May Designs

Good morning, dear friends!

We hope you’re all doing well.

I meant to post this update in the evening (Thursday), but we didn't get home from the grand opening of the tattoo studio I've mentioned Taka was considering to work at until almost 10pm. He's still not sure if it's a good fit for him, not because the people aren't nice, but mainly because the studio's private rooms are significantly smaller than the private studio we have set up for him currently. Furthermore, the owner seems perhaps a little bit more business-oriented rather than focused on the artwork, which is something Taka always puts first. It was still a good meeting, and to wish the new studio success and at the very least Taka could make some connections with other artists and Japanese here in Seattle.

As you all know if you read the last update, we got back from Boston last week and then I’d been hustling hard to prep for all the events we’ve got going on this month. Full disclosure, I was sort of struggling with a light cough and sniffles for a few days when we came back from Boston. Worry not, it wasn’t Covid despite my concern that it was since our plane ride back from Boston was one of the first flights that airlines weren’t requiring people to mask up. 😰 Thankfully it wasn’t Covid but a dastardly common cold (that I’ve since learned came from my stepmom who thought all her sneezing and sniffles were due to seasonal allergies).

After our Chinatown market on Saturday, my cold hit me super hard and after a hot shower I ended up passing out in bed around 7pm, only to wake up feeling like my cold had become a sinus infection from trying to repress my coughs and sniffles. So I spent most of Sunday and Monday in bed. On Monday I mustered up only the strength to answer my door to receive the latest shipment of pins which I was too tired to even open the boxes until later evening. Ugh! Who knew a common cold could be so miserable after not being sick for like 3 years.

In any case, as soon as I started improving on Tuesday, I’ve been hustling to finish up the vectors I had already started before the end of April. I just finished picking the colors for beautiful Berthier and lovely Saturn this afternoon, so without further ado, we present these two!

Both designs are larger than usual which haha kinda sucks for our production costs this month, but we didn't want to skimp on making their backgrounds and hair, so both are 2.25" or larger which means Saturn is the largest pin we've made in the pretty winkers besides the Moon Queen, Wicked Lady, Cosmos, or Galaxia. Besides Wicked Lady, Berthier also now has the largest pin size due to her hair coming out of the frame.

Berthier surprisingly took me a lot longer to complete than I anticipated due to all the background details and lots of screenprint! 😮 We based her background design in both the 90s anime & Crystal scenes in her chess episode with Ami. The icy structures in the background are the ones she tries to freeze herself in when she’s betrayed by the older sisters and then Koan comes to tell her there’s hope and love. 😭 Her dowsing Crystal is seen in the manga and Crystal. Finally, you may notice her eyes are black in the center instead of white—this was a conscious choice to match her with the 90s anime which Taka thought was a unique feature of hers.

For Saturn, the small planet in her hand represents the solar system she creates in Stars when she rapidly ages. Her sailor fuku we chose to still match the S style like we did with Uranus & Neptune.

new boxes in

As I mentioned just above, we got a big ol' shipment in on Monday with all the pins I mentioned in the previous post from last week. Since I spent all week focused on the vectors and getting better, I didn't have time to unbag and grade all the pins, but that's going to be one of my primary focuses over the weekend and I am hoping I can start shipping out by the end of next week. No matter how many pins I have to grade (at least 1500), my goal is to have all the boxes out before I leave for Anime Boston on May 23rd. :) I'll also be sure to do an extras drop for you all before I leave. You'll still be able to order while I'm in Boston too because Taka will be home with most our inventory so he can pack orders if needed (though he's not as good at accuracy or penmanship in thank you notes) haha

Manu Updates

Unfortunately, still no word when our pins with our second manu will be released to FedEx since their factory still seems to be stuck in an area that is in lockdown. But great news with our main manu is that Esmeraude & Petz are getting printed, Uranus is complete, and Calaveras just needs polishing and print. So at the rate they're going we may yet have another box heading our way before I even leave for Boston! :o

Well, that's all for now--stay tuned for when the drop is going to happen and let me know if you have any questions, your address has changed, or anything else.

- Mandy & Taka