YOKAI CLUB

As I mentioned in the last newsletter at the end of February, Tengu is one of my favorite yokai. Not much changed from the design to the vector, but I am very excited to have this pin come to life. I loved our Karasutengu designs we made in the past and I’m just as excited to pair this design with them and wear the pin on my upcoming trip to Japan (if it was done in time, which, probably it won’t be). One of the things I’m looking forward to is a day trip to Mt. Takao to pay my respects to tengu and hopefully enjoy a small festival the day after I arrive! :o

PRETTY WINKERS: PS

I may be biased because I generally love water and ice types as a water-loving Cancer, but I think Viluy turned out perfect! She is definitely pulling off the ice queen vibe! I’m also really loving the Motoki design. I wasn’t totally happy with Taka’s sketch since he looked a little too silly, but with some changes to his face, closing his mouth and narrowing his eyes a little, I feel like it captures the sweet 90s himbo vibe that is Motoki. I also love the arcade scene and I added sparkles and dreamy bubbles to match him well with our other side character pins we’ve done in the past like Naru, Umino, Ikuko Mama and Kakeru. I’ve wanted to pin Motoki for a long time as I always adored how kind he was to Usagi and her friends. I do wish we could have seen more of Motoki’s friendship with Mamoru as I always wanted to see a more playful side to Mamo-chan and think a MaMotoki bromance could have been so cute. :p

PRETTY WINKERS: SG

I don’t think brown hair Sophie gets enough love so I am really happy to showcase Sophie in her “plain” look before her transformation when she realizes the power she holds (quite literally if you read the books!). If you’ve never read the books, I cannot recommend it enough. I thought I loved Howl’s Moving Castle when I watched the movie, but the book is even more endearing to see how strong Sophie really is. I won’t go into detail, but it’s a very inspiring story and I’ll probably be hiding some little easter eggs in the designs from the book as well for some of the characters.

PACKING BOXES + ADDRESS CHANGE?

Now that pin vector is wrapped up, this next week I’m working to get current designs out the door to y’all. If your address has changed from the last box, do let me know via email, even if you’ve changed it on the back end of the website! :)

Manus have been back at the factories for about 2 weeks so I don’t have a ton of photo updates, but here’s what I have so far. Looks like Mimette from December is done and January’s Gashadokuro needs plating. And wow, can I just say how cool does that blue flame look? I’m gonna have so much fun every time I turn off the lights! :p

CLOSING THOUGHTS

This month I don’t have too many events, and in general I have a lot less events in 2024. I’ve been focusing on larger events as opposed to exhausting myself with so many small local events. My goal is that the larger events will yield me more income so I can have more time to finish projects that are half-done (which y’all know I’m notorious for starting but not being able to finish a lot of my vectors).

Which brings me to the next point… Nothing is set in stone yet and I can confidently say that we have at least 2-4 more months of designs, but I do want to bring up the fact that after I wrap up Sailor Moon Pretty Winkers, we may be dissolving the pin club, possibly all of them. I know I mentioned I may want to do a chibi or panel collection, and I still may produce designs like that, but it may be on a project basis as opposed to club.

The possibility of this decision has been heavy on me for about 6 months now and is largely due to the fact that as much as I hate to admit it, since summer last year we’ve consistently lost about 10 members per month. I don’t blame anyone for struggling in this economy or possibly losing interest in pin collecting now that life has more or less resumed to what it was pre-pandemic, but as a result, the pin club isn’t very sustainable for us anymore. We don’t make any profit from it (until I sell extras) and the club only covers production costs each month. Even when it comes time to ship I’m paying out of pocket. It used to be that pin club was able to pay our rent and cover all production costs and most of shipping, but now it is just barely covering production. Again, no one is to blame and it’s a good reminder why I named our brand Shishido Creative—so that I could always pivot and create other items besides pins. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll totally still be making pins, but I want to also focus more on stickers and prints which, at least in person, I’ve been seeing the trend shifting towards sales-wise.

I hope none of this sounds like I’m only chasing money or that I don’t appreciate all of you who have been here since day one because I truly can’t begin to thank you all enough for how long we’ve managed to keep this club going—I’ve seen many clubs not make it this long and this is by no means an ending. It is absolutely incredible how much we’ve created together, completing probably 90% of the characters from Sailor Moon. And again, none of this is set in stone because if somehow we manage to garner more members like we used to have things could totally change. But in the meantime, I’m looking at moving towards releasing collections whether that means running kickstarters, self-funding, or pre-orders.

I believe that by moving towards project-based collections, I’ll be able to complete a lot more of the fandoms, folklore, themes, and collaborations I’ve wanted to complete for years. Instead of having to go through the monthly motions of vectoring for 5 days straight, hustle events on weekends, be totally exhausted every Monday, a few sketches throughout month that may or may not get fully finished, wash rinse repeat… I’ll be able to focus on projects much like how we did when we first began the Pretty Winkers series in 2019.

While my manu situation is getting more balanced and reliable again, I still struggle to keep up with getting 2-3 months of shipments in all at once which can be 1-3 weeks of work. I know you all are so wonderful and so understanding of the process, and I just want to do my very best to serve you all and I feel like between having to vend on weekends to get bills paid and balance online presence and pin club, I’m becoming buried in work no matter how I work my schedule. I know you all will continue to be understanding whatever step Shishido Creative takes moving forward and I always always always welcome feedback, ideas, and comments! Thank you all for your constant kindness, patience and encouragement and whatever the next few months brings, I hope you’ll come along for the journey with me! :)