For starters, here's the artwork for Ancient Cave Cheetahs and Clever Cow: Veronika!
Modern Variant
Duality Variant
Mummified Variant
Clever Cow Veronika
Thank you for your patience while I make these designs the best they can be! I am so excited for them! The Ancient Cave Cheetahs design now has swirled translucent fill in the Mummified and Duality variants to highlight both the mummy earth tone and the radiograph red. For Veronika I had to shorten her broom to fit the medium constraints so I added her chain to give her pin some flair. I hope you like them!
Smoke test surveys will be going out over the next week! Small modifications usually take place as surveys go through, but I don't anticipate finding anything major. I've reviewed the pledge manager a few times over at this point, so if all goes well the remaining surveys will be going out around March 20th.
The next update will be for all surveys going out, thank you again for your support of this project! Starr Vipi
Hello! Thank you everyone with errored pledges that corrected them, I have been talking to my manufacturer about these designs and I'm very excited to get them into production! I was hoping to have all my remaining artworks finished by today to send out the smoke tests but the convention I had over the weekend really took it out of me, which I didn't expect. Because of this timeline setback, I've committed the next few days to get fully caught up on the artwork, graphics, and making sure everything is added correctly to the surveys. I've also added two 'buffer days' to give me extra time without needing to post an updated timeline again. (You don't want that, I don't want that, let's just not!) So here's the new timeline: ✅ February 17-21 Backerkit emails about errored pledges, second charge attempt This step has concluded! Additional attempts will now fall on the backer's side, which you can complete by filling out your survey!
February 18-25March 2-6 Artwork Update posted to Backerkit with final stretch goal designs In the mean time, here is Veronika's pin sketch! I want to make her chain a part of the design, so I'm modifying it a bit for the final pin.
Veronika sketches
February 25-28March 6-14 Smoke Test Surveys go out, upon success all surveys go out (date depends on success)
✅ March 1-31 My website Bi-Annual Sale & Coloring Contest Coloring contest pages are available here if you'd like to enter, and the Bi-annual sale will start automatically on SUNDAY, MARCH 1ST!
Thank you for your patience as I fine tune these designs! I really want them to be the best they can be for you all! Starr Vipi
Hello, and thank you all for making this campaign my most successful to date! 🎉
I wanted to post this as an update to the campaign instead of an email so you all could reference it should you have any questions later or just want to check in on things. I'm sure if you've pledged to multiple campaigns in Pintopia you have had a fair share of emails in the last couple of days, which is why I wanted to wait for things to calm down before sending this one.
Funding & Errored pledges
First, the last 48 hours have had mostly successful pledge collection for this project. If you had your pledge error out for any reason, Backerkit automatically will reach out to you directly within this coming week to correct it. If the problem is on your financial institution's side you likely just need to confirm the charge is legitimate with them. Should the pledge remain unsuccessfully posted after Backerkit's attempts, don't worry! I am keeping all the Backerkit pricing the same for the preorder store. If you missed out somehow you can still get Backerkit pricing that way. However, there was about $500 in errored pledges which puts us significantly further from our final stretch goal.
Stretch Goals
I'll be keeping an eye on the errored pledge amount and if it can be significantly recovered, that will help with funding the Speaking Dogs pin. I still want to make sure this last Backer's Choice design has the possibility for funding and creation, so I will be adding it to the preorder store and pledge manager. You can add this design on to your pledge there. If you are in a complete/inclusive tier, this design will be included automatically, just like the other stretch goals in the campaign. Right now I've estimated there would need to be about 10 sticker preorders and 20 pin preorders to fund this design, so that is what I've set the preorder goal to within the preorder store and pledge manager. As errored pledges are corrected, these numbers will be adjusted down to reflect funding needed.
Artwork & Pin Designs
This week I will be finishing up the artwork for the last stretch goal designs to add to the graphics for the preorder store and pledge manager. Between the end of the campaign and Valentine's Day (a busy time for me as someone who sells Valentines) I slowed down this week, but I'm glad to say I'm sketching our favorite cow Veronika right now! This possibility was built into my project timeline and surveys are still set to go out in the next two weeks.
Timeline: Important Upcoming Dates
TL;DR here's the whens February 17-21 Backerkit emails about errored pledges, second charge attempt February 18-25 Artwork Update posted to Backerkit with final stretch goal designs February 25-28 Smoke Test Surveys go out, upon success all surveys go out (date depends on success) March 1-31 My website Bi-Annual Sale & Coloring Contest! Everything on my website will be 30% off for the month of March, Vaulted Limited Edition variants will be available, last year's Coloring Contest winning pins will be available, and this year's coloring contest will be OPEN FOR ENTRY! The coloring contest is free to enter, and the winning design, chosen by popular vote, will be produced. This year I'm adding The Harmonic Future Wolf, Ancient Cave Cheetahs, Video Dogs, and Tigers Set as options to color and make your own variant! All the details will be on the Coloring Contest page on my website next week, February 18th.
I'm so excited to start making these designs a reality! My next update will have art in it for you next week.
Hello! So sorry I didn't post anything the last couple of days I got sick. 🙃 Of course the two designs I was working on were some of the more complex of the campaign, but the Armored Komodo Dragons design is complete!
He looks very cool, I'm super happy with him. If it looks like he has too many teeth that's because Komodo Dragons replace some of their teeth while others are permanent. You can see the permanent teeth are attached to the bone of the jaw.
The Cheetahs are more complex so they are taking me longer to finish. I try to get any anatomy as close to accurate as I can and anything involving bones I need soooo many references for. As you can imagine, there's a bunch of diagrams and museum references of running cheetah skeletons, sitting cheetahs not so much. I do get actual scientists who buy my art on occasion so it's important to me that I represent their field as accurately as possible, and that detail takes time. I hope that I can finish them before the campaign ends, but if the design is revealed later you will still have access to the backerkit pricing in your survey! I am still so very grateful to those of you who already added them to your pledge, you are so awesome!
This guy is a work in progress ✨just like all of us✨
Cows! Dogs! I will be working on these designs also, but they will for sure be revealed after the campaign is over, just due to time constraints. I am getting over my illness at this point but it is still slowing me down cognitively so I am not going to attempt to summarize research until I'm able to do so well.
Home stretch now, thank you again for your support! Starr Vipi
I can't believe there's 72 hours left in this campaign! So much has been unlocked and it wouldn't have been possible without your support! Thank you for your engagement with this project, it is so meaningful to see you all vote and make suggestions, and read the papers. My sister and I have a saying, "Community is a verb", and you've put community into action on this project!
The winning design(s) for the final stretch goals are...
Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow [NEW Published January 2026] & *BACKER SUGGESTION* Soundboard-trained dogs produce non-accidental, non-random and non-imitative two-button combinations! Cows finally won, they were so close in so many polls; congratulations cow fans! I've taken the top two poll designs so I can work on the Soundboard Dogs in the next couple of days. Right now we're a mere $700 away from unlocking them, but who knows what will happen in the next 3 days! Should we break $8,000 that design will also be produced. That would mean ALL stretch goals would be unlocked for this campaign, as variants have already been added for multiple designs (see last update)!
With the artwork I have in front of me, and the turnaround of 48 hours ahead, I'll be designing these last two without sketch polls. However, if you have followed me in the past you know that I host an annual coloring contest. This year, I will be adding some of the designs from this campaign which will allow YOU to color your own pin variant. The contest runs through the month of March, which is also when I hold my bi-annual sale. I'll post an update or send an email when it's open so you can read all the rules and enter if you wish. Collaborating with my community is one of my favorite things about being a creative so I hope you'll celebrate with me!
Our Ancient Cave Cheetas pose will be...
Seated! Look at those relaxed cats.
I'm so excited to get these pins and their variants added! Thank you everyone who's already added them to your pledge, you're awesome!
I shall return with pin design reveals later, Starr Vipi
