Survey's Out, Most Pins Produced, and General Status Updates!
Hello everybody! Thank you for your patience as we navigated through various difficult circumstances, which I'll detail below. First, the good news:
The survey is done! ...
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Gay Breakfast
3 months ago
Production Update, Survey Crafting
Hello everybody!
We are chipping away at the survey, but we ended up initially prioritizing getting a first batch of the pins in production. The big reaso...
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Gay Breakfast
4 months ago
Thank you for a great project!
We're absolutely floored by the response to this small project! It was a bit of an experiment to see if doing something short & small outside of kickstarter. Your enthusiasm e...
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Gay Breakfast
5 months ago
Which Familiar gets Pearlescent Dice Priority?
Hi everybody!
We unlocked the single-familiar pearlescent enamel upgrade in the first 24 hours--thank you!
Please keep in mind:
If the dragon wins, that means that the "20 ...
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Gay Breakfast
5 months ago
Corvid Dice Collector Bonus Flag Poll
Hello everybody!
Since we unlocked additional flags for each familiar (thank you!), this poll's results will determine which flag is added to the collection of Corvid Dice Co...
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Gay Breakfast
5 months ago
D20 Dragon Bonus Flag Poll!
Hello everybody!
Since we unlocked additional flags (thank you!), this poll's results will determine which flag is added to the collection of D20 dragon pins! Please keep in...
Hello everybody! Thank you for your patience as we navigated through various difficult circumstances, which I'll detail below. First, the good news:
The survey is done!
You have until June 1st to fill it out.
We might start mailing orders as soon as April, and will chip away at it slowly for most of spring, with a goal of finishing by the end of June, as originally estimated.
If we mail your order before June 1st, that means your survey will be locked before June 1st.
Most pins are produced already!
We worked hard to get an estimate of pins made ahead of whatever tariffs the new administration would install. (more info on that below)
That is part of what helped us keep shipping costs within our original estimates.
The sooner you fill you survey, the sooner we can order and mail the remaining pins!
We have not yet ordered pearl versions of the Corvid Dice Collectors, just made a deposit.
We may need to order additional pins of certain variants if the survey shows them to be more popular than our first batch order anticipated.
That said, we had a lot of uncertainties and difficulties to navigate the last couple months. It was my instinct to wait until we had solved problems to update, because when I'm getting news, my anxiety prefers to hear a plan later than an unknown sooner. However, that may have been a mistake, as I understand some folks were worried we disappeared. I'll keep that in mind in the future, and apologize for not posting sooner.
If you're intersted in all the challenges we tackled, keep reading! If not, just scroll to the bottom to see a pic of one of the finished pins!
In early December I began to have some frequent and severe headaches at the back of my head. It was debilitating, and often made working impossible. Every time I worked for an hour or two, I'd get a headache that'd take me out of comission for the rest of the day. As a cancer survivor, it also meant I needed to get an MRI to see if it was a recurrence before making a treatment plan. While I'm grateful it was just an overuse injury, my ability to work was still quite limited until I could find a decent physical therapist and make some headway on healing. PT and a standing desk is finally helping some, so I finally finished the survey.
Some of the work I did during this time was to try to figure out what tariffs were landing on pins (28% to be paid by us, the importer), and troubleshoot how to mitigate the unexpected expense without charging y'all more shipping & handling than originally outlined. Even though this project reached a size where we planned to hire White Squirrel for all of fulfillment, we will instead be hiring a friend to help us get through some of the orders here at home. It would save the most money if we mailed alone, but Red is fast-tracking their gender-confirming hysterectomy because of the political climate. They'll be recovering throughout the month of June, and our good friend Cat will take up mailing whatever isn't mailed already at that time.
I know that the last few months have probably been stressful for a lot of our backers as well, from watching transphobic EOs cause confusion in schools and hospitals, to the dismanteling of the federal government, to the anti-DEI changes from flakey tech giants. However, we're going to persist in making queer art year-round. We want our pins to continue to help folks express pride, find community, and identify safe spaces in ways that get past bigoted radars. Thank you so much for supporting us in that effort, and again, for your patience as we tackled the last few months.
Hey, just wondering how things are going with regards to this project since we haven't heard anything for a few months. Would we be able to get an update as to where things are at, even if it's just to say that there hasn't been much progress? Thank you!
We are chipping away at the survey, but we ended up initially prioritizing getting a first batch of the pins in production. The big reason we ran this project when we did was because we got into Pax Unplugged-- and MFF. When we saw the survey was a bigger learning curve than we thought, we pivoted to production first, survey second. With any luck, a first batch of these will be at our table in which case you could you come to our table to get your pins! We'd just need to see proof that you're one of our backers.
The "first batch" of crows do not have pearlescent enamel. Pearl enamel takes much longer to set, so they would not have been ready in time for the convention. We are nonetheless making another pearlescent batch for actual fulfillment next year.
Backerkit has a beta feature to charge shipping at a later date than the survey release. This is a good thing for us, because shipping and handling rates can change. Tax-wise, it is also better to collect shipping in the same tax year that they will be mailed.
That means that
If we can get the beta feature to work confidently, please understand you'd get another shipping invoice later, in 2025.
And if we don't feel confident in that feature, then we'll delay the survey release until January.
Fulfillment is expected in Spring 2025, as stated on the original project description for reaching more than 500 orders.
We're also sorry we made this update a little later than we would have otherwise, too, but we took time to process some current events. If you or a loved one are looking for resources or ways to help vulnerable folks in the upcoming years, please check out this database. It's fantastic. https://inreach.org/
Our pin club design for this month was a form of self-care after the election. Hard times still require moments of warmth and joy to power us through. In fact, in a political climate that wants us to feel cold and alone, carving out some comforts is part of the rebellion. We wanted something both cozy and tenacious to suit the moment. A badger seemed perfect.
The featured flags are naturally on Trans and Gender Nonconforming folks. The LGBTQ rainbow flag pin also references the Philly Pride flag, which emphasizes QPOC. They are reservable until the end of November, and will mail in late winter or early spring.
Thank you all! We'll update again in December, most likely. In the mean time, take care of you and yours.
We're absolutely floored by the response to this small project! It was a bit of an experiment to see if doing something short & small outside of kickstarter. Your enthusiasm exceeded all expectations, so thank you!
So what's next?
We're sending the finalized art to our manufacturer first so we can get the proofing phase done ASAP!
Surveys come second because Backerkit staff advised that we wait for payment attempts to clear before releasing surveys. I have a soft goal of having them ready in about 2 weeks, but it could be longer if the survey tool confuses me. This is our first time using Backerkit.
The next step is to put pins into production, with a goal to have at least some of them in time for Pax Unplugged in December. It's a tight deadline, honestly, but if we make it and you are going to be at that event, you can get your pins from us in person.
It's our plan to order 2-3x as many pins as we need to fulfill, so that we have stock for Pax. If Pax clears us out, we'll place a second order of pins in plenty of time before formal fulfillment.
As for when pins will ship out to you, as we said in the story section of our project, if we got over 500 orders we might need to have White Squirrel fulfill these in Spring 2025, concurrent with our other project from this summer, the Gay Crime Goose collection. If we don't get into a lot of conventions after Pax, we might self-mail sooner than that, and we'll update you accordingly.
Thank you again for helping us try out a new platform and a new funding structure!
