Hello everyone! We're in the final 15 hours of the campaign, and I have a few updates to share!
Toffee Hognose Pin Final Design: I have a finished the toffee hognose design for our 4th pin.
Hognose Pin #6 Poll Results: Sunglow won the poll for the final color morph, so our last little friend will be orange and yellow! I'm currently working on it, and the design will be finished in time for Pledge Manager selections!
Axolotl Mini Pins: I have confirmed pricing on the axolotl mini pins. (These use the same design as the earrings and stitch markers, but will require a new mold because the circular hole at the top of the earrings and stitch markers would look silly as a pin.) These pins are sold individual and are now available as addons. They are $8 each. Those who pledged for 3 blind bag or 3 pin pledge levels can purchase them at the discounted rate of $7 each. Those who pledged at the 6 pins, 6 blind bag, or 12 blind bag pledge levels can purchase them at a discounted rate of $6 each.
Surface Finish Test Pin Samples: I have been working with my manufacturer since August to get test samples of the leucistic axolotl dragon pin to ensure that all of the details reproduced well at the intended 42-48mm size of most of the pins of this campaign. The red copper metal is so beautiful with these pins!
Hard enamel is what was advertised in this campaign, and will be available for everything except the adonized rainbow chrome axolotl mini pins. Adonized rainbow chrome is difficult to produce with hard enamel.
I may opt to make the soft enamel with epoxy version available as an option as well. (If this happens, you will choose what designs and finishes you want for your pins in the Pledge Manager.) The soft enamel with epoxy has the advantage of having thinner, more delicate lines. The hard enamel has the more polished, clean surface. I'm waiting to have the samples shipped to me to decide if the soft enamel with epoxy is a finish that is something worth offering as a second option, as it would involve a second production run.
Hard Enamel - A metal pin where the recesses are overfilled with enamel, then polished smooth. This results in a pin that is polished and flat. During the polishing process, a small bit of the metal lines are polished away, which results in the lines becoming slightly larger.
Soft Enamel with Epoxy - A metal pin where the recesses are filled as close to the top as possible without overflowing. The surface tension while the enamel cures means that the middle of each recess is slightly lower than the enamel that touches the edges. Clear epoxy is then added, which makes the surface smooth and flush with the metal. No polishing occurs, which means that the final metal lines are thinner. The clear epoxy creates a "faux hard enamel" finish. When viewed at most angles, the colors filling the pin appear flush with the metal surface like a hard enamel pin. At certain extreme angles, you are able to see that it's a layer of colored enamel that is slightly below the metal's surface, and that the transparent epoxy is a separate layer, bridging the difference.
Surprise 9K Stretch Goal Additions: We have reached 9K in pledges, which means I have a bit of wiggle room to sneak in a couple more designs! Thank you guys so much! I wasn’t planning on adding another stretch goal, but since we have the funding, it seems only right that the hognoses get some mini pins, earrings, and stitch markers too!
I am going to add a final pair of designs for a pair of hognose snake molds. These two designs have a natural hole in them created by a loop in the tail, so I will be able to use the same molds for both earrings/stitchmarkers and mini pins. Like the axolotl mini pins, I will be offering a second color variation of each pose. A snow & axanthic hognose with silver metal for one pair, and a normal & sable with gold metal for the second pair. Right now I have a sketch and a thumbnail for these designs, but they will be finished for you to review before Pledge Manager selections occur!
Pin Designs: I've been working on finalizing the designs for the hognose pins. Last update you saw the finished lavender hognose. Today I have the finished Sable and finished Snow Hognose pins for you to look over! The Snow pin will have a gradient + diamond powder used in the wings to give them a nice sparkle!
I redrew the Toffee hognose dragon pin, as I was not happy with my original sketch. The pose is roughly the same, but the proportions better match those of the other hognose dragon pins, and I like him a lot better! The results of the 5th poll were for the Albino Phoenix to be our 5th color morph. I have a rough drawing of what the pin pose will look like:
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New Addons: The axolotl stitch marker set and sticker sheet pack addons have been added and are available for purchase. For the sticker sheets, I'll also be making a hognose sticker sheet with the 6 finished pin designs. Each sticker sheet addon is for a 2-pack, and backers can choose if they want 2 axolotl sheets, 2 hognose sheets, or one of each.
I expect to have the final pricing for the axolotl mini pins by Monday. They will be available as an addon here in the campaign, and also in the pledge manager in case anyone missed it! -------------------------------------------
Final Hognose Dragon Pin Vote: The vote for the final color morph for our last hognose dragon pin is attached below! Voting for the final pin closes on Sunday, and I'll be working on getting the rest of the hognose designs polished up soon!
Thanks for looking, and I hope that everyone has a great weekend!
A Big "Thank You" for Your Support! Herpetology Dragons has been funded! Not only that, your love of these little creatures has allowed us to unlock all of the hognose pin stretch goals. This means that there will be a collection of 6 hognose dragon pins, along with a corresponding Herpetolgy Dragons: Hognose blind bag!
In terms of your pledges, this means that if you pledged for an enamel pin, you can choose any of the 6 axolotl designs, and any of the 6 hognose designs for your selections.
If you pledged for a blind bag, you can choose any amount of axolotl or hognose dragon blind bags. These pin sets will not be mixed together in the blind bags.
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Hognose Dragon Pin Designs: Here are the previews and current design status of each of the hognose dragon pins. At this point in time, only the lavender hognose pin has been completed. Pins 2-5 have final-ish drawings, and will be completed in the coming days.
3rd & 4th Hognose Color Results: Voting for the color morphs for hognose pins 3 & 4 has concluded, and you chose toffee and snow to accompany the previous lavender & sable!
5th Hognose Color Morph Vote: Voting is currently open for the color morph that we will use for the 5th hognose pin. Voting for this color will remain open until Sunday, September 20th at 12:00pm PST. Shortly thereafter, we'll begin voting on colors for the sixth and final pin! You can find the 5th pin color vote in the link above and at the bottom of this update.
New Earring Color Addon: I've been speaking with my manufacturer, and we'll be adding in a second color variation for the earrings. The black axolotls earrings will feature adonized rainbow plating. This type of plating works best with soft enamel as soft enamel allows the electroplating to be peformed before filling with enamel, rather than after. Soft enamel also allows for thinner, more detailed lines, as the lines are not ground down during a polishing stage. For the black version, we will be using a combination of soft enamel + transluscent epoxy. The transluscent epoxy creates a smooth surface and finish that's very similar to hard enamel.
Though the plating on the charms will be a red copper and rainbow finish, the fishhook earrings that go into your ears will be gold and silver colored respectively. These fishhook earrings are hypoallergenic 304 stainless steel hooks from Fire Mountain Gems. Upcoming Addons: Mini Pins - I'll be adding mini pin versions of the axolotl earrings in both colors. This requires a separate mold to be created for each pose, as the mini pin versions will not have the built in circular hole for the earring findings. Currently getting these priced out with my manufacturer!
Stitch Marker Set - I will also be adding a stitch marker set utilizing the earring designs, The stitch markers will be similar to those offered in my previous campaigns. I already have red copper colored stitch marker findings available. Right now I'm finding out if it's possible to source anodized rainbow stitch marker findings, or if those will need to be a black or silver color.
Sticker Sheets- Finally, I'm working on a sticker sheeet for both the axolotl dragons and the hognose dragons. For the sticker sheet design, I wanted versions of the artwork that had colored linework as well as some simple shading. Getting the artwork updated for this purpose is currently in progress!
These addons will be available in the next update, as well as for the results of the 5th color vote!
Thanks again for your support of this project. Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope that everyone has a great weekend!
Hello everyone! Thank you for taking a look at my campaign, and welcome back to any backers who have come from a previous project! Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback about the this project.
Backer's Choice Stretch Goals 3 & 4: For this update, I wanted to ask for your thoughts on future stretch goals. If all goes well, we will have a total of six hognose dragon stretch goals to round out the campaign! (with hognose dragon pin #3 being at $4,000, #4 at $4,500, #5 at $5,000, and #6 at $5,500! The first two stretch goals have been decided and are in production. But there are so many great colors and patterns on hognose snakes, that I thought it would be great to ask for backer feedback on what we do for goals 3-4 if the first two stretch goals are reached!
If there's a color morph that you're excited about that you don't see in the poll options, please let me know and we can potentially add it to a vote for stretch goals 5 & 6 (which will be added if the project goes super well!)
Here are the final-ish pin designs for the axolotl dragon pin series so far. All of these little guys will have a rose-gold metal used on their lines, and the lavender axolotl will have a glitter gradient in the star.
I need some help with selecting the final colors for the sleeping axolotl dragon.
This guy can either be a blue-gilled leucistic, or a copper axolotl.
Blue-gilled leucistics are mostly white with a little bit of pink and purpley-grey-blue on their gills. So the super-blue coloration is definitely diving straight into fantasy colors. I created a white variant that allows a bit more blue to show through on the wings to hopefully differenciate it from the normal leucistic. Finally, I tried a copper morph.
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