A quiet craft for a loud one. Artist-led editions printed on the things people already touch.
Most "artist" pads are just stickers on someone else's stock. The three things that actually touch your palm — cloth, base, grip film — we make ourselves.
Spec autonomy, end to end. We write the cloth weave, the PU pour and durometer, the grip-film tolerance — and then test each against the surface it's meant for. Nothing is "better because denser" or "better because thicker"; every piece is chosen to match what the pad is asking for.
We run our own cloth mill. Every spec — weave, finish, edge — is set and signed off by us. Two weaves, two characters — not tiers, just different jobs. Ume is fine-surfaced with a touch of bite, tuned for control. Vena is extra-fine and surface-treated, tuned for speed. The art lives in the fiber, not on top of it.
In-house heat-transfer press, built for sharpness. The dye sinks into the fiber itself — clean edges at any size, no halo, no bleed. Every run is Pantone-matched, so a reprint looks like the first.
Formula, durometer, thickness — every variable on our PU base is signed off by us, then iterated through rounds of testing. The base is picked to match what the surface is asking for, not to a target thickness. Ume ships with two base options — a 4 mm soft PU, or Inoue SlimFlex at the same 4 mm soft — same surface, different support underneath. Vena runs 3 mm mid durometer — firmer, the support a speed surface needs.
Vena's surface gets a three-stage pre-treatment — more durable and smoother than stock cloth. Irys uses the best silicone grip film in the category: 0.25 ± 0.03 mm, micro-textured, low residue when you peel it off, plotter-cut for seventeen mouse shapes.
A warm voice in the same register as Vena — soft pink, bone, a bruised violet underneath. Painted by the same hand. Two base choices on release: a standard 4 mm soft PU, and Inoue SlimFlex.
Fine-weave cloth — neutral, with a touch of bite. A 4 mm soft PU base, with two options — a standard 4 mm soft pour, or Inoue SlimFlex — paired to this surface rather than chosen by a number. A control pad, not a sweep pad. The fine-stitched edge stays out of your way on hour three.
A single face, submerged. The palette is cool, almost cold — indigo and ultramarine, the colour a screen is rarely allowed to be.
Fine-surfaced cloth with an irregular weave, surface pre-treated across three stages for durability and a smooth finish. A speed pad. 3 mm mid-durometer PU base — firmer, chosen for the support a speed surface needs.
Every grip tape on the market makes a compromise somewhere — polyurethane slips, silicone wears, rough textures scratch. We kept tuning ours until grip, durability, and feel all came together in one tape.
The best grip film in the category. Our own silicone, 0.25 ± 0.03 mm, micro-textured to hold through sweat — thin enough that you still feel the mouse. Pantone-matched every run. Plotter-cut once, so you're not hand-trimming seventeen times.
Three short runs outside China. All sold through. We keep them here for the record, not for stock.
Small batches went to specialty shops in Tokyo and Seoul, plus an international channel based in Europe. The posts are still up on X — we link to the originals instead of reprinting them.