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.
Hi all. A larger update will be sent out to all members of my audience this month regarding everything going on with me at the moment. This one will be short and sweet.
I planned to just go ahead and ship out the final packages as they are all ready to go, but one backer reached out for an address uodate and I wanted to give everyone a chance to reach out if they need an address update. I do not have the spoons to be able to check individually with all backers.
All packages will be shipped on THURSDAY of this week, so if I do not hear back by then, they will go to the address that is rotated in the e-mail you received a few days ago!
Hello everyone! I'm updating with some disappointing news, and will copy this update over to MGR2 and the 2nd market since not all backers overlap. I'm very nervous to publish these but here goes.
All orders WILL be fulfilled. So please don't think yours won't!! Currently, 23 more are going out on Monday. I wanted to get them out on Saturday but ran way out of steam. Unfortunately my average for any orders of 5+ pins is only 2 an hr. Smaller ones do go faster, every 5-10 minutes, but we're still focusing on the last few that are combined with Chocolat Chaud because I strongly fear another imminent postage increase and all of those orders wind up 5+ oz when finished, meaning there's actually a deficit already in what cost was paid thru the survey for shipping.
Mine and Cryptic's goal was to get all out before the new (rescheduled because of AQI last month) Ypsi Pride date, and then the remaining Ghostly Gallery-only orders right after, BUT I'll be real with you, we are just in free-fall. I don't actually know when the fulfillment on my end will resume because I have Matsuricon labor day weekend, and the last time I was physically capable of doing 2 weekends in a row was 4 years ago so I'm very concerned.
As a bit of a background (I don't like toeing the line of "making excuses" vs "trying to explain delays while taking accountability"), Cryptic and I both have ME/CFS. "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" is actually a really harmful moniker for it that came 2nd due to most physicians not believing it exists. Its correct name is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Now it being psychosomatic is not as widespread a belief because long covid has caused ME rates to skyrocket, and more are taking it seriously, but I have had ME since my teenage years, as has Cryptic, though his has not progressed as quickly for whatever reason (maybe due to less comorbidities?). FFC/HoloCat recently publicly announced that they have also had ME since serious health issues late last year/early this year. It's generally brought on by sudden illness or severely traumatic/stressful event lowering the immune system.
This is a really serious condition where the hallmark symptom is getting worse after time due to exertion: Post Exertional Malaise. There is NO consistency to what the body finds to be "excessive" exertion, so it is really hard to pace oneself. Because of this, the increase in severity of the disease is pretty random from person to person.
I honestly find it unfathomable that 2017-Feb 2020 I was doing all conventions solo. Giant suitcases lugged through amtrak and greyhounds and lengthy car rides, set-up and tear-down alone, and honestly from about '16-'19 my average "work week" was 70hrs: manufacturer negotiations, designing, the occasional convention, handmaking literally everything that went on the cases when I did decoden for 2 yrs, packing and shipping orders, quality checking products, etc. Now it's difficult to even push 20, and that includes writing for my visual novel (which are extremely wordy) in development, which has been WIP for 6 years now which is tremendously upsetting and shameful for me even if backers have been mostly patient.
It's super embarrassing but my health got so bad that I had to drop out of uni, and that was 10 years ago that I had to.Wow. I don't know if I've ever admitted that publicly like this. I have been running on fumes for 1/3rd of my life... I didn't see there being another way to financially survive other than conventions, and it has deeply cost me physically instead.
I cannot apologize enough for not being faster. I feel serious crippling guilt over it. These days even going out for errands means I have to recover in bed (sans pet chores and having to heat up ready-made or simple foods) for 1-2 days, and I have to wear bilateral knee braces to even leave the house because of my hEDS. I am likely to have to become an ambulatory wheelchair user by this time next year because of that condition and ME.
I'm so, so embarrassed over this even though I know in my heart disability is not shameful. Even more embarrassed that as a writer, I am apparently incapable of being concise even though I meant for this to be only 1/2 the length it is. My heart rate spikes to 120 at minimum for showering, packing orders, or any kind of cooking or even standing up quickly due to POTS and ME, and there is quite the list of other things making me fall apart. I feel really terrible about my creative output so severely declining along with the rest.
I don't know if any more merch campaigns of any type are in my future, especially since I'm trying to stop making new things unrelated to my attempt to develop visual novels. But I really can't continue to do conventions for long, as they permanently worsen my baseline and doctors will not help me with ME OR hEDS, and I can't manage my online shop at the same time as doing that. That's why I've been attempting to find the energy to run a closing sale for the last year... So the Ready-To-Ship - though that unfortunately has become a loose promise lately - markets will likely continue sporadically to clear me out of stock, but new things not so much unless collabs.
I can't explicitly speak for Cryptic because he's a more private person but he is also really, really struggling, regarding the simultaneous delay in spider and geode fulfillment.
A tremendous thank you to the overwhelming number of you who have been so so patient, more than I could ever reasonably expect. I also appreciate all of you regardless of how this has impacted you emotionally (I really am so sorry) so so so much.
I will be resuming fulfillment HOPEFULLY early September after Matsuricon, that's the best I can probably do. There are less than 2 dozen left, and then I can also send out the rest of the Ghostly Gallery-only orders also, with the extra money the convention has brought for shipping fees (please check the updates for that campaign if you are a backer and missed the most recent ones). Thank you.
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
