A desk sculpture that merges science & art into one solid piece made of molten metal.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hello! We are finally back with excellent news! After months of struggling, we are finally getting great quality black Oxide Oloids, they are absolutely beautiful, and we will be able to resume shipping next week! Here are some pictures:
The Cobalt Blue Oloids started shipping last Friday.
It took a longer time for us to be able to send them because of some more production issues. Our factory is supposed to apply a heat treatment to the parts before the bluing process, and even with this treatment, the parts were coming out with many spots and inconsistencies.
We made many tests back and forth and nothing was working until we realized the Oloid factory was not applying as much heat as it was needed in the treatment. We had to go there and stay to see the whole process and make sure they would do it right, and after that, the blue pieces started coming out great.
This took weeks to be solved because the factory and the bluing workshop are in different towns, so every time there was an issue, we had to go from one place to the other to correct. We were definitely not expecting this delay, as the samples we previously made were perfect. Unfortunately, the factory changed things without thinking this could cause a problem, and it took some time for us to figure out this was the reason for everything.
Last week we finally received a small batch of good Cobalt Blue Oloids and we are expecting to receive more this week to be able to continue shipping.
** Since we have not sent out so many of them and the Black Oloid issue is now solved, if anyone who asked to switch from Black to Blue to get it quicker now decides to go back to the Black, just let us know and we can still make the change to your order. But please do it as soon as possible, otherwise it might be too late!
So we now are on the final stretch to fulfill all Oloid orders, we are excited about finally completing this project :) It has been quite a challenge but an amazing experience overall, and we want to thank each of you for being part of this journey.
We have many exciting plans for the future! We are working on a collaboration with the guys from the Sphericon project, which is currently live on Kickstarter and only with 48 hours left to their campaign! So stay tuned for many great things to come! Thank you so much for your support!
Hello everyone!
Here is a new update on shipping status for all the remaining orders. If you haven't received your Oloid make sure to read through, also, if your order includes a Black Oloid, stick to the end for a cool offer you might like.
Where do we stand?
We've made great progress over the past couple of weeks, and we are almost done with shipping. We have still had to face many setbacks with the postal system. We figured out a way to improve the process as much as possible but there are still things that have been out of our control.
By the end of this week, we will have shipped up to backer number 2690, and next week we will finish shipping all orders except for the ones containing either Black Oxide Oloids, Custom Stands or All Metal/Elemental Collections.
Custom Stands
We contacted everyone regarding their custom stand to get your own specifications. Each stand requieres a fair bit of manual work since they are all different, but we are already working on them and we will be shipping them out as they are ready. We will keep you posted regarding delivery time.
If you ordered and custom stand and have not responded to our email, please do it as soon as possible so your shipment is not held.
All Metal/Elemental Collections
There are two components affecting these orders. First, the custom stands are taking a little longer to manufacture because they are mostly hand made and include a special custom engraving. We are waiting to receive them and should be ready in the next two weeks. Second, these orders include a Black Oxide Oloid so they are also affected by the next issue (although, we might have a solution already).
Black Oxide Oloids
Most of you are aware of the problems we've had with the black polished finish, but here is a quick summary: Black Oxide is an electro-chemical process, it's mostly used in the industry, so we've struggled to find a supplier that takes care of aesthetics as much as we want. We previously worked with a small workshop that took enough care to get us good parts, but only for Brushed finish, as the Polished one requires even more care.
The quality of their work has been declining though, with the number of reject parts increasing for each order. On our last order, we had to reject pretty much every single one.
We are looking for alternatives because working with this supplier is no longer viable. We have only been able to ship the first 108 black oxide orders so far.
We found an amazing supplier who gave us two beautiful samples for the black polished Oloid. It is perfect! However, in the end he was not interested in working with us because he is more of an artesian, and this large production is quite complicated for him to handle. We have been talking to him for weeks offering to help in any way we can, but we haven't been successful, he won't even give us a quote.
So, as we stand, we are still looking for a supplier for both Brushed and Polished Black Oxide Oloids.
Now, here are the good news.
In our search, we found a new process called -cold blackening- The finish and durability are comparable to black oxide, but the results should be more consistent. We are waiting for samples to arrive later this week. This process works with brushed and polished pieces, so it might very well be the solution!
Now, here is the offer we talked about. We stumbled upon a supplier that specialized in heat treating, and even though they can't help us with the black, they offer a cool finish you might like: Cobalt Blue!
You guys asked for this color when we ran the campaign and we were not able to find anyone to make it then, so we are excited to have finally figured this out!
And here is our idea, anyone who would like to change their Black Oxide Oloid, either brushed of polished, to a Cobalt Blue Oloid, can do it right now at no extra cost :) We plan to offer this finish in the future but for now we need to focus on fulfilling the Kickstarter orders. So if this is something you would want to have, here is a chance! Just send us a private message saying you want to switch your black Oloid for Cobalt Blue and we will take care of it.
Just a note, the Cobalt Blue Oloids will only available in polished finish.
Well, there you have it, these are the issues we have been facing and how we have been tackling them. We are in the final stretch and we hope we can ship every single order in the next month.
Thank you for your patience and support!
P.S. There is currently a Kickstarter campaign for The Sphericon, a shape related to the Oloid that has many of the same cool properties! I was contacted by the creator a few weeks ago and gave him some tips on manufacturing and fulfillment, and DEFINITELY to look for a different shipping method! Anyway, he already reached his goal and the campaign looks pretty cool, here is a link in case you want to check it out: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1715054079/the-sphericon-geometric-perfection-becomes-art?ref=9wcuhm
Hello, here is some more info on our shipping progress. We haven’t been able to send Oloids at the rate we were hoping. As we mentioned in our previous updates, we were just learning the process with a new shipping method we weren’t familiar with, and boy has it taken a lot of trial and error to get right.
Here is the thing. The Mexican postal service is not bad, it is pretty reliable and we have not really had issues with the packages we’ve shipped so far. The actual problem is their systems are somewhat rudimentary and not optimized to process bulk shipments like ours. There aren’t many post offices around, and they are pretty small and have some rules that make sense if you are shipping one or two packages at a time, but not over 100!
The process is totally manual, there is no system to create labels digitally and to pay online. They don’t even accept credit card payments! On top of that, they require us to bring all of the packages open to the office so they can review them, one by one, to ensure we’re not sending any forbidden items. At the beginning they were also making us fill in the customs declarations by hand, and wouldn’t let us bring them already printed out! And just like the things we just mentioned, there have been a couple more rules and crazy restrictions that have made this whole process a real headache.
We’ve been shipping some orders but we’ve also spent a lot of time running around trying to talk to the right people to see if they can help us automate the process a little to make it smoother for everyone. And we’ve made some good progress; we’ve already devised a way to work with the post office staff and make the whole thing more efficient. They’ve been great to us and really supportive. It is still kind of complicated, but manageable. So now we can say we are finally ready to ramp up the process.
We also had some setbacks with the first batch of black brushed Oloids. As we have mentioned before, we have to take those to a separate facility to turn the steel black. We had made several tests before but when took the first large order of Oloids, they did not come back as expected. The finish was good, but the workers were not careful enough to handle so many units at once, and they came back with many scratches and dents. We were furious! We talked to them and explained how important it was for the units to be perfectly smooth and they promised to fix them.
We received a new batch last week and the problem has been corrected 100%. However, this forced us to hold some of the orders that included black Oloids. We sent some of them on Friday and we will continue to ship them out this week to get back on track with the shipping order.
We are now around backer number 410, but this number is tricky since some orders had to be held back. Starting this week, we will begin shipping 300 orders per week. 150 will be dropped on Wednesdays and 150 on Fridays. Tracking numbers will be emailed on Saturdays. And no orders will be held from now on, except for the Black polished Oloids (we are still working on solving that issue).
About tracking, the system is not super informative, but it is working just fine. As soon as you receive your number you will be able to track it through the Mexpost site. It will let you know when it has been processed, when it has been shipped to your country, and when it arrives. After it arrives to the country it will continue to update; however, we recommend that from that moment you track it on your own country’s postal service, since it is likely to give you much more detailed information on the status of your package. But you need to wait until it arrives to your country, otherwise your postal system won’t find it.
We’ve been very busy with this whole thing, there aren’t really many of us to do a lot of things at once. But we’re getting there and as we keep saying, we are learning so much, and next time we do this it will be a breeze for sure!
Hopefully with this update you’ll all get a better idea on when to expect your packages. If you still have questions, please message us.
Thanks!
-Pat & Team