The smoke test is 88% complete with no apparent issues, so surveys have been sent to all backers! Check your email for a link.
As a reminder, the survey is mandatory to receive your rewards. it allows me to collect item counts for manufacturing, but also addresses and shipping fees. If I don't have your address, there's no way for me to send you your pins.
FAQs
When are Surveys Due? I will leave surveys open until the first week of April. I am tentatively placing the survey closing date at APRIL 7. That's 3 weeks to fill out surveys. If you do not fill out your survey by the time orders lock, I may not be able to guarantee you'll receive your first choice of rewards.
If your survey goes unanswered by the time fulfillment is complete, your pledge will be considered a donation and it will not be refunded.
What about Pay Over Time Backers? Pay Over Time backers will receive their surveys when their payment is completed (4 installments total). I will be keeping these folks in mind as I finalize item counts.
Can I switch my Pledge Tier After I get my Survey? Yes, you can! Most pledge tiers are enabled for switching. If you'd like to easily upgrade your pledge, click the "Switch your Pledge Level" link under the big green Get Started button when you first open your survey.
The pledge switch button will allow you to change your pledge tier.
Please note, you are not able to switch your pledge tier back if you change your mind!
How is Shipping Calculated? As outlined before, shipping is not only based on location, but the total weight of your cart. A US backer pledging for the highest tier should expect about $10 in shipping. A US backer pledging for a single pin will see a shipping fee around $6.
Furthermore, if you add multiple add-on pins to your cart, expect your shipping fee to go up incrementally. The heaviest items are the dangling pins and the Six-Legged Stag pin. When will I be Charged? When you complete your survey, you will not immediately be charged for shipping & any extra add-ons. Cards will be charged at a later date, which I will post here via updates. I will wait until closer to fulfillment to charge cards—most likely after I have the pins.
Questions?
As usual, free free to email me at [email protected] or use the "need help?" button at the top right of your survey (next to where your email address is listed).
Location of the help button on your surveys
That's all for now! Expect an update early April when surveys lock. Thank you!
I’m so excited to show you the brand new design after the Loch Ness Monster won last week’s poll - check it out below! This new design will unlock at £5,000, which we’re not far off! And then at £5,000 the rainbow variant will also be available~ I hope you all like them, and I've updated both the campaign page and available tiers to reflect this. This means that the original "All In" Tiers still cover the first 8 pins, rather than the full set of 10, just as a heads up!
What to do if you want to add the extra pins to your pledge:
If you're an Early Bird backer, and you want to add extra pins, EDIT YOUR PLEDGE, RATHER THAN CANCELLING IT, as this still works out cheapest!
If you're on any other Tier, just use the Add-Ons feature as normal to add as many extra pins you want that way. Just message me if you have any questions about this, or add a comment.
I’ve also added the holographic sticker design of Nessie as an Add-On too! I’ll update the image of it tomorrow, but it is available for £3, like the others!
I hope we can smash through the rest of the unlock goals asap as I love this design. With just over a week to go, we’ve got a great chance of absolutely crushing it - help spread the word if you can!
Hey everyone ! We've unlocked all previous goals woo ! I'm here with another new pin design and another new stretch goal, as well as some bag updates and photos ! Firstly lets start with the pin: Changeling who unlocks at $29,000. She will be a standard pin and available to add on for $18.
The next new item is bag charms ! These are jet tag like charms and my original hope was to make them replaceable in the bow slow however with how the final construction of the bag ended up working that didn't work out. So i'm repurposing them as bag charms and they're honestly so cute ! The bat is made of the same PU leather as the bag and the skull will be a thick fabric with embroidered details on it ! These will be add-on items for the campaign for now. They unlock at $27,800. They will be $8 add ons.
here is a photo of the bat sample that i already have in hand, the skull is still being made.
Next I've added a few new pledge levels. I've added a four standard pins pledge level to accommodate the newest designs and I've added two new bag + pins levels that are ita + four standard pins and ita + four standard and 1 supreme pin. These two new bag tiers allow for pay over time to make it easier on some people while adding more pins ! As a reminder for pay over time backers you will not be filling out your survey right away through backerkit but I will be sending you an email to get an idea of what items you'd like to pick ! You will then later fill out your backerkit survey once you've paid in full.
Lastly I have some bag sample updates ! I've got the chain strap ! You can now see how it looks with the chain strap which is my personal favorite but i love having the option ! The leather part of the chain strap is adjustable in length.
they've also removed the extra link at the bottom and I have a sample of the darker red bow color thats an option on the survey, it's super beautiful on the bag especially in person. I also have a sample of the cushion ita insert ! You can see how it looks in the bag with no pins and theres also a photo of it on its own. Its sooo cute and makes it even more coffin-like i'm very excited to put some pins on it !
Cushion ita insert and red bow. Showing how the insert looks when in the bag and outside.
As a note on this current sample the back pocket zipper was moved to the very back to test out the structure and feel of it but I still like both zippers in the middle so expect that on the final bag.
Going forward I'm working on at least one more pin design as well as some printed design ita inserts. Would you guys like to see any more bow colors? I was thinking a dark purple and a deep blue would look nice but leave your opinions down below !
As mentioned a few days ago, I’d love to design another pin as a new stretch goal and I thought asking my audience would be the coolest way to decide on which cryptid to go for!
I like anything a bit more obscure or weird, so the poll options include some pretty random options, but please cast your vote if you get a spare minute as I’d love to hear your opinion. 🤘
The poll will close on the 31st so it gives me enough time to get the design done before the campaign ends. Again, thank you so much for the support on this project so far, it’s been awesome!
I have kind of a good news/bad news/good news sandwich for you today I'm afraid! 😅 It's a bit of a long one but it's important so please do skim through!
First the Good News: the Blue Lobster patches arrived and they turned out AWESOME! 🥳 Check them out:
Now the Bad News: delays. 😭 I have been working with the same manufacturer who made my Horses of the Apocalypse pins on the Warped Ocean collection from January to March and all seemed well until last week when they unexpectedly told me they can't produce these pins at this level of detail at all and cancelled my order, even though they already made moulds! 😱
Now don't panic, more Good News: the pins ARE going to be made; it's just going to take a little longer as I've had to start all over again with my other regular manufacturer. 💪 I'm confident this manufaturer won't let me down as they are the ones who produced my extremely detailed Kelpie pin:
But to be extra sure these pins will look their best I decided to do some further work on the pin designs myself before ordering them from this manufacturer. These mainly come down to simplifying some pattern elements or converting parts of them to screen-print, and increasing the size of the 1" pins to 1.5".
The Edits
Here's a walk-through on the edits I've made, which I'm confident have actually improved the designs and I hope you'll agree!
The Lobster: The patterns and eyes on the Lobsters body came out way too small in the test mould and even if filled I suspected they would have a high error rate so I decided to simplify those shapes somewhat.
The Crab: In this case I didn't feel I could keep the essense of the design by enlarging all the circle-texture-details so I decided to replace thise parts with screenprint; in red on the gold-plated crab, and in blue on the rainbow-plated crab. I think the screenprint provides a much cleaner look and you can see from the image above that the overall appearance hasn't changed much from the original intention.
The Oarfish: The Oarfish also has a pattern detail issue. Those coloured shapes on the body are just incredibly tiny once moulded so I've also switched these to screenprint for a cleaner look. There will be one layer of green screenprint on the gold-plated pin and three layers of screenprint on the rainbow-plated pin in green, blue and pink.
The Octopus:
I haven't had to add screenprint to the Octopus, instead I've managed to clean up the outlines and create larger spaces which hopefully can all be filled with enamel. I think this design also looks better post-edit so I'm looking on the bright side here lol!
The Mini Pins: Although these were potentially doable at 1" I was concerned the tiny bits on the starfish wouldn't work out well so I decided to just increase these to 1.5" in size to avoid any further potential issues holding up the process. I hope you folks don't mind the upgrade!
Mandarinfish: This pin will have no noticeable changes to the design itself but some of the finer detail elements have now been combined into the blue screenprint element this design already had.
Delay
Unfortunately the manufacturing issues mean that production and fulfillment for pin backers will now be delayed. I will update you again when I get more information from my new order but I suspect pin orders will now be fulfilled in June.
I apologise for the delay. I will know in future what level of detail I can achieve in enamel vs screenprint and hopefully avoid this problem for later projects.
If you only ordered a patch or stickers I will be packing your orders next week once the last of the stickers have arrived.
A Decision I Need Your Help With!
Now, some of you may be familiar with pin techniques and have realised that I'm going to have to make another minor change; because the rainbow-plated pins have to be soft-enamel they will now need to have clear epoxy added over the enamel colours to create a flat surface to be screenprinted onto.
I know that some people actually prefer for their soft-enamel pins to have this effect but I wanted to keep you folks in the loop and help me to decide:
1) Should I add epoxy only to the pins that now need screenprint on soft-enamel ;the Crab, Oarfish and Mandarinfish? (And leave the other rainbow-plated pins as regular indented soft-enamel.) OR/ 2) Add clear epoxy to ALL the rainbow-plated pins so that they have a uniform appearance? (So that they all have a flat, smooth surface)
Some points to consider: - Adding epoxy to all pins will slightly increase the production time - It also may lead to an increase in seconded pins due to extra opportunity for trapping dust etc (but I only send grade A pins to backers so that should only be an issue if the % is very high) - In some cases people think it can dull the rainbow-plated colours a little
Here are some photos of some of my friend Holoraindrops pins with epoxy vs no epoxy so you can see what the difference in effect is:
Please let me know what you would prefer via the poll below, and feel free to ask questions about the changes or process!
Thank you for reading to the end of this long-ass Update!
Adding clear epoxy is necessary in order to add screenprinted detail layers to the edited designs.
This will give the soft-enamel pins in question a flat, even surface.
If I don't add epoxy to all the pins then the Crab, Oarfish and Mandarinfish will have the smooth surface but the other rainbow-plated pins will have the usual soft-enamel effect of the colour level dipping below the enamel.
Epoxy may slightly increase production time, increase seconds rates, or slightly change the colour of the rainbow-plating, but these effects may also be negligible. (I haven't worked with epoxy on enamel pins before so I'm going by reported differences from fellow pin-makers.)
The screenprinting for the "Bloody Collar" pin is in process, as is the glitter/stained glass for the "Glass of Blood" pin (not shown). Apparently the factory is behind. I was most concerned about the gems for the "Bloody Collar" pin, and glad to see the manufacturer understood what I wanted.
Just letting everyone know things are still going! Very sorry for the delay!
We are thrilled to death to let you know that we started shipping rewards today. The pins look great and sending them to their final destination is indeed most gratifying.
Expect to see a shipping notification over the next few days as the Graveyard Crew proceeds.
Just a quick update I have most of the parcels set up ready to be labelled but I am holding off just for a bit as the free reward sticker which was a incentive for some of your orders isn't to the quality I would like.
So I have contacted the manufacture and they are doing a reprint for me to fix this issue.
Sorry for the any inconvenience caused, soon as this issue is solved I will be sending parcels like a mad man haha
