Payment has hit my bank account and the card decks are on order! (SQUEEEEE!)
The printer is estimating delivery by August 2, but I have supreme doubts about that being realistic; I will be shocked if there are not some customs delays and complications. The Companion Guidebook proofs will be delivered by Friday and I will turn around and order the full compliment of those books pretty much immediately! Stickers are on hand, and I have the bookmark designs underway! I am on track to deliver rewards about two months early if nothing stumbles along the way. I'll be sending surveys as soon as I have a delivery estimate on the books and bookmarks.
Wow, we did it! Thank you so much to everyone for the support and the help yelling!! I'm very excited we're going to get to do this shoot.
We're now working on Stretch Goals, the first of which is MY SUPER EXCITING invitation to Ruby AKA Fugitive Rabbit (who runs FatPhotoRef.com) and David the Arrow Bard AKA Blumineck.
Ruby and David want to come, too!
If you help us get to $8k we'll be including these two most lovely humans in our epic group shoot!! The last time we did a big shoot we had four models so it will be fun to be able to expand to six. I already am bubbling with composition ideas!
Speaking of ideas... As we proceed through the fundraising and booking for this event will be looking to you all for lots and lots of suggestions! If you have some multi-model themes, compositions, etc that you really want us to include please leave us some comments about them! We are going to be working from a big list during the multiday shoot and the more we can add to that list the better.
This next stretch goal will also unlock some additional props for us which (FINGERS CROSSED) will include a pole rental for David to do his thing!!!
I'm wildly excited to have the project funded and now I just need everyone's help to keep spreading the word to artists all over the world about this cool event. We have some more ideas to do if the funding continues past these goals so please keep helping us yell and we can make it even more awesome. 🥰✨
Hello all! Reporting back for the fulfillment update. This update contains info for campaign backers and pre-order customers separately.
I've been living in cardboard hell. This is just one corner of it
For the backers who backed during the main campaign
By now, everyone who backed during the main campaign should have gotten tracking info, most likely in more than one way because of certain automatisms.
You should have either: - gotten an email from my e-mail address with a tracking number and tracking link - gotten an email from my e-mail address with no tracking number (just order number), and additionally an email from DHL with tracking number/link
and regardless of that, everyone should have - gotten an email from Backerkit with their tracking number + link
If you have not received your tracking number, you can always contact me either via comment here, via email or via DM on Discord/social media @doombloomart (just make sure you write an informative first DM or else I'll assume you're a bot and ignore). (The exception is of course those who are doing pickup or have other agreements with me!)
Almost all packages are carried out to the post office now. There's only 3 large parcels to the US I couldn't carry out today because their package size exceeded the dimension limit for the shipping type, so I am going to repack those asap - I am waiting for new boxes to arrive for those and it looks like that will be Wednesday. Still, you should have gotten your tracking number and it will stay the same, there will just be no updates until then. I just need to repack to a different proportioned box. Sorry for that!
The shipping carrier is DHL for all shipments.
All the smaller parcels (1-2 glass cups) are dropped off, but the tracking will only start working in 24-48 hours (and rarely more) because these are not scanned until they have reached the sorting center and the time naturally varies depending on how they get routed.
For the Pre-Order backers after the main campaign
If you pre-ordered until today, your orders will be processed most likely by the end of this week! For any pre-orders coming after today, the processing time may vary because I need to restock glass cups designs.
Pre-Orders will also close once I'm caught up with shipping, and the tumblers will enter my regular store a while later.
Important Reminder about Shipping and potential damage/loss/missing items
Since we're dealing with glass, it's important to check your parcel asap for damages *before and after opening* upon arrival and take photos. If we have a case for insurance, it expires within 7 days of arrival. After that period I can't do anything for you.
I packed everything to the best of my ability and until I was confident that throwing them around and pressing them would not break the glass. On top of that, borosilicate glass is rather sturdy! However I cannot anticipate every single form of abuse so naturally I cannot rule out that some glassware will arrive damaged.
1. If your parcel looks heavily abused from the outside, take a photo of it before opening and send it to me if the contents are indeed broken too - the damage reporting has to be done through me, not directly by you to DHL 2. Same if your parcel looks like someone along the way might have opened it and items are missing 3. Regardless of outside damages - if your product does not arrive in the proper condition, email me with all the details (your backerkit username, descriptive images). I'm sure we can sort it out somehow. 4. If you received the wrong item(s), take a picture of everything you received and email that to me
If any of your items require replacement, it can take 1-3 weeks to do so, as I can't guarantee that every design is in stock.
And lastly, if you received an ungodly amount of styrofoam as padding, I'm deeply sorry for the mess and rather non-cute packaging, but it seemed like the best lightweight protector and the safety of your products was my top priority! It's all recycled from the original packaging of these glass cups that my supplier uses for shipping. All plastic bubble wrap is recycled as well.
Thank you for your continued patience and support with this project. This is a very quick update to note that the digital versions of the main zine, as well as Encore for those over 18, are now available as a digital download!
We will have another update with a date for our leftovers store, for those that missed a chance to get their hands on some physical goodies, this weekend as we finalise some details. Until then!
Hey all! I wanted to give a bit of an update on fulfillment, and more importantly I want to show you my written guide on how to apply UV-DTF Transfers: Link to my blog post My post also links to a video that I recorded once, that can give you the rough idea on how to proceed but I still highly recommend reading the article as it contains everything I learned while making a ton of glass tumblers. I will still try to record a longer video where I show it in more detail, I have not found space to film though with all the fulfillment going on.
Fulfillment status: I've gotten around a third of all orders done. All pledges that are only flat items (Transfers, stickers etc) should have received a tracking number via e-mal by now. (And I know that some Europeans have received theirs already! Woohoo) If not contact me and I will give you yours! The big bulk of orders will happen today & on weekend, and I will then bring most of it out tomorrow or on Monday! The order of fulfillment is a bit chaotic, I'm trying to ship out one or two bigger packages a day while taking in small packages what I can. I currently rely on a helper to do these things too as I currently have Covid (best timing, I swear) but it's proceeding well overall!
Hey all! Everything is prepared from my side to ship out orders, except that the reprints of some designs have still not arrived but I'm sure they will later this week. I'm trying to get everything done as soon as I can! The flat item orders should go out quickly if they don't contain designs that are awaiting restock/reprint, the glass cups will likely take me a whole week.
You should have gotten an e-mail with an invoice, but of course you all already paid it so no need for any action. This is more for my bookkeeping than anything else.
What happens now:
- when your order ships, you will get a separate shipping notification which includes info on how to track. This will probably take me all week to do, and if your order contains some designs that are still awaiting reprint or restock, it depends on when that arrives. - When you get your tracking number,please please please keep an eye on it! Losses and/or misrouted parcels can always happen so if you notice that your shipment is not showing activity after a certain point, contact me and I will ask my shipping company to look into it and I can replace parcels. - When you receive your package and it looks damaged, take pictures of it before unboxing. If the contents are damaged, contact me as soon as possible and send as many clear pictures as you can. - If everything arrives well - share a picture too and let me know if the products made you happy :D If you ordered a transfer, I would love to see what you used it on.
Also, I am working on guides on how to use the DTF transfers correctly, I will keep you posted :> There are a lot around the internet too which you can search, but I will try to make a detailed guide.
Some fun stats!
In case you wonder what the most popular designs were! For the actual glass cups... ... 62 total were ordered and not dropped ... ZERO opted for the plain lid, everyone wanted the print :> (this makes me happy!) ... 38 of them were from the soda girl main series ... 11 were Gyokuro alone ... 8 were from the flower tea series ... 5 from classic tea series ... two who did not receive orders were Oolong and Lotus Tea ... the most popular one was Shirley Temple, barely beating Gyokuro with 12! For the transfers... ... 43 total ordered and not dropped ... the popularity distribution was way more even! ... Gyokuro was the most popular at 6, followed by Elderflower and Ramune at 5 each!
... Every design was ordered at least twice! For the magnetic bookmarks... ... Shirley Temple was most popular at 13, closely followed by Elderflower at 12 ... Ramune and Herbs got 7 and 9 respectively!
First of all thank you so so much, we managed to raise 12.8k Euro, which is exactly 3k more than I asked for to make this book real. I'm genuinely speechless, knowing that this is all just my own art and work. This also means the edition quantity will be 500 books, with 232 being sold via Backerkit. The rest will end up in my online shop or be sold via conventions in future.
What comes next - Backerkit will start collecting payments and in the meantime I'll set up the Pledge Manager proper and set up surveys for shipping costs and all. Staff advised to send the surveys two weeks after end of the campaign. I'll make another update here before I do so, though. On the production side, I'll contact my printer again. I want another set of proofs for the safety of my mind to know that the art comes out well. My choice of paper for the pages is kinda wild but I adore it a lot due to natural feel including real wood. Printer already said our last proofs were "excellent", so that's pretty nice. Once that is done and I have the money from Backerkit, I will order the books. As mentioned in the campaign, I was offered to be physically present when printing starts so I'll schedule that in as well.
I noticed there was one person among the backers who pledged a bit more, which also coincides exactly with what shipping would have been for their tier. Shipping will be charged extra later, so if this was a mistakenly assumed to be shipping and the person wants to fix it, please let me know. In general, if there are any questions feel free to contact me, either via comment here or via my email [email protected]
I've inked the bookmark(s) and will be scanning them soon! I liked them both so much that I finished each of them and you will receive two files to download and color. (But I'll make you choose just one for your printed color copy!) These two originals will be available for $150 each, let me know if you'd like to put dibs on either of them!
(The dice are in the photo because I finished inking these during a table top gaming session. We are plotting a giant battle with zombies and cannibals. As one does.)
I have another proof of the Companion Guidebook winging its way to me now and as soon as I've looked it over and done another typo pass, I will order the full batch of the Crowdfunded Edition! (This edition will have all the bonus cards in it, any future editions will not.) The stickers have already been shipped, and I will be finalizing the magnetic book box design and ordering the card decks, bonus cards, and mini guidebooks as soon as Backerkit clears my funds! (Just a few more days now...) Also on my action list are the thank you postcards, plus adding color to the bookmarks, and getting those printed, too. Watch for surveys soon, I'm climbing the learning curve with Backerkit to make them as easy for you as possible. I will need to set up shipping specific to countries and so far, I am preparing for Canada, UK, and Singapore. If you are in another country, please let me know so I can set you up!
So, there's lots left to do, but I want to assure you it's all being put in motion and there is a ton going on behind the scenes. <3 If you know anyone who missed the campaign and regrets their life choices, I have preorder available (at slightly higher prices than you scored during the campaign): https://a-unicorn-key.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/
If you ever have any questions, feel free to shoot to them to me at [email protected]!
We were not planning on sending them so far away from our estimated shipping date, but due to the fact we had over $10,000.00 in dropped pledges we had no choice. This was the only way for many to fix their payment errors, so we released the survey a lot earlier than we wanted to.
We will also have to charge credit cards for shipping and add ons earlier than we anticipated, so we have enough money to cover all the supplies we need, and get everything ready for fulfillment. As we’re sure you understand, we had to prioritise paying our wonderful artists and the printers ASAP, even with such a large shortfall.
Thank you so much for everyone who has filled out their survey and have added extra goodies to your pledge! Every single cent goes to running this project and paying our artists. So thank you.
Our entire mission is to bring income and an audience to our artists. It is why we are still running after all these years. Our passion will always be for our artists.
Which brings me to the next thing.
Calendars and Spread Books We have to buy a minimum of 500 of each of these, there is no better price point (trust me, I have been looking!). We had thought they would be more popular, but we have a LOT left over. So we think it is only fair to split them among the artists involved so they can sell them and make money from them. We hope you are okay with this. Otherwise we would just have to recycle them, as they are designed to be Backerkit exclusives! It’s better the artists make as much as they can with them ❤
One last thing, we are running about two weeks behind on production, because both Trish and I had to learn a brand new software due to us having to rapidly leave all Adobe products after they stated very clearly they owned the rights to everyone’s work.
We could not chance them having access to any of our work or artists work to train their AI, so we switched softwares and it’s been a bit of a learning curve. But we are making great progress and should only be about two weeks behind production, putting us in the first and second week of October to be delivering to you.
That is all for now, soon we will be launching our pre-launch party for our Fall deck - 78 Tarot Nautical - The New Wave! This is a revisited, revamped, re-edited, brand new edition of our popular nautical theme. We are keeping some cards the same (20) and have commissioned 61 new artists! Wait until you see this art!!!!!!!!
Hope everyone is having a good day, night, wherever you may be in this universe.
As always, if you would like to speak with us directly you can always email us! We do not always see the comments and posts so emailing us is always the best! [email protected]
soaps came in today and so i raced to pack and ship the rest of the orders. just finished dropping them off! postage went up a bit from when i ran the campaign originally so i wound up taking a bit of a hit on that, but uhhh >.> whatever that's how it is sometimes
if anything turns up lost or missing from any orders please don't hesitate to reach out to me! i have a few extra NB and rainbow soaps, and already need to order at least one more feather (a bi pride one vanished! where!!) and obviously i have plenty of books and stickers too.
