October has flown by, and our commemorative stationery set is nearly complete.

Recently, (Iwasawa, Morikko, Annen) visited a tin can-making factory.

We had the rare opportunity to witness the exact moment the tin cans were being made, making it a valuable experience for all of us. Everyone’s eyes sparkled with excitement!

Watching the tin cans go through various machines, and finally being finished with careful handcrafting, was truly moving.

We’ll be sharing details from the factory tour soon. Stay tuned!

We have finished submitting all the stationery designs and since then, we've been checking proofs and samples as they come in.

The other day, we were discussing the designs and texts of the item shown in the photo.

Can you tell what this is? This is actually the packing material to prevent the stationery from moving around in the tin during shipping.

We wanted the packing material to not only protect the stationery but to be fun in itself. We hope you look forward to it!

In today’s meeting, we checked a proof sheet of a certain stationery item. The revisions we requested to the production company during the first proofing have been reflected, and it’s looking quite polished. One more step to go!

Let me share a tiny bit of the design with you. Can you get what it is?

Samples of stationery to be included in the set are coming in one by one, and little by little, the shape of the stationery set is beginning to take form these days.

However! We had a hard time finalizing the design for the final item and we’ve been struggling with it...

After a long meeting with (Annen) and (Morikko), we went to ask (Asako) who was working ahead of us with a fuzzy, overheated head. (Hoshino), (Shiori), and (Tomita) also came to join us to decide on the design.

We asked for advice from other people too, and finally made a decision based on those opinions! We finalized the coloring with lots of PANTONE color samples on hand and we were able to submit the data! We're all relieved that all the items have been submitted for now.

When we were deciding on the design of the final item to add to the tin box and were a bit stuck, (Susan) came to save us.

She left the words "Believe in yourself!" which we were all thankful for.

Isn't it so hot every day? I feel like giving myself a pat on the back by just arriving at the office these days.

The photos are from the meeting we had the other day. We're now finally at the point of deciding on names, so we each came up with a few and shared them in this meeting. Because we're creating a set, there are lots of items we need to choose a name for.

There were a few crazy ideas that made me laugh, but I think we're close to finalizing the names! I feel more attached to the items now that they're named.

Tools & Toys Report is a series of articles where we introduce stationery in a fun way. I work on these articles with (Iwasawa) and (Morikko), and we're currently preparing for a new article to be uploaded around Late August.

We cut colored paper and layered them during the shoot the other day. I'm sure the page will look cute with a handmade touch.

The Tools & Toys characters Tools, And, Toys also made an appearance. (They are our small friends who are shorter than 4cm)

You can read the past articles here, so if you're interested, I hope you check it out.

With illustrations being sent in from the illustrator and deadlines for submitting the design fast approaching, we've been meeting up more often than our weekly meetings to discuss various things.

Today, we received a first sample of one of the stationery items (it's the one we sent the colored parts the other day), so we went to the studio where (Annen) is currently shooting photos for the product detail pages to check the color and how the printing turned out.

We checked it out carefully, and even went closer to the window to see how it looks under sunlight as well.

It looked so great that we went to show (Susan) how it turned out.

I really hope everyone will love it too!

We're sorry for not being able to update this page recently! We hit the slightly busier phase of finalizing designs and features of some of the stationery we plan to include in this set.

While we weren't able to report back on what we were doing, we are moving forward steadily so do not worry!

The other day we went to find plastic color parts we plan to use for one of the products, and on another day we created clay models so that we can imagine what the final product would look like even more clearly.

We are going to be sharing these designs with the manufacturing company so that they can create samples for us.

The first sample is planned to come up soon. We're nervous and excited for it!

The day before yesterday, the three of us (Iwasawa, Morikko, Annen) went out together.

We received rough designs for the tin can and stamp of the stationery set from illustrator Zuck and we visited them to talk about it.

They showed us several ideas, but they were all so cute!! I hope you look forward to it.

The photos show the stationery we bought on the way back from the meeting.

As we create original commemorative stationery, we become more and more interested in all the wonderful stationery in the world, and get drawn into the deep world of stationery.

We hope to create stationery that everyone will enjoy, too!