I'm back with more pin sample photos! Though I will preface with this: these pins aren't quite right at the moment, and you'll probably agree, so please know before diving in that I am already working with my manufacturer to fix these.
With that, here are the samples for the Crescent Moon and Night Sky:
The night sky especially needs a lot of work. The skin color looks all wrong - it's supposed to be a dark indigo/purpleish blue, same with the crescent moon's skin as well. My manufacturer is working on getting more suitable glitter colors in stock to make these look more like my artwork.
In addition, the opal flakes also aren't really what I was envisioning and I'm hoping they can tweak it to look closer to what I had imagined.
These two suffer from the same issue as the other alternate colorways with the very obnoxious multicolored glitter. I'm getting more samples made with different glitter so these are more subtle, and as soon as I have new samples to show you guys, I'll send another update.
Here are a few more samples of smaller pins:
So far the filler pins look perfect, no notes. The sun & moon small pins are the same story as the rest - working on getting smaller glitter.
I know that these photos show that the pins aren't quite there yet. It may take a few more sample iterations to get them just right, so that may cause some delays. I hope you guys understand. I'm not happy with how long these are taking, but I'm more concerned with making them look just right than I am with getting them out as quickly as possible, so thanks for your patience 🫶 I won't rest until they all look perfect!
Once I am happier with the new samples, I'll let you guys know! I will keep the surveys unlocked for the time being, so that you guys can make changes as needed when more samples come in!
I know I sent an email update yesterday already, but I'm sending another one today because the manufacturer sent me the first round of half-complete sample photos this morning and I wanted to share them! Very exciting!!
Right now, the only pins they've sent me pictures of are the standard pins. I don't have pictures of all the jumbo pins yet, so I will share those in another update later on when I have them.
These are half-complete, so here are a couple things to keep in mind:
These do not yet have the correct gold plating applied.
These do not have any screen printing applied.
First off, here are the original colorways:
The Sun
The Moon
Ordinary Star
Black Hole
Comet
Neutron Star
Supernova
Dark Matter
I'm ESPECIALLY in love with how Dark Matter turned out, he looks SICK AS HECK. Exactly what I was hoping for!
Here are the changes I'm planning to ask for:
Hoping for smaller glitter in The Moon's dark half. It's a bit too noisy right now.
I'm going to make some small tweaks to Neutron Star's hair gradient - mostly the outer color looks a little to green-tinted compared to the rest, so I'll be tweaking that color a bit.
The center of Supernova should be white with glitter instead of whatever weird purple color they have going on, though that might just be the color of the glitter coming through - still, I'm hoping they'll be able to adjust it to look more white instead.
Other than those changes, I'm quite happy with how these are turning out so far!
Next, here are the dark/alternate colorways and the cross-collab pin:
The Sun - Alternate
The Moon - Alternate
Ordinary Star - Alternate
Black Hole - Alternate
Comet - Alternate
Neutron Star - Alternate
The Moon has WAY too much glitter and it's too silver-y and the glitter is too large. I am going to ask them to use finer glitter so that it turns out looking more like my Patience pins from my Virtutes Angeolrum campaign, so it's more subtle and shimmery instead of...whatever that is right now 😆
Overall, the glitter is just too large and too noisy, and isn't quite the effect I was hoping for, so I'm going to do some back-and-forth with the manufacturer to make the glitter smaller/finer and look more pleasing.
I am hoping to tweak them so that the darker colors with glitter end up looking more like the clock face on this pin:
It's a little hard to see in the photo, but the effect in the clock face is more of a subtle shimmer that looks sooo pretty in real life. I am confident that the manufacturer can do something more like this with the darker glitter colors!
All-in-all, I'm pleased with the progress on these, and I am really looking forward to making the changes outlined and seeing the jumbo pin samples, too.
Surveys are still unlocked from the shipping price increase I announced yesterday, so if these pictures make you want to change your order, you can do so. Please keep in mind though that the pins have already been ordered, so any additional pin counts may result in delayed shipping and/or not having enough a-grades to cover all orders.
Anyway, that's it for this update! Hope you enjoyed seeing these progress pictures, and I'll talk to you again when I have more photos from the manufacturer!
Today I have some un-fun news for you. Due to huge price hikes in USPS shipping rates that have happened recently, I've come the unfortunate conclusion that I will have to raise shipping costs for this campaign (Celestial Incarnations) & my current campaign (Basic Witch Ita Bag).
Domestic (USA) shipping rates
Previous rate: $6-$8
New rate: $6.50-$10
Canada shipping rates
Previous rate: $12-$19
New rate: $14-$20
International shipping rates (everywhere else)
Previous rate: $15-$23
New rate: $16-$24
These rates are mostly based on your package weight, so it is dependent on how many pins you order. These price raises are because of the astronomical gas prices in the USA which have resulted from the oil crisis, and sadly I do not have any control over it.
I've never had to do this before, but with how expensive shipping has gotten, I unfortunately cannot continue to cover the extra costs from these price hikes out-of pocket like I have previously.
Because of this, I have decided to temporarily unlock all orders in case you wish to remove items from your add-ons due to this price increase. I will re-lock all orders 1 week from today, on June 4th.
Thank you for understanding. Hopefully my next update will bear less unfortunate news!
It's been a bit since you heard from me - thanks for your patience! I got a few things for the agenda on today's update.
Pin production status
All the artwork proofs of the pins have been approved and samples of them are now being made! Since these pins are complex and there are a lot of them, I expect it may still be a bit of time before I have sample photos to share with you guys, but once I do I'll share them.
The original timeline said I'd start shipping these in July, but because of the time things have been taking, I'm going to push that back to August. Sorry for the delay! :( The new adjusted timeline is on the campaign page now if you want to reference it.
Prints, stickers, and photo strip status
I have already received the Sun & Moon foil print, Spaced Out freebie sticker, logo sticker, and the kissing booth photo strip!
They all turned out so shiny and beautiful, I can't wait for you to see them in real life! :D
The only extra I haven't received yet is the Sun & Moon sticker sheet, but it has been shipped and is currently on its way to me.
Pay Over Time Backers
The final payment date for POT backers has passed and all of the remaining surveys have now been sent out, so please fill those out ASAP!! 💖
That's it for this update, actually - it was shorter than usual, which is nice for you guys not having to read a huge wall of text!
Hopefully the next update will have pin sample photos for you guys to see, if not, you'll hear from me sometime in June.
This message is for backers who used Pay Over Time as their payment method, so if you didn't, you can disregard this update!
I'm feeling a bit foolish writing this because I mentioned a few times that I had methods to determine what my item counts will be including POT backers and wasn't going to need further information from you. However, yesterday when I was doing my item counts, I came to the realization that this campaign is too complicated for my usual method to work :(
So I scrambled to get a Google form up for you guys to fill out as your pre-survey for the campaign. Please fill it out ASAP otherwise you will risk your order not being included in my item counts and/or I will be making guesses about what you will order that might not align with what your preferred selections will be.
The deadline to fill out your pre-survey is April 15th. I am sorry to rush you guys on it but I really thought this wouldn't be necessary until yesterday and I don't want any more delays in getting the items ordered. 😭
The link was sent out via my email [email protected]. Please check your email to get your pre-survey link. If you don't see it in your inbox, please check your spam inbox as well.
PLEASE NOTE: You will still have to fill out your official BackerKit survey once you pay in full and receive your survey link!!
