At last, grading and carding is finally done. Thanks for all your patience!
This is a long one, but the TLDR: A number of designs have moderate to high flaw rates. I've already had a lot of back and forth my my manufacturer and they've assured me remakes will begin ASAP. When photographing pins last update, I apparently managed to pick the best of the bunch, and these issues only became apparent after grading began in earnest. 🫠
If you're getting any of the following designs, your order will likely be delayed:
Copper Grimoire Dangler
Copper Owl
Black Nickel Salesman Dangler
If you're getting the following and none of the above pins, your order could be delayed:
Black Nickel Mirror Dangler (more info on this below)
Black Nickel Cat Dangler
Black Nickel Sugar Bowl
Still in-progress from before:
Copper Ms. Foxglove Dangler. I just received a sample photo of her adjusted color. I'm asking the factory to confirm one of the colors is correct before sharing.
Partial Fulfillment Starting Soon
I am going to fulfill the orders I can. There are quite a few pins I can ship, but the pins with the most flaws are so popular, 60%+ of all orders are getting 1 or more of these designs. 😩 I can still ship a small number of these, so you may get lucky!
I will get a list of backers I can fulfill, charge cards and lock addresses for those backers only. If this includes you, you should get an email from Backerkit informing you of a cc charge and/or address locking this weekend or early next week.
Since the remake process just started, please expect they'll need at least 4-5 weeks to finish and ship to me. If you don't receive any notices from Backerkit, expect your order to ship closer to or in September.
The Issues
You may know that copper is prone to tarnishing/oxidation. Copper pins are coated with a glaze to prevent this. Black nickel pins are also somewhat oxidation-prone, and some manufacturers coat black nickel pins with this glaze—I think that's somewhat uncommon, but one of my manufacturers does this (I worked with 2 this campaign). The flaws I'm seeing are almost exclusively due to the coating on the pins not curing properly and the coating accumulating an unacceptable amount of debris or scratches.
Odd blotchy coating on the Grimoire
Blotchy coating w/ debris on Light Owl. Also weird, possibly oxidized plating
Blotchy, dusty coating on Salesman.
The cat appears to have sprouted real cat hair.
I don't want to clutter this update with bad pins; while these are particularly noticeable examples, this is the nature of the issue over and over. Other than the coating, the craftsmanship of the pins is great. It's profoundly frustrating and a bit heartbreaking to see so many beautiful pins be ruined at the finishing stages.
Black Mirror Minor Issue
I didn't see it until recently: there is a misplaced bit of screen print on the top right tentacle of the black nickel Mirror. A droplet was moved from the top teal area to the light green area. It's tiny and so close to the enamel in color, it's often not noticeable. It's possible some folks won't really care or even see it—but it's there and I wouldn't feel right not saying so.
This misprint is on the proof I approved—it's my mistake. As I was preparing my files, I must have accidentally moved the droplet and didn't notice because the colors were so similar. 🥲
Since it is relatively minor, I want to ask backers of this design before ordering a reprint:Would you be OK with receiving the pin with this small misplaced print, or would you rather wait for a version with perfect print?
If you are OK with this misprint Mirror, and you aren't getting other pins affected by high-flaw rates, your order can ship. If you are also getting a high-flaw rate pin, I will still try my best to ship your order sooner rather than later.
A: current manufactured mirror vs. B: original vector artwork
Zoomed in
Even zoomed in, it's hard to see lol. If it were missing entirely I never would have known, but there's print there, just misplaced.
An email + Google form survey will be sent to backers affected 1-2 days after this update. If you backed for the black nickel Mirror, the Google survey is also here for your convenience. I'll leave it open for 2 weeks. For backers who don't fill it out, I'll be sending a corrected version later.
Thank you again for all your patience!! I am so sorry about the delays and my mistake on the Mirror.
I will keep you folks updated as things progress. I should have a sample photo of the adjusted Ms. Foxglove very soon, but I'll let this update percolate for a handful of days.
Hello Everyone! Thank you for supporting the Elemental Myth Campaign!
This update contains an an updated delivery timeline, updates on production, a switch in manufacturers, photos of what went wrong, samples from the new manufacturer, and additional freebies I will be including as gift for Elemental Myth backers.
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Timeline Update
I've updated the projected timeline here and on the campaign page. Here is the new expected timeline given the delays with sampling and quality issues with the original print run.
January 22,2026 - The Campaign begins.
February 12, 2026 - The Campaign ends.
Mid-March 2026 - Surveys are sent to Backers to allow for design selection, additional addons, and shipping charges.
April 2026 - Pins, Pendants, Earrings, and Packaging go into production!
May 2026 | September 2026*** - Production Concludes
May 2026 - June 2026 | September 2026*** - Product arrives to be checked, graded, and packaged.
June 2026 - July 2026 | October 2026*** Rewards are shipped to backers.
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Production Delays & Switching Manufacturers:
There's been several delays with production. My original manufacturer will no longer be making the pins for this campaign, as the original production run of the pins ended up being a lower quality than I found acceptable. There were issues with pantone colors not being matched correctly, incorrect glitter being used, different shades of gold electroplating being used across the collection, and thick, grainy UV spot color.
This was unlike my prior orders with this manufacturer, which had good color accuracy and better quality control and thickness on the UV spot color.
It is disappointing to have to restart production with a new manufacturer. While getting the items remade will be costly, I want to feel good about the quality of the pins that my backers receive, and the first production run just wasn't up to standard. I apologize for the delays that this has caused.
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Production Round 2 with the New Manufacturer:
All pins have been reordered and are in production with the new manufacturer. I've been very pleased with the samples and updates that I've received so far! In addition, this manufacturer offers silkscreen printed spot color, which prints flat areas of enamel on the surface of the pin, resulting very smooth, even spot colors.
Below you can see the final gradient, sparkle effect on the elemental energy. I love the smooth, gradient transitions and fine-particle sparkle that these have. Please note that these pins were for sampling the elemental effects, and are not "finished" samples with the screen-printed areas of spot color, like the markings and the shadows.
The new manufacturer is hard at work getting these pins into production, and we expect a new estimated delivery time of October, 2026.
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Pledge Manager, Charges, and Information Lock:
The Pledge Manager will remain active, and all orders will be editable until the end of August, at which point I will send out a lock notice through e-mail. After orders are locked, backers will be charged for any additional items added in the pledge manager stage as well as shipping in the first week of September. All addresses will remain unlocked and editable until I have the pins in hand. I will send out email notifications and project updates for all of these milestones, so none of this will come as a surprise.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or are having any issues with the Pledge Manager, please reach out and I will do my best to address them! You can send a message through the Pledge Manager "contact us" form, or here in the comments if you prefer!
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Sticker Gift:
I've created brushed metal stickers as gift for the backers of Elemental Myth. These stickers have a matte finish across the surface, and the metallic characteristics show up in the elemental energy regions. These stickers will be included free with your order depending on your pledge amount. Everyone who backed the campaign will be getting one free sticker. Everyone who spent $30+ will be getting two free stickers. Everyone who spent $50+ will be getting all three stickers.
These stickers and the metallic effect came out nicely, and I wanted to show my appreciation for your continued patience as I work out the production issues this project has faced. Thank you again for supporting this project, and I look forward to delivering your pins to you in the future!
I wanted to pop in for a quick update on fulfillment, please read!
➡️ Current Fulfillment Process
I have been fulfilling packages at mach speed, and I'm pleased to say at 287 packages, we have now crossed the threshold of over 50% completion for fulfillment for this project! 🎉🎉🎉
➡️ I Need A Short Break 😴
I've stayed up until 3am a few times this past week in order to fulfill as many as possible, but in the process I burnt myself out. I'm going to be taking this week as a rest week to help recover before I hit the ground running on packing once again. I appreciate the patience!
➡️ Enamel Pin Remakes
As a reminder from the Last Update, I am still waiting on enamel pin remakes to arrive, but I will keep fulfilling orders until I run out of the designs that are needed for replacements. Please be sure to go back to the previous update if you need a refresher on this!
➡️ Order Issues
Lastly, I've been receiving a few emails about pin mix-ups in orders (my brain did not want to tell the difference between the words Peony and Pansy at times). I've already begun sending out replacement pins for those who emailed me who were affected, but I'll continue to keep an eye on my email for anyone else that may have an issue with their order!
That's all for now! As always, if anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out!
The time is nigh, it has finally come time to ship out everyone's rewards.
Here's all the things that have happened since the last update!
All pins have been graded! We have a pretty good ratio going. All pins are pre-backed except the minis. I'll be backing them myself depending on how many each person got.
HOW GRADING WORKS
B-grades classify as: - Overfilled/underfilled epoxy - Small missed enamel spots - Small spots in the enamel - Visible scratches or blemishes
The biggest rule I follow is if you can't see the problem from an arms length away, it is not a flaw worthy of being a B-grade.
Of course every backer will be getting A-grades.
SOME THINGS CONSISTENT ON THE PINS
The Notocupes pin has it's UV printing done on the top of the epoxy dome. This is a slight difference to what I originally wanted, as I didn't know the details of the process. I'm considering this a learning opportunity for future pins as it doesn't really get in the way of enjoying the pin.
The freebie Animal Akademia pin has a lot of flaws in it. There was a mistake in the order process and while it was meant to be 1.5in, it instead accidentally got swapped with the mini Thylacocephala. So the freebie pin is 1in, while Thyla is 1.5in. This has caused an issue where there are small blemishes on the metal. Since this is a freebie bonus pin, it will not be remade as I don't want excess stock of it since it was meant to be a bonus for you guys only. This is something I have noted in my notes so it doesn't repeat in the future.
OTHER GOODIES
I sacrificed myself to the heat of the attic to get all of these sticker sheets cut out. I'm glad I chose to do this in the morning of the ONE day that had slightly lower temperatures, because I think I would have actually died up there on hotter days. It was easily 40+C. A funny video spawned out of this.
The postcards look great, the stickers have special effects, and all the wooden cicadas are varnished and keyringed (is that a word?)
THE SOCKS!!!!!
Yes the socks! I got the socks. The socks are here!!!!
I coerced my brother to put together some of the shipping boxes for it.
You know... you don't realise how much almost 200 backers is until you have to store 200 boxes somewhere. I fear the requirement of a studio space may be needed soon.
I also got a label printer. So that's pretty cool. Gonna be testing it out with this campaign and hopefully it speeds up the label process a lot!
SO LET'S GET TO IT!!!
The rollout of shipping will be slow. On my last campaign I was able to pack maybe 20 packages a day- when working fully freelance. Now I only have about 2-3h in the evenings after clocking out so I expect this to take the rest of the month.
I'm going to ship in order of difficulty. Domestic order to Ireland will be first, followed by Europe, UK and then the rest of international orders afterwards.
NEW PROJECT?!
This is a formal invitation for you to join me on my next project, BUGGED OUT!!
This is going to be a mini pin project in collaboration with the Super League of Science! There will be freebies involved ;D
The pins are going to be in a different style, but full of cuteness, chibiness, and bugs :] I will also be entertaining more socks as a stretch goal!
I have just finished OMGcon in Owensboro and had a day to rest. My heart is so full from the love shown this weekend!
This campaign update will go over the shipping fee charts! Shipping fees have been 'enabled' for this campaign, which means that backers can now view their surveys to see their anticipated shipping fees. Please note these are in USD and for International customers it does not include any vat or import duties that your Country may collect.
Here are the charts:
USA:
USA
AUSTRALIA:
AU
CANADA:
CA
EVERYWHERE ELSE:
I am still tweaking weight categories for certain regions behind the scenes, so there might be adjustments to your shipping rate shown (this applies primarily to Non-USA orders such as Netherlands, Singapore, etc) depending on if I find any major discrepancies. The various rate increases that have been going on the last few years has really made this complicated, but I am doing my best to keep it lumped into the same weight classes, regardless of the zones.
"How do I know what my package weight is?"
This is tricky to explain clearly as most of our backer packages contain more than 1-2 items, but in general, most packages fall within the 3-9oz class if you ordered 2 plush or less.
Orders containing all plush + all costumes fall into the 16-28oz classification.
As a reminder, you can find out your exact shipping fees by viewing your backer survey. Not sure where to find it? You can access it here! (be sure to use the email you backed under/filled your survey out under!)
"Which shipping provider are you using?"
Currently, USPS is the most reliable carrier. Some customers may have better rates using UPS Ground, which I will use on a case-by-case basis (if it's cheaper, it's usually by 1c..)
International packages are shipped through Asendia Economy. The arrival times vary but typically between 2-4 weeks.
If you would like me to upgrade your shipping to UPS Ground / UPS Expedited etc please reach out to me via email and I can make an adjustment to your order. Please note for International customers there is a likelihood of UPS imposing Import Duties. The upgraded shipping for Non-USA packages is around $25-$45 depending on the location and weight of the package.
"When will I be billed for Shipping?"
I am still waiting for final confirmation of the plush preparing to ship out to me. Right now I am guesstimating I will begin processing payments for shipping around June 29th. Backerkit will give everyone a heads up and also send out notices to do address changes if needed. You will have a 48 hour notice ahead of time. But at the time of reading this update please keep it on your mental radar that we are preparing this step!
In the event your payment method fails, backerkit will notify you and you will be prompted to remedy the payment. While there is no 'deadline' to remedy the shipping fee payment, just know that I will not be shipping orders who's shipping fees have not been paid.
The 'deadline' to remedy your shipping fee payment will be the time it takes me to fulfill the campaign. For example, if I begin to ship orders August 1st and process the last 'shippable' order on August 15th-- That will be the 'last call' before I mark your pledge as abandoned. This does not apply to customers who have notified me of delays in payment. As long as you communicate your situation with me, I am always more than happy to accommodate or help find solutions!
Other than that.. We are just waiting for a word back from Steven about the status of the Noops! Thank you again for your patience and continued support!
Hello, popping in for an update! Sorry things have been a bit quiet on my end, I had to wait for all the surveys to finish so I could lock my final quantity for the bulk orders! Thank you for waiting!
Here is the current status of everything: Pudding Pins: Completed Pudding Bags: In Progress Pudding Socks: Not Started (Starting this Month) Pudding Hats: Not Started (Starting this Month) Pudding Bear Plush: Completed
The enamel pins have been finished and arrived to me safely in the US, I'm still doing inspections but I'm overall happy with how they turned out! Here are some pictures:
I started the order for the leather & vegan leather versions of the Pudding Bags, they will look slightly different from each other color wise due to the nature of the materials and custom painting!
Leather Swatches: (Mint is being custom painted to my requested Pantone)
Lining swatches:
The bag manufacturer had to wait a bit for the leather company to finish customizing the leather, they've recently received everything and have cut the pieces for assembly. They have started assembling the lining and internal pockets.
Regarding the bucket hats and socks, there were some slight changes to the documents I wanted to make to the drip shapes for the bulk orders so I haven't started those yet but I've been in contact with the manufacturers so those should get started this month!
I'll post again when I have more information to share! Thank you! :)
There isn't really much to update with everything in production But I wanted to let you all hear from me again to know I'm still progressing on Frogstastic Frogs 2! I did get some photo's from pins from my manu so I'll have to share those of course!
First some important info as a reminder.
Survey info The survey is still open for changes, you can still switch around any choices of pins you'd like. I won't lock the survey until we're closer to receiving the pins. This due to the tariff issue as well in the survey.
Pay Over Time Backers should now also have received their survey!
As a reminder for the tariff costs non-US backers might saw pop up: I will manually remove these before I charge the survey. The tariff percentage might still change so I'm gonna leave this for the last moment so it's the most accurate for all! (It's currently set to 35,5% tariff but I believe it's 18,8% at this exact moment.)
If anything changes with the survey (locking them, charging the cards, etc) I will first give you all a heads up for this with another update.
Desert rain frog socks Yesterday my email was blessed with sock sample photo's! I have asked to change the 'background' colour to a different slightly darker one and will wait on that new sample photo before I approve for the full production. Very happy with the pattern and other colours tho!
Better photo for the colours of the sock. He's so frumpyyyy
Un-edited photo's, love the light differences ahaha. Each sock will have a size in the border.
Status of all products Enamel pins - production Socks - sampling Sticker sheets - done, in house Acrylic keychains - done, in house Early + Returning sticker - done, in house Pin Safari sticker - done, in house Survey filled in amounts - all set aside for fulfillment
Now for some photo's I got! All toad and salamanders will receive UV print. This will give it a bit of a raised effect which mimics the bumpy skin of toads and salamanders. All other frogs will get screen print on it, so those will be flat! Again, manu's send the best flavour unique photo's so lighting will be all over the place. Just trust the process, haha.
Golden poison dart frog
Cane toad
Great crested newt
Marbled salamander
Malagasy rainbow (UV print by mistake, will be corrected.)
Miyako toad
Japanese common toad
Tiger salamander
Giant salamander
Luristan newt
Herpetology collab pin
As always if you need to reach out to me, do not hesitate to contact me via Backerkit support (the 'Contact us for help' button on your pledge page). Or you can use the contact form on my website, that way you reach me immediately by email and I can help you out much easier. Please keep an eye on your email when you reach out. I usually respond within 48h to your questions.
