July Designs & Small Updates
こんばんわみんな！
Hi everyone!
We hope June has been a great month for you all! It's been a super busy month for me with events, our 5 Year Anniversary & my Bday sale, grading, packaging and shipping pin club pins, and grading/prepping to ship out the Lunar New Year Collab KS rewards. I did manage to take some half-days off during my birthday weekend, but overall not a whole lot of relaxation in June.
If I did learn anything in June however, it's that I'm not gonna bother with in-person events in June next year! haha Despite how busy I was, folks definitely weren't spending money at events even if they were well-attended. I think a lot of folk are (very understandably) saving up for summer vacations, so I'm planning to sit back and relax next June, focusing my work time on creating instead of vending. And to think I could have just spent June in Japan taking in all the hype around the Sailor Moon Cosmos films! 😍
Anyways, since tomorrow is the last day of the month, I wanted to give y'all our July pin previews!
MOUJUU CLUB
Taka and I realized that despite our brand's mascots being karajishi/shishi lions, we haven't actually made any of the classic karajishi into pins! 🤪 Which is really silly actually considering my lifelong affinity towards shishi! Years ago, Taka illustrated a sketch pretty similar to this one, so we made some adjustments to simplify it for pinning, though it's still pretty detailed, isn't it? 🙈 The photo above shows the side by side of Taka's linework and then my very rough linework for vector since I thought it might be interesting to see how we plan things out. The little white fluffs will be screenprinted.
PRETTY WINKERS : PS
Continuing the casual heroes and the Sailor Animates, July will feature Chibiusa and Tin Nyanko! It was difficult to choose an outfit for Chibiusa, but I have always loved her little blue overalls and striped Waldo-type shirt. Though Taka told me he low key wants to include Waldo in the background as a joke! 😆 Do we love or hate that idea?? Chibiusa is also carrying her little bunny backpack that Usagi made for her, and the background will be from the garden/conservatory that they often picnic out throughout multiple seasons. For Tin Nyanko, she will have a background somewhat matching to Iron Mouse's. Because her hair is in little braids, it doesn't allow for as much playfulness as usual, but I'm still really excited overall for this design and hope you all are too! ☺️
PRETTY WINKERS : SG
Continuing the Spirited Away film designs, I knew everyone was gonna want to have a Kaonashi/No Face design. To be honest, Kaonashi is not one of my favorites, but I am sure I'd have a lot of people asking for him if I didn't pin them. The problem is, well, Kaonashi/No Face doesn't actually have a face. Of course that doesn't keep fan artists from making cute expressions for fan merch, but as you all know, we try to give our designs a somewhat official look, so I thought let's at least add some other characters who can be winking alongside Kaonashi. I wanted to pin Aogaeru (the frog) anyways, so I thought he'd be perfect to include, happy to have a nugget of gold in hand. I also included the Radish guy since he tends to be a fan fav too! Kaonashi will also have a slight wink to their eye as well. Background will be a city night scene, one dangling bath token like I did for the Rin design, and a little ball of yarn at the base as a nod to Kaonashi's relationship with Zeniba. There are so many characters in Spirited Away, so I'm trying my best to sneak side characters into the collection even if I don't think I'll be able to pin them all individually. :) I'd love to do individual designs for them all, but kinda don't think the demand for Aogaeru, Radish Guy, Daruma heads, etc would be quite there, so hopefully these designs that include multiple characters will satisfy the die-hard fans as well as appease my self-indulgence! 😘
PRINCESS RETURN!
Now that all Sailor Princess pre-orders have gone out (save for a couple since I only got half my Princess Venus in on the last shipment--manu forgot to send half of them and will include in next shipment), it's time for a new Sailor Princess! I'm still finalizing my sketches, but Princess Uranus is next! I struggled (and still kinda am) with her face because I want it to look strong, but also soft. And while I usually have so much fun with the short haired babes because I love making their hair fluffy, I'm struggling this time around. Overall, I'm happy with the composition, though I'm going to change the angle of her hand a touch, I should have her ready for pre-orders in the next week when I also wrap up the vector for Pin Club designs. :)
PRODUCTION UPDATES
Not much as far as updates go since manus took about a week off for the Dragon Boat Festival, but last I spoke with main manu, they had another shipment they were getting ready to send our way, so I'll be checking in with them to get details on that! :)
TATTOO STUDIO UPDATES
Taka has finally pinned down a private studio space, though we are also looking at a commercial space that will be available in 6-7 months, and Taka will begin contract signing on July 12th. We're both really excited for him to have a private studio that won't be attached to our home as he is getting more unknown customers coming through the door these days. In the past, most his clients were friends or friends of friends, which means we were not too uncomfortable with them coming to our home for consultations/tattoo sessions, but lately he is getting clients from all over the state and outside too who are booking him. Another reason we are excited for him to have a private studio in the C-ID (Seattle's Chinatown) is because if we don't have to keep our home sterile for his studio, that means we can have.... PETS! ahhhh we still might not get one just yet since we do want to focus on getting a house next year and not have to worry about causing any shock to the pet if we had to move them, but prospects are there for us! :p
Anyway, that's about it for the moment, though I have more to share with you on the next update too! ☺️ Thank you all and talk with you soon!
Mandy & Taka