Haru Delay and Some Long-Term Consequences

Hey friends,

Those of you who have been with us for a while know full well that we like nothing more than missing deadlines and then crunching hard to fix them. So is it any wonder that, after all the hard efforts we spend over the last two months to move to a new streamlined schedule, we fail to meet the very first release window? If any of you had any bets going about it, now's the time to cash in!

In all honesty, we didn't consider how much effort it would take Elena to cut three guest models in September on top of sculpting her own model. And so, after a number of back-and-forth review cycles, with much reluctance, we have made a decision to delay the release of Haru for a week. Simply put, we knew we could do better, but we needed more time. And I'm sure those of you waiting for the Dorohedoro model will agree on this decision.

However, this has obviously put a dent in our precious new release schedule, as Elena will have less time to work on her next model, Kumoko Arachne, which is not the easiest character to sculpt either. Therefore, I have made a decision to push the release of that project all the way to the end of November. As to what happens afterwards...

If you are one of our long-term subscribers, you probably know that we originally started this Patreon as a team of two, Elena and myself. For the first year we had been working very hard, sometimes going months without any days off, to make this business sustainable. It wouldn't be an understatement to say we've put our heart and soul to get where we are now (which is still not exactly sky high, let's be honest). Last December, Elena gave birth to a baby daughter and have been trying to balance work and parenting ever since, which gets increasingly more difficult every month. Here, let me share a pic we made in January!

Luckily, we have a bigger team now to make sure we don't fall too far behind, but it's still a tough challenge to keep this going for as long as she has. At this point, I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. And your suspicions are correct, we have decided to let Elena step off from the position of one of our main sculptors and adopt a simpler role instead. Starting December, she will be tasked with cutting all our models as well as helping me with some administrative tasks (and trust me, I can always use some help with those), leaving Milana and Victoria as our main sculptors. Hopefully, this new assignment will give her more free time to rest and study, so that she could one day return to the grind fully refreshed and with some new fancy skills.

And thus, Kumoko Arachne will become the last project for Elena in the foreseeable future. I am confident she'll put her best effort into it as a parting gift to all her fans!

You may be wondering who is going to replace Elena as the third artist. For the moment, we are not planning to hire anyone else. To tell you the truth, we have our sights set on someone in particular, hoping they will join us one day (wink-wink if you read this), but we won't force them against their will. Still, we'll keep the seat warm for as long as we can. For the time being, however, we would like to use this sudden opportunity to continue inviting guest artists each month to sculpt figures for our subscribers. I have a number of new offers since our recent row of guest releases and I would love to give a chance to all those amazing artists who are willing to work with us! As a matter of fact, I have closed a deal with one such artist just today, so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement of our November figures later this month!

Cheers!
Des