Mushroom Trove: Enamel Pin Collection

Mushroom bandanas now available! Final project update!
15 days ago – Sat, May 04, 2024 at 04:52:42 PM

The bandana design is finally finished and ready for preorder -- and I couldn't choose a color scheme! Feel free to check them out and choose your favorite. 

Along with the Mushroom Trove pins, it is available now until May 10th. <-- link!

My store closes on May 10th at 11:59 PM CST and will reopen this fall.

Bonus content below!

Bonus content! More mushroom goodies are available in my store!

And just in case you like other things besides mushrooms, (WINK!) I finished designing this other bandana as well!

Thanks for reading! I have so, so many goodies in my store that I didn't even share. 

This will probably be my last update on this project. If you miss out on my store, you can catch it in the fall again! I hope y'all have the loveliest year.

Ki 

Store is open again! Mushroom pins & more!
22 days ago – Sat, Apr 27, 2024 at 02:09:36 PM

Hi, all you mushroom lovers!

It's been a little while and I hope you're well! I read all your comments and believe I've replied to every message ~ I'm glad you're enjoying the pins and have taken delight in the whole intricate process of the project! (Thank you for the lovely words!)

My store is open and all 62 pins are available once again for a short time! Spent a long time working on the grand reopening, but I hope you like the goodies! There are the mushroom pins, my previous Kickstarter book, patches, prints, play mats, desk mats, shirts, photoshop brushes, and even more pins! Take a quick peek--

Here is the store link!
My store will close on May 10th!

I have a couple of bandanas on the way this coming week, with one of these being mushroom-themed! I'll let y'all know once it's out, too! :)

Thanks for reading,
Ki 

Fulfillment complete! Duplicate pins, how to get more mushroom pins, and lessons learned!
about 2 months ago – Sat, Mar 30, 2024 at 10:08:15 AM

Hello lovelies! 

I finished shipping all your goodies out on Monday! I hope you have been so well and are enjoying the pins if you have received them! Thank you so, so much for helping me out with this project! I couldn't have made them without you! I also appreciate your patience while the pins were being remade and when I was recovering from surgery! I'm feeling awesome now. <3

Most of you in batch 2 received duplicate pins! Those are error pins, and they're gifts for you! Everyone who ordered pins with errors had a delay in their rewards because I needed to get them remade. All delayed rewards received additional error pins as a bonus! The error pins were labeled on the back of the packaging with the letter E for error. There are more clarifying details in a previous update for those curious!

My store reopens at the end of April for a short time! My guesstimate on reopening my store is April 25th, but I have a lot of work to do before I can open it. I'll announce the actual date on social media, which you can find links to on my website. All the Mushroom Trove pins will be available again along with other new goodies. (You should have received a coupon with your Kickstarter reward, so don't forget to use it!) :)

There's a list below with lessons I learned from this project. (for those curious!)

Otherwise, thank you so much again for making this project happen! Enjoy! And feel free to reach out over DMs if needed.

Much love, Ki 




-------------

Lessons learned!

• Be more wary of package delays and potential pin errors. I paid for air 5-7 day shipping, but it took 40+ days to receive the entirety of the pin order. Because of this, my estimate for the Kickstarter was off by a month for batch 1 and was especially delayed for batch 2. I'll try to get pins ordered sooner.
• 63 designs is a lot! Maybe, TOO MUCH for one person! LOL. Designing everything took 6 months (including Kickstarter assets), sorting thousands of pins took a month and a half, and packaging took about a full month = 8.5 months. I spent about 80-85% of that working 8-10 hours a day. This doesn't include the period spent communicating with my pin manufacturer for most of 2023, the time spent getting Backerkit set up, the preorder store, and weighing all the pins for SKUs lol. So, next time, a smaller amount of designs will be best. In total, this project took 1 year and 5 months to complete.
• Pins will look different from the original artwork: The digital world and the real world are not made of the same things. While it truly is a wonderful experience to see your artwork transform into a physical piece, it will never look like the original artwork, and it felt like a struggle for me to accept that at times when I was sorting them. Anticipating 63 enamel pin designs to look like what you want was anxiety-inducing! Especially when you're me; picky and meticulous about detail. It was difficult when I received a few designs with errors, but it is what it is and I got them remade.
• Pin samples can vary slightly from the final pin: Some designs had coloring that would vary from the original samples. Knowing that all enamel is hand-mixed, makes that make sense.
• The bigger the size and the more detail there is, the more potential chance of errors. Sorting was tough for me. I'm so about detail, but realizing that A grades are not actually perfect pins made it a lot easier for me. S grades are PERFECT, but they aren't very common. I tried my best to give y'all all the S grades! Enamel pins are hand-made and it's normal for little freckles to occur just like people. Because UV was an additional step, some pins had to be sorted as B or C because of misalignment. This wasn't a huge occurrence, but when grading the UV does become an additional detail to be aware of. 
• This was the first time I did UV! I learned that the best color for UV is probably pastel. It seems they can't achieve the brighter, more saturated colors I would have liked every time, but I enjoy how durable it is and how much more detail that can be achieved from UV printing!
• Design smaller backing cards/card them at home/or just don't have backing cards! I really hecked up and designed cards that were a bit too big for the large pins and because they're so heavy (biggest pins I've ever made) the cards got damaged on their way to me. My manu is super sweet and puts the pins onto backing cards for me, but I needed to replace 90% of them for batch 2 because they were beaten up. If you're part of batch 1 and want nicer cards, you're still welcome to let me know and I can mail you some!
• Kickstarter isn't about making a profit. This is well known to me already, but it continues to make sense in every project. After fees, I got about 43.1k from Kickstarter, 9k from backerkit add-ons, 1.4k from preorders = 53.5k total made. I spent 38k on the first batch of pins, 1.5k in remakes, about 1k on Backerkit, about $800 on packaging supplies, and just over 4.5k on shipping = -45.8k. Then after taxes, which I have not done yet, I get 7.7k! Now let's say taxes don't exist; if I were to pay myself for the estimated 2000+ish work hours, then I made about 3.8 dollars an hour... LOL. I didn't expect it to be so low. Taxes are gonna crush me this year, but I'm stoked that I get to make some money from the remaining pins + remakes from here on out now that the bulk of the costs in getting the molds and UV set up is out of the way thanks to you!
  
  Backerkit! This was BRAND-NEW to me! So oh boy.
   
• Shipping notifications are MANUAL! Notifications do not go out immediately to a backer when a label is purchased. I'm going to remember this for next time. 
• Credit cards are charged LATER for add-ons and preorders. This is a Stripe thing. So for folks who are like why is there a charge months after my survey? It's because you were never charged when you finished your survey. To avoid this as a backer, paying with Paypal is best, but if you pay with a credit card + stripe, you most likely won't be charged until closer to the shipping dates. 
• I assumed when Backerkit reminded me it was time to charge credit cards I thought backers would have received the same reminder. Y'all do not, and so now I know to give a heads-up when cards are being charged!
• Group orders is SICK! I love that it organizes similar orders into groups for faster packaging. Sadly, with a project with this much variety, about 90% of orders were unique. But, I still got them all done, yay!
• Individual pin weight in SKUs and packaging weight made fulfillment so easy. I didn't have to weigh the packages every time (I still did to check) but it was nice that I didn't have to input a weight for each label.
  
  And that's all of what I can remember! Learn from my mistakes! <:)

Halfway through fulfillment! Shipping notifications are going out, ignore if you are batch 1.
2 months ago – Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 11:56:56 PM

Hi folks!

I'm halfway done with fulfillment! Dropped off a bulk of batch 2 on Friday and have more to drop off on Monday afternoon! Most of the largest orders are finished and on their way!

Just wanted to let you know shipping notifications are going out and if you already received your pins, feel free to ignore them. 

I didn't realize I was supposed to MANUALLY press a button for shipping notifications to go out. As you know, I'm new to Backerkit. I've used more than 5 different shipping services in the past and I've never dealt with a system where you had to manually send the notifications. I'm used to the notifications going out immediately after purchasing the labels and just assumed-- 

So I apologize to folks in batch 1 if you didn't receive your notifications! Now I know. I really, really know now. (And continue to be confused as to why it's not automatic.)

And with that, I'm back to packaging!

Much love,
Ki 

URGENT! Batch 2 starts shipping out next week - Addresses lock in 48 hours!
2 months ago – Fri, Mar 08, 2024 at 09:07:04 PM

Hi folks! 

Addresses are going to lock in 48 hours! This is the final call, so make sure your address is correct! I've been busy getting all the pins prepared for shipment over the last few weeks and they're about ready! 

I'll begin packaging your orders this coming week and ship them out within the next 2-3 weeks! You will receive a notification when your goodies are on the way via email. 

I'll be posting another update again when shipments have all been sent out: It'll have some bonus details about how you can get more of these pins, as well as a summary of lessons I learned from this project. I learned so much!

Thanks so much everyone for your patience! I hope you're excited! 
Much love, 
Ki 

p.s. Here are a couple of shots from behind the scenes.