Gratitude & Grievances
Hi everyone!
Hope you're all doing well. I'm just popping in for my beginning of the month post to of course show you the fully vectored March designs, give you a heads up of what's coming down the pipeline, and letting you know what's going on behind the scenes in the Shishido household.
DESIGNS
First up are the fully vectored designs. As I mentioned before, we loved both our sakura designs for the Mugen club, so we decided we'd go ahead and create both pins. The pin you'll get with membership is the design with the Suzume (sparrow) design. This is the larger pin at 2" since we wanted to give you all the premium design. No color variants this time, but we do have the option to add on the second sakura pin (~1.5") to your box for only $10. Once in hand, we will probably sell the second sakura pin for $12-15, so a great chance to save some money, plus it pairs so well with the Sakura to Suzume design.
For the Pretty Winkers, we have Uranus & Petz taking the stage! We're especially pleased with Uranus with her more femme look, and such a dynamic background based on World Shaking. Which if you've followed us since we first started, you might know that Taka always thought she was saying "World Chicken!" haha!
For Petz, I personally didn't even realize it during his sketch phase, but Taka told me he actually struggled quite a bit with her hair design because he wanted to do her dynamic pose, and her hair was a challenge at that angle. Again, I can't tell he ever had a hard time with it, but I'm loving how she turned out. Though I was kinda laughing to myself the other day while vectoring her because I realized we've had a green-heavy set of designs since January with Jupiter, Jun Jun, Esmeraude and now Petz!
GRATITUDES & GRIEVANCES
This will be quick, and honestly I'm over exaggerating when I say "grievances," because what I'm complaining about is still a situation I'm grateful for. I mostly just thought it sounded good with the update title! XD
As y'all know, we just moved into a new place, and well, it's still a bit of a mess since I've had to put focus on getting caught up on orders, designs, cleaning and small repairs at the last apartment, and honestly, fixing a lot of things about this house. Even though it's a rental, we still have had to make a lot of improvements, or buy furniture that is necessary, but not in place, such as toilet paper roll holders, and towel hangers, and literally anything to help me maximize storage in our tiny kitchen, a new door handle and locking system for the garage, heck, even a new glass shelf for the fridge because they bought it used and as is. >_< The owners of this place only purchased it in November and made minimal improvements. While the place isn't perfect and definitely needs extra attention, they landlords are responsive, and literally while I write this at 10pm, they have a few construction friends here replacing the downstairs toilet since we discovered it was leaking and having some issues, so I won't say the landlords are bad since they do make improvements if necessary.
So onto gratitude. While I was updating my spreadsheet for all of you currently in the club and putting together my mailing list, I was thinking, as I do every single month when I go over the spreadsheet, about how absolutely grateful I am for all of you who support us. Seriously, without all your support, we wouldn't be living our best lives, or working towards that end at least. 'Cause I ain't gonna lie, my best life is us having our own house and decorating it as I please, vacationing every quarter, massages at least once a month, and drawing what I want all the time. A girl's gotta have goals, right?
All (sort of) kidding aside, we really are so thankful for you all for helping us be able to pay our bills and keep creating. As I go through the spreadsheet every month, I am constantly shocked at how some of you have been supporting us since day one when we first put up preorders of our kokeshi pins in the summer of 2018. Some of you have been members of our pin club since we launched in January 2020. Some of you have been collecting our pretty winkers since we dropped Cutie Moon & Baby Love and launched our Winking Magical Girls Kickstarter. Some of you have gotten to know me on a more personal level through DMs. Some of you I've become IRL friends with or had the pleasure of meeting in person at events. Some of you support us in the Lion-Puppy tier without any physical rewards. Some of you I've traded pins with. Some of you don't read any of these posts at all, but are still here for the art nonetheless! Some of you come and go for the designs or themes you love. Some of you have made orders so big that we could afford new furniture or to pay bigger bills. Some of you are the first to respond to new content and cheer us on! Some of you I know only by your name in the spreadsheet, some I know the faces of in your social media. Some of you just discovered us recently which brings a smile to me as well because I'm glad when we can meet and serve new friends!
The point is, I notice you all, and am grateful for you all. It is always an honor to pack your boxes, read your messages and comments, answer your questions, or be given the opportunity to correct my packing mistakes. So this is a shout-out to literally every single one of you wonderful members. <3
COMING DOWN THE LINE
Finally, I just wanted to let you all know which designs are supposedly on their way to us. Our manu rep did confirm that Wicked Lady is not in the upcoming package. I honestly don't know why it's taken so long, other than as I always mention they don't like doing remakes for free even if it's their fault (twice!) but I'm planning to put some pressure on them to get it done or I'll be using a different manu more often.
We do actually have a back up manu and I'm thinking about testing out one of our Pretty Winker designs with them. Truth be told, their flaw rate is lower than our main manu, but they tend to be more wary of risky or tiny details. They also cost a bit more than our main manu, but I've recently had this other manu doing some of our GachAnimals and freebie pins for the end of year designs. Another good point is they can do gradients which we tested out and were happy with. That's not to say I'm not happy with the quality of our main manu, but I also am not happy that they drag their feet when it comes to remakes, which I'm sure you're all not particularly pleased about either.
In any case, here are the designs that are making their way to us:
Yuki Onna
Mars
Ves Ves
Ume (Plum Blossom)
Jun Jun
Jupiter
Tsubaki (Camellia)
Other designs still in production are:
Wicked Lady Remakes ｡:ﾟ(;´∩`;)ﾟ:｡
Luna Remakes
Yokai Club 12 Month Pin Set Gift
Serenity 12 Month Gift
Chibi-Moon
Esmeraude
Jupiter restock + pastel variant
Cosmic Kitties restock + Pastel Variant
Umino restock
Naru restock
About to start production for this month's designs.
Outside of what's in production, Taka and I are aiming to begin a new pretty winker collection for Ghibli. It won't be a monthly pin club, but likely a larger pre-order collection we'll try to release sooner than later. But feel free to pester us so that I can relay the information to Taka how badly you all want some Winking Ghibli characters. And yes, we will be doing obscure characters too 'cause my fav characters are like the side supporting gals like Rin in Spirited Away, Ursula in Kiki's Delivery Service, Fio in Porco Rosso, etc.
Eventually we'll also do Kimetsu No Yaiba, Yu Yu Hakusho, Utena, Fushigi Yuugi, Creamy Mami, etc because I'm a very self-indulging 90s anime lover (minus KNY and Creamy Mami).
I think that about covers everything, so now I'm off to go build a bookshelf and entryway table so our house can be more livable. Much love and gratitude to you all!
- Mandy + Taka
I am the absolute worst at commenting on your updates… but I read them all! I’m so appreciative of all you do for us while seemingly constantly dealing with other things that would exhaust me haha (your moves, etc.),
Looking forward to everything upcoming!
Glad things are going well with the new home. It’s nice to hear that your landlord listens and are willing to help you guys which is amazing. And I’m happy to be supporting you guys. I haven’t been for long but definitely plan to stay for the long haul. You guys are amazing and I’m just happy to be supporting however I can and I love our little chats _
I am loving the March designs, especially Petz! The ayakashi sisters are my favorite villians! I am so excited to see other anime designs from you, especially KNY :D also to be honest ever since your checklists posts I’ve been wondering if I will get that Serenity which I know will be gorgeous! But I will wait patiently until I hit 12 months and see xD I’m so grateful that I get to be in the pretty winkers club :) Enjoy setting up your new place! It is so fun making a new place your own <3
Hopefully you’re able to make your house your home soon, even if it still is a rental! Thank you for all your hard work! The designs look so good! I can’t wait to see a howl and Sophie winker as well as KNY that’s going to be so amazing!!
Omg I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with such a hassle with Wicked Lady, but it’s almost like fate 🤣 I’m so happy to support you and be a patron of your artwork! You’re also such a lovely human and I’ve enjoyed our messages and I’m happy to keep supporting you ❤️