Bumps in the road. We've learned a lot about plates and the china industry during the production of Calamityware plates 1 thru 4. Things go wrong. There are too many problems to list here but, if you have been following us, you probably know what some of the problems were. In the darkest period, we learned that no one wants to wait six months to receive a plate. In turn, we discovered that when our customers aren't happy, we aren't happy.

We don't ever want any of that to happen again. When you pledge your hard-earned money to Calamityware plate 5, we want you to know exactly what you are getting as a reward. So we are taking it slow and trying to squash some calamities upfront.

The first step we took was to find a new production shop—one that will communicate with us and tell us the truth—even if it’s bad news. And we think we found a winner. More about these porcelain wizards in a future update, but we think you are going to be thrilled with the slight upgrade in quality without the need to charge you more.

Plate 5 is currently in the proofing stage. The design is complete. Now, we are concentrating on getting the blue of the vitreous-ink transfer to match. This is a big deal because we want this series to look right when these new plates are on the table next to the plates from the first series. They may never match exactly, but we'll do our best.

We’re shooting for a March 1 launch of the Calamityware plate 5 Kickstarter project. Our original plan was to start the project in January. But, because this initial proofing stage is so crucial, we decided to wait until we had a plate in hand that we loved. Once we are satisfied, we will start the Kickstarter project for Plate 5 with the knowledge that one of the biggest, scariest hurdles is out of the way. Maybe this will also help us more accurately predict when you will receive your rewards.

And the good news is that, once the color proofing is done, we won't have to do it again for upcoming plates. We are confident that we will be able to deliver plates 5, 6, 7 and 8 in 2015.