Hey all,
we're slowly but surely nearing the end of the production phase for the pins, with many pins being close to finished (and a few old pins that were orderable through the campaigns are in fact finished!).
So here's your reminder to fill out your survey if you haven't yet (most have, but not everyone), as well as check if your payment went through. I will only ship what's fully paid.
To view your survey/payment status, go to  
your profile pic (top right corner) -> your pledges and surveys
There you can see your pledge and survey status separately from each other.
For most of you, everything went fine already!

With that out of the way, here's new photos from the factory! 

That's it for today. I hope that within a few weeks I'll be ready to pack and ship these pins. Fingers crossed!

Averil

Hey everyone!
Today I bring you some update that may not be as exciting, but is the reality of pin production especially with special effects. It's about the pink glow on the cherry blossom pins, which was supposed to go like this:

In the samples produced, the pink glow however turned out like this:

As you can see, the pink glow is barely visible, the manufacturer said that sometimes the glow powders are just weaker than others.
However, since the enamel base colors shine through in the glow, they also gave me a sample with white glow added instead:

And I think while this is still not quite like the mockup (honestly none of the final glows are 100% like the mockups because it's not possible- those aren't as exact as enamel colors), I think it's much better and the pink does come through with it. So I would go with white glow instead. 

I hope you all understand, I'm deeply sorry because while I was aware of the differences in glow strengths, the pink one really disappointed me. 

And on a more positive note - here's also an update on the etagere pin! 
Here you can see quite clearly the effect of the base color enamel on the glow too, it's only blue glow and orange glow yet the base colors shine through even in the dark.

Have a nice Sunday everyone! Let me know if it's a big deal or not and if you would've decided for the white glow too. I hope you're still looking forward to your pins! I personally am a little bummed but I'm sure they'll still be beautiful all in all, even if we had to deviate a bit from the original plan.

Averil

Hello everyone!
It's been a hot minute since pins went into production, and Ive got a few updates from the factory. But before we dive into pictures, the more important stuff first:
1. According to my Manu, we can expect pins to be shipped by the end of May. So our time plan seems to be adding up! Please keep in mind that grading and packing will still take a lot of time due to the huge amount of pins.
2. I will charge cards soon, so in case of trouble, you will have enough time to fix payment.
3. A few of you still have failed payments or haven't filled out your surveys! Please do fix them asap, or else I will not be shipping your pins. If you're experiencing trouble, please email me at [email protected] and we can set up a different payment method.

With that out of the way, here's some pictures! Do keep in mind that none of these pins are finished, so the final appearance will be different. But we do get to see some glow already 🥰

That's all from me for now!
Take care until next time.
Averil

Hey guys!
Thank you all for responding to your surveys so swiftly (and there's still around 25 of you who haven't responded! Consider this your reminder - it's not too late!). 

This project has reached levels that I didn't dare to imagine! We had 9 main series pin, one last minute stretch goal pin (the etagere) and a post-campaign rude boba pin. That's 11 dersigns with 172 pcs average - remember, I've ordered 150% of the needed amount - that's an average 115 orders of each design!

The most popular design is the Starry Tea Cup with a projected 147 orders, closely followed by the other pins in the starry set. For all the sets, the Tea Cup was the most popular design (which I didn't expect!), but usually the numbers within a set were roughly the same.

For the mini pins, the cherry blossom filler pin lew it out of the water - the cherry blossom pin was picked 104 times as either a single pin order or as freebie, additionally around 50 times as the whole set with the petals. We're making over 200 of the cherry blossom pin alone!

We also got 222 eligible backers for the cross collaboration reward - isn't that crazy? Fun fact, throughout our campaigns, Witch's Brew and Magic Tea Party were taking Pintopia's leaderboard for most popular Cross Collaboration campaigns with almost 70% of backers backing both - THANK YOU so much for liking our collaboration pins! 

Well from now on it's going to be a little boring - we wait for manufacturer updates. I've placed the final pin order with the finalized amounts, and I will post an update whenever we get something new! I have yet to order the stickers and the charms, but those will take very little time to produce so I will do that when I have time. 

If you have missed the campaign but want to join the fun, feel free to check out the Pre-Order Store.
All the campaign freebies like Cross-Collaboration and Mini Pin Freebies do not apply anymore for Pre-Orders but you still get to buy the pin sets at the BK price! 

That's it for now! Thank you so much again!
Averil

 Hello all!
First of all thanks a lot for the helpful feedback of the smoke test backers! We did manage to find a problem with the survey thanks to them. Now it's confirmed to be fixed and no further issues seem to have appeared so all backers are getting the survey now.

Here's the next steps:
- I will wait until 80% of the survey have been filled out. I expect that to be the case within a couple of days.
- Once that is done, I will calculate the total amount of pins to order based on those survey responses. I will of course order more than projected (~150%) to account for quality control and other problems. After that, the pins go to production!
- Your orders will then be locked,. meaning you can't change your survey answers anymore. The backers who haven't filled out their survey till then can still do it.
- Your addresses can still be changed after your order has been locked. It will only be locked when fulfillment is within reach!
- The final charge with shipping and post campaign add-ons will soon be made too. If your final charge fails, you can still correct it or reach out to me. 

That's it! Thanks all again ❤️
Averil