All pins have arrived!
over 1 year ago
– Tue, Dec 03, 2024 at 06:59:04 AM
Hello everyone,
We are very pleased to say that all the pins have arrived on our end. Yay!
Here's our current progress:
We have about half of the orders done and can move forward with shipping the remainder.
The first week of December in particular is a hectic time for us as we have a major convention this weekend - Midwest Furfest! (If you are going to the convention, keep an eye out for our booth! We're near the back of the Dealer's Den.) After the convention is over, however - we will be back December 9th - we can put our full attention toward finishing up the Kickstarter.
For those of you who have received your order already, we hope you have been enjoying the new pins (and any other goodies you ordered). If you are part of the half still waiting for your order, we appreciate your kindness and patience. The manufacturing process took a lot longer than we anticipated. Sometimes things don't go as planned - for better or for worse - though in terms of how nice the pins turned out, we would say it was for the better. :)
Have a great week everyone,
Fursona Pins
October Update: Almost there...
over 1 year 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
over 1 year 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):
Check out the Digital Information Book!
That's about it for today! Have a great day, everyone!
Until next time,
Fursona Pins
Production update - about halfway through
over 1 year 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.
Here are the finished ones we have received:
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)
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
over 1 year 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...
