My friends and I have been SO hard at work sorting and carding pins, picking orders, folding boxes, and booking shipping labels.. Tomorrow I'm driving 411 packages to my shipping partner! The end is getting in sight!
Getting there!
If you didn't receive a tracking code yet..
.. there's a good chance that you picked a Bufflehead or Barn Owl pin during the survey. Buffleheads were remade, but came back from plating flawed. The manufacturer let me know they will be remade again. I hope to have them in two weeks. I also ran out of Barn Owls for fulfillment - their restock should come in the same box as the Buffleheads.
If neither applies to you, it was just bad luck that I didn't get to yours yet - I've been going up and down to the emergency vet with my parrot Remi last week, and I wasn't able to spend as much time packing as planned. I'll be out of town next week, but I'll do my best to have the remaining orders out the week after!
Behind the scenes... My little green guy was very eager to come home from the vet
How can I track my package?
International packages ship with Intime Delivery which, depending on the recipient's country, uses Deutsche Post or PostNL Global Mail, and BackerKit's tracking system does not always recognize these tracking codes. You can get the most accurate status on your package by appending your tracking code to this URL:
The pins are here, and I'm really happy with how they turned out! However, I have to hold off on fulfilling them for a little longer. The stock for my last plush project just arrived as well. Those backers have been waiting a lot longer, so I want to get them shipped before starting fulfillment on this pin project. I think that works out ok, as I'm still waiting on a couple items (stickers, bufflehead pin remake, and some add-on pins), so by the time the plush have gone out I'll be all set to start fulfilling on this project. I aim to have the plush out before the end of the month, so it looks like we will start fulfilling pins early August. Heads up: Since I'm getting ready to ship soon, in 48 hours I'll be charging cards for add-ons and shipping. Addresses will lock a little later - you will get another heads up when those lock as well.
Thank you again! I'll be updating once again when we start fulfillment.
Doreen
P.S. can't get enough of birbs? I'm doing a mini plush campaign later this year. Check out the Pocket Beeps!
Yesterday I received the remaining pictures of the pins, most of which have now finished production and are being packed for shipping. Yay!
Unfortunately the bufflehead pin needs to be remade. I missed some errors on the proof (my fault) which resulted in the wrong colors being used on the pin. It's still cute, but the color of the water now doesn't match with my other water bird pins, and I intended the back to be darker grey.
Bufflehead on grey water
We also got the final grackle and hummingbirds samples. I think these look great!
Black-chinned hummingbird
Anna's hummingbird
Grackle
And here are the others that were missing pictures, but have now finished production:
Junco (Grey)
Wren
Catbird
Red-winged blackbird
House finch
California condor
Loon
Timeline: I'm expecting to receive the bulk of the pins in 2-3 weeks, with the exception of the bufflehead remake and some add-on pins that are being restocked (pigeon, barn owl). Unfortunately this coincides with the arrival of the final batch of plushies belonging to my budgie & cockatiel project. Those backers have been waiting for a good while, so I'd really like to get those out first. For now my conservative estimate is that we will start shipping in August, but I'll have a better estimate once the pins are in hand and once the plushie backerkit has been wrapped up. I'll write another update when the pins have arrived!
As we're waiting for the last pins to finish production I'm eager to share these two color tests with you. Note that the grackle is an unfinished sample - it has no color fill and no screen printed details yet. However I think the semitransparent enamel on rainbow metal looks super cool! I'm excited to see these guys in person. The same goes for the Anna's Hummingbird. Even though the picture's lighting is poor, I think the pink chrome plating really makes it pop!
Grackle - incomplete sample
Anna's Hummingbird
Current status: Waiting for color test: Black-Chinned Hummingbird Production: Grackle, RW Blackbird, Wren, California Condor, Anna's Hummingbird, House Finch, Junco (Grey), Catbird, Loon, Bufflehead All others have finished production!
My work is slowing down a bit so I'm getting ready to start some sketches for next Pintopia. Let me know in the poll below what subject you'd like to see most. And if mini plush are your thing, I'm working on a new project called Pocket Beeps. Feel free to check them out!
It's been a while! The factory has been hard at work, and I'm getting a trickle of pictures in, which I wanted to share with you. As always, factory lighting isn't very kind to the colors of the pins, so keep that in mind if colors look a bit dull or wonky! I'll update again when they've shipped :) See you soon!
