Reminder that surveys are locking on October 10th end of day! There's still 8 who haven't filled them out. After I do that then I'll make sure everyone's being charged the correct shipping (so for people who also backed Midnight Springs, that's none) and have the qualifying moths attached. Then you'll all be charged October 13th. 3PM EST
Also, Midnight Springs' surveys finally went out so if you did back her too make sure you fill it out!
I received an email a few days ago (technically only yesterday because it was hanging out in my spam for a couple days apparently sorry about that) about having the 10 pins to qualify, and I realized pretty late that I didn't have a way to pledge for all 10 uniquely that makes sure there won't be any duplicates. The 10 random spiders tier doesn't guarantee you'd get all unique ones because I really will be picking them at random. So I made a pledge tier that's $140 so it's still discounted based on the individual choice pricing and includes all the unlocked spiders except taro boba! So if you get that you'll still qualify for both moths for free too (I'm adding those to orders after locking them). I enabled it as a possibility to switch to, so if you go in the survey you can switch to it this way:
It will save you about $20 off of the price per pin that's included in the set of 6 option (which is about $15/each) -
NEXT CAMPAIGNS (October 14th!!)
China is on a long holiday right now so I don't have any updates about the pins themselves (they're not here yet), but I do have a teaser page up for my campaign that will cross-collab with Midnight Springs!
this is super temporary I'm still cleaning up other designs
All of my pins for this collection will be really glittery with transparent enamel on top, like these close ups of her gorgon and cat paws show:
So the print is under the glitter and won't cover the glitter at all.
I'm rushing to finish at least 4 designs (2-3 other animals + cross-collab) because I do really want to get these made but work has been kicking my butt. So right now it's not the final designs on the banner, but that will be fixed before launch and I have quotes already too based on the features and everything. Please follow along on my teaser page if interested, I didn't realize I have to have enough follows on there for them to believe it'll get funded before I can even submit for review, so I'm on a time crunch for that too...ouch.
I'm still finalizing my freebie cross-collab pin but hers is Golem:
Also, now that I'll have return backers for the first time I'll have a return backer freebie!!
This is Midnight Springs' bat mold but what you might not know is that in 2021 with her ita bag campaign she did a lot of collab designs with people on her mini bats (something like over 30 colorways of that mold have been made because of this). My colorway actually outsold everyone else's! So this is the same print design but this time with cat eye enamel!
It will have the same effect as cat eye nailpolish (magnetic and shimmery) which is why it's mocked up like that.
Might be able to get an early bird sticker design made too.
Sorry this feels so fast and sudden. Definitely were trying to get our campaigns ready sooner. life really happened
You'll notice all the pictures are of the finished pins except for the dango and the moths. That's because they are actually all approved already:
Most of them are finished fully, some are still in production. The pictures aren't the best, but you can finally sort of see the detail for the bonbon and what was intended for the bobas. But lemonade really is much bigger now because they needed the extra space between the eyes.
If I made any mistakes with the survey please tell me!
Since there are 8 available spiders, the "set of 6" options don't automatically include any specific ones, you'll have to choose and there is the option to do that. If you choose any of the dango spiders as 1/6, you need to choose the other two also because I'm not separating the sets
I did pay half of the balance of the dango in advance because the survey was taking so long to get out, so they are mostly done. The white one is fully approved with print now actually, where it's dyed off-white and printed white but the green and pink ones they reversed the dye color with the print color...making the highlights shadows. Sooo they're redoing that for the 2nd time because they just keep printing darker and darker...
The moth is the only other pin not yet in progress because having to remake the mold was an unexpected expense (had the old mold ship to current manu and it doesn't work with their machinery which is I guess different from the previous one) and doubles the cost of the pin. Then on top of that, we're now having a ton of issues with this manufacturer so since I didn't pay for that yet and the mold has now been trashed already I'm getting them made with someone else. And they're even more expensive unfortunately. So the neon moth, and the green sour gummy that's free to anyone who has 10 or more pins by the end of the survey collection, will be late because they're made with survey funds (which are also paying for the 2nd half of dango cost, and packaging supplies)
The dango's stars were finished already and we have them, that was mentioned in the last update, but we didn't get chains yet. That'll be done after the pins arrive to make sure they fit the posts. The dango will also be coming with gold locking back clasps and not rubber ones just in case anyone wants to convert to keychains or something
Backers who backed both me and Midnight Springs were given a credit to their survey that is $6 and will fully nullify your shipping cost if you're in the US, so you'll only be charged shipping with hers. If you're in another country, please fill out the survey anyway and I can adjust the credit applied before charging you!
Survey deadline is October 10th end of day, please fill out by then and make sure your card info is correct! I'll be charging 3 days later at 3PM EST (October 13th). This is to get you your stuff ASAP, I can't stop you from taking longer but it's not going to get you in the first wave of packages
Because of the extended timeline from unexpected issues, anyone who qualifies for moths or ordered from both me and Midnight Springs probably won't get them in time for Halloween. Only a few of her pins have been approved, they've been giving her a lot of trouble with her proofs and printing things really wrong mostly, so they won't be ready as soon as mine were/are. They're shipping the finished spiders to me first without charging extra shipping thankfully
The manufacturer's quality has gone downhill this year unfortunately. So the pins are all limited to 10 claims each (this doesn't count for what was already claimed during the campaign runtime, you're fine), because I'm worried about the standard grade count
Because of these manu issues and burnout from work it's unlikely that I'll be able to finish my designs in order to cross-collab with the 2nd monster girl riot, but I'm still working on them on and off. I do have a lot of ideas but juggling fulltime work and this is hard even though I'd prefer to do this instead.
Thank you for your patience!! Please ask questions about specific orders via email but if it is general and you think it would benefit others to see, you can ask in the comments because I'll keep checking this post daily for about a week to make sure I don't miss anything. Thanks
Hey everyone, I realized it is actually better logistically for me to apply that credit for backers of Midnight Springs on the lock date (October 10th) instead of right now, one reason being that otherwise it will complicate international pledges too much.
So please do continue to fill out the survey even if it says your order total includes shipping, because through me it won't be charged. Only through her. You won't be charged when submitting my survey, only on Oct 13th after it's been locked already and the credits were added.
You're already in a segment:
this 68 includes failed/canceled pledges and errored cards so it's a few less
And that means that you're all already sorted, so please don't worry about being missed. Unless there's a backend error, it won't be possible to miss your pledge when applying the credit
For anyone who didn't also back her, you will be charged shipping through me as normal
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 very, very strongly value honesty and transparency so I'm a little upset with myself for making this decision, but I really want to bring all of them to life: I'm going to try a pt 2 campaign later.
I think that Gorgon (so close!!) and TV Cat are very likely to be unlocked through these surveys, as long as there aren't a ton of failed pledges (I'll know in a few days). My goals do include buffers in case of failed/declined pledges so 🤞.
My goals for the other campaign would include Dullahan, Mummy, Angel, Mermaid, a Harpy, demon Onmyouji (she was actually the first pin I drew but I dropped her because her clothes were stressing me out lol), and I'd like to try to pin the jirai kei Succubus I made for a recent coffin button.
I have about 40 of her so she will be available in limited qty in this survey!
The reason I mention honesty and transparency is because I hate if I've falsely instilled a sense of urgency in anyone, I really did intend for this to be my last pin-centric campaign. 😣 I guess it's not technically a lie since it's more of the same thing...
I won't start building the 2nd one until I have the moths fully shipped out (their last remake batch is being made currently) and once the paws are at least halfway sent out (some have gone out w/moth packages already, remakes of those flawed ones are still in progress). It'll be a short runtime of about 2 weeks also. I'm going to try to get them made before tariffs go back to over 100%...but that might be impossible.
I've been increasingly very ill for most of my life and designing these pins has brought me a joy I haven't experienced creatively in years due to burnout, so I'd really like to get them all made if possible, at least the ones I've already "pinned" (so Harpy and Succubus I don't feel as strongly about, technically both are drawn but need to be reworked entirely in order to become pins).
Thank you for your sincere support of this campaign and the joy these designs have brought me 💗 I hope you might consider supporting part 2 as well!
PS: I expect surveys to go out LATE this month or the first week of July. I will be paying for the funds-raised pins as soon as I receive these initial funds in 2 weeks, but since I'm hoping to fund Gorgon and TV Cat via surveys they, if met, will join production after surveys are charged (I'll give them 2-3 weeks before charging depending on how fast they're filled). Meaning I may get them shipped separately and orders containing them could potentially be relegated to back of fulfillment queue, but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't meet assumed Halloween fulfillment date. However, depending on when I can launch pt 2 I may be able to combine some pledges for later fulfillment if requested.
Hello everyone! So i've got about 65% of the spider orders shipped out and more nearly ready to go just waiting for midnight springs to add a few monster girl pins before shipping. I've got to pack a couple dozen more orders of spiders and geode-pets which i'll get on this week. I really am sorry its taken so long to get things moving 😭 we've been struggling pretty hard this year. Here is an update from midnight explaining our recent situation and why we've been so delayed if youre interested.
On the bright side i've recently started a new job that is more flexible with hours yesterday, which will allow me to spend more time creating and fulfilling my orders. 🤞🤞
If you missed my campaigns (geode pets & sweet spiders) or you'd like to get some discounted flawed spider or geode pets they're available here for the next 13 days. (In limited quantities and ready to ship in a few weeks) HoloCat is doing the cross collab campaign and was the host for Early Summerween!
Lastly here is what the dangos look like with the chain! Pink and green vary because of batch differences but white are all the same
The chain isn't permanently attached of course so you can remove it if you want to
Hello! This (very long) message is by Midnight Springs and is to explain the situation going on with the package delays.
Currently, 50 packages have been successfully shipped out to their homes, including American orders that were sent to me.
The massive delay has 3 main causes:
1. Many of my own pins had to be remade, and a large majority of the backers who also supported my campaign got 1 or more of those pins, which I only received remakes of roughly 1 month ago. The same goes for backers who also supported Cryptic Compendium; many spiders had to be remade and were in the same shipment as my pins. Most of those orders were packed sans remake pins and only need the remakes added to them before they can be sent off! I was very virally ill in mid-April when they arrived, probably a new Covid strain... and continue to be really out of breath and unwell with activity, more than my usual POTS-level inconvenience. That's the only reason those ones (over 20) didn't go out as soon as the new ones were received.
Because of these delays, and a lot of people actually backing us in Early Summerween and when we later did a cross-collab for more monster girls and the Geode Pets pins, these combined orders with Chocolat Chaud's pins have suddenly become up to 5 orders in 1 package (where any excess shipping will be retroactively refunded). This is not a complaint!! Absolutely not; just an explanation for how slow-going that is.
2. I'm also very chronically ill in general, and unfortunately since around February/March of this year my functional "baseline" has really decreased. The same happened to Cryptic Compendium, as he was seriously sick in January with some sort of respiratory illness, and is also chronically ill.
3. The new shipping increases and tariff issues are not only the reason that the American orders had to be sent to me, but are also why I'm having difficulty sending them out. For the backers who did not also back my campaign or Cryptic Compendium's, or who did but we had already sent them our pins last year, your boxes were fully packed by Chocolat Chaud...but we're having to pay for their shipping out of pocket. The reason for this is because the cost to get the giant box of all of your orders was nearly the entirety of what was raised via the Ghostly Gallery surveys. It was hundreds of dollars for her to ship the box, then hundreds more to pay in tariffs upon arrival. That's why, unfortunately, I'm having to prioritize shipping out the ones that also paid a shipping fee to me (or Cryptic Compendium, because we live together) that wasn't eaten by the US govt.
It's not favoritism, but an unfortunate consequence of what is going on with the country right now and all of the raised import costs. It was completely unexpected and could not have been planned for in the initial surveys. That's hundreds of dollars out of pocket to send those orders out when the aforementioned health issues are preventing me from really doing anything shop-wise, so acquiring those funds has been a very slow endeavor. Especially with the current wars affecting shipping costs (fuel). Even shipping one 2oz mailer from where I live to WA state just cost me $6.40 in postage alone, which is such a huge increase in just the last couple of months, and doesn't cover the packaging/supply cost, fees from the survey funds, or labor cost at all. And as you know, Chocolat Chaud is having even worse health issues and cannot materialize those funds right now either.
I recently did Colossalcon artist alley and set aside a really big chunk of income from that convention for shipping out your orders! The next ready-to-ship campaign I do will be assisting with the funds for this as well. That leaves the current largest barrier as being my health, which I am pushing through.
I truly apologize for the obstacles here, and the delays they have caused, and especially for the lack of communication from me regarding this final leg of fulfillment. I do accept culpability in the extreme delays, but I do also hope this explains a lot of what's going on and how this happened to begin with.
Thank you for your support of Chocolat Chaud and your patience!!
I've currently got more than 50% of orders out. I posted last month about my health issues, and lately I've been really wondering if what I was "acutely" ill with in April was actually a newish covid variant, considering how WINDED I am all the time now. It's bad. 🫠 I already have POTS, and had mild asthma, but now it's just hard to exist without wheezing. So I'm having to seriously pace myself, and I'm getting a portable EKG I was wearing for 2 weeks taken off in roughly 13 hrs. With this, my hEDS, and my ADHD, I'm also constantly getting injured like a bad slapstick comedy (did you know it's possible to simultaneously jam your toe under and bang your forehead on the edge of an open door while trying to pivot around it?), and every time something like that happens I'm out of commission for a day or 2 so I'm trying to really race against the incidental self-sabotage.
That being said, I'm finally starting to get back to an existable baseline post-Colossalcon, and the remakes have mostly been looked through, so I've been packing things again. As a reminder, most pledges are being bundled with Chocolat Chaud's, Cryptic Compendium's, or both - and shipping costs have skyrocketed so retroactive excess shipping fee refunds for people who paid it multiple times unfortunately won't be very high, if any...
Since a lot of people also backed MGR2 and Geode Pets, and some even asked to bundle my snake preorders with them, some pledges going out are actually up to 6 orders per package and way more than I realized are actually 30+ total pins. You all are amazing, it's crazy and really heartwarming (albeit exhausting in current context) packing for like 4 hours and I'll only have half a dozen orders done, because each one has dozens of combined pins plus Chocolat Chaud's that were already packed. 🤯 Like, I'm really just blown away!! There are a lot of smaller orders too, which my stamina really thanks those backers for, but I'm just so shocked and grateful. I'm very sorry that they piled up like this, but it did give me a new perspective that I wouldn't have necessarily had if I wasn't fulfilling so much at once. I am so, so thankful.
Cryptic Compendium is also really not doing well right now but has been carding things too, and just got done sorting all the remakes and the frogs for Geode Pets. There are no longer any external barriers - "just" time and energy - to getting those orders with all 4 of our campaigns (+ some snakes) + Ghostly Gallery pins finally packed. He cards his stuff, I card mine, and I do the final checking and packing everything together, including the freebies like the backed-all-5-campaign pins. If I somehow missed something in yours, please let me know at [email protected] as soon as you've received it.
I'm rapidly trying to get everything out; you've all waited waaaay too long to receive these pins, and I also feel a lot of anxiety about these girls and some of the snake preorders still being pending. I have a ready-to-ship campaign that's a sequel, I guess, to the "gacha market" that will go live at the end of this month...but I will try my best to get my current pending orders below 40 across all 3 things (MGR 1, MGR 2, snake preorders) before that goes live. I'll post about it properly this weekend.
Thank you so, so much for your patience, seriously!
