Hi everyone, this is Midnight Springs posting on his behalf again. He was discharged on Monday almost exactly 72hrs after admission and we are now in Pittsburgh for Tekko. I drafted this entire thing for him on Thursday when he still couldn't really use his hand, but he's able to now, so next post will be him again!
There are a couple designs that needed some edits in the proofs. For the most part, they're all fine but we also have some samples further along to show you, which show what's up.
These samples are majority still just metal that is showing the mold details, there hasn't been a lot of cleaning up done.
1) chocolate bonbon:
The area of transparent enamel (the goo of the bonbon filling) couldn't just be hanging out there like in the original, it needed a thin line of raised metal at the bottom of its body. Its mandibles also are super small so that cut out area there will be basically "recessed" instead.
2) lemonade has to have a different backstamp on it because it's majority clear enamel, and it had to be increased to 50mm so that the details could come through (the clear enamel requires thicker outline metal apparently...) If lemonade's size difference is a huge issue with people we can work out swaps or refunds. The enamel in it is just showing the only solid/opaque coloring!
3) He wasn't warned when first being quoted that the boba pearl legs of the boba spiders were questionable even though we inquired, and the transparent enamel portions had to be made larger to work out...so their proportions have changed slightly.
I know it looks like the taro has no cut-outs around the head but I promise it does, it's the exact same mold as the strawberry. This is with some random metal flakes still attached and that gets cleaned off for final pins. These are still 35mm, the issue for lemonade was mostly that the space between the pearl eyes is really tiny...
Blueberry is approved so far, doesn't have printing yet.
Same for strawberry!!
Caramel apple's mold was made wrong, not according to the proof, and that's being changed.
The stars for the dango are already made which was super fast, but for some reason they attached jump rings over 2x as large as they always do to my (MS) jewelry...I had a talk with them and they're fixing it. So that will be shown next update.
Otherwise, everything is still as indicated in the last update, thank you!!
-Midnight Springs (approved of by CC)
OOPS, P.S.: The above sign-off also means there's no NEW info about surveys. I'm sorry about the misleading title, I have no idea why I did that. We'll both know more soon since he's recovering well!
I was estimating the pins to arrive next week after the small delay we had in getting Lucifer made correctly, but they somehow made it all the way from Germany to Ireland in ONE DAY so the two MASSIVE boxes have arrived with me last night! Wow
(excuse my messy room, look at how big they are compared to my bed, super heavy as well)
This means I have to go and sort through all the pins out now and check for quality!
But lads they are SO pretty. The chrome came out wonderfully, and these are the THICKEST backing cards I've ever seen.
Needless to say I think the postal workers would have to drive over these to bend anything during shipment (knock on wood knock on wood knock on wood)
It came out wonderful. I'm absolutely enamored with how this turned out, and I've learnt a lot about this process as well to apply to new projects.
So we're about 2 weeks delayed with these arriving, mainly because of the very early concept issues with Lucifer. But 2 weeks is much less than several months so we're still pretty much on track!
During these last few weeks I've been chipping away at the wooden freebies. I engraved all the pins for my partner Toldentops a few weeks back and they just arrived with them yesterday too.
All of my freebies are almost done now too. I just need to get the last few engraved, all of them varnished, and then pin backs glued on.
(they kinda look like cookies and I want to bite them)
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SO JAY. WHEN ARE YOU SHIPPING?
Once I quality check all the pins, which will take me a few days because I don't work on weekends, I will slowly bus steadily start rolling out packages. Which brings me to...
ADDRESS LOCKING.
Addresses will be locked in 48 hours. This is an automatic process. So if in the next few weeks you know you'll be away, moving, or otherwise, please change your address to your new location, or a loved one's address that can pick the mail up for you. A reminder that majority of orders will not have tracking either.
If your card failed at any point, I cannot fullfill your order or send it to you. If you still haven't fillled out the survey, I also don't have your address to send your pins out.
I will be rolling out mail steadily over a few days as I can't overload the poor 60 year old postal worker and the system that loves to break down if you breathe air on it too hard. If you order gets marked as sent, it will mean the shipping label has been generated and will be posted in the next few days.
Thanks so much everyone! I'll update about the pin quality if I see anything that stands out. Toodles! ✨
Hey hey :) I'm happy to report that just now, all US pledges have left the house! Your tracking numbers may be sent out with some delay but you can also view them on your account. All non-US orders will hopefully finish this week! In the meantime, here's an update with all the important info for the last phase of this project (backers only).
Glow in the Dark Effect
If your pins aren't glowing when fresh out of the mail - don't panic! The way the glow works is that they have to absorb light before they emit it again. Also some glow colors are just weaker than others and may need longer before they glow. (Especially the blue set which has darker base enamel colors than the others).
From my experience, holding the green set under a strong lamp just for a few minutes will make their effect appear again, while the pink set takes a bit longer and the blue set takes the longest. (The cherry blossom mini pins have pink glow, which take even longer before they glow)
I can't for the life of myself take proper nighttime photos, but if the room is reasonably dim you can already see the effect!
Glow effect in a dim room
Here's a video on light vs dark comparison: https://youtube.com/shorts/i7PKwF9Soto (Unedited video with creepy ambient sounds sorry lol)
Pin Quality & Damages
If anything is wrong with your pins - whether it's transport damage or just poorer quality than you find acceptable - please reach out to me by email (in the backer only section of this update to prevent spam). I won't see BK comments as frequently as I see emails. Please reach out within 14 days of arrival. Please do include images of everything, especially the parcel itself if it's damaged!
Lost Parcels
Please do track your parcels periodically! At least every week preferably. If several months have passed then I won't be able to do much, so please email me as soon as you think the parcel may be lost (eg no scans for over a week). I will resend your parcels in all cases that can be reasonably considered lost and if it's been reported within a month of the last scan.
Missing Items/Wrong Items
If anything is missing I'll be happy to work out a solution with you. As usual, it's important to include a picture of everything you've gotten, incl. the packaging. As usual, please reach out within 14 days of arrival.
My next projects
And lastly here's an early announcement on my upcoming pin projects. These are still heavy WIPs but if any of you are interested already - maybe just sign up for emails so you won't miss them!
My next project will be part of Pintober in about 3 months and it will be a great opportunity to grab a lot of pins for a good price again! It's fall/halloween themed and I personally think it's both spooky and cute so maybe it's up your alley too! :D
There's two freebie pins, one Cross Collaboration with MadChildSoul again and one for the group if you back 3+ projects from Pintober.
Everything is watching, always
There will also returning backer (3€ credit) & early bird (stickers) rewards again. I understand that many of you will probably not want to back an EU-based project currently, but if you liked this project, just spreading the word would mean the world to me! All eyes on fall Teaser Page
Pintopia 2026 Meowshrooms Teaser Page And a bit further into the future - we'll stick to mushrooms and cats, except... well they're fused together! The catshroom has been a popular design in my sticker/charm setup for ages and it's about time that it gets pinned. It will be my first time trying out gradient printing so I'm excited and I will actually get samples made as soon as Pintober goes into production so by the time the project launches, we can see it more clearly. I'll draw some other mushroom cats in the remainder of the year to create a little (big) family of them :D As of now I'm still taking suggestions on what mushrooms you'd like to see!
It purrs, then it poisons you
Meowshrooms Teaser Page
That's it for now! Enjoy your pins everyone, and thank you all so much for being a part of this project! (BY THE WAY I ran out of thank you cards in the middle of packing LOL I hope you all know that I'm extremely thankful for every single backer!)
First batch of pin orders are ready to head to the post office tomorrow 😊 I'm just waiting on the stickers to arrive before the second batch can be labelled up and sent off as well. I'm still waiting on 6 people to complete their survey and 4 people need to fix their payment issues before the rest can follow. If you are one of the 10 mentioned above, please complete your survey/payment before the Deadline at end of July.
so! biggest part of the update- I've received the second and final part of the pin order and will be slowly fulfilling orders through the next couple months. I tend to fulfill backerkit stuff at a glacial pace as it doesnt' import properly into the carriers I use so make sure your address is up to date now! There was news of more canadian tariffs by trump so I'm going to fulfill USA orders first to get ahead of anything that'll potentially affect them. some pin pictures-
lastly, some unfortunate news yet AGAIN with the shrike colourway, the colour I chose was not at all what i was expecting. The sample sheet (and even video that a friend showed me) made the replacement metal colour look like a very very dark gunmetal grey unfortunately what it ended up being was very very silver and mirror like it's pretty cool, but not for this design. I asked the manufacturer and apparently the initial colour i asked for is just not an option ever again moving forwards, so I'm going to have them done again, this time with the solid black chrome finish. I know how this one looks for sure as a friend of mine has used it herself
credits to potentialforart
(thank you Izu/potentialforart!) as usual if any of this sits poorly to you please reach out for refund, and check those addresses!! i'll be slowly going through charging cards and sending address locks so keep an eye open
Hi all, (FIRST - I have survey details below in the backer only section!!! Please skip straight to that if you only want to know what's up with that extended timeline.)
I have been negotiating the proof details with my manufacturer ever since paying for them, so it's been a few weeks now. There were issues with some of the details getting lost due to the size and honestly I'm frustrated, because I asked when I was getting them quoted if the size would be an issue with any of the smaller details and she said no. Well, she didn't check. This sort of thing happens constantly so I need to stop being surprised and just adapt. As a result, though, I was really firm about maintaining as much as I possibly could in my original details, because the whole campaign was ran on the impression they'd look like the art!
So here is what had to change:
Elfling's right index finger is now metal "shadows" because those enamel spots were too small to fill, and the loop for her dangle is a bit bigger which personally I don't mind at all.
Spider witch's pupils are now going to be black print because the decreasing size of the eyes means the smallest ones don't have room for enamel fill if the pupils are metal. I absolutely should have anticipated that and that is totally my bad.
For similar reasons, Shinigami's pupils are now going to be printed black Xs but were metal before.
Gorgons' snakes' tongues will be slightly thicker than indicated, and because of the beveling that happens with pins they will look sort of tapered(?) at the sides. I wasn't sure how this would work out but again, I was reassured the initial art was okay after all... Given that the outlines of the pins will also be a bit thicker due to the polishing process they shouldn't look odd.
Here are the approved proof versions of the above (ignore the metal looking grey, it's just to make it easier to distinguish):
Please ignore the colors, manufacturer proofs are notorious for good reason for looking super weird color-wise. The important thing is that all pantones are correct, which they are.
Everything else will turn out as expected! Teeny tiny cut out areas in the artwork shouldn't be expected to go all the way through but they'll still look like holes from the front, however due to the beveling I mentioned there will be very few holes all the way through the backs of pins on the ones with the tiniest cut out details. That is something I knew would be the case from the start as this is my 8th year designing pins, but since I'm mentioning changes I want to point out that this isn't one (with an example).
This pin is super dusty but it's ON the pin not inside the enamel or plating, I didn't notice until zooming in just now; I actually had these pins made through this manufacturer years ago and they came out 90% totally perfect!
As you can see, from the front they do look like cut-outs, and it doesn't detract from the design at all that they aren't visible holes on the back because of it.
Also, the hearts for the Elfling pin have been in production for a couple of weeks! All of the proofs I'm given from them are always gold, please rest assured it WILL be black.
Here is also a comparison example of my 12mm hearts that are similar that already exist, unfortunately I felt they were way too big for the pin which is why I paid a new mold fee to have these done in 8mm instead.
Those smaller hearts without the + are also 8mm, for comparison. These are my syringe earrings.
Now that everything is approved, physical production on the factory floor is finally beginning!
I also want to show what the frosted mascot charms turned out like:
manufacturer sample
They don't have the matte surface texture that I wanted, but the visual effect is still a frosted acrylic appearance and I'm pleased with that. The purple is slightly darker/more saturated than my mockup appears on some screens, I hope the difference is acceptable!
As far as the sequel campaign goes, I've been dealing with some acute health issues that pretty much came out of nowhere so I haven't been able to do a whole lot of cleaning up of the art. Instead, now I just have a lot of different sketches rather than any designs having been fully finished yet:
(kuchisake onna - inspired by techwear and the "straightjacket chic" thing that an alarming number of Reverse: 1999 characters have got going on)
She's like 1/3-1/2 done - I focused on her hair, face, and right hand first as you can tell... Left arm's anatomy needs to be adjusted and then clothing can be finished, which will allow me to finish the rest of the hair as well.
(harpy - inspired by a delinquent/yanki aesthetic and feminine rage in general)
this is my FIRST sketch for her so she's maybe 1/7 done. She will take a LOT more time, probably 6 more hours and will be very big. As you can tell it feels like it's been 20 years since I last drew any kind of braids so that will take me forever, as will her feathers...I want to do them more anatomically correct/detailed than Baphomet's, since I was basing hers off of some of his statues, but we'll see. Because of her size she will be expensive and likely one of the final SGs, to ensure I have plenty buffer by then in case a lot of pledges fall through.
(k/gumiho (either letter is technically correct) - She will also be really big like the harpy...man. I personally like my pins to be pretty petite so I'm going to feel overwhelmed by these designs so we'll see how long it takes me to finish her.)
I'm going to work the fox bead into the design somewhere and give her an outfit that looks kind of cozy. As you can tell, her braids look awful so far too. I ORIGINALLY drew her as a cyclops and HATED it so that's why the hands and chains are fully lined, I redrew everything other than that because I did like the pose and hair I came up with. She will also take probably 4-5 more hours...
Dullahan and Mummy's proofs have also already been approved, and I'm now armed with all of the knowledge from this current back-and-forth that just resolved so I'll be extra careful finalizing these new designs. That should speed things up a bit next time...
Mermaid is finished now except for probably having to change up the flow of her hair/tentacles so those cut-outs are more achievable.
I was going to edit the water shadows but I changed my mind... and since her skin will be glittery "sand" its shadows will be under the glitter pearl effect too and NOT solid print on top of the pin.
I'm still working on the pose for my geode lady (name not final lol...) cross collab design, so I don't have any sketches I like of that done yet. Next non-survey update I will post my progress with the above designs, hopefully my edited Onmyouji, and the fixed Mermaid cut-outs. I will hopefully have 5 finished designs by then (in addition to Dullahan/Mummy) and a working presave page for the next campaign.
Thank you for reading! The backer-only portion is next:
I also refunded the paw campaign shipping for those whose orders I combined, if I combined yours but you think I missed your shipping refund please let me know via email to [email protected]and I will check!
Now that this campaign is fully, and FINALLY, wrapped up - I will not be coming back to check on any comments/discussion posts left on here. The notification system is jank so previously I was having to come back regularly to see if anything new was posted (this is the case with all campaigns...). So please do email me if you have questions/comments/concerns. That's not to say you can't or shouldn't say anything here! Just that for whatever reason... I am unlikely to be notified of it.
As I was fulfilling these last orders, I was hit in the gut with the realization some of them should have gone out in the FIRST wave months ago, because they fit all criteria to be sorted into that segment (no "wood" or machine 2 spins, or catmoths) yet the system didn't put those pledges in it. It was 3 people and I feel terrible about it. I double-checked the pledges and there's no explanation for why they were excluded.
This sort of error has happened to me before with backerkit's pledge manager, where pledges that fully fall under the search filter still somehow don't get sorted correctly... So if (hopefully not!!!) a future campaign has enough road blocks to where something like this happens again, I will more thoroughly check to make sure everything is included that should be. This is also a slight plea that if you think something is particularly wrong or not as I've been communicating, to please reach out to me (via the email above) to figure out what's up. I am never intentionally misleading, but always exhausted with bad brain fog and may miss things, so if something is wonky I will need it pointed out to me to be able to address it.
The receipt with tracking for all 53 packages today is longer than a CVS receipt!
