It's been a few weeks, so we wanted to return with some bird updates! We are still working on finalizing the process for making the birds! This has involved many hours of sweating over the laser cutter. We are extremely close though, so we wanted to show some photographs! Please note that these are still very much a work in progress. Different birds here are from different experimental techniques!
We've had incredible success with getting the colors to print accurately, and we were able to sand the wood to get a really nice, smooth finish (best seen in the hatching rainbow bird)! The main issues we are trying to sort out are scorch marks on the birds and how best to apply the protective coating. There is a possibility that it will be unavoidable for the white/lighter colored birds to have a tiny bit of discoloration on the edges due to the nature of the laser cutter (i.e. burning wood), but we have refined and perfected the process a LOT since we started!
We are also experimenting with the possibility of being able to make the stud earrings on our machine to our original size specifications!! They are still a little experimental but those are the tiny birds in the photograph. We will be replying to all emails about the earrings once we figure out this process more!
Thank you all so much for your patience. We hope seeing these progress photos is exciting for you! Hopefully our next update will be when production on all of the birds has officially started. โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐
We are here with a bird update! ๐ค The outsourced products for the campaign have arrived! Almost everything looks perfect. The mini stickers are so cool with their lineless effect, and we love the magnets! They have a super strong hold and the dishwasher one turned out especially fun.
The only issue is with the earrings. ๐ฅ We got some confusing information from our manufacturer, and while the dangle earrings look perfect, the studs turned out larger than we hoped. They are 0.8" instead of the 0.6" we were hoping. We have included some images showing what their size looks like in comparison to the dangle earrings, which do have 0.6" pieces. If you ordered stud earrings and would be unhappy with this larger size, please comment here or email us at [email protected] and we can issue a refund for the studs!
We also have an update about the manufacturing process as a whole! Unfortunately one member of our business has been very sick since the beginning of August with a variety of medical issues. This has really slowed down our production on the wooden pins. It has also been more time consuming than expected to configure the printing and laser cutting due to the quality wood we are using. We still hope to be done with the birds within the next couple of weeks, but we ask for your patience with any delays! If anything, we will try and ship out the orders that contain no pins first to make sure people can get their products as soon as possible! ๐ฌ All of the medical issues have been very unexpected and have made this process much more difficult than we hoped.
We will keep you posted in the next few weeks about how the birds are progressing! Thank you all so much again for your support. โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐
We have incredibly exciting news. We have received the laser cutter!!! ๐ฌ It is amazing and has been so fun to experiment with. We are so grateful to have been able to afford such an incredible machine thanks to your support. ๐
Because of getting our machine in, we've been able to start prototyping the birds!! ๐ค Please note that these are VERY early prototypes. The birds are cut out of 1/8" wood here (will be 1/4" for the final products) and we were experimenting with how to apply the color onto the wood. The final birds will have even better and brighter colors than the best example here! The branch pictured is also just cut out of paperboard, since we didn't have a big enough piece of wood to test it. ๐ชพ It does give a good idea of the size, engraving, and ways you can display the birds!!
The only bird we have prototyped so far is the blue bird. ๐ Since there are different shapes of birds, you will absolutely be able to fit more than five birds on your branch! These were the only prototypes we made since we did not have much sample wood.
We wanted to get the laser cutter in and tested before we bought any supplies to actually make the birds. Since the prototypes have gone well, we have now ordered everything we will need to fulfill the campaign!!! ๐ฌ This includes wood, glue, pin backs, and more. We also bought some supplies to make the colors pop on the pins and varnish them with a satin varnish! Finally, we have placed the order for all of the products we will be outsourcing (like stickers and magnets). ๐ต
Delivery times for these items are all across the board, and we will keep you posted when different things arrive! We are still estimating being able to ship your birds out in September. ๐๏ธ
Thank you all so much again for your support!! Please feel free to comment if you have any questions at all. โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐
Thank you to everyone for getting your surveys in so fast! We are only missing 10 surveys now which is GREAT. Since this campaign has so many options, getting your feedback helps us a ton with figuring out what we need to purchase. ๐ต
We want to keep everyone informed about next steps! We've been considering this after the campaign did so well, and we have decided to buy our very own laser cutting machine to make the birds ourselves! ๐ธ We will be purchasing the xTool M2 which can print onto the wood before cutting it. This will be PERFECT for getting the exact colors of the birds! This will also open up so many future opportunities for our business. We are so incredibly grateful to everyone who supported this campaign. ๐
Some products will still need to be outsourced, and we will be getting that order placed soon. We will update everyone on that as well as how the process goes with our laser cutter! We have used a laser cutter before, but not one that can print onto the wood, so there may be a little bit of a learning curve to make sure your birds turn out perfectly. โ
Once we receive all the surveys, we will be making the promised graph of the most popular colors! For now, we can give you a little hint of some of the most and least popular choices. โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐
Most Popular: Black (35), White (28), Yellow (24), Purple (24) Least Popular: Brown (1), Dark Brown (1), Light Grey (2), Light Orange (2)
That's all for now! We will post an update soon about how the production process is going! Thank you all SO much again for your support with this campaign!!! ๐
-SStwins Designs ๐
(P.S. From now until July 22nd, we are running a ready to ship campaign, Sprinkle Pete's Summer Shop! All products for this are already in hand. We have lots of huge deals on our most popular products! We would be honored if you'd like to check it out!!!)
We are officially sending the first of the surveys!! This is something called the smoke test to make sure there are no issues, where surveys only go out to a small number of people. If everything goes well with these first ones, everyone else will be sent their survey in the next couple of days! โ YIPPEE!!!
Please make sure to keep the campaign story page open to the 'About this Campaign' color list while you fill out your survey if you bought 1" stickers or pins! This will help to make sure you get the right colors. The grid aligns perfectly with the image so you'll be able to match the colors to their names!! โค๏ธ๐งก๐๐๐๐
You can also add additional items to your survey at this time! FYI any money spent on the survey (including shipping fees) will not be collected for at least a month. ๐ธ So you have plenty of time to add any items you would like! You will also be able to update your survey after you first fill it out if you need to. We will send out another update when surveys are being locked! ๐
Everyone has automatically had a 'Be Who You Are' and 'Bird Stack' sticker added to their pledge! ๐ค If you were a qualifying backer, you have also had one or both of the free pins added as well! Just a reminder that if you are a sticker only pledger, you will NOT be receiving free pins due to shipping costs! ๐ฌ You will get the free stickers though!!
Thank you all again! ๐ Please comment on this post if you have any questions at all. We are SOOO excited to start getting you your birds! We're also very interested to see what colors people are the most interested in (maybe we'll make a graph just for fun). ๐
~SStwins Designs ๐
(P.S. If you know anyone who would love some birds but missed the campaign, tell them to check out our pre-order store!!)
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