Hi all,
Hope everyone is okay. Since I try to always be as responsive, open and honest as I can, I welcome anyone to message me anytime if they have questions about my work and creations. I was by no means loitering, but someone did decide to message me directly and asked me about this because a discussion was going on.
I'm happy to share my work-life. I am a senior teacher at a private school. I train other teachers as a mentor, have (a few times) won a top teacher in Japan award (brag) and work with students from children up to helping create sales presentations for company presidents. I have been a teacher for 20 years. But in 2011 when the last great earthquake hit (the one that caused the Fukushima nuclear disaster), I evacuated to England and reassessed my life. After returning and since then, I started teaching only on weekends, and I went back to school for a little before trying to become a full-time artist/writer/creator. For the last ten years or so, I have been a full-time artist and creator. Monday to Friday I illustrate. I would say that I work 8 hours a day (sometimes less, sometimes more), but my lifestyle is odd. For example, I started work at 2:30am today because I couldn't sleep. But I feel the art still does not quite support me financially/with stability. So, for the last decade I have been a full-time artist, and part-time teacher.
It is always hard to calculate time worked for me, but for the Nazo Nazo, the process took over a year. I would say that it was the equivalent of a full-time job (8 hours a day) but that is of course divided between concept planning, research, design, dealing with people (like Alex in this case, and the 40-or-so collaborators) and more. I would go as far as to say that I personally and humbly suspect the Nazo Nazo had one of the longest focussed working hours timeline of any playing card project created (I, of course, am not trying and don't care to compare). I need to teach because otherwise, you are correct, I could not afford to live. So, actually (shared with a few people close to me in this community over the months of the Nazo Nazo campaign) I went into debt on the Nazo Nazo (I had to borrow money from family to cover mortgage and living costs until I was able to pay them back post campaign). Having no income until so much later was actually an ongoing tense discussion with Alex behind-the-scenes. I continue to teach to have the assurance of making the monthly payments, and my projects bring in the once or twice a year income that helps me grow and move into this career more. My goal is to quit teaching entirely, not because I want to dedicate more to this creative pursuit - I already do as much as any other - but because as it stands I work every day of the week except national holidays. My wife wants me to help her more, and I want to spend more time with my children. I take them to school, pick them up, wash and feed them, but I never get the 'play' time of weekends.
I cannot put into words, given all of the above, how useful Patreon has been as a platform for the last two years then - providing a more stable stream to help alleviating production costs and not putting expenses over my income. This is why I put so much back into that community, because they are a lifeline for me and I value it so. And it is also why customer service in campaigns is so important for me, because I know that without each backer, this isn't sustainable.
Finances aside, since people seem interested, 15 years ago or so I also worked as an actor in Japan and appeared in several J-Pop music videos, and an online Schwepp's add along-side Pierce Brosnan. I thought it was interesting, but there were too many unpleasant people in that industry, so I stopped that years ago. Still, interesting experiences.
As I say, you are always welcome to ask and are more likely to get the full story that way.
Kind regards,
Jack
from Gambler's warehouse - after coughing up for shipping expenses. 
@playingcardophile
Perhaps he can have the deck you would otherwise offer to me, if you only want to part with one.
