Flora & Feather - Enamel Pins & Bookcharms - Birds, Flowers, and Dragons!

Hey everyone,

A quick(ish) hopeful note: I finally have some progress to share.

I’ve been continuing to work with the manufacturer on the UV layers, and we finally hit an aha moment on part that was really tripping us up - that the light colors kept vanishing.

When trying to trouble shoot with the manufacturer, the best they could say was that the lighter inks were getting ‘eaten’ by the enamel and could give me no further explanation. (All their troubleshooting messages are this vague.) I said they must have printed light colors before and if so how did they get them to show up? Their answer was ‘We will try a different method’. Then another week or so later, they sent me new sample photos in which the light colors (which I had lightened 100x to be pretty much white at this point) actually came through loud and clear!

So in addition to dialing back the light colors to their original shade, I tried to inquire what they did differently. After a lot of back-and-forth, from what I can gather, they tried a new method they never tried before and printed my base colors first and then the UV on top. So that gave me a clue, that at least for the light colors, it may be an opacity issue. (That still doesn’t explain why the dark colors were turning into black blobs - but I keep trying to solve one problem at a time.)

With that in mind, I rebuilt the UV print file for the red dragon so that the base color and the soft UV shading print together, and I carefully erased anywhere I want the enamel to show through. The new sample looks much closer to the painting—there’s finally a full range of color!—but it also introduced a new wrinkle: a light “ghosting” halo along some printed edges. My next step is to figure out why this new method is creating a highlight all around the edge of where it prints, then tweak the file and settings to remove that halo while keeping the highlights visible.

Even with that new puzzle, it feels like forward motion at last after months of stalls, rep changes, and confusing non-answers. It is such a relief to feel like there is forward momentum. I feel like I am getting close enough now, that if this test turns out how I hope and start looking close to how I expect, I’ll at least have a strategy to the rest of the designs in small, steady batches (so we’re not reinventing the wheel each time) and hopefully get them all finished at long last.

Thank you for sticking with me through what I know has been a long road. I don’t take your trust for granted for a single second. Your patience and kindness have meant more than I can say. I’ve been living with these little birds, blossoms, and dragons for so long, and it’s a relief to finally have some good news to share. This project became my most difficult and fraught ever - and I can’t thank you guys enough for being so patient with me while I wrestle this project back into the shape it was supposed to have.

I’m including a photo of the latest UV sample so you can see where we are - full color range, but with that odd light halo we’re now addressing. I’m hopeful that in the next update I’ll be able to show you the fix and even better samples. Fingers crossed we’re finally through the thicket!



With love and gratitude,
Jeszika

Hi everyone :) 

I realize its been a hot minute since I posted an update and so I wanted to touch base with you guys real quick, so you know I haven't disappeared into the moonlight. 

There isn't a ton to report other than we are slowly working on the UV layers. Communication with the manufacturer does seem improved which is helping with being able to focus on the UV layers themselves instead of arguing over communication and prices. So though progress is slow - there are less things derailing us from working on getting the UV layers fixed. 

The latest set we are working on are the Scarlet Ibis, Poppy, and Dragon designs - but even though the in latest round we have gotten the dark areas to look nice, we still can't get the highlight colors to show up at all. I have tried again asking them why that is, because if we can figure out why the light colors aren't showing up at all, I could fix a lot of the UV layers a lot faster, but they don't seem to be able to give me any information or guidance as to why that is. Which leaves me back to the trial and error process of redoing the UV layer file over and over and sending it them and waiting for them to send back a photo of how it printed. 

The process is tedious and slow, and improvements seem slow to come - hence I haven't had much in the way of anything exciting to post. But I wanted to touch base with you guys and let you know I am still mired in this process and doing my best to inch forward little by little. 

And again, as I mentioned before, at any time, if the wait gets too long and anyone would like a refund instead, please reach out to me and let me know. I don't want anyone to feel frustrated or like they are on the hook for a project they are not happy about.

And in the meantime, I will keep chipping away at getting this project across the finish line. Thank you so much to all of you for hanging in there with me <3 

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 

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 😅