Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Sumo Cat Pins and Menko - Autographed by the artist!


 A month or so ago, Lynn Chang reached out to me with an awesome idea that she needed some help on.  Since I am definitely not a creative nor crafty person, I was more than happy to help since I admire people who are and can turn ideas into reality.  Lynn's idea is to create sumo pins (see above) with the packaging for the pins as menko (see below).  I threw around some ideas, she threw some back and she is now live with her Indiegogo Campaign to raise the initial funds for production.  Click here to check it out.  The artwork for the menko is all handrawn and each menko will be die-cut.  Even better, all the pins/menko sold during the campaign will have special, gold-signed menko by none other than Lynn herself.  All pins/menko sold after the campaign will be black-inked signed menko.


Right now there are 3 pins/menko with future ones arriving later.  The current checklist is:

YokoNekoZuna FutabaNyaMa
YokoNekoZuna TaiKawaiHo
YokoNekoZuna ChiyoNyaFuji

For those that understand Japanese, you'll get the cute cat references.  Looking at the drawings of each sumo cat, Lynn has definite talent.  She incorporated some traditional menko design features on the back of her menko such as rank, shikona, and rock-scissors-paper symbol (in the shape of a cat's paw).  Her pins are hand-designed pieces of art and done in enamel.  Lynn really created the whole package here.

Raz over at the Raz Card Blog pointed me to Art-O-Mat machines last year and I have been hooked on this type of art ever since.  It is fun, unique, and high quality.

I hope you'll take a look and consider buying 1 or more of the pins/menko from Lynn so we can get more of them in the future!

12 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for your support, guidance and contribution Ryan! Meows! Lynn

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    1. Good luck Lynn! Looks like you are 2/3 of the way there!

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    2. Thank you Ryan! Now at 86% It went faster than I thought - thanks to you!

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    3. Hi Lynn. I have a long overdue post on the pins coming up. Great working with you on the project.

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  2. You've supported and donated some very cool items to my collection over the past few years. Thank you so much for that! Least I could do was help support your friend's project. These pins are cool... but the packaging is even cooler.

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  3. Thanks Fuji! I am looking forward to the pins/menko as well!

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  4. Those are extremely cute and its a great idea to make menko backboards for them!

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    1. Lynn definitely had a great idea for sure. It looks like she is well on her way to her goal to start production and at almost 75% as I write this.

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  5. Thank you for supporting my insanity. Yes - the cards make it. It was really important for me to make the concept "make sense" not just be funny or cute - but have some additional meaning. So it was serendipitous I found Ryan and that he has been so supportive and open to lending his insight and time! The sets are going to the manufacturer mid next week (I still have a little production work to do.)

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    1. No problem Lynn. Good luck on everything and I am looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.

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  6. Sounds like Lynn is getting ready to send these out! Excited to see them.

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