#fanmerch process

[hautecoldture]

ColdFlash fanmerch response summary!

I'm happy to share an update based on the collective responses to the interest check survey and share my plan for next steps. TL;DR several designs are underway and I'm excited :D

First up, a response summary of the major takeaways.

Most wanted fanmerch items:

1. Plush 2. Keychains 3. Stationery 4. Enamel Pins (tied) 4. Custom Figurines/Statues 5. Drinkware 6. Wearable/useable accessories (hats, socks, scarves, bags) 7. Soft home goods (blankets, towels, pillows)

Since plush took an early lead, and because it will take the longest in terms of manufacturing time, I got underway with plush designs foremost. While I would love to make all of these things, I’m figuring out what will be most viable to make and how I can supplement options for the rest via my existing print-on-demand storefronts.

Thinking about costs:

Another factor that I want to be considerate of based on responses is the overall cost for any items I make; for example, while I could design super-detailed and intricate poseable plush with removable clothes, they would easily cost $100+ USD each and - while I'm sure they'd be neat - they'd be rather unaffordable. As I'm planning to front the manufacturing costs for everything, they'd also be quite the investment for me too;;;

So, the plush I'm designing will be smaller (around 10 centimeters) with a keychain attachment, and my goal is to try to get the set of both to be around $40 USD (+shipping) or under, which will be a challenge but I'm happy to be working with a great manufacturer to bring these lads to life!

For other items I’d like to tackle, I’m similarly aiming to be mindful of overall cost, especially for this first batch of items; I’d rather err on the side of caution and approachability however I can.

How will the merch be sold?

When merch items eventually go up for sale, it will be via Etsy as the primary storefront. This is for a few reasons:

Platform familiarity & safety for both buyers and sellers.

Etsy has price breaks on shipping and has other things set up that make it internationally viable - Etsy did the hard work with navigating VAT so I don’t have to!

While Etsy does have some fees/cost to me as the seller, I can factor those into the overall cost of any item being sold through there without it being a massive extra cost (both in terms of time & money).

What’s it gonna look like?

In terms of design aesthetic, the predominant preferences were for either stylized realism or cuter stuff, with an excellent additional write-in contingent of folks who like it when things err on the side of subtle. I like to call this latter design aesthetic “secret handshake” where it’s a strong design first, and then - upon closer inspection - you notice the reference; this tends to be more approachable for folks to incorporate into everyday situations like taking/wearing something to work no matter what their dayjob situation is like! Obviously each option has its own challenges and lends to certain things more than others, so it’s going to be fun to balance designs for these approaches with some different items. I’m happily comfortable creating in all of these design styles and excited to do more!

Fanzine interest summary:

100% of responses are interested in a fanzine!

100% of responses indicated support for a fanzine which included a mix of both new and old/previously-shared works.

Format preference is for a main fanzine to be G/T (using AO3 ratings), with an optional secondary collection separate from the zine for any M/E/NSFW content.

I’m excited at the prospect of working together with folks to craft a fanzine! Before doing that, however, I’d process to do some diligence for organization and planning so that it won’t be a doomed undertaking before it begins. I also obviously won’t be tackling that on my own so would want to determine a team and process for production and transparency. Pre-orders also present their own tricky challenges but are often necessary when doing production runs for unknown interest without taking on a great individual financial burden up-front, so I’d want to ensure the zine for any M/E/NSFW content.

HOKAY - thank you for reading through all of that! I'm not sure how much folks are interested in me sharing about the info and process but I'm happy to do so - feel free to ask :D

[pienhime]

my ten manga/game/anime/etc recs for jirai

hiii long time no long ass recs post! i wanna recommend media that is popular w landmine types for newbies to the subculture, and recommendations for those who might have been here long enough to know the most popular media within jirai subculture and want some recommendations beyond that!

so without further ado...

1. Tomorrow, I Will Become Someone's Girlfriend

TW: unsafe sex work, abusive relationships, body dysmorphia, self harm, substance use, misogyny, and parental death

Okay you knew this was coming. It's probably the most popular manga amongst jirai girls as it literally is about Kabukicho, sex work, trauma, and jirai culture. Everyone's seen Yua at this point, and she is a jiraicon, but the other characters are interesting and may be relatable to jirai girls too!

2. Mahou Shoujo Site

TW: sexual assault, r@pe, abusive family dynamics, transphobia, self-harm, suicide, murder, gore, bullying, human sacrifice

This is probably also familiar to people in the jirai community and yandereblr. Super mega fucked-up parody of magical girl animes with a cast of memorable but mentally unhinged and often morally gray-to-terrible characters with a hopeful message at the end. The most unfortunate girls around Japan get given magical girl items to improve their lives, but using them drains their life force- and someone's on the hunt for magical girls, all while the countdown to the apocalypse ticks down on the mysterious magical girl site. DO NOT BOTHER WITH THE ANIME, JUST READ THE MANGA!!

3. Needy Girl Overdose/Needy Streamer Overload

TW: substance abuse, self-harm, murder (potentially), suicide, non-graphic sexual content, abuse (player is being abused by the main character), unreality, internet addiction

Duh. I can't not have this game on here! Created by a renowned menhera subculture artist and featuring Jirai icons Ame-chan and KAngel, this game has blown up unexpectedly since its release, getting art exhibits and collabs with brands like DearMyLove. You play as P-chan, Ame/KAngel's boyfriend and producer, while you try to help her achieve her goals of becoming an influencer and prevent her from killing herself or going insane along the way. If you've been in a relationship like this as the P-chan, I'm sorry we relate but this game was super therapeutic to me so maybe it'll help you process too!! Also the soundtrack fucks. Hard.

4. Neeko wa Tsurai Yo!

TW: agoraphobia, existentialism, substance use (kind of), ecchi (of both adult and high schooler characters), suicidal ideation, internet addiction

This is a super underrated personal favorite I've posted about a few times before. It follows hikki-NEET gacha gamer Niiko, as she faces jealousy of her little sister for being farther in life than her as a high-schooler, the trauma of a particularly horrific job rejection keeping her from going outside or trying for another job, and being totally fed up with her life. It's a pretty depressing read for the first half, but becomes a realistic story about recovery by the end.

5. Wristcut Warriors: Menherachan

TW: suicide attempts, self-harm (duh), parental abuse, parental death, parental neglect, attempted sexual assault, mild gore, societal ableism/sanism

Much more popular in the menhera subculture than anywhere else, but still popular enough with landmine types to be included, and a personal comfort series of mine. This is a satire manga about three teenage magical girls who have to self-harm to transform, meant as an allegory for how suffering and self-sacrifice for the sake of upholding societal norms is seen as more noble in Japan than speaking out etc. It's pretty short with only 20 chapters and some supplemental material, and tons of merch collabs but due to Ezaki being the actual fucking worst i encourage you to only but fanmerch and second-hand.

6. Danganronpa

TW: murder, suicide, ableist depiction of DID, misgendering (kind of, im not getting into ******* discourse so ill put it jic), SA, addiction,and general violence and blood

I'm biased as a Danganronpa multi-kin and selfshipper but I personally think every jirai should play Danganronpa, read the supplemental materials and watch DR3 if they can. Quirky teens with mental issues locked in a school and forced to kill each other or themselves? Prime insanity and mindbreaking ensues, with some really cool characters coming out of the franchise. Despite the premise, theres a pretty hopeful message.

7. Oshi no Ko

TW: stalking, teen pregnancy, exploitation of minors, suicide attempts, murder, terminal illness, age gap relationships, bullying, abortion, parasocial relationships, and... sigh... pseudo-incest is apparently in the manga as well

If you are into idol anime and expect your standard cinderella story about passionate girls and guys hitting it big... Oshi no Ko isn't the idol anime you're used to. This doesn't even follow the hit idol herself- rather, her two children who are reincarnated fans. They have to find their way in the exploitative and often dark showbiz world while trying to solve their mother's murder.

8. Bocchi the Rock!

TW: agoraphobia, alcohol abuse

I only watched this one recently, but it's already an all-time fav. It follows agoraphobic and severly socially anxious Hitori (aka Bocchi), and her newfound friends as they do their best to become a successful local band! They make odd friends along the way and Bocchi starts to try to recover and better herself, with often comedic failures along the way.

9. TUYU's interconnected songs

TW: abuse, substance abuse, unsafe SW, dysmorphia, suicide, self harm, parasocialism

Okay so... ik the timing is bad but I meant to make this list ages ago and this was on it so... a lot of the TUYU songs and MVs are interconnected! Some specifically cover jirai kei and ryousangata otaku topics! My favorite songs and MVs are the ones involving my favorite characters, Anhiro and Anzu, who are heavily featured in the Under Mentality album.

10. School-Live!

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!! I RECOMMEND GOING IN BLIND FOR THIS ANIME SPECIFICALLY!!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

TW: unreality, major character death, parental death, self-harm, animal death, graphic depictions of delusions and hallucinations

I loved the anime, so I picked up the manga recently. I'm only a little ways in, but I want to complete it since the anime didn't cover it all! You don't even know the plot until the final seconds of the first episode, where it's revealed that Yuki is the only member of the squad who doesn't realize what's going on- she's not in school for class, she's living there for shelter in a zombie apocalypse. Oh, and she sees dead people. She has moments of clarity, and the story often follows other characters' memories and POVs, so you still get to have a clear look into what happened and what's going on for real.

That was my list of my current top ten media recommendations for jirai kei! Please lmk if you decide to give any of these a try! Remember that I also regularly post music recs under #music too! Bye-bye!!

[undyinglantern]

haikyuu also emains the only series/franchise to rewire my brain hard enough that I’m willing to spend money on overpriced Official Merchandise

”idrc abt shipping” still generally true and I can engage with the story without it but there sure is something abt hq ships that does something to my brain too. Having finished the series now though, I can officially say I don’t see the appeal of either ‘main’ ship for the twins

[directdogman]

sorry!! one last q regarding fanmerch im just not super well versed in the Lingo. so companies like redbubble or companies that sell your product for you are off the table, what about manufacturers like stickermule or other manufacturers that youre involved with the design process?

I guess that'd depend on if the service just manufactures the stuff or sell it on a store they operate as a vendor.

For the record: I'm fine with anything that doesn't require you to say you legally own the characters or the intellectual property (for the previously mentioned reason.) If the service, say, allows you to print for personal use and then you sell off what you get, that's a-okay with me!

[evercelle]

Hello, I hope you're having an amazing day!

I wanted to ask how you plan out your merchandise designs and what you want to sell! Your shop always has so many products and they're all very unique! So I'm just curious if you have a certain way of planning out what to sell and all that stuff. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you have an amazing day!!!!

there isn't really a rational thought process to me designing stuff! it pretty much boils down to:

possessed by demons that wont leave me alone OR "i want _____ with blorbos on it and no one else is selling it for me to buy" (saiousai atm........ pain peko)

saw interesting materials that allows you to try something cool/is relevant to a character's theme or visuals (spinner -> aven's roulette!!, ripple acrylics -> water effects -> furina!!, partitioned quicksand -> would look neat in a symmetrical design... like a playing card... what about lyney and lynette!!)

i make fanmerch for fun, so it's gotta entertain me too lol. on a practical side, i would say the fact i have a boring full time job unrelated to selling at cons means i also have the motivation/luxury to make unique or obnoxious or hyper-specific items... like giant spinning charms or doujin or thermal mugs for a seven year old sleepy fandom. lol

[mcrswarmzine]

IMPORTANT PRODUCTION UPDATE

For the past few months, the team have been striking a careful balance between item quality, turnaround times and risk management. We want to maximize our donation to charity, while ensuring you get what you deserve – good, nutritious My Chemical Romance fanmerch & a fanzine that knocks your socks off.

While this delay isn't what we hoped for, being honest about our processes and capacity has always been one of our highest priorities. We hope this news isn't too disappointing, and we promise it will all be worth it. Nothing but the best.

If you have any questions not related to a particular order, our ask box is always open! 🪰 Otherwise, hit us up via email with questions or concerns.

[stychu-stych]

Hi, sorry if this is weird but I'm saw in your bio that your a tattoo artist but I found your account theough some cult of the lamb art (it looks cool af) and I've been planning to do illustration and animation at unj but I've also been considering a tattoo artist apprenticeship after i finish that msybe? could you possibly tell me what irs like as an apprentice and if you think I could do my courses at uni and then do an apprenticeship after? I've really been struggling considering my choices and if you had any advice or information about being a tattoo artist weather its on an apprenticeship or actually as a career I would really appreciate it if you had any information for me! I'm so sorry if this is weird and of course you dont have to tell me anything if you don't want to or am uncomfortable too but I'm really curious and with no other sources 😭 (also finding your account may just be like my idol and inspiration while I struggle through school and what I do in the future 😭❤️)

That took me a while to answer because I never feel experienced enough to advise people 😭 Or maybe I should say - I don't feel in a position to advise because, as I once said, I'm mostly a self-taught working at home studio (now almost in my own art workshop with my fiancée) and I don't have much experience working in typical tattoo studio and with other tattoo artists. But I'll try my best ✨

There're many differences between apprenticeship in different countries (and tattooing in general) for example - Poland has one of the lowest price list in Europe but still a lot of people can't afford tattoos. Or that in UK being a tattoo apprentice is a long process. I know for sure that a lot of tattoo artists I know struggle with number of clients compared to previous years. And it won't change for a long time for sure because of inflation. So if you want to start tattooing you need to know that you won't earn much money for a year at least (as I said- it might looks different in another countries)

Also as a tattoo artist (even as a apprentice) you still need to take care of your social media which sometimes can be exhausting and depressing. And I'm telling all of this because I know that you probably won't find this kind of information on other tattoo artists' profiles (unfortunately strategy "look how my life is perfect" works for social media and for getting clients)

But on the brighter side - being a tattoo apprentice isn't something you have to dedicate your whole life to it. Lot of people I know have a second job to be financially stable. I myself don't live only from tattooing - I also help my fiancée with our online store (with our fanmerch and original artworks) and go on conventions with our booth. So you always can do multiple things at once and if you'll decide that tattooing isn't for you - nothing is lost!

The best way to know more about tattoo apprenticeship in your area is to check some groups - for example on facebook- dedicated to learning tattooing

I know that this post is sooo long but believe me, I barely touched the topic. I could write an entire essay about that topic djdbdjdh

Have some wolf lady because I like adding pics to posts sjdbsjsb

[theartsharki]

Just want u to know I’d kill for It merch with ur art on it <3 I missed out on the heyday of the fandom and all the fun fanmerch :((

Oh yeah we were all bonkers with fan merch back then. Speaking of, I am currently in the process of having prints of my art set up. So if there are any pieces that you, or even others who see this are interested in having as a print let me know!!

Keep a keen eye out for it! Hopefully going to gave it ready this weekend.

Sharki art prints soon!!!

[bisonaari]

Hello friends!! Thank you so much to have answered the feeler survey about a potential Käärijä fanzine, and the overwhelming response was so positive that I can say that

I WILL DO MY BEST TO MAKE THIS FANZINE HAPPEN

Here, I said it hahaha

I’ll be honest, I don’t know anything on how to organize such a project. I’ve asked many of my coworkers who published zines or took part in zines, and I will be getting help for this. It will just take me a bit of time to gather all the necessary info to make it happen, so that all the guidelines are clear for everyone, and overall stress-free

Here are some points that I have already thought and decided, according to a lot of your answers

PRICE: The zine will be free and volunteer based only. No one will be financially compensated, not even me. Käärijä is a fellow artist, and I don’t want to steal any profit from him, as we would be making money on his image. If there is any money involved in the project and there are leftovers for an unknown reason, the leftovers will be either refunded or given to charity, with receipts.

COLLAGES: As for medias other than illustration, I’ll have to check laws on distributing/printing pictures, as photographers need to be compensated and/or be credited. So for now, I’d say collages and edits are on hold.

FANFIC: Some people have expressed their inconfort of having fanfiction in the zine. I do not want people to be uncomfortable, so they will not be allowed

COSPLAYS: For cosplays, as long as you��re the person in the picture and consent for your picture to be distributed in the zine, go wild!

NSFW: No nsfw. The line is going to be “if Kärtsäri is doing it on stage it’s fine”. 

POSTAL SHIPPING: The problem with printing the zine is that I live in Canada, where the shipping fees go from 2$ to 30$ in the blink of an eye, even for in-country shipping. I’ll have to inquire at the post office with a prototype to see what kind of fees there would be. If it is too expensive, only the people who have taken part in the zine will get a printed copy, it will be only distributed as a pdf to everyone else

FANMERCH: As the previous point, I’ll need to inquire for shipping pricing first. I tried to ship a necklace to a friend once and it cost me 20$, to give you an idea on how INSANE Canada shipping costs can be.

PRINTING: If the zine gets actually printed, people will only pay the exact amount of money for a copy and the shipping fee. I will provide receipts at every stage of the process, as one of my biggest pet peeves in life is the lack of transparency.

SMALL FEES: I don’t mind absorbing some of the cost if there is any, for example printing prototypes and that kind of stuff. So don’t worry about it, I have a full time job and I’ll be fine. Enjoy the project stress-free!

COMMUNICATION: When the project will officially be started, I’ll create a discord server dedicated to this. If you don’t have discord, I’ll also have an email adress for zine communication

SHIPPING TO KÄRTSÄRI: YES. At the very least I’ll do my absolute best to make it happen. I don’t know if his label can get mail to him or if we need someone to take it to him at a gig, but I’ll do my best, it would be too funny to not try and give him a copy

There we go!! Next update will be when I’ll have absorbed enough info on how to organize a zine and written guidelines.

If you have any suggestion or concern, you can always dm me here, I answer absolutely everyone! 

THANK YOU SO MUCH KÄÄRYLEET I LOVE YOU ALL

[420technoblazeit]

MAN i almost forgor abou this

so i work at a uhm. place where you personalize things, like mugs, shirts, keychains etc. and uh

like a month ago i was tasked with filling and sewing a cushion. when i finished properly sewing it i turned outside in to fill it and .

yeah. i stood there for a solid minute just. processing.

holy fuckign shit i thought this brand of fanmerch had gone extinct this is amazing. thank u for ur service o7

[kroosluvr]

DON'T APOLOGISE FOR LONG RESPONSE... it is joyous actually and it is so nice hearing about like your process in getting into them and stuff :D and okok i know you said show when it's finished but i haven't had an excuse to ramble about this to another big p5r fan (i don't really know any) so if it is okay i wanna share the wip :3? it's probably not enough yet to warrant much sharing (the blank spaces make it look kind of sad tbh) but it makes me happy so what's the harm

it's been on pause for a couple months because of money reasons but i'm getting back on it now! got some more badges on the way very soon, so far it's all fanmerch which i know some ita bag makers find less authentic but i dunno i love different art and stuff...

i've had trouble finding stuff because i don't live in the US and that's where most artists sell from (esp since most charms/badges i find online exclude sumi) but slowly but surely! i'm going to attach some lace to the outside of the window, i've managed to diy some ribbons from a skirt i got at a thrift store and i'm just waiting for a chance to stick those on!

sorry for.. ending up going on about my crafting plans i'm really passionate about this topic and haven't had much of an opportunity to talk about it :3 tysm for the interest & nice response it genuinely made my day

NOOO ITS COMPLETEL YFINE OMGGG THIS IS SO CUTE ;-; the bag is gorgeous and i LOVE all your pins and charms UUAGHHH ;o; <3333 i hope you can find more merch to add to it but this already is soooo cute THE ROYALTRIO EVERRRRRRR I FREAIGN LOVE THEM SO MUCH I FEEL INSANE. DIVES INTO UR BAG I LIVE HERE NOW

[hautecoldture]

HALLO, for anyone who likes the ColdFlash art I post here (thank you!!) - In the coming weeks I’m going to be doing a pass of art formatting so I can get more pieces up in the print-on-demand storefronts (and get some other merch made!). Are there any items/art pieces that aren’t available but folks are interested in? Please let me know!

Existing print-on-demand locations: (Redbubble link | Teepublic link)

Related: this also ties in with the responses to the fanmerch interest check from last year :D there’s fun progress I’m so excited to share more about soon (spoilers: the plush keychains are almost finished >:3 )

[sovonight]

hi sovo ;u; I hope it's okay if I ask you a shop question! So um, I'm lower on money than I've ever been and I'm too burnt out to do commissions for ppl due to personal stuff, but I feel like... if I made one charm or one sticker for a particularly huge fandom/movie that's out right now, and if I put it up as preorder and sold at least 20 keychains then I'd be able to pay my bills this month. but I've never sold physical merch before and I'm a little nervous to try it haha :'D

Would you recommend I try making an Etsy since it seems to have a large enough audience, or do you think I should try making my own website/shop? I'm definitely not ready to consistently sell things as a steady job yet, I thought I'd try literally just one single keychain or one sticker sheet (I already learned how to make those, thankfully) in order to pay my rent this month bc I've only got about a hundred dollars to my name sdflkfssdf;; and if it goes well then maybe I can try it again.

I'm also not quite sure how to price things? if I made a 3.5 inch acrylic charm with the little star shaped keychains like from Vograce, do people normally price those at $15 when they sell them? should I also account for shipping? I've also umm never shipped merch before and I'm so worried about somehow messing it up sldfjsf like I don't know what kind of envelopes I have to get or if I should even use my own address bc I'm so nervous about my personal info being out there, but I don't know if it's worth paying for a PO box if I'm so low on money already. if you have any tips on anything whatsoever, I would appreciate any feedback if you're not busy. But if you don't want to answer please don't worry about it ;u; anyway thank you so much for reading this I really appreciate you! ❤

no prob! here are my thoughts:

pros/cons of etsy:

apparently if you're new to selling on etsy, there's a probationary period where etsy withholds your profits for 3 months. i don't know anything about it personally since it started in 2020, but it seems that funds are only released when your shipped orders are scanned at the post office. i think i also remember hearing about other cases where payments aren't released at all for 3 months--and etsy customer service has a reputation of being difficult to get a hold of if you have a problem as a seller, so if etsy made a mistake with your shop, it may take even more months to resolve. since you have preorders in mind, i would hold off on etsy unless you can pay out of pocket.

etsy can drive traffic towards your listing for you (if you choose the right keywords--it's more difficult to be discovered just randomly if you don't).

they have high fees (for a $15 charm they'd take $1.88 in fees, which is 12.5%).

people may be cautious to buy from a shop that has no reviews yet, but many customers are protected by etsy's purchase protection and can be refunded at no cost to you if their order gets lost in the mail (provided that you ship with a tracking number and meet other criteria).

etsy will strongly recommend that you offer free shipping; ignore them. i don't think i've ever bought fanmerch with free shipping in my life, and their advice isn't geared towards sellers like us.

preorders don't work very well with etsy's system--iirc you're not supposed to do them (even though people still do, of course) but the main reason i remember is that the max processing time etsy lets you set per product (as in, the time between the customer purchasing the listing and you shipping it out) is 6 weeks. that means that the time you allow for customers to place their preorders, the time it takes for you to order and receive the merch, and the time it takes for you to ship out orders, all need to add up a max of 6 weeks, which was personally a difficult timeline for me to meet when making keychains. ofc, it's possible to extend the processing time, but going over the processing time may make it possible for customers to leave reviews/open cases early before you're even ready to ship out their orders, which could affect the reputation of your shop.

pros/cons of not etsy:

if you're not going with etsy, i've heard people recommend bigcartel, since it doesn't require a subscription like shopify or other places do. bigcartel's free plan is limited, but it should work for what you're looking for. another alternative might be ko-fi--i've heard that ko-fi shops aren't ideal for shipping out a large amount of orders, but since you're targeting just 20 i think it should be manageable.

ofc, you'll have to drive all your traffic yourself, so consider if you have enough of a following in your target fandom, or how you should go about getting your post noticed by your target fandom.

unlike etsy, shipping isn't auto-calculated, so i'd probably set a flat rate (in the US i'd expect $5). flat rates might make calculating your taxes just a little bit more complicated; in california at least, you have to pay taxes on the difference between the shipping you charge your customers and the shipping you actually pay to the post office, so iirc you either refund the extra shipping to the customer or hand it all over in taxes.

pricing:

yes, the standard price for ~3" acrylic keychains is $15, though i've also seen people go up to $16 or $17, especially on etsy where the fees are high.

shipping should be a separate cost, either auto-calculated for you (if you're on etsy/shopify) or a flat rate that you set based on shipping rates for your country, so in the end a customer might pay $15 + $5 = $20 in total.

unless most of your prospective customers are international, i'd recommend against shipping internationally to avoid dealing with customs forms, especially since you already have a lot of info to take in.

you can ship everything in a regular bubble mailer, though if you're just shipping stickers not keychains, a flat envelope should work fine. when shipping packages, you'll need to know the weight of each package, but you can just go by an estimate. a 3" acrylic keychain weighs about 1 oz (it weighs less than that, but they don't accept decimals) so i just multiply based on how many keychains are in an order. for usps at least, shipping is the same rate up until 10 oz iirc, so you don't need to weigh it super accurately. you could also always just go into the post office and have them weigh and label everything for you.

po box:

if regular PO box rates in your area are too high, you can also consider using a virtual po box; they go for about $10 per month at their most basic plans. if you're not expecting to get any mail redirected back to you, you should be able to just buy a month's subscription when you're ready to ship things out.

words of caution:

you probably already know this, but large fandoms can often be oversaturated by merch, so just choosing a large fandom might not be enough to guarantee a sale--you might have to stand out by, say, choosing a character who's in demand but doesn't have much fanmerch, having a funny meme concept, or having such a unique/attractive style that people can't help but want your fanmerch in particular. if you haven't already, i'd recommend looking around the market and seeing what's out there and decide why a buyer should choose your merch over anyone else's. though honestly, depending on your fandom, it could also not be this serious and not warrant much research--it all depends!

even if the preorder process works out and you get the funds to place the order, the manufacturer could always mess up on your order, which could lead to delays in your fulfillment and at worst, more expenses if you need to pay to get them remade. if it's easier to get sticker sheets made (like if you make them yourself/locally instead of ordering from overseas) they might be a safer choice of merch to make. ofc, i don't generally see sticker sheets up for preorder so you'd probably have to order them out of pocket and hope they sell, and you'll probably have to sell more of them than you would of keychains to get the same amount of profit. i don't know the whole situation, so i can't say anything definite about the risks/rewards between choosing to sell keychains and choosing to sell stickers.

[soumic]

4, 9, 21, 24!

So many of them wow thank you!

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw Ohhh my god idk if this counts but I love HANDS I think they're so sexy and I've dedicated SO much study to them, probably more than anything else. I'm always trying to hone in on a stylization and rhythm that feels good for them but I just asdkfjs aim high I guess so it never feels quiet where I want it to be. I know hands are infamously hard to get right so I try to cut myself some slack... one day I'll get there...!!

9. What are your file name conventions So, I'm pretty anal about my file organization, I go by folder moreso than file name, but usually I try to name an image with at least the name of the character and one other descriptor. But where I'm EVIL is that in my usual process every few days I make a new file called "doodles mm-dd-yyyy" and stick it in a big "doodles" folder. And I do all my warmups and ideating in there, and half the time I just finish a piece in it's entirety inside that doodle document??? Which is bad for resolution/aspect ration purposes, but what's the WORSE is that half the time I don't even crop and export the image?? Especially if it's just a sketch or a WIP. I just. take a screen grab of it so I can send it to my main discord server??? Like so many drawings of mine are only found in these tiny crunchy images hosted on discord which is soooooo diabolical I have to get better about it asdlkfjs

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways Ahh I always admire people who can do really tight/polished cell shaded styles with very clean lines, but I don't think it's something I'd love doing for myself. The type that you typically see in comics or like, fanmerch. I have a tendency to get veryyyy lost in the details and will spend way too long on lineart, and half the time I just turn my sketch into my lines anyway because I tend to overwork it lsdkfjs

24. Do your references include stock images Mmm it depends on what I'm looking for! I actually take a lot of my own ref images for poses cause often what I need is pretty specific sdlkfsj there's so many awkward and unflattering images of me in my camera roll because of it :P For bigger pieces for clients, espc when I'm doing design work, I often make reference boards with pureref and if I'm grabbing stock images that's where they'll go. Usually they're of specific lighting scenarios or refs for costumes or props! I like to have lots of refs together in those cases so that I'm getting more of an amalgamation instead of pulling from one specifically.

[the-home-of-innovation]

What's your process for making/designing merch, what goes into that, and what's your thought process?

1. Get huperfixated

2. Look for merch of hyperfixation

3. There is no merch that is affordable, that I like or there's no merch at all

4. Think about what type of fanmerch I'd personally buy if I saw someone else selling it

5. Wait until I get an idea and design it, run it by friends and social media

6. Make it and hold it in my hands

7. Decide whether to sell or scrap

Basically it's just making whatever I think is cool and if other people also like it I sell it, if not I have a thing for my own collection

[monk-of-figaro]

Fanmerch: おじゅ (Ohju/ouka)

Early in December 2023, one of my favorite artists posted that she was going to be selling a 2024 daily calendar for the 30th anniversary of Final Fantasy VI.

I was so excited for this that I immediately went through the processes of setting up a shipping account for purchasing items from Japan to be shipped to the US.

The calendar arrived last week and I'm ecstatic. For lots of reasons. I don't even know where to start.

First, let me say that this artist - whose handle is Ohju (おじゅ), and whose store name is Ouka (追歌) - is an absolutely delightful and generous person. It's because of her help that I was able to learn how to set up the process of shipping to the US. She's fielded some of my weird (but hopefully respectful) questions, and has overall just been extremely kind and patient when she didn't need to be. A very sincere and appreciative どうもありがとうございます to her. ❤️

Okay, the next amazing thing is that she sent me more than just the calendar. In fact, the package I received included the following items that I was not expecting:

3 postcards (one of which is a GORGEOUS illustration of Hydaelyn from FFXIV)

3 sheets of stickers

1 sheet of stamps

4 sheets of stationary

A mini zine she made named Relic Hearts that features illustrations of various FF6 accessories (this is akin to her amazing art depicting FF6 weapons for SWORDTEMBER 2020)

A handwritten envelope with a handwritten note inside it. HANDWRITTEN, people! That's a touch of love right there!

Here are some pictures of these delightful extras. The first picture is how everything was packaged when it arrived.

(I didn't realize until later that my dog can be seen in the picture below. Whoops! 😂)

Here are a couple of pages from the Relic Hearts zine:

To reiterate, these are all things that were sent in addition to the calendar, which I haven't even talked about yet. I was truly blown away and became giddy like a child, like they were a bunch of surprise birthday gifts. THANK YOU for all these extras, Ohju-san! 🤩

So - the calendar itself. The first part is a 36-page booklet that contains empty spaces labeled with a month and day. The second part is a small, prism-shaped desk display containing seven sets of peelable stickers. The stickers are similarly labeled with a month and day, and the idea is that each day you peel off the current day's sticker and put it in the matching space in the booklet.

Her illustration on this depicts the process much more clearly than my bumbling text.

The dates in the empty spaces in the booklet are sometimes sequential, but sometimes not, so you can't always predict how the stickers are going to line up.

Each page in the calendar also contains some reflections and thoughts from Ohju-san herself about FF6, detailing some of her own history with the game as well as some of her own headcanons.

The calendar doesn't "start" until April 1st, 2024, so for now I'm just holding onto everything. I'm honestly a little scared to even use it; everything is so beautiful that part of me wants to just preserve it in its packaging forever. But that's not what Ohju-san intended, so come April 1st, I'll peel my first sticker to put into the booklet, and will then have another 364 days to look forward to.

Finally, a few other artists also contributed pieces to the calendar. I haven't seen any of their pieces yet, but six pages of the calendar are dedicated for their stickers, so I know which dates will be theirs.

I'm intentionally limiting the pictures I post in order to respect Ohju-san and the other artists' work. But here are a few pictures of the calendar materials.

There's even a guide sheet for where everything goes, just in case you get lost (which I absolutely will).

Anyway, this is one of the most amazing collections of fan merchandise I've ever seen. I'm extremely grateful to Ohju-san, and I can't wait to start using this calendar.

Please check out all her other artwork. Honestly, everything is stunning. She can be found:

https://narche.tumblr.com/

https://twitter.com/ojup

Once again, どうもありがとうございます, おじゅさん (@narche)! ❤️