Hello everyone! I have some project updates to share, along with production photos!
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Pin Production:
I am pleased to be able say that we are still on track for an October delivery! Pin production with the new manufacturer is moving along well, with many pins awaiting only polishing, plating, and silkscreen. Kitsune pins were the first to go into production with this new manufacturer, and the entire Foxfire kitsune set, and the mini pins for Kitsune Blind are currently on their way to me now! I expect to recieve all of the finished pins by the end of September. Here are some production photos of the pins at different stages.
Note: the large Kitsune blind pin will have red markings. I put it in the finished section because it had some silkscreen components added. It will have the red swirl markings when you receive it!
Edit: By request, here's what I have for deluxe Phoenix fire. I do not yet have photos from the deluxe pin's production run. Notes: This was part of the sampling process and is not one of the final production pins! The sample's purpose was to approve enamel colors and the UV sparkling gradient effect. The size of this pin and the base enamel colors were approved and can be considered accurate. The sparkling gradient will have a transluscent fill i the final version. This pin has missing enamel and chips that will not be present in the final production run, and does not have the spot color silk screened burning feather tips and talon scales. ---------------------------------------------
Pledge Manager Lock:
Please note that your ability to change your order in the pledge manager is going to lock at the end of August 31. If you want to make any last minute changes or additions to your order, this is the last chance before fullfillment begins!
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Sticker Addons: By request, I have added the brushed metal stickers to the Pledge Manager. Please note: 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 are randomized, but if you already spent $50+, you are guaranteed to get one of each design. Please order the brushed metal stickers only if you want to guarantee a specific design or want doubles.
I also made 5" x 7" kiss-cut vinyl sticker sheets to take with me to conventions. These sticker sheets are now available as a final addon option before the pledge manager selection locks at the end of August.
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Upcoming Campaign: On September 7th, my next enamel pin campaign will launch. It will feature axolotl dragons and hognose amphitheres! Feel free to follow my campaign prelaunch page for updates!
Note: Herpetology dragons will not affect the delivery or timeline of Elemental Myth. All of the artwork and assets for Elemental Myth are complete, and all items are ordered and in-production. I'm simply waiting for manufacturing on Elemental Myth to conclude so that I can begin shipping!
Another short update today: I'm still waiting on pin remakes! I've been in touch with my manufacturer and confirmed that pins are still in production—early September is the rough estimate for completion.
Apologies for keeping you waiting, but of course, I would much rather the coating issues be fixed and you receive good pins! My hope is remakes will arrive early September, and the remaining orders can be shipped out before October rolls around.
I will keep you updated on the timeline and let you know of any further delays or changes.
If you've received your pins, feel free to reach out and let me know! :D And as always, if you have questions or issues with your order, please let me know via email at [email protected].
At the time of this update, I am just past the 50% fulfillment mark.
I am having to temporarily pause fulfillment of orders containing Parker while I wait for the remaining plush to arrive, which is estimated to be around September 20th or so. Orders that do NOT contain Parker will continue to be processed as normal. I have roughly 35 orders to process in that segment.
In the previous campaign update, I had requested those who backed for Parker to fill out a survey letting me know if they were okay with receiving a special Parker. 128 backers filled the survey out, and the majority picked Option 1. I just want to let folks who selected option 1 know that I will be processing the store credit sometime in the next couple weeks. For backers who selected option 2, I have made the arrangements to your pledge rewards and processed your pledge as normal. For backers who selected for option 3, I have done my best to pick out perfect Parkers, and anyone further who I was unable to fulfill I have placed 'on hold' temporarily while I work to process the rest of what I can now. Once I get everything in motion, I will remove the hold and process your orders without Parker.
I know this is confusing, and I apologize for it. Here is the current situation for backers who are confused. Parker had a bit of a stanky leg situation resulting in hand-sewn repairs for his legs. The repairs still have some visible blemishes (in addition to some very large heads, or other quirks), and I have made the judgment call to set them aside and not ship them to backers. Steven has submitted a new production batch of Parker plush that will ship with another future order. I also have around 115 Parker's that were pending dispatch (they were also being repaired) and are on their way to me now alongside some straggler stock of Porter, Strawberry, and a handful of costumes. I am hopeful the stock that's on the way will be satisfactory for backers, but should they arrive and I feel they are a tad too scrambled for my comfort (I never want anyone to receive a plush and be upset with the quality!) I will need to process all remaining pledges and ship Parker separately once the new batch arrives, which is estimated to be around 3-4 months from now).
The good news is.. A lot of you have supported multiple campaigns since this one took place, and I feel relatively confident that I can easily pop a Parker into an existing order throughout the campaigns I've ran this year. I will handle and take care of all arrangements for any orders that require this. There is no action needed on your part aside from just your patience. If you have backed a Parker and receive your pledge without him in it, just know that I have already arranged for him to ship in a future order you have open with me! :)
For now: I am kindly asking for your continued patience and understanding.
I understand some folks may have issues with waiting longer, especially folks who this is their first time supporting a Noopy campaign. I apologize for any inconvenience or feelings of frustration and disappointment. I am doing everything I can to get this resolved and find solutions that work for everyone, and continue to keep the conveyer belt system running smoothly.
If you have questions, concerns, or need to express your feelings of frustrations (or if you just want to know your options for refunds or exchanges) or have issues with your order that's arrived, please email me directly.
It has been a bit and I wanted to update you all on how the project is going. Besides surviving the insane heat weeks in the Netherlands I've also been taking a little slow and chill period. But back to work now!
Shipping process All the not-combined orders are shipped off since the last update! All that's left are all the combined orders. Due to the summer holidays and summer conventions we are delayed with packing and shipping them off.
Fulfillment overview so far. 'Send & Remind' contains tip-jar-backers as well but 7 in total didn't fill in their survey.
Roundbirbart and I did meet up to combine all the products but haven't gotten the time to pack them in shipping parcels. With it being 230 parcels this will take a bit longer. Our guess is that we'll be able to pick this up again late August/early September. Just know it's all set aside and your frogs and birds will be send to you. Until then we thank you all for your patience!
Missing payments and surveys As an maintenance overview there are currently 7 backers who did not fill in their survey. Knowing from past projects these will never be filled in if they are not filled in right now so after the end of September I will accept these pledges as donations and close the project for them.
There are also still 2 backers whose survey aren't paid yet. These are filled in but not yet paid for possible tariffs, add-ons or shipping costs. I will keep these open until end of September, after that I will accept them as donations and close the project for them. I have put aside the chosen enamel pins for these two backers, just waiting on the last payment.
I have also send an email to Andrea R directly regarding their missing order from last year's August project with Poison dart frogs & Salamanders. If would be amazing if you could reply to that email before end of August! The email would have come from studioappeltjesgroen et gmail.
Look at the cuties of the collab freebie enamel pins!
Leftover enamel pins in my webshop When ordering stock for the crowdfunding I always order with a buffer and thus have leftover stock at this moment. I sell these at upcoming conventions (Terraria Houten, 20th September is the upcoming) and in my webshop. I wanted to inquire if it would be ok to offer these in my shop soon, while many are still waiting on their orders and thus their pins. My shop isn't super active in sales (around 5 orders per month) but it would mostly be a task I can tick off the list. But I wanted to hear your opinion first before doing this. Otherwise they will pop in the shop the moment all the combined parcels are packed and waiting for pickup.
Next enamel pin project A little sneak for the next crowdfunding project is the Pintober one with Fall times with Floris! Another small (around 6-ish enamel pins like last year) with Floris the Frog as the main focus. All in fall, autumn and October vibes. If you wish to get updates, please hit that follow button.
Upcoming new smaller pin project!
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.
This was a truly insane journey the last few weeks, but I am happy to say that ALL COMPLETE ORDERS ARE NOW SHIPPED!!!
My progress has been slow and my days very long, often sitting until 10pm after work to complete these as soon as possible. My fantastic friend Blossom Beast has come down all the way from one end of Ireland to the other to help out with this and packed over 80 packages in three days. That's insane!!
This campaign has taught me a lot about streamlining the process, how various exports options work, how to use a label printer, and how to bulk upload shipping labels instead of copy pasting line for line. So thank you to all my friends and mutuals who have helped out along the way. This community is incredible and it's an honour to be part of everyone's lives here.
Be sure to look out for your packages, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know how you guys are liking the socks! :D Customer feedback is SO important to me, it helps me improve my art, craft, and how I approach designing new products. You can tag me with your goodies and reviews on Instagram, Bluesky, or Tiktok, all under @Erujayy
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Now for the stragglers.... There is around 16 of you who haven't finished filling out your pledge, or have problems with cards. That's quite a big number actually. So if you have any problems with that and would like help, either email me at [email protected] or contact backerkit staff please!
I will leave the project open for the next few weeks so people can fix up their pledges.
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Since this is going to be the last update of this project, I'm giving one last shoutout to my next campaign BUGGED OUT which is launching in a few weeks! Don't worry EU folk, nothing changes for ye, I will still ship.
I now also have some of the first pins designed! One of which will have community polls to decide for colours, so make sure to sub to the new campaign to know when those polls go live! :]
I wanted to give another update on fulfillment progress and answer some questions via a short FAQ below.
➡️ Current Fulfillment Process
I am still in the process of fulfillment, but I've had a few short delays that have me moving slower than I was for the first 50% of the orders I have already shipped:
• I mentioned in the previous update that I was exhausted and burnt out from shipping almost 300 packages in the span of 2 weeks. I stayed up until 3am several nights to ambitiously get as many out as fast as I could. I realized pretty quickly that I could not keep up that level of momentum and that I needed at least a week of rest to help myself recover.
• I took a long weekend trip out of town and unfortunately came back sick. Fast forward to today and I am only just now recovered enough to get some work done, though I'm still fatigued and weak.
All of this to say, things are still making progress! I just cannot work at the volume I was before and need to take the remaining packages slower.
➡️ Enamel Pin Remakes
As a reminder from a Previous Update, remakes of some quantities of some pin designs are in production and in the process of being remade. I still have yet to run out of A-grades for fulfillment, so this has not hindered or delayed the packing of orders for me yet!
As soon as I have word that the remakes are on their way to me, I'll be sure to let everyone know here!
➡️ Received The Wrong Pin?
Early on in fulfillment I had mistakenly mixed up two pin designs and sent out a small handful of packages with an incorrect pin in the order.
I had begun to send out replacements to people impacted, but to make sure no one is missed, if you have emailed me with this issue and you have NOT yet received a replacement pin, please shoot me another email!
I'm juggling quite a bit and want to ensure the orders that were impacted can get the pin they wanted!
➡️ Packages Returned To Me
A few packages have unfortunately been sent back to me from the first batch I sent out due to no forwarding address or incomplete addresses. ❗❗
For those who had emailed me previously asking to hold their package while they move, your packages were on hold and were not affected!
However, for anyone who's package is listed as "SHIPPED" on their survey page, please review the tracking number sent to your email to ensure your order did not get sent back to me.
If your package was affected and sent back to me, you will have to pay the cost of shipping again in order to receive your items! I have no control over this, and once a label has been "used up" via being sent to an incorrect address, an entirely new label has to be purchased with new postage.
➡️ How Do I See My Pledge Status?
In order to view the status of your pledge, go under your account info and select "Your Pledges & Surveys".
Once you have reached the surveys page, you'll want to click over to the "YOUR SURVEYS" Tab.
If your Black Cat Botanicals Pledge is found under "ACTIVE", that means that your order has not yet shipped out.
If you don't see your pledge under Active, select "COMPLETED" to find your status there. If it's under the Completed section it should say "Your Order Has Shipped"
If your order is marked as SHIPPED, you can find your tracking number in your email inbox that you used to make the pledge. The email comes directly from PirateShip, the company I use to pre-purchase shipping labels.
➡️ Conclusion
All in all, I'm still working towards the finish line on this project and I appreciate everyone's patience on this!
As usual, any and all project updates will always be posted here publicly when there is news as consistently as I can manage.
I'll be vending 6 conventions in a row meaning I'll have little to no time to pack just wanted to let all backers know, the pins should be arriving sometime this week but fulfillment will not likely to start till October DUE to the conventions.
We are excited to share that pin production is now complete! 🎉 Hooray! 🥳 The pins are currently being shipped to us (in Canada) and our US fulfillment partner, White Squirrel (in Everett, Washington, USA).
📸 More Production Photos 📸
Our manufacturer also shared some more progress photos.
For this campaign, we decided to outsource packaging to our manufacturer. It was our first time outsourcing this part of the pin production process, and we think they turned out great! We added safety compliance information to the back of the packaging to adhere to new US safety policies for imported goods.
We also received a photo of the Healing Lotus Spellbook with UV-printed details. We think they turned out fantastic!
📦 Shipping Addresses Locking in 48 hours 📦
We sent out reminder emails earlier today that shipping addresses will be locked soon. This is your chance to update your shipping address. Addresses will be locked in 48 hours. We will be preparing for fulfillment so that we can ship out everyone's pledges as soon as the pins arrive.
For any other concerns about shipping addresses, you may also contact us via email: [email protected]
🇺🇸 US Fulfillment 🇺🇸
Due to the changing US tariffs and international import/export policies, our pins will be shipped directly from our manufacturer in China to our fulfillment partner's warehouse in Everett, Washington (USA). Our fulfillment partner, White Squirrel, will be fulfilling all US orders.
All Canadian and international (outside North America) pledges will be fulfilled from our studio in Richmond Hill, Canada. We have split our production shipment to ship to both us (located in Canada) and our US fulfillment partner, White Squirrel.
We are excited to ship everyone's pledge rewards soon! If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us on Backerkit or via email: [email protected].
