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

I wanted to post a progress report update for everyone :)

Surveys: The surveys have gone very smoothly (and there are only a few left that aren't filled in yet). I plan to leave them open for now until I am much closer to having everything in hand to ship. I will be sure to let you guys know when we get close to that point - and when the pins & bookcharms are getting ready to be shipped to me I will let you guys know and likely lock the orders then.

Samples: As of now, the samples are actively being made by the manufacturer. They will ship them to me, so I will have photos to share of those once they are in hand. Getting physical samples mailed to me adds cost and time to the project, but I really want to make sure they are as nice as possible for you guys before having them go ahead and make thousands of them. And photos just don't seem as reliable.

Tassel Woes: However, I got an email from my manufacturer this week that is a pretty frustrating complication! They just informed me that they are no longer able to make them with matching cords and tassels. I am super frustrated with this news - as they have said since April that they could. And since I've already sent them thousands of dollars for molds and samples, I'm already too far down the path with them to turn around and start over with another company. For the cords, they sent me menus with several good options per design and I was able to find exactly what color I wanted for each design. However, for the tassels, they sent me a menu that has about 20 colors to choose from and none of the colors are the same as the cord options. 

So right now, I am left with two options:

Even though it is a more expensive and time-consuming option, I am starting with the second option. I've already reached out to several companies and contacts to see what I can find. This is definitely adding a ton of stress, time, and cost to the production - but I really want to do everything I can to make these as nice as possible. It's been a very frustrating week for sure with this news - and I can't believe that they didn't tell me until now that they couldn't do the thing we agreed on since the spring. But I am trying to just keep pushing through and finding solutions.

I wanted to let you guys know about this obstacle to keep you informed of what is going on behind the scenes. But also wanted to let you know that I am on it, and working as hard as I can to make these as nice as possible.

Flora & Feather Puzzles: And, on a different note, I also wanted to add a note here that the surveys for the puzzle Kickstarter are also starting to go out today :) I sent out the first smoke test surveys for the puzzles and the rest will hopefully go out in the next few days. So if you backed that campaign as well, be sure to keep an eye out for those!

A bit of a tangent, but I also ended up with troublesome news from the puzzle manufacturers this week as well. Unfortunately, about 20% of the puzzle boxes were smashed in shipping to me and the manufacturer has refused to replace them. I still have plenty to fulfill the campaign but, there is definitely not nearly as much left over to sell once the campaign ends. This has been a very stressful week as far as emails from manufacturers go!

Puzzle Pre-Orders: But also, if you didn't back the matching puzzle campaign, and were thinking of getting some puzzles later - I have set up the pre-order store for the puzzles so you can order them if you like while I still have some.

I am not sure how long the extras will last or when I will be able to make more since I need to find a new puzzle manufacturer now. Its such a shame since the puzzles came out so beautiful that I was really excited to get a bunch more made with them. But the customer service is so bad that I can't trust ordering from them again. But in the meantime, I do have some extras if you would like to order them on the pre-order store: https://flora-and-feather---jigsaw-puzzles.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders


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TLDR: pin and bookcharm samples are being made and will be shipped soon, but unfortunately, the manufacturer can't match the tassel colors to the cords so I am trying to find some good solutions to this, and lastly, the Flora & Feather puzzle pre-order store is open if you missed that campaign.

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✨ Thank you so much for your patience with me as I work on getting these made as best I can! 💖✨ It's been a very tough week, but I am just keeping my eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel, which is sending beautiful shinies to you guys! ✨

After sending out all the surveys, it seems that for some no pictures are showing up in their survey - as well as some confusion about the metal choices.

I'm not sure why pictures aren't loading on some surveys as I put soooo many pictures into the pledge manager setup (literally hundreds - to match the hundreds of various SKUs) - but I went back in tonight and tried to find any spots I could add in a picture of all the designs together as well. So hopefully that helps make it easier to select your favorites!

And I also went ahead and made a new page on my website that has all 24 Flora & Feather designs, as well as all 20 Egyptian designs - so you can see them all super clear with their names and pick your favorites from there. I also listed the metal color options for each trio on the page as well.

>>>   https://jeszika-lee.squarespace.com/flora-feather-design-choices <<<

For the metal choices - the tldr: all the designs are available in gold or silver metal - except for 2 trios. The Quetzal & Jade trio, and the Scarlet Ibis & Poppy trio are available in gold or black metal.

Hopefully, that helps make it more clear and easy to choose! My apologies for any confusion!

(Also adding a picture here of all the designs in case it helps) 

So it seems the initial wave of surveys has gone off without a hitch and everything went smoothly and perfect :) whew lol I was a bit nervous because it was such a complex one to set up. But it seems the weeks of dotting all the i's, crossing all the t's, and triple-checking everything paid off - and everything is working as it should.

This means - all the surveys are now going out to everyone not just a random percentage of each tier. So keep an eye out for the email. I'm not sure how long it takes to send them all out or if it is instant, but either way everyone should have one pretty quickly. If you don't get one or if you have any questions - let me know and I will be happy to help :)

So excited! And can't wait to see what everyone picks! :) I have a few that are my personal favorites - but I am curious to see what everyone else's favorites are.



**Edit**

It looks like there were a few sticking points we didn't catch in the smoke test. A few of you have mentioned that the pictures are not showing up in the survey and the metal choices are confusing.

I went ahead and made a page on my website with all the designs clearly named and showing their metal choices: https://jeszika-lee.squarespace.com/flora-feather-design-choices 

And for quick reference, all the pins are available in either gold or silver - except for two of the trios - the Quetzal & Jade trio and the Scarlet Ibis & Poppy Trio are available in gold or black metal instead.



I will see if there are more ways to add it to the survey itself. I'm not sure why the pictures are not showing up as added the pictures in hundreds of times to hundreds of skus - but I had trouble adding photos that showed up for the whole question, rather than each individual option after you clicked the choice. I thought I had set it up so it showed each one but it seems some of the surveys are still not showing all the photos. So in the meantime, while I try to figure out how to fix that - it is definitely much clearer on the webpage I put together. (link again:  https://jeszika-lee.squarespace.com/flora-feather-design-choices) 

I will also make a new update with this link to help clarify as well, and make it easier to find - but in the meantime - I hope this helps! Thanks to those of you who let me know where the tricky spots were! <3 

Hello again! Hope you are all doing well and enjoying the summer :) I wanted to share a quick progress update and let you know that I will be starting to send out surveys!

Progress Report -- We're still a ways off from the pins being finished - the vectors are still being finalized and we still need a round of samples before going ahead with the full order - but everything is still steadily moving forward even if it might be another couple of months till they are finished with production on such a large order.

In the meantime, while I was waiting for the vectors, I got the Backerkit survey page built -- no easy feat lol 😅 since I made so many different options and bonuses (seriously - how did I end with hundreds of SKU's???💀). But with a bit of help from Backerkit the last few weeks, we got everything set up and hopefully it is all setup perfectly *fingers crossed*

Since the survey page is ready to go, I'm going to start sending out the surveys! I figure it will help it go smoother and quicker if I have the surveys all finished when the pins and bookcharms arrive - so I can send them out right away.

Smoke Test -- Backerkit has us start by sending out a small amount of surveys first to a random set of backers just to make sure everything is working properly (easier to fix a handful of mistakes rather than hundreds lol) before it sends out the whole lot of them. But if everything goes smoothly, everyone should have a survey in the next week or so.

New "Complete Set" Tiers - I also had a few people asking about being able to switch to tier for all the designs since we unlocked so many new ones in the last day or two - and I did add three new tiers to help with that :) I made a tier for all 24 pins, a tier for all 24 bookcharms, and a tier for all 48 pins & bookcharms. Anyone can switch to those tiers if they'd like to get the complete set - hopefully this helps!

Add-ons -- And of course, you can add-on any of the new designs to your pledge in the add-on section if you would like to just pick your favorites :) Everything from the campaign is eligible as an add-on (except of course the unicorn bonus for those who backed Kaitlund's campaign as well). Not only are all 24 pin and bookcharms designs available, but also the gold foil stickers, the bookmarks, the journals, the gold foil prints - plus all of the Egyptian Mythology series as well, including brand new black and gold foil Egyptian journals that arrived just this week from the printer ✨ there are so many goodies to choose from!

Pre-Order Store - Also, I opened the pre-order store as well, for anyone who missed the campaign and would still like to get some shiny Flora & Feather treasures! https://florafeather---pins-bookcharms.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders (link to pre-order store)

Since I decided to go ahead and complete the series, even though we were shy of the last 1 1/2 designs, I am going a bit over the budget of the campaign to get these all made - and so any extra add-ons or late pledges will help keep me from going too far in the red on this project. I just couldn't imagine being so close to the complete set and not making the last few pieces - so I decided to just trust that it was worth the extra investment for now *fingers crossed* lol but every bit will help 💞

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TLDR: Everything still going smoothly - waiting on vectors and samples. Surveys going out this week starting with a small amount of samples and then followed by all the rest. I added 'complete set tiers' for those who would like to up their pledge to get a complete set - or you can add a few of your favorites from the new designs as add-ons if you like. 

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Thanks again everyone 💖 this project has meant so much to me to see it come to life and it is thanks to all of you that I could bring it to life. I'm excited to be moving to the next step in getting these shinnies in your hands!! ✨

Hey :) I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and if you're in the States that you had a fun holiday with your loved ones <3

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I thought I'd post a little update to let everyone know how things are progressing. As I said during my campaign, I work towards making things as nice as possible rather than as fast - so I know I'm quite a bit slower than most of the other Pintopia campaigns, and I don't want anyone to worry along the way.

{{Quick tldr 😊 we are at the step of waiting for the vectors to be completed by my wonderful vector artist and sent back to me. Then next step I will send them to the manufacturer for samples.}}

I'm terrible at vectors lol - seriously! - the few I've done in the past took me weeks to do per design (which with 25 designs would take a lifetime to complete lol) and struggled every minute of it. So I've learned that is a step best hired out for. And I've been so lucky to find an artist who does an amazing job with all the vectors I've ever sent her - keeping the designs super accurate to what I drew, while also ensuring they meet all the requirements needed to translate well into metal and enamel. She has the finished files now and is vectorizing them and preparing them for production. She's also an artist who does conventions - and will be doing AX which creates a slight delay for her working on the vectors - but our hope is to have all the vectors finished and sent to the pin manufacturer by the end of July :) So we are getting there!

After that, the next step will be getting samples from the manufacturer. Since there are so many colors and this is also my first time using the UV gradient printing on pins I think the samples are super important to ensure that these turn out as beautiful as we hope. The pin manufacturer has been very easy to communicate with thus far and is eager to start production - so I anticipate (knock on wood) everything will go smoothly :)

While I wait for the vectors, I'm working on getting the backerkit survey page and pre-order page set up. I always make the mistake of making my campaigns more complex than I should lol and that comes to bite me when setting up the survey page 😅 but I am making good progress on getting everything set up for that as well.

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Those are the main brush strokes. I also thought I'd share all the final art all together here for you guys to see them all polished and shiny :) There could still be some very slight variance if, during the vector phase, some areas are too tight for metal and enamel - but these are very close to what the final will look like. A few of the early designs I worked on a little further since I did them all in such a rush and blur during the campaign and they needed some polishing to make them on par with the rest of the set. Most were pretty subtle changes, but some are more noticeable - for example - the dove, I went back and added more peony to the design rather than just the little bud sticking out of the head - and the jade vine, I added in a few more blossoms so it looked more like the vine and fit with the long shapes of the other two designs better. But I think all the designs are as nice as I can make them and I'm really excited with how everything turned out and fits together! And I hope you guys love these all as well! <3







Whew - Its been quite the process to get all 25 of these designs created and polished lol but it will all be worth it when they are turned into shiny little treasures. Thank you so much everyone for joining me on this adventure and for your patience as I strive to make these as nice as possible for you <3 I am so glad to have had the opportunity to create this whole series all together and it is thanks to all of you <3 

That's all for now, but I hope you guys enjoy seeing all the designs and are happy with how they all turned out! Thanks again <3 Love you guys!