Missed out on the Kickstarter? You can still grab some pins!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
October Update: Almost there...
30 days ago
– Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 03:25:16 PM
Hello everyone!
It's about time to take a look at an update! Here's a screenshot from our Backerkit survey software:
Shipping has been moving along nicely for the packages we can fulfill with the items we have on hand, but we have noticed the manufacturer is finishing the remaining pins slower than expected. Recently, we got some more of the pins in, so here's a list of the new ones:
Received Since Last Update: Sekhmet, Wadjet, Wepwawet, Hatmehit, Bes, Djehuty (ibis), Nut, Kherty, Tayet, Imsety, Khemenyu, Heryshef, Ammit, Nemty
Currently Have (as of Oct 27): Ammit, Anpu, Apedemak, Astarte, Antewy, Anupet, Anuket, Anat, Bat, Bastet, Banebdjedet, Bes, Djehuty (ibis), Geb, Hauron, Hapy, Heka, Heru, Hat-mehit, Heqet, Hathor, Hapi, Heh, Heryshef, Imsety, Khemenyu, Kherty, Khonsu, Nehebkau, Min, Mehen, Mafdet, Maat, Menhit, Medjed, Maahes, Montu, Nemty, Nut, Qebehsenuef, Re, Ra (Cat), Satit, Serqet, Sokar, Tayet, Taweret, Sekhmet, Sutekh, Sutekh (Hawk-Headed), Wadjet, Wepwawet
52/89 designs (58%)
As a reminder, we have all the other items: lanyards, plushes, stickers, statues, etc. So, if you see the pins you ordered in the list above, you're in our orders queue. We can ship them, and you should get your rewards soon! Hurray!
This production cycle has taken longer than we're used to. We design and produce around 2,500 pins per month and have a rotating set of new pins available through our Patreon Pin Club. We've never had a pin project take this long before (aside from Pride Pins, with its hundreds of designs), and we thought it would be worth reflecting on the sample process.
The sample process definitely felt like it caused a struggle on the manufacturer's end. We have gotten the impression that it was likely more expensive (both cost and labor - though we did have to pay a sample fee for each design) than expected for them, which led to the samples being spaced out. The Pantone fiasco didn't help, as it required many earlier samples to be redone as they didn't match color expectations.
We typically make pins by providing the Pantone colors we want, approving the digital art proof, and then allowing the manufacturer to go full speed ahead with producing the pins, with no sampling process in between. However, here are some of the things things we learned from this experience:
Even if you use Pantone numbers, the colors might differ from your expectations if you are looking at a digital art proof and not a physical Pantone book
And if you use a Pantone book, the colors might still not look the way you expected or hoped when put together - this happened a few times where the color matched the book, but put together with the other colors, needed to be changed for overall aesthetic value.
This last point is related to the fact that Pantone is inherently limited compared to computer screen colors, and it isn't easy to gauge whether it'll look how you expect until you, well, see it in person, in a finalized sample form.
The solution to these problems was remaking the samples until the colors looked aesthetically pleasing and fit expectations. The Pantone book is limiting; sometimes you must see them together to decide whether the pin looks good.
As we continue to receive pins, we feel stronger that this project has benefitted from its long sampling process, and it's better to have them done right than quickly. Accuracy and good representation have always been key goals in the project, and ensuring that each pin has been carefully checked before going into production has resulted in pins not having little unwanted color surprises when they arrive.
Some customers have been reaching out and expressing delight over their newly received packages - those messages are always a joy to read and are very appreciated. For those of you still waiting on pins that haven't been finished by the manufacturer yet, we hope you enjoy the product you get and feel the love, research, and effort that went into making them. ◡̈
There must be another batch of pins shipping soon, too, because we were recently (within the last week or so) asked to re-confirm the art of some more of the backing cards, which usually means they're getting ready to back and sleeve them and ship them out.
In the meantime, thank you for your patience! This has been a long process, but it is producing something very dear to our hearts.
Until next time,
Fursona Pins
Segment made - some shipments proceeding shortly
2 months ago
– Sun, Sep 22, 2024 at 03:58:17 PM
Hello everyone,
We have successfully made a "Ready To Ship" segment on Backerkit without it breaking, which is exciting news! This means we have a list of orders that can ship out, as they have items we currently have.
Everyone will receive a notice asking them to confirm their shipping address. In two days, after the addresses lock, we can start working on the segment and ship out orders that contain only the following items:
Plushes (Ibis, Sha, Jackal)
Statues (big sha, small ibis and sha)
Stickers
Physical Information Books
Karūm Traders pins
Sha Pin Banner
Lanyards
The following Netjer pins: Anpu, Apedemak, Astarte, Antewy, Anupet, Anuket, Anat, Bat, Bastet, Banebdjedet, Geb, Hauron, Hapy, Heka, Heru, Heqet, Hathor, Hapi, Heh, Khonsu, Nehebkau, Min, Mehen, Mafdet, Maat, Menhit, Medjed, Maahes, Montu, Qebehsenuef, Re, Ra (Cat), Satit, Serqet, Sokar, Taweret, Sutekh, Sutekh (Hawk-Headed)
We will continue remaking the segment as the pins continue to arrive to filter in more "Ready to Ship" orders, but it's nice that we're able to start getting these beauties to their new homes :)
In the meantime, why not peek at the digital info book? We've uploaded it to our Google Drive, so you should be able to view and download it here (it's about 60 MB):
That's about it for today! Have a great day, everyone!
Until next time,
Fursona Pins
Production update - about halfway through
2 months ago
– Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 04:18:14 PM
Hello everyone,
Let's have a quick update on production!
We have about half of the pins in now. Some of them are still struggling in the sampling process (Amun, for instance, has been a nightmare - the orange Pantone color never comes out the way it's expected to based on the book), while others have been approved and are in the process of manufacturing.
Maat, Menhit, Medjed, Maahes, Montu, Qebehsenuef, Re, Ra (Cat), Satit, Serqet, Sokar, Taweret, Sutekh, Sutekh (Hawk-Headed)
Here are some notes on two of the ones that have been causing us trouble in the sampling process, if you're curious:
Amun is a strange situation. The color of the boat and the gold of his jewelry are supposed to be the orange color, which you can see here:
The vibrancy of the red color (2031 C) is also strangely muted. We noticed this problem on the first run of his pin sample, and though we alerted the manufacturer to the issue, no solution has been found yet.
This is the most recent iteration of the pin (apologies for the blurry photo - it came from the manufacturer), which seems to have the same problem as before with the orange (though we have noted the blue and red look more vibrant now, so we're on the right track).
It may be just a "dud" Pantone color that comes out milky - switching to a different orange will be the next solution if they cannot fix it in the next attempt.
Raettawy, on the other hand, came out oddly small compared to the other pin designs. This was likely because her wings stretched out further past the imaginary square shape of the design, causing it to appear to be smaller than others.
For this one, we decided to remake the mold so that it's about 2.25" in size so the design would look correctly sized next to the others in the set.
Most designs have only needed slight color adjustments from sample to sample until they went into production. Amun has been the most troublesome, but we're determined to get him right.
One of our main goals was to ensure that the enamel color quality was not compromised during the manufacturing process, which has required this slow, lengthy system of physical checks against the Pantone book. Considering some of the color issues we've fixed through this process, it has felt worthwhile, even if it has caused delay.
We will continue to attempt to create Backerkit shipping segments to see if we can start sending the campaign rewards to backers as they come in. As we mentioned in the last update, the page has been erroring for us (too many products are not in yet, crashing the filtering function), but as more products come in, the chance that we are able to sort the "Ready to Ship" ones becomes higher.
We'll keep everyone updated as things progress!
Until next time,
Fursona Pins
Final stretch - production almost finished
4 months ago
– Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 06:45:41 PM
Hello everyone,
We're getting closer! Everything except the full production of the pins has been completed and shipped to us. The following are already in our possession and ready to go:
Anpu, Sutekh, and Djehuty mochi plushies
All sticker designs and sticker packs
Physical information booklets
All three lanyard designs
The Kārum Traders pins: Ea-Nasir, Nanni, and the Ram in the Thicket
All mini and full-sized statues and statuettes
The samples are contained within the Tupperware box...
The sampling process has been slow, as we have to send back corrections and then request a new sample to be physically reviewed to ensure it meets expectations. But many of them have been approved by this point, and some have even started arriving! (Please note that the following are in their wrappings.)
Mehen, Nehebkau, Anuket, and Serqet
Anupet, Sokar, Bat, and Hauron
Astarte, Anat, and Bastet
The pins themselves are delightful, and we're pleased with how they look. They're big, full of detail, and come in their cultural context with their information card, which was always something very important to us.
We hope you love them when they arrive.
Generally, when it comes to Kickstarters, we start trying to make shipping segments in Backerkit around this time so we can look at orders that are ready to ship (meaning, they are sans any products we haven't received yet). At the moment, there are still too many items pending arrival for a segment to work, and it keeps erroring out the Backerkit site... :P Well, hopefully soon, then!
Whenever a new batch comes in, we'll try making a segment again. When that's successful, we'll be able to officially initiate shipping and start sending these wonderful packages out.
Not long now...
Information book complete, pin update
5 months ago
– Mon, Jun 24, 2024 at 09:28:04 PM
Hello everyone,
This should be a pretty interesting update! Let's dive right in.
First, the Information Booklet is complete! Creating the booklet quickly increased in scope, as we hadn't originally factored in adding new illustrations, but they do enhance the book very nicely. The book turned out to be 96 pages.
Complicated, but definitely worth the extra work
We have also adjusted the book size to a standardized one, now 5.5 inches x 4.25 inches, half the size of a piece of standard paper. This allows it to be roughly the size of the backing cards (which was the intention).
Printing the book will be a quick process and is expected to finish soon.
A Tale of Pantones
If you remember our last update, we wrote about the joys of dealing with the Pantone color-matching system. We have a couple of updates to that, and a startling discovery that affects this project, a tale that begins with a yellow-and-orange snake pin we were producing:
Meet Sarcin
This is Sarcin, whose orange came out a little... strange. And very yellow.
The physical Pantone book allows you to check the color in person, so you don't have to rely on a computer screen, which can vary in accuracy depending on the screen's calibration, backlighting, etc.
The photo we got back from the manufacturer showed that the Sarcin pin's yellow-orange matched their book. Keyword: their book. And that seemed strange because 130 C is 130 C. There is no reason why it should be different, right?
Turns out, there was a reason. After some e-mailing back and forth to figure out why our Pantone books didn't match, we found out that their Pantone book is from 2018:
While ours was from 2022:
It seems bizarre and antithetical to the idea of Pantones that the two books should be that different, as those 130 C's are two completely different colors (as opposed to a slight difference), but it is what it is. Now we are on the same page for expectations.
What this means for the Netjeru en Bia project
Our immediate reaction was to halt the production of the NEB pins and samples until the manufacturer purchased an updated book. If Pantone had changed the colors that dramatically between 2018 and 2022, we would continue having these issues. It would be impossible to select matching colors for our designs or quality-check them after, as the colors could turn out completely different from what was shown on the proofs (which appear to be using the 2022 colors, if you compare Sarcin) or in our Pantone book.
The manufacturer placed the order for the new book and we began waiting for them to receive it. On June 20th, they received the new Pantone book, and we were able to confirm by photo that they have the correct, updated one now:
We have approved the production of the pins again now that we know they are using the same color formulas and book to produce them.
But that does mean the production has been delayed by about a month, as we need to sample the pin designs again using the correct colors and ensure they meet our expectations. We anticipate that they should all be ready in mid or late August.
It is both frustrating and relieving to have solved this problem, as it has been a long-standing thorn in our side. However, this project is incredibly important to us, and we do not want to compromise its quality in any way. The pins will be all the better for it.
