FINALLY, after a couple months of back-and-forth with my manufacturer, I have half-complete sample photos of the pins for you guys!
Please keep in mind: these are half-complete, which means they were just used to check enamel color accuracy and don't have any of the correct plating colors, pendant attachments, or screenprinting layers.
Full size pins:
I thought i'd include a photo of the back of the Rumpelstiltskin pin because the manu and I had to do quite a bit of thinking to figure out how to get the spinning part to work while also allowing 3 pin posts.
Small pins:
Note about the Poison Apple Skull: to get the desired effect I wanted with the metal on this pin, it had to be made as a pin with 3 levels instead of the typical 2. This meant that the lowest fill level with the dark red under the cheek bones has to be done with soft enamel since the polishing machines can't reach that area to polish down hard enamel. I think it looks really cool still, but if it bothers you, email me at[email protected] and I'll help you change your selection on the survey.
Next step: Mass production
Now that these samples have all been approved, the pins have FINALLY moved on to mass production! 🎉
I deeply apologize at how long this has taken. Between all the back-and-forth with the manufacturer making small edits, adjustments, and fixing mistakes, it just took a lot longer than usual this time to get them to this point. Paired with the 3+ week long holiday during Feburary for the Chinese holiday, it really caused delays. Thank you so much for your patience!
Charging cards for shipping & add-ons
For this campaign, I was experimenting with waiting to charge cards for shipping until farther along in the process. The intention behind this was to wait until I had the pins in-hand to weigh them so I can get more accurate shipping costs to you all.
I still intend to wait until I've received the pins to charge the majority of backers' cards, however, if you want me to charge yours now, I can accommodate you - send an email to [email protected] and let me know your BackerKit email so I can find your pledge and charge your card.
On that note - do you prefer my previous way of doing it where I charged cards shortly after locking surveys, or do you like it better doing it this way where I wait until later on in the fulfillment timeline? Feel free to let me know your thoughts below. :)
It's been a while since my last update on The Dark Wood so I just wanted to do something quick. Pins are taking longer than I hoped, because there was a ton of back-and-forth with my sales rep about corrections that needed to be made to the artwork to stay true to my designs, and that took literal weeks. :(
However, the artwork has all finally been approved and the pins are finally going to sampling. When I have pictures of the half-complete samples, I'll share them with you all. I was hoping to have those pictures for this update, but alas, I do not yet and I didn't want to keep leaving you guys in the dark. 😩
The main artwork adjustment I had to make was on the Goose Girl pin. The hole in the blood trail on the horse head was too small for the jump ring to go through, so the artwork had to be adjusted to make it bigger:
The arrow is pointing to the area that needed to be readjusted to be able to fit the jump ring through.
It definitely looks a bit different than before, but unfortunately I had no choice. The other option was to make a separate ring on the outside like the one coming off his hand, and I really didn't like how that looked, so I decided to adjust the blood drips to stay as true as possible to the original design. Thank you for understanding 🙏 If this bothers you to the point where you'd like not to receive this pin, you can message me at [email protected] and I will help you edit your order.
Since all this took so long, I will likely have to push the fulfillment timeline back a bit :( I'm just going to say that the new estimated ship date for this will be May 2026 (previously April). I'll update the timeline on the campaign page to reflect this change.
Thank you all so much for your patience and I will share more updates just as soon as I can. Thank you!
Good news - I've just put in the order for the pins, finally! Between my vacation abroad, the holidays, and prepping for my next campaign, it took a bit longer than usual to put the order in, and I apologize for that. Thank you for your patience! 🙏
That's all for this update. I'll update you again once I have half-complete sample photos from my supplier. :)
I hope your holidays were full of joy and that you had a happy new year!
Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm going to set all currently submitted surveys to lock in 2 days.
This will not prevent anyone from filling out their survey afterwards, but I will doing item counts based on the filled out surveys at the point of locking them, so if you fill yours out late, your order won't be counted towards the final counts.
I usually order enough extra pins to cover potential issues, but you will still run the risk of me potentially running out of the items you want if you don't fill out your survey in time.
All that to say, if you haven't filled out your survey yet, please do that ASAP. If you lost your survey link, you can retrieve it HERE.
Pay Over Time backers:
Locking the current surveys will NOT prevent you from filling your survey out once you have paid in full. As mentioned before, you will receive your survey once you have paid your full balance. No need to worry about this!
Once the surveys are locked, I can finally work on getting the pins ordered so they can get into production. :)
Celestial Incarnations launching January 22!
This is a reminder that my next pin set, Celestial Incarnations, is launching as part of Pintopia on January 22nd, 2026! I am SO excited for this set, I've been working on these designs for MONTHS and I'm really proud of how they're shaping up.
You can view more sketches and sign up for campaign notifications here: Celestial Incarnations
That's it for now!
Happy holidays! I hope your holiday week and weekend are filled with lots of love and joy, whatever you may be celebrating!
Hi all! Just wanted to drop you all a quick note since it’s been a few weeks.
I can’t do a full update right now because I’m currently on vacation traveling abroad, and trying very hard not to work too much while I’m here. So this is just a quick note to let you all know that I’m still here!
A couple quick notes:
A little over 90% of surveys have been filled out. Please submit ASAP if you haven’t yet!
Once I get back from vacation I will lock submitted surveys and begin the process of ordering the pins.
Thanks for your patience! You’ll get a more thorough update from me later in the month after I return from vacation. :)
