In a great cat-land far, far away, many forces are training diligently to be a part of a grand quest for fame. Some particular meow friends are just now setting out for their newest adventures, hunting for glory and treasure. Each path they take will take them down a fun new adventure, and you get to help decide their adventures!
We begin the story following DERP - Dungeon Exploring Role Players - who signed up their group... mostly by accident. Their rival guilds claimed they didn't have the fluff for it and, one catnip dose later, someone submitted their adventuring application. Ahead of the three adventurers, Whiskers & Wares (the merchant guild), Destruction (the summoner guild) and the rest of their guild are waiting for them to catch up.
One way or another, they're determined to see this through... so come join us while they stumble and adventure through their first enamel pin campaign! 🐾
This interactive campaign will be journeying from October 12th through November 12th, with selection surveys happening in the week that follows the conclusion of the campaign. It is hosted by Alchemy Art, blushsprout and Chocolate Raisin Fury, with designs and development done by all three parties.
This campaign is unique in that it is designed to emulate the concept of a DnD campaign. The choices made by the community will change the unlocks we acquire, and new things will be revealed every other day (and each update will have a poll/choice to be made by the campaign) with a small story. Make sure to vote and participate!
Only a few specific stretch goals will exist - for both number of backers and funding goals - but these will be specific to inviting guest creators to take part (with designs and more), or adding things other than pins to the campaign (stickers, etc). You can find the progress toward these specifically here.
Here are the pins, grouped by maker! More details can be found under the Wandering Path description (including a bit of lore on each). This is just a very fast overview of the available items.
The Wandering Path [Story Updates & Associated Pins]
The project is fully funded, so all pin designs will be available to you! The pins will be featured below, as discovered and unlocked with the chapter updates. The upcoming chapters will be hidden until their arrival in the campaign, so be sure to check back in for more (and vote in the polls)! There are no more polls, but you're welcome to read through the journey that was made through the choices in the campaign!
At minimum, there will be one (1) deluxe pin (Basil), 25 standard-sized pins, and 8 filler pins that are available through the campaign, without including variations (colorways). All characters are guaranteed in the campaign; the choices will impact other things we see (for the main items, this is their order, design, and colors, and the mini pins can have design changes and color additions and so on). Anything in a colored backdrop is a main design; the white (items and small things) are fillers (edit: with the exception of Beau's Blink, which are fillers). Basil (the deluxe pin) will be available for all pledges, but at a small $2 upcharge.
Below are the breakdowns of the chapters and the results (ie, the pin choices!). With the exception of the prologue and the final saga, all chapter updates are every other day (the prologue will last one day).
Please note: This is a deluxe pin and will require $2 above the normal pricing (which can be paid during the campaign or afterwards during the survey process).
Each of the many polls (averaging about one per chapter) lasted for the duration of the chapter and impacted the stories in the future. We hope you enjoyed this full interactive campaign!
REMINDER: There is a fun incentive for this campaign - if you signed up during the Launch campaign OR pledged during the first 48 hours (for 3+ pins), you'll have an exclusive variant of the Meowdice added to your pledge. This is free and will appear on your add-on survey. There will be no other way to add on this item (though other variants will exist in the add-on shop for purchase).
In this campaign, similar to sister crowdfunding sites, we won't be collecting pledges until the campaign concludes, so there is no issue moving your pledge around as necessary. There also are NO Early Bird tiers (just the 48 hour incentive), so you can do so freely without fear of losing the incentive perk. It is associated with your pledge, not your tier. As long as you don't cancel and stay above 3 pins in your reward, it will apply and the limited edition gray dice is yours!
The tiers have small discounts for the 6, 9, and 12 pin sets, and a larger discount for the full collection. Larger packages (6, 9, 12) also include free filler pins on top of small discounts. The full collection also includes any unlocked stretch goals for free at no added charge (1 additional item for each goal). You can also use the add-on menu to add individual pins if you'd like a different amount of pins.
For this campaign, you can manually adjust the price of your pledge OR you can click on one of the images below to automatically increase the amount of your pledge (available shortly after launch). Available add-ons are shown (by most common occurence), and once we send out surveys, you'll be able to make final adjustments to the actual selections of pins.
Note: This is any design in the campaign, not just our ninja friend!
Note: This is any design in the campaign noted as a filler pin, not just the rune.
Items may be added to this menu as things are unlocked.
For this campaign, we're doing away with traditional stretch goals (in favor of everything being unlocked at the beginning, but gradually unveiled) BUT we will have some select goals in the campaign. If unlocked, we will be inviting community artists in to add their spin to things in the campaign (and or specialty colorations of existing items).
The two goals currently are:
$12,500 - Variant Colorations of D20 Pin (one for each maker) - unlocked!
$17,500 - Sticker Packs (3x) - added with poll for smaller minion unlocks - unlocked!
$22,500 - Special Guest Artist (Onicake), adding one pin to the collection - unlocked!
400 pledges - Special Guest Artist (Tim Kaminski), adding one sword to the pin sets (translated from his works in Swordtember) - unlocked!
Note: One of each unlock will be added for free for the full collection (for example, if the $12,500 goal with the three variants are unlocked, you can choose one in a full collection pledge), and will be available for add-on in the survey portion of the campaign afterward. They will not be a part of the default choices.
As the campaign progresses (and we potentially unlock these first goals), the team will very likely discover/add more things! These will always be available for free for the collection tier and no extra charge (one item/stretch goal). Choices on which will be available during the survey stages.
Below is the tentative timeline for the campaign. Please know that these dates are subject to change depending on how big the campaign grows, as well as if manufacturer errors occur or if illness monsters bear their heads (on other countries or on us). We will always endeavor to fulfill all promises made in campaigns, regardless of how long it takes.
For this campaign, the goals written out for the campaign will be entirely focused on covering costs for the pins with at least double the quantity, to cover any potential errors that occur.
All pins sent out in the campaign will be standard grades (outside of the random seconds tier). Standard pins, as defined by our grading rubrics, are pins that have no visible imperfections without a hard grading light within a 2' viewing range. We check all pins for metal and enamel flaws; standard pins don't include back imperfections, and are promised to not have large underfills, large metal issues or any missing enamel. Generally speaking, all three of our parties are known for grading strictly; if any questions arise, please direct them to [email protected].
Shipping will be collected after the campaign completes with the survey/add-on process. All items (except for the UK) will be shipping from the locations in Ohio, and anything international will be declared as required by law. Packages due to the United Kingdom will be sent along to Venetia (Chocolate Raisin Fury) and forwarded on from her location.
Insurance can be added to any package for a $5 increase to package costs. Please note: The full collection has insurance added on automatically.
Below are the shipping rates for the major countries for a 3 to 6 pin package (anything larger may have slight weight adjustments internationally). Slight adjustments may happen to the chart below according to final cost estimates with our carriers.
Alchemy Art was formed due to a mild obsession with enamel pins, and an ever growing desire to make sure Mel had enough to make a throne out of them. While this is still in progress (sadly), Mel sells these little art pieces from her homeplace in Ohio, while running a monthly Patreon with her partner Sara, and travels the United States bartering these wares like a small merchant gremlin. They both absolutely love what we do, and have completed several full pin campaigns, along with holding a merchandising partnership under the Guild Wars 2 property.
Blushsprout is an illustrator & merch designer from Ohio who enjoys drawing all things cute, cuddly, and colorful. Catch them selling their adorable enamel pins online and at conventions across the United States!
ChocolateRaisinFury (also known as Venetia Jackson) is a UK based artist and moderately crazy dog lady. She has been working on her artwork & business full time for the past 6 years, first diving into the pin community in 2019.
Enamel pin projects always feature custom handmade products that are made from scratch, including all designing, sampling, production and fulfilment. For anyone that's followed any of our campaigns in the past, you'll know that we've hit snags like any small business, but always work through them to provide the best product we can. Manufacturing problems and unplanned hiccups aren't unheard of, but we'll always do our best to communicate them to you.
This campaign will last 29.5 days, and we'll be focusing on getting these pins funded, along with any additional unlocks. We do recognize that this could be a bigger campaign (with three pin maker names behind the effort), but Mel & Jess (Alchemy Art & blushsprout) will be working on fulfilment for the campaign from their homebases in Ohio, with planned dates to get together and work on fulfilment until it's complete.
These pins will be spread across our most reliable manufacturers between our three businesses. This both avoids one manufacturer being overloaded and also allows us to give pins designs to who we feel are most suited to each design. If needed, we will split productions segments into sections to allow for us to get pins in waves to grade / send them out as needed.
We will order at minimum 50% above the original ask, so almost all of the funds of the campaign will go toward production first to ensure that we're able to fulfill all quotas.
