Great News: My manufacturer has (finally) gotten back to me and has agreed to replace the damaged and flawed pins! After some back and forth, I was able to get a hold of someone who has now started the process of getting replacement pins made and sent to me ASAP.
Minor Changes: As you may remember, one of the designs from this campaign came out a bit green and was not at all what I wanted the final product to look like. The Challah Centipede design did NOT match the other two bread bugs: the plating was more orange-tinted and the enamel color had a weird greenish hue to it instead of the warm brown the Bread Beetle and Sourdough Spider have. After discussing with the manufacturer (and looking at the other pins) I decided to update this design slightly, and it will now have corrected colors and instead of the medium brown being recessed soft enamel, this will now be part of the print with recessed eyes instead. This is how the Bread Beetle and Sourdough Spider were made, and I hope with the new style and colors, all three designs will match now :)
More Good News: What? More good news? Yup! I've been hard at work shipping all the orders I can while waiting for the new pins to be made, and I am very proud to announce that I have packed and shipped 87 of your orders!
More than that, many of your items are already arriving, and I've had several warm messages from folks letting me know their pins have made it safely to their new homes :)
Y'all have been absolutely AMAZING through this whole campaign, and especially though this flawed pin debacle. I couldn't have asked for better supporters! To thank you, I'll be including an exclusive discount code for my Etsy shop at the very end of this update.
To be fair I always include a bonus discount code at the end of my campaigns, but they're usually only 20% ;)
As promised, I have a few more pin photos to share too~
If you missed anything from the campaign (or your friends want in on the action!) I'm including a special 25% off discount code for you all at the end of this update. This will be in the backers' only section, so please make sure you are logged in so you can see it <3
These designs will likely be listed on my Etsy (linked here) in the next 2 weeks or so, but please keep in mind there are very limited quantities of A-Grade (perfect) pins, so the only pins available on Etsy will be the B-Grade pins- at least until the remakes are in and the rest of the campaign orders are sent out. The stickers however will be made available shortly, with bonus Sourdough Spider stickers available as well. After seeing how popular the design was, I ordered some of those with my last sticker restock and they will be available soon!
Again thank you everyone who offered to take a B-Grade pin! I made sure to include a couple bonus stickers from my candy collection in each of your orders, so I hope you like them :)
Loved my campaign but can't help wanting more? The new PinQuest campaign group launched today! There's dozens of other artists I love all taking place in this limited time event, so I encourage all of you to check them out here or find them on the BackerKit homepage under Groups.
Questions about your order? Please email me at [email protected] or message me on Instagram (ApothecaryOctopus)
Like the title says, this update will be a bit of a mixed bag with some good news and bad news. We'll start with the good, but please read to the end!
First, Good News:
The pins are finally here! They were delivered to me early last week, and I've been hard at work quality checking, counting, and taking photos of them. They look adorable and the packaging I designed for them looks fantastic! I truly cannot wait for you to get your orders!
Macaron Beetle Set
Packaging Example
Unfortunately, there is also some bad news:
While quality checking/sorting the pins, I noticed a lot of them are damaged. I can't tell if this was a shipping/ packaging issue on the manufacturer's part, or if they just didn't do as thorough of quality checking as they usually do, but there are a LOT of pins affected. I estimate around 60% of these pins have scratches on the face of them, spots in the lighter enamel colors, one design has the wrong color enamel entirely, bubbles under the plating, missing enamel in some designs, and scrapes on the edges/corners of them. I've already reached out to my manufacturer with my concerns but have yet to hear back. I really hope they offer to replace the damaged pins, especially since there are sooo many but until they respond to my email, I don't know what will happen. This is super disappointing- this is the fourth time I've used this manufacturer for pins and I haven't had any issues with them before, but I do think they will fix this!
More Good News!
Fortunately however, while a lot of the pins are damaged or have noticeable flaws, I have enough of most designs to fulfill your orders. As with all my campaigns, I ordered much more than I needed for this project in the hope of listing these in my shop after the campaign concludes, so I ended up with enough pins in good condition that I can fill most campaign orders.
That being said, there are two designs that I do not have enough pins for. Those being the Boston Cream Doughnut Spider, which I only have 14 'A Grade' ones out of the 31 I need, and the Challah Centipede which looks greenish instead of the rich brown they were supposed to be- which unfortunately affects all pins of this design.
If you ordered the BOSTON CREAM DOUGHNUT SPIDER or CHALLAH CENTIPEDE:
Please comment on this update, message me on Instagram (apothecaryoctopus), OR email me at [email protected] which of the following is your preferred course of action:
You are OK with receiving one of the 'flawed' pins, with a free bonus sticker included for compensation! Flawed pins will only be ones with minimal issues, like small scratches on the edges of the design (ex. the above photo on the left)
You prefer to wait for the remakes (which may take a couple weeks!)
Boston Cream ONLY: You want one of the 'perfect' pins and don't want to wait. These can go out to the first 14 or so folks who email me.
If you ordered one or both of these designs and I don't hear from you by June 15th, I will assume you are OK waiting for the remakes.
Since I do have enough of the other designs to fulfill orders without the Boston Cream Spider or Challah Centipede, I do plan to startshipping your orders this week. If you need to update your address because you moved or just need your order delivered somewhere else, please keep an eye out for the 'locking addresses' email that should go out tonight and follow the prompts to update your shipping address. If you don't need to make any updates, you can ignore that message and I'll send it to the address you provided with your survey :)
I'm so sorry this isn't a happier update, but I do hope I can clear this up soon and the folks who ordered the Boston Cream and Challah Centipede pins won't have to wait too long for the new pins.
Thank you for reading, and again thank you so much for your patience! -Danny
This will be a short update- but I wanted to let y’all know that THE PINS ARE DONE! Manufacturing has finally finished on ALL the designs from this project, and they have now been shipped. It should be about 8-14 days before they get to me, but as soon as they arrive I’ll be counting, sorting, and quality checking all of them- then it’s packing time!
Quality checking and order packing will probably take a couple weeks, but I have a few friends (and my mom, hi mom!) coming over to help out so we can get your orders out ASAP! Right now, it looks like your orders should arrive late June to early July for domestic (US) orders, and mid to late July for international folks.
Manufacturing for this project has taken a lot longer than it usually does, so I want to thank you all again for your continued patience! Thankfully, all the backer cards, stickers, and sticker sheets are already in my hands so shipping can begin as soon as the pins arrive and are quality checked.
I’ll be posting another update as soon as the pins get to me with new photos of all the designs together, and provide a more accurate timeline update. But that’s all for now! Thanks for reading :)
It's been a few weeks since my last update, and while I wanted to post an update earlier, I'm glad I waited! The sticker sheets arrived a little earlier than I thought, and I got some more pictures from my manufacturer I can share- so this will be a slightly longer update as well :)
First- Stickers!
Both the stickers and sticker sheets arrived, and they are fantastic! All in all, there are 5 sticker sheet designs, plus 8 individual stickers:
I don't do sticker sheets all that often, but I LOVE how these came out and I can't wait for you all to get them~
Next up- The Pins!
These are taking a bit longer than I hoped they would, but they are coming along! I got some more photos of the finished designs and most of them look great already, though I've requested a couple changes on the Macaron beetles to make their colors pop a little more.
These are looking ~delicious~ already and hopefully soon I'll have some more photos of these and the updated macaron beetles :)
Last- The Backer Cards
One thing I love doing for these campaigns is making special backer cards for each collection! For this set, I decided to keep it simple and do a green-tile background with a warm brown frame for the large (Macaron Beetle Set) and small cards (Single Pin). This will match the theme of the campaign and provide a nice neutral background for everything.
*NOT TO SCALE SORRY BUT ITS CLOSE
For orders of 2-4(ish) pins, I'll be able to use a special folding card that you can open to reveal your pins! The front of this card has a chalkboard menu-style design to make the unboxing feel more special :)
While these cards are temporary packaging meant to hold everything together in transit and provide a temporary display, I still enjoy doing all I can to make a fun and immersive unboxing experience. I hope you like them!
Timeline Update
Originally I hoped to have everyone's orders shipped by the end of June, but I think with these delays it may be closer to the end of July. Regardless, I'll make sure to keep everyone updated on any major changes and I'll be sure to show you all as many photos of the items as I can in the meantime.
Just popping in for a quick update on pin progress, sticker production, and packaging design-
Before we start, just a quick reminder that there are still a few of you who haven't filled out your surveys or who's payments have errored, so please double check your surveys to make sure they're 100% filled out and that your card was processed. Thank you! Onto the Good Stuff- The Pins:
Most them are nearing the final stages of production! Several designs have already been approved for full production, and I'm just waiting on the Macron Beetles and a couple others to get their screenprinted details ready for approval, but I do have some photos to share of the finished ones:
I also have some pics of the ones still waiting for the final details, but proceed with caution as some of these are quite naked lol
It'll still be a couple more weeks before these are done and in my hands, but I do still hope to get them done and shipped as soon as I can! I already plan on having a few friends over to help quality check and sort everything once they do arrive, and while it may be slightly later than originally planned, I will still try to get these shipped by the end of May :)
Next- Stickers and Backing Cards:
I'll be placing orders for the stickers and sticker sheets soon! These take far less time to make than the pins, so I usually like to wait a little bit before ordering them so everything arrives around the same time. I'll also be placing the order for the backing cards soon, so those should also get here around the same time as the pins and stickers. As far as the design for them goes, I originally wanted to do a pastry box inspired design, but I had the idea to do a cute cafe chalk board menu and I love the new direction :) Mock-ups of this in the next update!
More photos coming soon! Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend~
