Mythical Garden

Sorry its late I counted the days wrong.



The Cat-Sith is a creature from Celtic mythology, a large black cat with a white mark on its chest. Its known for stealing the souls of the dead, so family members of the deceased would do various things to distract it, including games and tributes. The Hawthorn tree was said to stand on the threshold to the Otherworld, and were often said to be inhabited by wee folk. 

The mini pin for this section is a big cat skull;

The detail is built up with three layers of screen printing.

Also! The violet carpenter bee won our free-bee poll. Now I have the mock up for it, but its not going to look like much;



The areas of dark purple (majority) are going to be anodised metal, with a rainbow finish. The pale violet lines are going to be carved into the metal with no enamel fill. The darker sections will be soft enamel with an epoxy coating - this looks near identical to hard enamel once its finished. 

It makes quite a nice mismatched pair with our Australian Blue Banded Bee (they will actually be the same size, hah).

Don't forget, there will also be freebies for; 
- Joining in with the PinQuest event, back three or more projects to get a free mini pin from every one. 
- Returning Backers.
- Following before launch. This is a new one! We'll have an exclusive sticker for everyone who was following along before the project went live :).
- Creator backers.

Just a couple of quick notes. The 2.5" pins do cost a little bit extra. Our 2" pins haven't changed in price, but the larger pins in this campaign are technically 'XL' so they cost a bit more. 

Only three stretch goals are listed, but there are more! If we reach them then I'll have them up asap - I've just been really sick the last couple of weeks. The next one would be the Japanese Snow Fairy (long tailed tit) on a maple branch. 

Thanks everyone for following along in our pre launch stuff, and looking forward to getting underway!

Sneak peek for tier 2!

The Physalis;



Or, we used to call them paper lantern plants. Its a hard one to preview with the yellow tones. Physalis are part of the nightshade family, and related to things like tomatoes and potatoes; they date back a long, long way. They have 52 million year old fossil specimens from the physalis genus, with preserved paper husks.

More personally, its one of my favourite plants. The shape, the colours... The first thing I ever remember making is a modrock physalis 'lantern'. 

The mini pin on this tier is a section of the larger pin, but as a stand alone mini;

The red section will be made with a stained glass effect, and the 'crackle' pattern will be screen printed on top. It will be in the mini pin selection :).

Also, it looks like the violet carpenter bee will inch out the poll for 48hr free-bee. If it wins I'll be working on a design using anodised (rainbow finish) metal plating; soft enamel, but with an epoxy coating (so you can barely tell the difference between that and hard enamel). Hopefully we'll have solid metal wings with the pattern carved into the metal (no enamel in fill), and then a simple black and rainbow metal design. That's if it wins!

Next up we have Cat Sith and the Hawthorn bush, so check back for that one soon.

TW: Pet loss (nothing traumatic, just sad.)

Alright second sneak peek is the Dog Rose;




The Dog Rose (or the Briar Rose) is a native wild rose in the UK, and has a lot of folklore attached to it. And a lot of nicknames. Its said to aid with healing dog bites, ward off vampires, and the fruit is said to cure a lot of health conditions (probably due to the vitamin c content, back when it was harder to come by).

In my case though, its a tribute to a very good boy;



Of course now I want to show him to everyone I can't find the best photograph. He was a goofy idiot, and he did not like to pose for photographs - either he was up in your face for attention, or he was passed out. There was no in between. Reno was my first dog after I moved out, and the first one I've had to say goodbye to as an 'independent adult'. The vet was very patient with me, so I painted them a thank you card and that's the image that I used to design this pin. It has the life cycle of the rose, from bud to seed. 

Its a personal design, but I hope that you like it anyway. I'd love to hear about everyone else's pups, I have to remain dog free for a little while. 

Next up is the Physalis preview, so check back soon :).

Hey ~

Thank you for showing up for our next project :D.

Over the next week until launch we're going to have a few sneak previews, and I'd love it if you could vote on our poll to decide one of our free-bees. Whichever wins the poll will be the early bird freebie, for everyone who pledges in the first 48 hours. The returning backer freebie will be an exclusive colourway of the first unlock tier mini pin - in this case, the Australian blue banded bee;

They're quite placid, solitary bees that are extremely, extremely fuzzy. Look 'em up and tell me they don't look kind of magical. This is the default colourway, which will unlock alongside the dog rose as our first tier unlock. Each tier will have one full size, and one mini pin. Not gonna lie, its a pretty eclectic collection; botanicals, pollinators, skulls and more. You know... Garden stuff. Each full size pin has some association with folklore and mythology from around the world. 

We're also a part of Pin Quest! Which means that we have a Pin Quest freebie as well. If you back three or more campaigns, you'll recieve a freebie from every one! Ours is a secret for right now. 

Expect more news soon!