is pretty common for Japanese renditions of Phoenixes.

As you can see the rough linework for two designs is done, and I'll be working on the rough lines for Aluminum Siren and Michiru tonight. I expect to have these finished up fairly quickly as I have a lot of downtime the next few days as I have to spend a lot of time with my grandparents this next week or two. My lola (grandma) just got discharged from the hospital for Covid with Pneumonia and needs some extra assistance as she heals up. My grandfather used to be the main one to take care of cooking, cleaning, driving, etc, but has definitely begun to slow down these last 5-6 years, so now my grandmother takes care of most of that. But since she's healing up from Covid, she won't be able to do those tasks, so I'll be hanging out at my family's house during the daytime mainly to make sure that her and my grandfather are getting meals when my auntie and uncle are at work. I'll be careful to wear a mask while caring for her since I can't afford to get sick and need to stay focused on work, but I should have the finalized vectors for y'all in just a few days when all charges for August go through.

Thanks for bearing with me on this long-winded update! I'll be back with finished vectors as well as sneak peeks of some of the new designs/collections I've been working on as well! I've been a little quiet this month, but I promise there's been a lot of great new things I can't wait to share with you all! ☺️ Also, please feel free to leave a comment or even your thoughts about what I should do regarding manufacturers. 🤪 Thank you all for being wonderful! Stay cool and hydrated out there!

- Mandy & Taka