A metal bookmark tier ($10), add-on for one metal bookmark ($10) and a pair of both Sakura and Hops bookmarks ($18) add-on have been added to the campaign already due to an unexpectedly large amount of backers saying they would want one! (57% out of a pool of over 100 already) For those pledging to just the bookmark tier with no pins, you can add an additional metal bookmark as an add-on for $9 of your choice (exclusive to this tier) since I'll be able to save some on shipping by using a flat mailer instead of a box.
Printed Bookmarks will likely still be added, but I will only be adding them if I have time to complete the art before the campaign ends. I will update if/when that happens. If you want to vote on which designs will be added if I can first do Iris, Cornflower, Chrysanthemum, and Foxglove... you can do so at this Discord link HEREwhere I already have a poll running.
Slight update to Sakura dragon, where I forgot to fill in the deep red on the back.
So by now, as far as I can tell, all the orders I can ship out have been shipped. I have a handful of backers with some combination of unpaid shipping and/or incomplete orders. I have sent a fresh reminder email about those orders.
The breakdown of shipping groups:
1) If you are US Domestic, or International anywhere but GB/UK, you should have received a tracking number from PirateShip, or possibly your package has been delivered. (According to PirateShip, all US orders have been delivered and about 50% of international orders have been delivered.) If you are in this group and have neither tracking number nor see an order on the way/have not received your order, please reach out. You can leave a comment or contact me via Backerkit so I can suss things out.
2) If you are in the GB/UK and qualified for cross-collab with Bouquet of Dragons by Alstro Arts, your orders will be on the way to them shortly and we'll be coordinating how to handle transferring the shipping charge you paid me via Backerkit.
3) If you are in the GB/UK and did not qualify for cross-collab with Alstro Arts and have paid for order, I will be sending you a refund. Unfortunately I don't have a way to handle the sales without the extended tax licenses at this time - I thought I'd have that addressed by now but it totally escaped my mind. I will be sending an email about this and offering some kind of credit or coupon or something as an apology for essentially holding your payment for this period. The credit should be something you can use in the future because I either set up the licenses to handle sales in that region myself, or on future collab projects where I can again send your order to the other artist as a facilitator.
4) If you are in the small ground that just got a reminder email AND you are in the GB/UK, please contact me ASAP so I know how to handle your order. If you qualified for the collab with Alstro Arts I should be able to get your order to them before they begin fulfillment, but it would be more helpful if I can send all those orders in one shipment. If you did not qualify for the collab I would like to refund you as well.
Beyond that, I'm going to begin constructing a kind of report on what worked out well, hiccups, etc, and what I need to handle better going forward in future campaigns.
As always, I'm happy to answer questions, and otherwise, Cheers! -Bliz
So to date all US packages should have been shipped and in transit or delivered. The last sets went out Saturday and were composed of orders with items beyond stickers and pins, including the Lucky foil prints. Plus a few stray pin+sticker orders that didn't make it out yet for one reason or another. Most orders are being fully carried by USPS, but a handful started with UPS.
For US orders, if you didn't receive a tracking email from Pirateship by Monday, please do reach out.
A few packages had shipping labels processed twice; if you got two emails about your shipment, one of them was a mistake and can be discarded. I waited until everything was in transit to cancel the secondaries for less confusion on my end. Each order is confined to one package.
This week I'm addressing international orders and aim to have them shipped by end of week. This means you may not see a shipment email until Monday, June 1st.
As always, I'm happy to answer questions, and otherwise, Cheers!
To date I have shipped over 60% of the rewards, solid progress!
If you ordered only stickers and/or pins, and are in the United States chances are your order is on the way. On deck are US orders that also include shirts, totes, and banners, followed by the Lucky Round foil prints tier, and any strays. I aim to have all that shipped by end of week.
After that I'll repeat for international orders and aim to see all orders in the system by end of next week.
Since I get frustrated by "shipment on the way!" type emails where really, the shipment/tracking number has only been generated and is waiting for that first scan, all tracking information goes out the morning after pick up or dropoff so you should see immediate movement on your package.
For postage I'm using PirateShip, which will email you a tracking number around 9am eastern/GMT+8. If you don't get an email from PS (or your reward) by Wednesday next week and have a US order don't hesitate to drop me a line so I can see what's up. That's when I plan to post my next update as well so it should serve as an easy reminder. Note: The first batches of emails from PirateShip have a very generic "Your shipment is on the way!" subject, but I have fixed that going forward.
As always, I'm happy to answer questions, and otherwise, cheers! -Bliz
The remaining 20+ international orders have been sent to Alstro Arts who has the required tax permissions to send to places such as the UK; I believe those should be sent out along with their lovely Bouquet of Dragons once they are ready to fly <3
All other domestic orders should have reached their destination!
If you are a domestic recipient and have not received your package, please reach out.
I am a little hesitant to consider the campaign "wrapped up" as I don't want to worry anyone about not answering any questions about update orders, so I will still be around, as I still have Spirit of Autumn and Sea Dragons 2 still to work on, but it should be smooth sailing from here on out! I am so grateful to have worked on this project and hope that you love your new pins =)
Stickers came in, they look fantastic, and I've spent the past week(ish) completing my deadline project and doing, so much sorting (not exclusive to this project) and such... it's been ridiculous.
Anyway, that's all to say, fulfillment begins next week! I am really looking forward to getting all of this out in the world and reclaiming a solid portion of studio space. I have a goal to pack 20-25 orders a day and become a regular fixture at the post office for scan and dropoff. (Just kidding, there's a machine in the first lobby so I can be a spring Krampus frustrated with the slow speed of the scanner all by my lonesome.)
As always, happy to answer questions, and otherwise, cheers!
No sample updates yet for the remaining designs, though they have been in contact with us. Was hoping we'd get something ready in March for the monthly update, but nothing was ready for a photo before Spring Break. Though with my other Pin Club stuff starting to be approved for production, there is little holding these designs from being done sampling for lock-down. Hoping for an update any day now.
Design Statuses:
Hibiscus Dragon - awaiting sample update
Tiger Lily Dragon - Sample approved
Sunflower Dragon- Sample approved
Chrysanthemum Dragon - Sample approved
Cornflower Dragon - Sample approved
Iris Dragon- Sample approved
Foxglove Dragon - awaiting sample update
Plumeria Dragon - production ready
Dahlia Dragon - awaiting sample update
Hops Dragon - Sample approved
Sakura Dragon - Sample approved
Hops Bookmark - sample in progress
Sakura Dragon bookmark - sample in progress
Stickers are production ready, awaiting pins to lock-down before sending to production.
Reminders:
Discord since that makes it easier to contact me quickly if I've managed to forget to update here. Link HERE to the Discord server.Which is dramatically faster than here, and faster than email.
Survey will stay open though until samples are complete
Until Survey lock, you can manually update your address, add more pins / stickers, or select different stuff if you have changed your mind. You can even message me if you want to swap around your stickers for pins to some degree.
The Pre-Order store will be open until samples finalize as well. So if you missed out, you still have a chance to get them steeply discounted.
If you are a backer that can't find your survey, feel free to email me so I can try to help you out. Otherwise you can try this first: Survey Recovery Page email: [email protected]
Look what arrived late last week:
heavy boxes
I decided just to roll into the usual gruntwork so I could also get some decent photos and show off the exclusive thank you gift.
GBD, Amber Ale, Stout, Shields, and mini pins were in these boxes and since then I have been grading, sorting, and backing. Have some photos:
Green Beer Dragon 3inch pin
Different angle of GBD to highlight transparent window.
Rampant Marzen shield in green
The GBD came out (well really, all the pins are of fantastic quality, I'm pretty impressed with the production) as a real stunner. The beer mug window is a super strong, vibrant green that glows well with light.
The magnetic version of the shields have two rare earth magnets flush to the back; they work great. Y'all get green or orange rubber backs as well, to match the transparent enamel color.
Amber Ale (limited green variant)
Stout (limited green variant)
Since I don't have a good way to mark the back of pins with limited edition numbers I instead annotated the back of each card with Amber Ale x/25 or Stout x/25 - there are also a few B-grade versions of each pin. (The B grade flaws are quite tiny and include flaws on both sides. Overall B-grade numbers are incredibly low.)
And just if you forgot, the collab pins (super cute! I still want to do a "flavours of Hawaii / Tiki thing with them at some point):
Hawaiian Hibiscus
Mango
Collab pins before being carded.
I'm over halfway through grading the latest batch pins and have carded about half of that. Enough right now to get me through fulfillment on Stout, Amber Ale, and shields. Carding continues on the collab pins. I haven't gotten to the mini mugs yet. Due to there being three variants and how varied folks orders are, I'm going to wait until I'm packing orders so I can back as-I-go. I will take some photos and get those posted with the first wave or two, plus include photos of the normal variant Stout, Amber Ale, and the Rampant Marzen shield.
These pieces I made by hand after... so much trial and error, y'all. But I've hopefully learned enough to make future foil prints less of a headache. They're a pale gold foil with a "frosted" texture on clover green cardstock cut to 8x8inches, and will be signed and numbered for this limited run. While I am likely to use the GBD graphic again on foil or something (another shirt?), the text will be different, I won't be using the frosted foil effect, and I'm unlikely to use this combination of the paper and foil, because they should be a truly distinct edition from just a glance.
So all I'm waiting to receive is stickers, which I expect to see in about a week. After that I will be splitting time through the end of the month between beginning fulfilment and another project deadline and once we're in May it'll be focus on completing fulfillment and putting the rest up in the shop.
As always, happy to answer questions and otherwise, send beer!