After being out of stock for over 1 year, our beloved Picklestones are back! If you're curious, here's the back-story:
The original designer of the Picklestone, Tomonori Tanaka, had outsourced the sales of his designs to a Japanese company. We'll just call them Company X. Initially, everything was going smoothly. But in late May of 2018 we received an email from the CEO of Company X, notifying us that the company had gone bankrupt and, effective immediately, 100% of their staff had been laid off.
Details surrounding the unexpected severance remained a mystery. We had no choice but to discontinue the Picklestone. But the real tragedy was for the designer, who had entrusted all rights to Company X. However, he was determined not to let this be the end of his gorgeous product. He spent countless hours ad much of his own yen working through the Japanese court systems and finally managed to win back all the rights associated with his Picklestone.
He then began working once again with his craftsmen to re-start production. The fact that we're now once again able to carry the Picklestone is a testament to the designer's determination and perseverance.