Apologies for the silence! I've been patiently waiting for the pin samples I ordered to arrive. I had an email from the manufacturer on Friday to say they had been marked for despatch that day, only there was a problem, which was why they were getting in contact.

Essentially, I'd ordered all of the samples to be made in stainless steel except the Animal Akademia pin - to make this one more special I ordered it in brass. Unfortunately, this hadn't been noticed and instead all of the pin samples have been made in steel. They asked if I wanted to wait while it is remade - I said no, please send it as-is - I'm so eager to see them - but still, we lost a few days and I'm hoping the samples will be despatched tomorrow.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share some pictures of the Animal Akademia pin in progress. I had previously had a sample made in January. You can see it here on the left alongside a wooden sample on the right, on top of the original watercolour drawing.

The eco-metal version came out quite faint, but the manufacturer gave me some advice and I decided to persevere.

Here's the photos they've sent me of the new Animal Akademia pin sample, which looks much better! I needed to put a layer of white behind the illustration, and the manufacturer recommended a dark border, so I made the shape of the whole pin into an oval. I decided to take this approach with all of the pin designs. I've also added my origami scorpion drawing as a stamp to all of the pins!

Hopefully, I'll receive the samples soon and share pictures with you on about Wednesday this week. I'll be locking orders shortly after so that I can place the final pin and stickers order, so please make sure you've made any changes you need to before then. I'm waiting for *just 1* survey to be completed, which is fantastic - thank you all for getting your surveys completed so quickly! I'll lock the orders (with 48 hours warning), but won't be charging cards until I'm ready to send orders out - we're probably looking at the end of April for this.

As well as the pin samples, I'm waiting for a keychain sample for my next project, Deadly Tangle Clothing and Accessories, which is part of the Beasts and Botanicals group-collab I'm running with Jess aka Loadofolbobbins. If you're a creator, do consider joining us - we're accepting applications until this Thursday 2nd April. Also make sure you check out the other fabulous projects on offer, and of course follow for a pre-launch freebie when you back the project!