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Lore and myth, indigenous tales speak of creatures in everyday life. Hiding within shadows of leaves, in jungles, some benevolent, others....not quite. An Enamel Pin collection celebrating Tokii's Philippine heritage, showing off creatures, and monsters.
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There is only one day left before the launch of this campaign and all the other wonderful projects within the Pinquest Event. After the usually scheduled story and pin reveals we'll also be including project recommendations from project's we find exciting in this event as well as a pin vote to decide what order our milestones should be unlocked in.
The Finale to the Filipino Folklore Storyline is down below, I've updated the Trigger Warning List to reflect the last leg of this story. Like last time if what you read on the list below makes you uneasy but you would still like to participate in or read over the rest of the update's activities, then you can scroll down until you see another red block that signifies the end of the written story.
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About the Legends
The Manananggal's Mythology: The Manananggal from Visiyan folklore belongs to a group of creatures called 'Aswang' which are all shapeshifting and man-eating malevolent monsters. The manananggal specifically is a bloodsucking creature that hides itself among humans during the day under the visage or disguise of a human itself. However, by nightfall it will go to a secluded space and/or preform a special ritual towards the moon - doing this lets the Manananggal transform into a horrific monster; it separates it's upper body from it's lower body at the hips, the torso sprouts wings, and it takes flight leaving it's legs behind. While on the hunt the Manananggal looks for sleeping victims to drain them of their blood by using it's proboscis-like tongue, however, it's favorite meal by far are the hearts of unborn children which it eats out from the bellies of pregnant women. The only way to kill a Manananggal is to locate it's lower body and sprinkle salt or smashed garlic cloves upon it's exposed innards. Doing so makes it impossible for the halves to connect and keeps the monster from putting it's disguise back on - if it is still severed by the time sunlight hits it's bodies, then it will burn up and die.
Our Manananggal Pin: The Manananggal will be a two inch pin with hard enamel colors and gold plated metal line art. It will have two prongs and use a series of transparent enamel, half-raised metal, recessed metal, and red dangling chains to depict it's gutty-works. Additionally the wings will have two colors of stained glass that make up a gradient, and the whole piece will take advantage of UV printing for it's details.
The Garlic Clove Minipin: The Garlic Clove takes inspiration from classic wards against bloodsucking creatures most of all the Manananggal. It will be made up of three 0.5" garlic clove pins and one 0.5" apostles cross which represents the holy trinity from Christian belief. The Garlic Cloves will have silver plated metal line art with no prongs while the cross will have gold plated metal lineart, recessed metal, and two prongs. Everything connected by silver chain.
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Thank you all so much for tagging along while we wait in anticipation for the project to launch! We have greatly enjoyed our research and creation during our preparations for this campaign - we can't wait to have these pins in our hands! If you have comments or suggestions you'd like to share about the Filipino Folklore project be sure to share them down below in the comments. However! before we get too carried away please take a look at the other campaigns launching beside our project that we're exited for in the Pinquest 2 event. Also stick around for one last reminder of the pins offered in this campaign so that you'll know who to vote for in the pin vote attached to this update! By voting in the pin vote you help us to decide which order the pins will be unlocked in :>
Here's some other projects we love!
The Pin Vote
A Quick Review:
Daligmata: Gold, UV Printing, Glow in the Dark Enamel Celestial Bodies: Gold, Glitter Enamel
The big day is almost here,TOMRROW we launch Filipino Folklore and we have great news to share! FREEBIES!
Bonus Backer Freebies: Every backer will receive a digital print of the original sketches from this campaign. (Also let us know if you actually like these, we decided to feature them as physical prints in higher pledge levels but would love to know feeback on them)
Returning Backer Sticker Freebie: 3" Gold Foiled Bakunawa Variant Sticker from Blades, Beasts, and Blooms
Regarding the returning backer:
The official winner for the Returning Backer Poll was the holographic Bakunawa, but every comment from more vocal returning backers in the community mentioned the call back and gold foil from BBB.
So to sate this division I decided we we'll feature both designs in the campaign, the exclusive being the gold foil callback since we won't have much opportunity to feature that- while the holographic one being available as a sticker option in the survey. Overreaching polls isn't my favourite thing to do, but I thought this might be the most happy medium.
Additionally, those of you interested in a *new* bakunawa pin in style of this campaign.....We decided to remake the general design style of the holographic sticker into our half of the interlocking partner pin with Abysmal Kaiju's Dragon's and Beasts. Back both projects and get BOTH pins for free :)
Partner Project Pin Freebies: Back both CritCreations Filipino Folklore, and Abysmal Kaiju's Dragons and Beasts 2 to receive special pins from both projects for FREE. Interlocking and intertwiningBakunawa and Minokawa pins
PinQuest 2 Minipin Freebies: Back 3+ projects withing the PinQuest 2 event and get freebies for EACH of the projects you back. From our campaign you will receive a 1 inch gold pin of the "Tome of Ancestors"
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Pin Design Updates:
We do our best to work with our manufacturer ahead of time to see if our designs are able to be created at their size and complexity before backers see them. For our stained glass pins we had to make a few adjustments to make them work a bit better- but for added fun we'll be experimenting with a new kind of effect, gradient stained glass. To keep the detail and whimsy of the campaign theme I decided to put some fun UV printing swirls and designs on top of the stained glass. Let me know what you think! Smudge
Old Smudge: Blue was too small for stained glass effect
New Smudge: Gradient stained glass effect with UV print smoke lines ontop
The one with the most changes is the Agbarbarangay (ghost boat pin)
Old Agbarbarangay: Purple Strained glass too small, swirling lines too stable, too thin
New Agbarbarangay: Gradient stained glass with white cloud swirlds. Turned the ghost white to make it stand out more as a focal point, added dark transparent enamel over boat insides for contrast.
Ibong Adarna
Old Ibong Adarna: Manu requested lines to be removed from the entire music area, so I just redesigned the flow and notes
New Ibong Adarna: First 7 notes are now from the vocal anthem of the Philippines (celebrating freedom from Spain), instead of the piano accompaniment. Notes, and varioius layering lines on the song baground are all UV printed.
How it'll look on a darker background- since the white of the project updates might drown out the white.
Apologies again for design change up, hopefully it's not too drastic. Personally, I really like the new designs....with the flexibility of UV print I could add more whimsy and movement into everything, feel free to comment your thoughts.
🌑 Storyline Post - Part Three - The Anggitay and the Tikbalang🌕
Hello Backerkit!
We hope you're ready for the next installment to the Filipino Folklore Storyline and for more pins and mini pins to be revealed! I will be frank and say that this leg of the story is perhaps one of the hardest to read so far, but Tokii's given me her two cents on it and thinks you'll all be hooked for sure!
Like last time, I've updated the trigger warning to reflect the content covered in this part. If the warnings make you uneasy but you'd still like to see the new pin reveals at the bottom, then there is a second matching red block to give you a visual landmark of when the story has ended!
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About the Legends
The Anggitay's Mythology: The Anggitay from Tagalog and Batangueño folklore are often said to be the female counterpart to the infamous Tikbalang and serve a purpose of antithesis comparatively, but more on that soon. Anggitay are the Filipino equivalent to the Greek centaur, having the top half of a beautiful woman with the bottom half from the waist down being that of a horse, the most notable difference being that they are often times depicted as having a single horn on their foreheads similar to a unicorn. They are said to be most often found during sunny days deep within the jungle, seated at a tree, wearing clothes in similar style to the Filipino people, and whereas a Tikbalang is known for it’s malevolence; the Anggitay is said to have a calming aura, will help lost travelers through the jungle, and is drawn to precious metals and stones like gold, silver, gems and jewels.
Our Anggitay Pin: The Anggitay will be a two inch pin with hard enamel colors and gold plated metal line art. It will have two prongs and use UV printing for it's gradients as well as recessed metal accents for it's horn and hooves.
The Tikabalng's Mythology: The Tikbalang is fromfolklore all over the Philippines and is an infamous and old legend. So old in fact that is has a few pieces of documentation from before the Spaniards arrived when it looked more goat-ish or like a water buffalo. Though with the Spanish introduction of horses to the islands, and the often dire scenarios that came with it, the legend has been molded into the description that we are familiar with today; A dark-haired man with the long face of a horse, large wild eyes, and limbs disproportionately long to their already massive body. Their legs are said to be so long that when they squat down their knees rise above their ghastly heads. Rarely the Tikbalang is depicted with other features like small horns, giant testicles, and either hooves or clawed feet. Tikbalang are said to be playful or mischievous tricksters, capable of shifting into the visage of an old man, a horse, and back into a monster. They delight in leading travelers astray, doomed to forever walk in circles until the Tikbalang gets bored of you, and while they do not always mean harm they have still maimed, killed, and kidnapped according to many stories.
It’s said that the Tikbalang is often found patrolling its ‘kingdom’ or territory, often centered around a particular tree. Some believe that the Tikbalang themselves are the souls of great and old trees.
A very popular belief is that in the black furred hide of a Tikbalang’s back there are a few (often three) thick and shining gold hairs. Anyone who’s capable of leaping onto the Tikbalang’s back and holding dearly for their lives as the creature attempts with all its strength to buck them off, may be able to pluck out one of these golden hairs, doing this compels the Tikbalang to serve that person until their death. Failure to keep their grasp on the horse man means that they suffer its wrath, often leading them to be killed and eaten.
Our Tikbalang Pin: The Tikbalang will be a two inch pin with hard enamel colors and black nickle plated line art. It will have two prongs and use screen printing for it's patterned coat and golden hairs.
The Wedding Ring Minipin: The wedding ring design is meant to depict either of the rings from our own story, and was designed from patterns we saw while conducting our research for this campaign. More notably we decided this ring should be gold due to the fact that the Philippines was often considered the "Islands of Gold" and is one of the most gold-rich countries in the world. It will be a 1" minipin with gold plated metal line art. It will have a single prong, and use a variety of metal recessing to keep a wonderfully golden shimmer. The Gunong Blade Minipin: The Gunong blade depicts the shorter variant of the much longer Kris Sword which we featured in the Philippines pin for our previous campaign Blades Beasts and Blooms. Where the Gunong differs is that not only is it smaller, but this small size also allows it to be worn more freely making it useful as a tool beyond the longer sword's purpose as a weapon alone. It will be a 1" minipin with hard enamel colors and black nickle plated line art. It will have a single prong, and use screen printing for it's highlights.
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We hope you've enjoyed so far! We're nearly finished with the story and even closer to having shown you all of the pin designs for this campaign! Let us know your thoughts in the comments below :>
Tokii here. So we got some activity mentioning how much people liked our Bakunawa design for our Journal, and thought it would be nice to put a poll up for our returning backer reward. Originally I was planning on releasing some limited gold foiled Bakuna designs as a call back from our Blades, Beasts, and Blooms campaign, but wanted to see if people prefered a brand new design instead.
Gold Foil BBB Bakunawa
New Holographic Bakunawa (promise the quality will be better and the outline will be cutmore properly)
Would love your votes! Thank you again, I'm itching for launch day, a little over a week away!
I spent a bit of time designing a journal especially for this campaign. I thought the Bakunawa would be a beautiful design to try, belly full of the 6 moons it's eaten, as it tries to eat the 7th. Spine has moon phases, and there star motifs, and Filipino national flowers framing the covers. Hidden at the top is a small visage of the Philippine sun as well. Overall I did my best to represent this lore in a easily digestable page that symbolizes the culture as well, so I hope you enjoy it!
Now....I do have a poll, I imagine the book cover to be a textured black vegan leather, but what style of embossing escapes me. Which do you think we should go with?
🌑 Storyline Post - Part Two - The Mumbubuno and the Ibong Adarna 🌕
Hello Backerkit!
We're excited to release the second leg of this four-part story alongside the pin designs to be revealed with it! I was really happy to see that you guys enjoyed the more grim take for a campaign storyline so we'll be continuing in-theme. I've updated the trigger warning to reflect the second part of this story, and if you don't think you'll enjoy the story based off what is warned but still want to see the revealed pin designs, I've kept the same red block at the end of the story as a visual landmark for you to know when the story has ended ;>
Without further ado, here is Filipino Folklore part two!
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About the Legends
The Mambubuno's Mythology: The Mambubuno comes from Zambale folklore and is one of the many different mermaid-like monsters believed to inhabit the Philippines, or more specifically the western side of the central Luzon region. Like most merfolk, Mambubuno are half fish and half human by description, but unlike the usual stories Mambubuno’s lower half is split into two tails as opposed to one, and they are said to have unorthodox powers compared to most similar legends (one of those powers potentially being that the mambubuno is the perfect mascot for a coffee shop). Mambubuno often live on rocky shores with deep underwater caverns nearby, and if you travel to these places you run the risk of becoming the target of a Mambubuno’s obsession. Should they be entranced by you, they will seek out opportunities to wrestle you into the water, submerging you below the waves and allowing you to magically breathe underwater so long as they will it. From there they will take you into their lair to live with them forever.
If you convince the Mambubuno to let you out, it will always be under the pretenses that it is only a temporary visit to the surface world, and if you try to escape then the Mambubuno will try to drown you. Even if you manage to make it back home you will find all your friends and relatives aged, decrepit, or dead… this is because for every day you’ve been kept prisoner in the Mambubuno’s lair, a full year has passed on the surface.
One fun detail is that Mambubuno are sexually dimorphic; they both tend to be covered head to tail in scales, but for the male they are slimy and black, while the females often have vibrant patterns and colors on their scales instead.
Our Mambubuno Pin: The Mambubuno will be a two inch pin with hard enamel colors and black nickle plated metal line art. It will have two prongs and use UV printing for it's colorful scales and shining hair.
The Adarna Bird's Mythology: The Ibong Adarna or Adarna Bird is from a poem by the same name ‘Ibong Adarna’. It’s debated who exactly wrote the original story, but some popular beliefs is that it was either José de la Cruz or Huseng Sisiw. The poem tells the story of an ill king, his three sons, and the Adarna Bird who is believed to possess healing powers with it's magical song. The king sends his sons out one by one to catch the Adarna Bird, but are all lulled to sleep by it's music and turned to stone when the bird subsequently defecates on them. All hope was seemingly lost until the very last son, Don Juan, encountered a wise old hermit who tells him how to complete his task without falling asleep. The story continues on with Don Juan capturing the bird, saving his brothers, as well as his father, but not before he falls victim to the jealousy of his brothers. If you're interested in reading the whole story, which is much too complex for us to get you a short description that does it any justice, you can find the translated poem here: The Ibong Adarna Poem Our Adarna Bird Pin: The Adarna Bird will be a two inch pin with hard enamel colors and black nickle plated line art. It will have two prongs and use UV printing for it's beautiful feathers, alongside stained glass enamel to depict it's song. Another fun detail is that the notes included in the Adarna Bird's song are the first notes in the Philippine Anthem! :>
The Calamansi Minipin: The calamansi design is meant to depict the dayap lemon used by Don Juan to stay awake in the Ibong Adarna poem. It will be a 1" minipin with hard enamel colors and gold plated metal line art. It will have a single prong, use screen printing for details, recessed metal for it's leafage, and stained glass enamel for it's center and juices. The Adarna Feather Minipin: The Adarna feather depicts a feather from the Adarna Bird. We based our rendition of the Adarna Bird after the real life Philippine Trogon! It will be a 1" minipin with hard enamel colors and black nickle plated line art. It will have a single prong, and use UV printing for it's colors and highlights.
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We hope you've enjoyed so far! We're halfway through the story and over halfway done showing you our pin designs! Let us know what you think in the comments below :>
When the moon hangs low over the rice fields and the air hums with old magic, the spirits of the kapuluan begin to stir.
From shadowed forests to starlit seas, this enamel pin collection brings beloved Filipino folklore to life...each character inspired by the stories once told in hushed voices, passed down through generations, and carried on the wind. These aren’t just myths… they’re guardians, tricksters, wanderers, and watchers of the night.
Filipino Folklore is an enamel pin campaign celebrating Tokii's Philippine heritage, bringing stories of the islands to life to more main stream media. Monsters, spirits, creatures galore- follow to get periodic updates and be part of the creation process!
