Picking out merchandise for significant others, friends, family, and anyone else can be stressful! To make things a little easier for you, we've created this guide for who might enjoy a select handful of our items.
Before we get into that, here are a few more reasons to support Dual Wield Studio:
- From January 1st, 2019, we have paid out over $16,000 to artists we partner with to create merchandise.
- We work with a huge network of artists of all ages, and provide legal contracts that are easy to read, easy to navigate, and benefit the artist as much as possible.
- We have hosted a total of 14 events over the last 11 months, from artist and creator dinners to workshop how to be effective at running your small business, to group dinners, to art shows, providing spaces for artists to showcase the incredible works they create.
- We've helped over a dozen artists, small businesses, non-profits, and creators develop, manufacture and import their merchandise.
When we say every purchase helps us keep the lights on and allows us to continue what we're doing, that's what we mean! Dual Wield Studio is self-funded, and we pour a large amount of our sales and profit back into the community around us.
So, what to buy? Let's start with:
Licensed, official merchandise produced with Tamora Pierce. We work hand in hand with the Tamora Pierce team and artists/creators who are fans of her works to create unique items meant for fans new and old. A percentage of each sale goes directly back to Tammy meaning when you purchase official goods for a writer, game, or show, they see a part of those profits.
Jump's Armory was created by Kendra Wells in collaboration with Tamora Pierce. This image was sent out on postcards and is also available as a super soft shirt. If you're shopping for someone who is a fan of Tamora Pierce's Tortall universe, this comes from the Protector of the Small series.
Tamora Pierce: Silver Badger Claw Necklace was developed with an independent artist who sustainably acquired a real badger claw and then created a model to cast these. Each one is hand created, oxidized, and assembled by Hilary Kamien. This item is great for fans of Wild Magic, which our next piece of art is from.
Kelsey Eng - Wild Magic: Daine is a framed, large print illustrated by the wildly talented Kelsey Eng, a fan of Tamora's works. This product (and others) was part of our Pop Up over PAX weekend, featuring 10+ artists for over a month. This item is great for those who are fans of Wild Magic, and especially those who grew up having the books with the illustrated covers.
Dual Wield Studio x Jayd Aït-Kaci: Zodiac Pin Collection is a love letter to different zodiac/astrology signs created by the wildly talented Jayd. We developed these products for over eight months with her, before launching a successful Kickstarter to bring them to you! Fans of astrology, enamel pins or just great art would appreciate these. Check out the background on this project and what these signs mean here. For more Zodiac inspired goods created by independent artists, check out the whole Zodiac Collection.
Developed with Jewels Lei, a designer out of New York, we created this Moon Itabag (and Sun!) to hold and protect all of your fancy enamel pins. It features removable inserts so you can make the bag your own by adding one of our fitted designs to personalize your bag even further. Shopping for someone who has a big collection of pins and nowhere to store them? This is the perfect solution!
Last but certainly not least, we have our Spotlight Collection. Often, we're not able to work with every single person who we would like to. The Spotlight Collection was our way to solve it. We reach out to independent creators and purchase small amounts of the incredible items they're working on to stock in our storefront. From guides on the finer points of enamel pin creation like Hannako Lambert's Pin Hell to Sam Maggs' book GIRL SQUADS, featuring 20 profiles of incredible women through history, we have a variety of talented creators we're lucky enough to work with.
We hope you take a look through everything in our storefront and love what you see as much as we loved sourcing, purchasing, or making it!