First and foremost, I wish to thank EVERYONE whom has contributed to the production of this piece on the left. All funds collected AND the sales revenue will go towards production of this piece and a few other I will mention later.
We started out the year thinking that it was going to be another COVID year just like last year. Grant it, I will not get too political when I say this but it must be said. Our last administration did not have a plan for vaccinations and/or to get things back to normal. This was something that needed to be considered and although we did OKAY last year, we were definitely going to be affect THIS year if nothing changed. Having said this, I assumed that things would be slow and non-productive if we are offering things that nobody is interested in.
These new items were something that were on the agenda of things to do and I had patiently waited all through last year and I just wasn't able to bring it forward. I contemplated many ways to do this and I decided to go at it by doing a crowd-funding campaign or by simply asking the followers to contribute in helping me bring this back. If anything, I would create just enough to meet the demand by those who contributed and a little extra to see how it would do amongst the Satanic community. Under normal circumstances in a typical average year, I would be able to afford the risk. I would have just brought this on and see what would happen to it. If not enough people were ever interested in it, I would eventually phase it out by never reproducing it again. However, this was something I could not risk and I really wanted to bring this out because it was just so damn sharp! I mean, look at the colors pop on it! It is sharp, crisp, clean edges and all Stainless Steel, SURGICAL grade, that is. I just could not see this project never reach a debut. So here we are now, the piece is finally in production. BUT HOLD UP! I have some news to announce. You see, this pic here is a prototype. It is the prototype that is produced and the one that I make decisions on if anything else needs to be added, removed, or changed.
Now that the prototype arrived, there WAS one underlying change that needed to change. It is NOT visible in the pic but it's there. It bothered me a bit. I had placed an production order anyway because I thought it was no big deal, I mean, if you can't see it, what's the fuss, right? WRONG! This is Sigil of Baphomet Satanic Jewelry and I am known for attention to detail when it comes to a product like this. In jewelry, its ALL ABOUT the details no matter what it's made of. Therefore, I had to make a change. I called upon the manufacturing agents to have a meeting of the minds. I shared my concern and it took about a week to finally concluded the hard decisions needed to be made. I decided to take it back to the drawing board and make things right again!
Yes, my friends, I pulled a Steve Jobs moment. I want perfection. Go big or go home! That's what its all about. There is alot riding on this and those who already contributed, done so with full-on trust in my delivery to make it amazing! Now the news needs to drop if you are not picking up what I am putting down. Chaos Star is back to square one...sorta. The decision was made a couple weeks ago so things are already underway. I am not sure how long the delay will be now that we are essentially starting over. You see, in the past blogs and social media posts, I have mentioned that these things take a long time to make. I had thought we were now on HOME STRETCH to launch this early in the year. I am still hopeful that the delay will not be too bad but it still sucks to have to mention this to you all publicly. I hope you can understand that these things demand that they be done right and at times, we gotta start over a little bit. The change was in the bail part that is hidden behind the pendant. That is the part where the chain runs through it. I needed to be able to fit thicker size chains that I am now currently stocking. The fitting was a bit small and I couldn't get a chain to go through it. There was alot of back and forth between me and the agents but in the end, the CEO is always right. I know that you will appreciate the subtle changes because if I don't perfect this, the competition will. SO then there is that, as a side note. Never leave room for any up and coming competitor to out-do you. Not that this was a huge deal but I mean, YOU the customer will want something that works long term. The change needed to be done and so it is done! Oh yeah, I just want to say that I also asked that they make it BIGGER! So then there's that too. And now you know why we are starting over.
Then there is this awesome Seal of Lucifer Victorian pendant. Man, I thought the last one was fairly nice but this color combination that I am experimenting with lately, the black and red combination is popping!
This piece is due in May and there is NO delays for this. I don't know where to begin with this one. I was quite shocked how great it looked as a prototype. I didn't even bother to make further changes. The factory nailed it on the first attempt.
As of right now, I only ordered the factory to produce 100 Chaos Star and 100 Seal of Lucifer Victorian pendants. Now let me tell you, when these arrive, depending on demand AFTER they are physically readily available, if the demand is slow, I will not make these going forward. It is still a slow year and we think things can still slow down or worse, experience another lock down. The last thing every major business out there thinks about is stocking up on stuff they cannot sell. That is why productions are very minimal. I will be honest and say that we produce our jewelry by the hundreds, if not, thousands. So to make only 100 pieces, is saying alot! We cannot afford to get struck down by a bad economy and you can clearly see these types of stories everywhere in the media. Although not all businesses mention it, we are all affected by Covid 19.
Next is the Baphomet Crochet Dolls. APRIL 15th is the CUT-OFF. I am not going to take any PRE-ORDERS after that. Those whom placed an order before that date, will have there's ready, hopefully by May. Right now, it takes 1 day to make 1 doll. I personally have the doll maker produce a couple dozen. I support her craft and she is in Brazil. She is one of the main Master Crochet makers that does this for a living full time. She comes though for me each and every time. Which again, is saying ALOT. I have tried working with many artists but alot of the artists I have come across are not as dedicated to their craft. For the fact that I know people love these dolls as PLUSH dolls (like the ones I produce) and the CROCHET version like these that are produced in Brazil, I could not get a crochet doll maker to make these in the U.S. It only made sense that I sought someone outside the U.S. and found someone that is truly dedicated to doing this. These baphomet dolls are NOT the only thing she can produce in crochet. Her work is amazing and I am proud to have her craft be a service that is available for us on our site.
New Ideas
In March, I shared an idea that I am looking into bringing candles to the site. I once owned what you would call today a "goth" shop. You know the type, those cool mom and pop shops that have the goth culture stuff. These days, places like those are pretty common in most major cities. Well, back then, I once stocked things like candles and incense. The candles were a huge hit. They were hand made in the U.S. and I was supporting a small business that is still currently running and it is much larger than ever before these days. They had candles that would burn their color all the way through, which was EXTREMELY rare back then. Black candles were notorious for being black on the outside but white on the inside. It was though they were dipped in black dye or something. It was the sign of the times. Nobody had ever produced a true black candle or for that matter, ANY colored candle that was true to its color. No make things even better, the company that produced these candles had a very strong scented brand of candles. I mean, I have candles from nearly 20 years ago and I can tell you right now that they smell as strong as the day I got them! This is even before I can open the box to show you the candles I have left over from back then. Now, don't get me wrong, these candles are not sellable anymore. They may smell strong after all this time but I doubt they would be as good as a new one after this amount of time. The point is, I was thinking of adding candles to the site.
As of lately, I have done alot of brainstorming. I added stickers in March, mainly started with the logo stickers so that I can give them out with orders occasionally. The candles would also be a new idea if I bring them in and I always wanted some feedback on this. Candles are not all the rave they once were about 10 years ago. This time around, since I am mainly an online company, I felt that I would try something fun with this and do a subscription. This way, you can get a new scent sent to you monthly. Maybe the option to purchase more if you liked the scent would be an option too. What do you guys think? As for stickers, well, we started with logos but I learned that finding a Graphic Designer is hard to come by. So perhaps the stickers will not go far and I will only make a few occasionally to accompany some orders on occasion. If you already gotten some, let me know what you think of them.
Other ideas I pondered is to expand the variety of versions I have with the pendants I have. The Sigil of Baphomet, classic black is always in favor with everyone. Then there's always a few people that want to buy a different color for different kinds of clothes they might wear. Perhaps they also just have a preference of color aside from Black. Well, the Sigil of baphomet has been the ONLY one that has really been reproduced in a few colors and I am not considering making other colors for other Sigils. Such as Seal of Lucifer and Brimstone.
I know most people love the classic Black. They have even been knocked-off on Amazon but you will never see them knock off COLORS. That's because the colors added to mine are a method that is far more expensive to produce and although manufacturers loved knocking me off in China, they will not go through the expense of doing colors. They typically only stick to black plating. Plating is such a cheap method of producing jewelry. Its a good option if the only options are Silver (plain), Black, or Gold (plated). That is as much as you can expect from them. Then there's OUR brand. Done differently and it carries a more detailed process. SO what are your thoughts on colors for Seal of Lucifer and Brimstone? These mentioned are just examples of what I considered. There are many more but that will get shared at a later time.
Well, like all blogs, I can go on forever. I just reviewed the length this and seems rather long already. I believe people begin to drop out after a while. What do you guys think of all this? I know its alot and I can literally write a book on this stuff but I will end it there. I wanted to take the time to update the Chaos Star situation. I will make references to this blog on social media to explain the situation. Otherwise, it's crazy to be repetitive on social media. I will make more blogs as I need to cover other areas in the jewelry related topics.
Thank you all for the ongoing support, as always and keep on HAILIN' SATAN!
Xerxes
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