This update is copy pasted across a lot of open campaigns, sorry if you get spammed all at once. And some of it won't be relevant to every campaign, I do have updates for each but it'll have to be next month, we're very busy with this latest shenanigans -_-. ALL currently open campaigns have their pins on order though, everything is moving forward at least.
Sorry this update is a bit late. The last few weeks have been rough - my assistant and I both got Covid. I can't do any physical packing without her help and she ended up with a nasty cough that lingered for ages. Then we lost a close friend of ours very suddenly. Its been very difficult.
Today we got notice that EU shipping regs are changing again. Once more charges are going up MASSIVELY. They're moving to a £5 handling fee per item code. So that's one fee for enamel pins, one fee for stickers, one fee for notebooks, etc. A large mixed order can easily stack up a £20+ handling fee which is insane, which is on top of the shipping fees themselves. And then there's also new paperwork requirements that we're not sure our manufacturer can fulfil.
Changes are coming into place from Nov 1st. We've dropped everything else to fulfil as many EU orders as we possibly can before then. Unfortunately the Curiosity Shop pins aren't here yet (although they are on order now). Tarot orders are going to be fulfilled without cards for now, since sending a single pack of cards later on will be much cheaper anyway. If that's you, you should just have gotten an email warning we're charging your shipping soon. We'll be sending orders out as soon as your shipping payment is processed to your card, you won't be charged again to ship the cards later on, we'll cover that.
Unless something stupid happens, we intend to have all EU orders fulfilled for Midnight Ocean, Mythical Garden and the Summer Sale before the new regs come into place. If you have multiple orders across these three campaigns (but no others), we might be able to combine your orders for lower fees; you'd need to email us within the next three days. Unfortunately we don't have all the products needed for the other open campaigns yet. We do have a couple of bounced pledges and shipping charges for the EU on those campaigns. I totally understand if you can't afford to clear it right now, just please know this might be the last chance to.
While we pride ourselves on continuing to ship worldwide, we might have to cease shipping to the EU after this if we can't find a way to fulfil the paperwork obligations. If that's the case, and you have an open order, you will be refunded in full. We will be leaving the option open to back future campaigns, with the warning that if it comes to shipping time and nothing's changed, then you will have your pledge cancelled and refunded automatically. That's because it changes so often, there IS a chance it'll be fine, or something will be in place, by the time it comes to fulfilment. Just please know there's a risk of cancellation; but you won't lose any money.
Our advice is that if you do choose to support us anyway, keep the number of different items to a minimum. We'll make sure that either freebies aren't included, OR we'll send along something that matches a code you already ordered.
Unfortunately this is all very much out of our hands.
Alright this is just a quick one, everything's in production and there's no real news, just a couple of previews.
This is the stained glass sample approval for the Sunshine mini pin. Just missing the screen print.
And the enamel section of the wreath quicksand pin. The quicksand sits behind this piece, making for quite a thick, heavy pin (which is why we went for three posts). They're fully soldering the posts for this one too. Its gonna be chunky, but it is looking good!
No updates for the normal designs since they didn't need any approval, but I thought you might like to see.
Looks like there was some confusion with this one because I'm getting a lot of emails asking why there's no option to choose a large pin. Donut and Mongo is the only large pin in this campaign, there are no more to choose from. 'Large' is any of our pins in the 2.5" size range.
If you actually wanted to choose a standard pin, you can put which one you wanted in the notes section and I'll switch it out and throw in some stickers :).
Survey smoke tests are about to go out, and then the rest should go in a day or two if no problems.
We don't have any older pins listed because they're all up in the summer sale right now and I don't know what stock will be left. But the stationery stuff I can get printed in small numbers so its all good.
As always, if you could fill it out as soon as is convenient it really helps knowing which designs are more popular, and how many of each to order. You can change your order right up until we charge for shipping (there will be a notice).
It can take us quite a bit of time to get packages out once we start shipping, so make sure you indicate if you want to be early on in the process :).
Campaign's wrapped up and we did great! Hit a big surge at the end too. Thanks for all your support, as always :). Since we ended nearly halfway between anyway I just went ahead and unlocked Thowra in the survey.
Surveys are already nearly done honestly, they should be out soon. If its convenient, the sooner you fill it out the easier it is for me to get production underway. We are right now figuring out how to integrate the new EU shipping charges - there will be more information about that before the surveys go out. Just be aware for EU backers that shipping will probably be quite a bit higher than it has been in the past, unfortunately T_T. When you're picking your add-ons, bear in mind (in the EU only) there's now a fee per item type in the box. We're not sure if it counts for freebies, but if it does we'll adjust accordingly. Not going to send you free stuff that actually cost you money!
Last but not least is our final series spotlight, which I saved for... Warrior Cats.
Jayfeather is our second tier unlock, a 2" standard size pin with layers of screen print. The preview is gold plated, but we might switch to black nickel depending on the manufacturer's recommendations (I don't know if the details are going to get lost).
Damn I wish I'd been the right age when these books came out. I would have been all over warrior cat RP boards. I was just a tiny bit too old at the time. I still read the books though, it was kind of a 'guilty pleasure' that I didn't admit because it would be embarrassing or something stupid like that. I could get through a whole book in an afternoon and at the time I didn't have the energy for anything bigger than that.
Listen I know this character is controversial but damn. An asshole disabled character was a revelation to me. As a disabled person myself, I truly hate toxic positivity. It is a scourge on the community. And so many disabled characters are that kind of inspo porn, 'aspirational' archetype. Or the self sacrificing kind. Or the key to the abled main character learning not to be selfish. Ugh. Hate it. Jayfeather is an asshole and I love him for it.
Also his character arc is something that pretty much every disabled person goes through, but doesn't get written about enough imo. Especially for younger people. Learning to accept there are limits to what you can do, but that is okay because there will still be something out there, you just might have to adjust your expectations a bit to find it. The 'you can do anything if you just try hard enough' mindset is so damaging. Because no. You cannot just do anything, and no amount of trying will make the impossible possible, no matter how hard you want it. And when you fail to do that thing, even the most basic of things, you will feel like the world's biggest fuck up. This came along at the exact right time for me to learn that lesson, and I think its why this series is so important to me personally. Little bit of artist lore for you there.
Note: These are just my opinions, as one person in a massive, diverse community. You are more than entitled to feel differently, and also to choose to use different language in reference to yourself.
Overall though, the books are easy reads. There are definitely a few uh. Dubious choices in there I won't lie. I did a re listen not that long ago and yeah you can also definitely tell more than one person worked on them. If its a genre that you like overall then you'll probably enjoy them, but they do not hold back on the cat vs cat violence. You may cry over cats. Just saying.
That's it for now. I'll do another update when surveys go out, and then it's all going to go quiet for a bit while I get production underway. Thanks everyone ~
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