Hi All,

Well I had a tres interesting day yesterday. Took a day off work to go and visit a factory... I know thats what I will be doing for the next 4 weeks at work which makes me a complete saddo to do it also on my day off... but this was for the fairyflips project (www.fairyflips.com!!). So we went to a place called Jiangmen which is about 3 hours away by ferry from Hk and was utterly gorgeous, so very green with big mountains and quirky traditional buildings.
So the fty we went to visit was for the production of the plastic collectable coins or 'flips' similar to poker chips. The plant itself was pretty small but the machines were HUGE. 1st of all they have to make the mould for the plastic from steel which they engrave. Then the plastic is melted down and fed into the machine which then injects it into the mould and then its instantly cooled and popped out the other end.
Each batch then went to assembly to be checked and the stickers placed on each side. I cannot describe just how very strange it was to see something I designed being produced and assembled in a Chinese factory!!

There is going to be a promotional run of the cards and flips being released with a BBC magazine called Girltalk in a couple of months so we are hoping this will provide some e-commerce (&cash!). I never really thought that when i completed the project it would get as far as it has, and I have the upmost respect for Nick who on the back of his daughters suggestion, with no previous experience in launching a new toy product, has put a team together and has product to sell!!!

In the pic with me above is NIck who owns the company, Mike the chinese factory mgr, and Robert who runs the factory (British guy who has been here 17yrs and speaks fluent Cantonese! it can be done!).

Going to photoshop my fingers to the bone today on some new sketches (btw in a freak turn of events I got up this morning at 7am and went for a swim.. on a saturday!!)

Much love (plus extra)
Txx