Latest from the Creator
Jeszika Le Vye
9 days ago
Another Update on Progress
Hello again, First, my apologies for the delay of this update! I never want you guys to feel like I am ghosting you or not working hard on making progress on this project. U...
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Jeszika Le Vye
2 months ago
Updates on Manufacturing Progress
I wanted to catch up with you guys about how the manufacturing delays have been progressing. I'm happy to say, I actually have some good news and forward momentum again! Th...
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Jeszika Le Vye
2 months ago
✨🌙 Last Days of Sorceress Campaign! 🌙✨
 Before I begin, I wanted to let you guys know, I have some good news on the Flora & Feather pins finally making progress through the obstacles again, but I don't want thi...
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Jeszika Le Vye
4 months ago
Updates and Something New - Pintopia 2025
Hello again! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday with their loved ones 🩶 I have some not great updates and (hopefully) a more cheerful update. ✨ Flora & Feather Update...
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Jeszika Le Vye
5 months ago
Quick Update :) Surveys locking - and - alternate metal colors limited edition
Hey wanted to send a quick update to you guys as I work on refining these UV print layers. We've made good progress on eliminating the black blotchine...
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Jeszika Le Vye
5 months ago
Updates - Progress on Tassels and UV Printing :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got to spend time with your loved ones <3 I wanted to drop in and give you guys some new updates :) ...
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PROJECT UPDATE
Jeszika Le Vye
CREATOR
9 days ago

Project Update: Another Update on Progress

Hello again,

First, my apologies for the delay of this update! I never want you guys to feel like I am ghosting you or not working hard on making progress on this project. Unfortunately, I don't get any notifications when you comment on my updates or ask for updates, so I didn't see that a few comments were asking for updates until today, when I got an email from a backer - otherwise, I definitely would have answered sooner! I try to post an update every month or two, and this time that got stretched a bit closer to the further end of that two months than I meant for it to.

Puzzle Campaign Fulfillment - Part of the reason for that was that about a month and a half ago, I received the last items needed for my other Flora & Feather campaign - for the puzzles and art tins. So, most of last month was spent fulfilling that campaign and getting that Kickstarter officially wrapped up. It was a lot of work to get all of that campaign shipped out in a few weeks, but I did it, and it is officially finished - making one less campaign and big project for me to divide my work time between. When I decided to run both Flora & Feather campaigns at the same time, I believed that it was an efficient use of my time to run them concurrently, that it would make the process more streamlined as I worked on them together. Looking back, I realize how wrong I was, and that not only was it double the work, it was more than double, as trying to manage my time between the two made both harder. I learned the hard way that running two concurrent campaigns was extra, extra difficult, and I definitely will not make that mistake again! But at least the puzzle campaign is successfully wrapped up!


As much of this update is more specific and personal, I am going to finish up in the backer-only section instead this time <3 
Includes Backer-Exclusive Content
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PROJECT UPDATE
Jeszika Le Vye
CREATOR
2 months ago

Project Update: Updates on Manufacturing Progress

I wanted to catch up with you guys about how the manufacturing delays have been progressing. I'm happy to say, I actually have some good news and forward momentum again!

This post may be a little long, as I want to get into the details of it, so you guys have the whole picture of what has been going on behind the scenes. So I guess let's just dive in to the whole messy story 😅


As I mentioned in an earlier update, the pin manufacturer ghosted me for weeks in December. Then when I finally got them to reply to me, informed me the rep I was working with had left the company, weeks ago. But the new rep I was talking with was far less able to communicate with me and stopped answering me with anything more than three-word sentences and ignoring 99% of my questions or statements. To the point that when I informed her that this had gone so badly I wanted a refund on the molds or to transfer them to a new company, she completely ignored what I wrote and responded by sending me random photos of some of my pins and text that read "scanning images". When I responded that these weren't even the pins we were working on and that she had completely ignored what I wrote, and that I was serious about wanting to end the order, she would just repeat that step with new random images and "scanning images". After several tries, though, she finally acknowledged what I was saying and said they could not refund the molds, but would transfer them to a new company if I wanted.

So, I went ahead and found another company that was recommended to me by other artists for having high-quality pins but also great customer service - and after some back and forth they said that they could indeed take the molds and finish the project from there. So I replied to the original pin manufacturer with the information on where to ship the molds. They agreed, but said that they wouldn't do it until after the Chinese New Year. So I waited to hear back from them once they returned from their holiday.

When they did get back in touch with me, they were much more communicative and said that they knew this other company and recommended that I only ship one or two molds first to 'try them out' before shipping all 50 molds. They also stressed that they had almost 20 years of experience making pins and that they had, in the end, after several 'scanning images' emails sent the right images of the right sample they were supposed to be working on.

I responded to them that I didn't know how to respond to their email - that they seemed to want to continue working on this project but that it had deteriorated so far I didn't know how that would even be possible. I said that the only way I would even consider it, was if there was a complete 150% improvement in communication as there was no way to troubleshoot 25 designs with bad UV printing if I couldn't communicate with them. I also told them I would not continue the order if I was expected to pay them for the cords and tassels since I had to spend several thousand dollars to source them from another manufacturer since they couldn't provide what they had agreed to provide in their quote. I got a reply that I would have a new rep contact me on Monday and that she spoke much better English and would be able to work much more patiently and effectively with me to finish this order.

So I don't know if I am being gullible or naive to give them one more chance, but I agreed to speak to the new rep and try out troubleshooting one more set of UV layers to see how it goes. The new rep emailed me last week, and we have exchanged a few emails that are much more helpful and clear. They are in the process now of readjusting my quote to reflect the changes in what they are providing, and they are working on reprinting the new UV layers I had adjusted for them of the Barn Owl trio. So I am waiting to hear back with the new Owl samples and quote... fingers crossed, hoping against hope that things are back on track and going smoothly from here on out. But I do have another company ready and able to take over the molds and finish the project if this last effort ends up going as bad as the last few months of work have gone. So one way or another, there is a way forward.


Whew - ok - that was a lot more written out than I meant for it to be, but I really wanted to be transparent and share exactly what is going on and why it is taking so long. But also, to show that I am actively working on pushing things forward in every way I can.

TLDR: I found a new pin manufacturer willing to take the molds and finish the project, and then my old pin manufacturer became much more helpful and able to communicate asking for one last try before taking the molds and project elsewhere. So I am giving it one last try to finish the project with them, rather than starting over elsewhere, as long as I can actually communicate with them and make progress. But now I also have a backup in case things degrade with them again.


Onwards to some pictures though! :) I thought I would share the type of problems I was having with the UV printing and how I am trying to fix them:



So this was the trio we were working on when the ghosted me... as you can see. the dark areas of the design were just turning into black blobs, rather than the expected colors and gradients I had painted. Even some of the dark areas in the leaves were turning into dark blobs instead of smooth gradients as well.

So I spent several days carefully adjusting the UV print layers to try to get them to print way less dark and blown out for the 2nd attempt at printing these. I sent the files over and ... that's when they stopped responding. Over a month later, when they started sending me random photos of pins, these 2nd samples were what I was waiting for. The very last message before they agreed to transfer the files over included these samples of the 2nd reprint. By that point, I was done though, and set up the mold transfer as it had taken months and many emails of wrong samples and dozens of ignored questions to get to this point.

But now that I am giving them one last chance, this is where we picked up where we left off. They sent me these photos again. And thankfully they are much improved from the first attempt! Though the photos are a little less clear and bright (and dingy yellow), I can see that they no longer have big blobs of dark spots everywhere. But they still need a little work - esp the dragon. The dark spots on the dragon are still way too dark and not blending in, though at least they look like gradients now and not blobs lol. So I spent about a day completely reworking the UV layers for him that I think, having seen now how my changes affected the last reprinting, will yield much softer prettier results :) The next two days, I also tweaked the UV layers for the pear blossom to punch up a little of the color inside the blossoms, and on the owl to soften the dark shadow a little more and add a little more color and evenness to the shadow under its chin. (Do owls have chins? lol) I am very hopeful that the 3rd reprint will be much nicer and we can move on to another trio!

I figure, I will just take it in pieces - one trio at a time - that way it feels less overwhelming since there are only 8 trios rather than 25 designs.



So yeah, that is where we are at! We are making progress again. Communication seems improved. UV layers are getting better. And I have a backup waiting in the wings if things go south. 

I sent them the reworked UV layers on Monday, and am waiting to hear back from them with photos of the new samples. Fingers crossed they are lovely! 

Thank you again for all the patience you guys have shown me as I work on these <3 and I hope this update was helpful, even if a bit long-winded lol 😅


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PROJECT UPDATE
Jeszika Le Vye
CREATOR
2 months ago

Project Update: ✨🌙 Last Days of Sorceress Campaign! 🌙✨

 Before I begin, I wanted to let you guys know, I have some good news on the Flora & Feather pins finally making progress through the obstacles again, but I don't want this update to be a novel - so I will share that in another update in a day or two :)

A quick preview of the update though - I have a company that has agreed to take the molds and continue where the previous company left off, and the previous company has suddenly become way more helpful and responsive towards finishing the project. But I will go more into detail - with pictures! - in a few days :) 

Sorceress CampaignI realized I had mentioned in my last update about my upcoming 'Sorceress' campaign for this year's Pintopia, but that I had not shared when it launched or how well it is going 😅 So I wanted to share an update with you guys of how everything is going and the new designs we've unlocked. I know there are a lot of you who have also supported my new campaign and I wanted to say thank you so much 🖤 It really means the world to me that you trust me with this new campaign even though I am still working on the last and I don't take that trust lightly. And I am so grateful that you have helped me bring this new collection to life as well.

For anyone who hasn't seen the new campaign though, I wanted to share some pretty pictures of how everything is going :) 

I anticipated this year's campaign to be quite a bit smaller than my previous ones, and somehow we unlocked all my planned designs on the first day and several more since! It's been a wild ride keeping up with how well it is doing and I am so excited to see all these Sorceresses and their Familiars coming to life 🖤

We've unlocked 8 designs - plus the bonus collab pin design - and only have 1 more pin left to unlock (fingers crossed) in the next two days.

Each of these pins is extra large (4-5 inches on their longest side) and meant to be displayed in a 5x7 frame as a unique art piece. Each will come on a beautiful gold foil 5x7 backing card making it ready to frame and display as soon as it arrives. Here are 8 of the 9 designs we have available. (I am still catching up on one design, Exhale, that was unlocked a day ago - so I hope to have her ready to share in a day or two!)

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/jeszika-le-vye/sorceress-spirit-guides-haunting-familiars



I'm so excited to see all these mysterious spirits coming to life in new form. These designs are still works in progress, and I will be cleaning them up a lot and adding detail and color to make them as beautiful as possible, but I wanted to get a work-in-progress version of each ready to share as soon as possible since we unlocked so many more than I expected. I hope you enjoy seeing all the new designs as well!

I've also added some extra freebies as a thank you to everyone for all the support in making this campaign so successful 🖤 Though the design is still a work in progress, I am adding an iron-on patch of "The Dreamer" to all pledges for 2 pins or more.



And, I'm also creating 8x10 coloring sheets of each sorceress as a free digital download bonus to everyone who backs for one pin or more. These can easily be printed at home and turned into your own unique piece of art with your own color choices and style 🖤



I also wanted to share a quick little preview of how amazing my Pintopia partner Kira's campaign is! Kira and I have worked together for many years on other projects, including three years of an art anthology "Encounters with the Imaginary" - and so I was super excited to work with her on Pintopia this year and see her launch her first solo campaign. And it turned out amazing! Her designs are so beautifully spooky and whimsical and it shows in how successful her campaign is going. So if you get a sec to check out her campaign, I highly recommend it!

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/kira-night-art/moon-hollow-a-spooky-enamel-pin-series




Her whole campaign is filled with so much charm and personality - and I hope you guys love it 🖤


So if these catch your eye, take a peak at the campaigns. We are under the 48 hour mark before the campaign ends, so if you were hoping to get some of these new shinies, there's only about a day and a half left.



And thank you again, everyone, for your support on Flora & Feather 🖤 and for those of you who are joining me on this new project, thank you as well! As I said before, I will have a new update in a day or two about how we are finally making progress on the Flora & Feather pins! Love you guys!

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PROJECT UPDATE
Jeszika Le Vye
CREATOR
4 months ago

Project Update: Updates and Something New - Pintopia 2025

Hello again!

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday with their loved ones 🩶

I have some not great updates and (hopefully) a more cheerful update.

Flora & Feather Update: To start with - the manufacturer for the pins & bookcharms has created even further delays. Starting in early December, they just ghosted me and stopped responding to any of my emails. This came right after we had just had our first promising move forward on the UV print layers. I was finally able to get a reply from them about a week ago and they told me the rep I had been working with was no longer with the company. I have no idea why no one else from the company followed up with me when she left, or why my emails went unanswered for almost a month. But the new rep said she would pick up where we left off. Unfortunately, her English seems to be so limited that she can't understand the majority of my emails and just ignores every question or instruction I ask of her. They said they were reprinting the next set of UV layers I sent them but that was a week ago and they are not answering again. I feel so terrible for how long these delays are going for all of you to get the pins and charms you ordered. But unfortunately, I am completely stuck fighting to make any headway with this manufacturer. I am seriously considering starting over with another company, as I am starting to belive that may be the only way forward. But if I do that, I will be losing probably $10k out of my savings to cover the switch. So I am begging and pleading with this manufacturer to try and make any progress on the pins and charms. The molds all came out beautiful, and even the enamel layers look lovely - it is only the UV layers that have us stuck and not being able to communicate at all has severely limited my ability to troubleshoot the problems with them. But that is the current state of things with the pins and charms.

I wanted to reassure all of you though, that I am still hard at work on them. It keeps me up at night from the stress of trying to get through to them and is the first thing I check on every morning when I wake up. It may still take a good while before I can get these made, but I want all of you to know that one way or another, I will get these finished for all of you. And I am determined to make sure they are worth the wait.

✨ Pintopia 2025 - Sorceress Pins: Secondly, I wanted to talk about the next Pintopia event happening this month. I'd hoped Pintopia would be in March as it was last year, but they moved it up to January which gave me less time to wrap up everything from this campaign before the next one. But I've decided to go ahead and participate in this month's Pintopia with a few new pins for my Sorceress series.

Because so much of this Flora & Feather campaign is delayed on the manufacturer's end, there isn't much I can do in the long days and weeks between their replies, other than email them repeatedly. So this new campaign wont in any way take away needed time from finishing this last campaign.

This new campaign, I am designing to be much simpler - I am only doing about 5 designs rather than 25, they will not have any special effects, like UV printing or metal alternate colors, and they will only be pins rather than bookcharms. So with all these safeguards in place towards simplicity, they should be much easier and quicker to manufacture. And I am really excited about this new pin series!

Each of these sorceress pins will be an extra large art piece - about 4-5 inches designed to be displayed on a 5x7 gold foil card, framed on a wall or shelf. I am leaning into an Art Nouveau style for this set. Here is a little peak at the direction we are going for these:



If you'd like to check out the new campaign when it goes live, I have the landing page set up here: https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/a8a1533e-0898-41eb-869f-69dbf13996b4/landing 

Again, I wanted to reassure everyone that this will not in any way interfere with my work on getting the Flora & Feather pins finished. But I hope you will join me on this campaign in the meantime 🩶  

And I want to thank everyone again for how patient and understanding you have all been as I work on getting these pins finished. Your trust and enjoyment of the art I make is the most important part of this process for me and I am committed to stay true to that and honor that - no matter the difficulties and obstacles I encounter.
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PROJECT UPDATE
Jeszika Le Vye
CREATOR
5 months ago

Project Update: Quick Update :) Surveys locking - and - alternate metal colors limited edition

Hey wanted to send a quick update to you guys as I work on refining these UV print layers. We've made good progress on eliminating the black blotchiness that is showing up in some of the dark areas. I'm hoping to be able to get the physical print samples ordered in the next few weeks. 

As I mentioned in my last update, I am going to go ahead and lock and charge the surveys that are completed. This will help me make sure I have the final counts right and hopefully get everything lined up to go as smoothly and quickly as possible once we reach the next few stages. I just wanted to make sure to give you guys another heads-up, in case anyone missed it in the last update (as that one was a little long) :) 

And for those of you who haven't completed your surveys yet - not to worry I will still make sure you have a chance to but if you get a sec, it would be very helpful if you went ahead and filled yours out. I also wanted to let you guys know that though I am still planning to keep all the designs in stock in the future, as I said I would, I've decided I will only keep the gold metal going forward as it is too complicated to keep the alternate metals in stock as well, esp with the charms needing matching cords and tassels. So all that to say - the silver and black metal versions are instead going to be a limited edition to only this one print run. So if you had hopes on getting any of them in silver or black metal, to be sure to get them while you can, as once they run out, I will not be able to restock them. 

Thanks again everyone for your kind patience as I work on making sure these turn out as beautiful as possible and overcoming the unexpected obstacles this project had and supporting these creations <3 This project has been so much more complicated than I anticipated, (I had no idea that UV printing was as challenging and time-consuming to get right as it is) but I've been learning a lot along the way and I'm really excited to see these start turning into the beautiful treasures I hoped they would be to send to all of you. And of course, I will keep on keeping you guys updated :) love you guys! <3 
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