Just a quick update before the weekend and before I head to Santa Fe, NM for a brief and much needed vacation with my wife and my parents!
The poll for the new Reality cat pin is too close to call, so I worked up some concept art for two leaders to hopefully help break the tie before the poll closes tonight at 11:59 PM PT.
Thank you to everyone who has already voted, and you can always change your vote up until the poll closes! Vote now!
Have I mentioned yet how incredibly overwhelmed and grateful I am for all of this support for Coping Cats? Because, wow! You all continue to amaze me with how fast we're flying through all of these stretch goals! So far we've unlocked new cat pins, a washi tape bundle, acrylic keychains, and a new freebie sticker. All of the unlocked rewards are available as add-ons and they're all included at no additional charge in the Whole Clowder pledge levels.
Please vote now to help us choose: • Which Aspirational Cat and which Reality Cat will be made into keychains (polls close on Oct 21st 11:59 PM PT or whenever there is a clear majority winner) • The design inspiration for the new Aspirational and Reality cat pins (polls close on Oct 5th at 11:59 PM PT)
Here's one big link to all of the polls! VOTE NOW!
The next Stretch Goal is at $40k and I'm extra eager for this one because it'll unlock a little trio of mini pins that I'm really excited to reveal, and I hope you like them!
In the meantime, I've been sketching up potential poses for the new Aspirational and Reality Cat pins. Which ones are your faves? (And can you guess which would be which?)
Hello everybody! Thank you again for such a great launch, we blew past the goal for a bonus flag on each familiar on day one!
This poll's results will determine which flag is added to the collection of Chaotic Queer Cat pins! Please keep in mind that the cat is going to be black no mater what, because that's the most chaotic type of cat, so think about what flag you most want to see with this black cat.
Hello backers, I got news from the manufacturer that the pins are ready to ship to me! It should take 2-3 weeks for the pins to reach me once they ship, assuming there's no shipping delays. After that it'll be another 1-2 weeks while I grade the pins. Once I have the pins graded, I will send an update with all the pin photos.
Pin grading entails sorting the pins as standard (one or two minor flaws) or seconds (more noticeable flaws). All campaign backers will receive standard grade pins; except for pins marked as mixed grade. You can find my pin grading policy in my About Page/FAQ. If there are serious issues with any of the batches I will let you all know.
Survey Reminders
While you're waiting, now is a great time to review your survey to make sure your address is correct. If you lost your survey, you can recover it here.
If you still need to resolve an errored payment or fill out your survey, you should do that now. Once the rewards ship, any backers who have not paid or filled out their survey may not receive rewards.
This is also a final reminder to request a refund if you made duplicate orders, duplicate addons, or have excess credit in your Backerkit account - please read this update for more information. You can check if you have excess credit by navigating to the end of your survey where you can review your order, it will be labeled as "Credit Remaining." Here is an example:
Reprinted Demisexual Angel Keychain
One more thing: I got the reprinted Demisexual Angel keychains! Here are photos.
Thank you all very much for your patience, and I hope you all love your pins once you receive them. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
Since we unlocked additional flags for each familiar (thank you!), this poll's results will determine which flag is added to the collection of Corvid Dice Collector pins! Please keep in mind that the corvid is black metal no matter what, and the lines between the dice colors are also black, so consider which flag you think you'd enjoy best under those circumstances!
Hey everyone! Just wanted to pop in and explain why I haven’t been on much. My house has been without power for the past 5 days because of the hurricane. Luckily we are all safe and sound. I did use that time to work on packages, and I will be dropping them off now that things have settled down considerably. We had some close friends in chimney rock and luckily they are also alright apart from being very shaken up. Thorne has actually already arrived, so there will be no need to send out the survey I was going to. With any luck all packages should be sent out by next week. I’m very please to be getting these out ahead of the schedule that I previously set, and hope you will be even more please once they are in your hands.
Wanted to let everyone know how things were going and thank you again for being here!
Oh my gosh, you guys, I am completely overwhelmed and humbled and so grateful for all of your amazing support for Coping Cats!
I truly wasn't expecting the campaign would grow so much in just the first 24 hours and I appreciate your patience while I catch up!
• For the $12k Stretch Goal,the Void Cat pin has a solid lead so I'm calling it the winner early! Please go vote in THIS POLL to choose which design is your favorite for our Void Cat pin! The poll ends at 11:59 PM PT tonight, so go vote now!
• For the $15k & $20k Stretch Goals I need you all to choose the next items you want! It's the same selection as before - washi tape, acrylic keychains, or a new cat pin! Choose one, the top two will be our winners. VOTE HERE before the poll ends at 11:59 PM PT Thursday!
All three of these new unlocked items will be included at no additional cost in the Whole Clowder Pledge Levels! Early Bird discounts are still available so this is a great time to upgrade your pledge if you've thinking about it.
Our next stretch goal unlocks at $25k, so please stay tuned for more info on that, I have a feeling we'll crush this next goal before the end of the day.
<3 Carrie
P.S. I also wanted to give a shoutout to these great projects from my fellow Honey Scamps art collective pals:
You might have already noticed Chonky Bears because they're our Cross Collab partner! Crystal Tea, my partner from Just Say No and artist Justin O. have combined forces to create this fantastic collection celebrating the bears of Katmai National Park. The first Stretch Goal has already been unlocked and there are more to come!
How can you even resist these adorable bears?
Wear a dead fish on your head and sink the rich!
And my parter-in-fright from Folkgore, Kim Kuzuri is bringing us the best in cetacean memes and 80s vibes with Killer Style!(This one is close to my heart and home because it was a local Washington orca that started the dead-salmon-hat trend in 1987!)
First off, you have my sincerest apologies for the delay in between updates. For the first time in my career as a full time artist I have had to take on a 2nd full time job in order to support my family, which has caused a significant delay in my fulfillment times. Had I known at the beginning of this campaign that I would start a second job midway through, I would have adjusted the projected timeline accordingly, but I can honestly say that I had no idea how draining, time consuming, and stressed out working two full time jobs plus raising two toddlers would make me. This year has been so difficult and I am truly so sorry for letting that affect my work.
While this experience has been very eye opening for me, I never intended to give anyone any uncertainty in regard to this campaign, so I am very sorry for any caused by the delayed communication. I am constantly striving to better myself as an artist and as a person, and I will learn from this to be better in the future.
Thank you for your patience! Some of you have been around since the beginning, through all six of my pin campaigns, and know how much I love to create art and share it with the world. I’m sorry for this unusual delay, which isn’t what you’re used to when supporting my work. For those of you that are new here, and this is your first campaign with me, I’m sorry for the first impression I’ve given. You all deserve full transparency when putting your trust and faith into a crowdfunding campaign.
I also apologize for getting personal, but I felt you all were owed an explanation for my delays.
Now on to the project update itself. Since my last update when the pins were on their way to me, i have since received them, graded them, packaged, and am almost 50% through fulfilling backerkit pledges and preorders now.
This process has been slowed by my second job, but I hope to be completely done within the next 2 or 3 weeks and the campaign will officially come to a close.
For those of you who pledged in the first 48 hours, your early bird incentives are already packaged with your pins.
Another little pin update I have is for those of you who preordered howls castle through the preorder store. Originally this pin was 2.5 inches, but due to the amount of detail we increased the size to 3 inches, so this is a big little guy. The biggest pin I’ve ever done. Here’s a little preview:
I think that’s all for now. Thank you, as always, for your support.
Killer Style hit its stretch goal! I'll now be able to add a second embroidery placement on the hats! The additional placement will be on the back of the hat, with "Sink the Rich" in an arc on the Rock Yachts design and some salmon-shaped fish bones on the Salmon Fashion design.
This is a smaller project, so my stretch goals are modest, but if we make it past $4k all backers will also get a free sticker. Here's a preview look at the two designs I have sketched up that backers will be able to vote on if unlocked.
