Sun Mar 15 '20 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Sun, Mar 15, 2020 at 12:44:25 PM
Hey everyone! Thanks again for everyone who has been following this project (and supporting it) from the start. As of last month (Feb. 28th), all physical and digital orders were completed! This is just a wind up of all of the rest of the items, inside and out of the project. Thank you again for your patience and support!
CORONAVIRUS IMPACTS:
This hasn’t been something that we’ve talked about much here since it never impacted items that were already received and being shipped. Of course, much like the rest of the world, the coronavirus has hit us hard, first impacting us with delays on other products and halting preorders, then having conventions across the country cancelled.
Why is this a huge deal for artists around the world? For many of us, this is a complete stop in revenue if one of ways you did so was through showing and selling work at conventions. For us, we’ve seen 4 cancellations and probably more in the future. We’re trying our best, of course, to adjust and continue producing despite this.
If you can support an artist (us, anyone in the project, etc) by buying their wares, supporting a Patreon, or so on… do it! It means so much in situations like this.
For the rest of this week (through 3/22), we’ll be holding a sale on The Dragon Prince items in the store. Miss something? Grab it now! Use code 5OFFECHOES to get 5% off anything (including the book itself if you have a friend that wants one): https://www.alchemyartgroup.com/products (note: there are like… 4 yellow Bait pins left)
If you just liked what we do and don’t want to buy but would like to support, we have a Kofi up and running. Donations go directly toward life expenses… like feeding meows and human faces. You can find that here: https://ko-fi.com/alchemyartgroup
(You can also buy commissioned pin designs and more!)
SHIPPING (FINAL) UPDATE:
As a last update on this (as noted before), this project is officially complete.
> There are no physical copies in the original campaign that are unshipped (this has been true for about a month and some now - I’ve just been working on getting new orders readied). All shipping information can be found via the email you originally supplied to us. If you have any questions on this, email us.
> Copies that were purchased toward the end of the month to now are what I'm currently fulfilling!
> All digital orders were originally sent on the 28th. I did find that some files failed, so I issued a resend last week just to be sure. These can be accessed through your BackerKit login. Please remember that these are for personal use only.
VICTORY ROAD: APPLICATIONS OPEN:
We’ve officially pushed another project underway. Like BnHA? Like Pokemon? Then follow along with our newest adventure! If you’d like to apply as an artist or writer, click the links!
STORE OPENING for POKEMON ITEMS:
We’ll be doing a store update of our Pokemon lines on Wednesday (3/18)! This is a bit of a plan adjustment, but due to the tight funds with the coronavirus situation, we’re releasing these early.
We’ll be offering some coupon codes, so watch out for that in case you’re looking for:
> Pokemon Pins
> Scarves
> T-Shirts
> Stickers
> Charms
That said, that's all we have to say right now! I hope everyone stays safe, warm and healthy - we know these are trying times for many of you, artist and community alike. Please keep your loved ones in your thoughts; you guys are always in ours.
If you'd like to continue on our journey (and see future projects), connect on Twitter, Instagram or our mailing list!
All the best,
Mel & Sara
Sat Feb 15 '20 Announcement
almost 5 years ago
– Sat, Feb 15, 2020 at 08:57:43 PM
Hey everyone! I hope you're doing well mid-February! This is the pen-ultimate update concerning shipments and anything else for the Echoes of Thunder anthology project for The Dragon Prince. Thank you all so much for being a part of this ride with us!
> All shipping labels, both domestic and international, were generated at the tail end of last month and the beginning of this month without exception. There should be no packages without a tracking label. If this is you somehow, please contact us so we can figure it out! This shouldn't be the case (so it probably went to spam/got lost).
> I got pretty sick at the beginning of this month (eep - don't be me, it's a bad time) and the landlord is prepping to sell the space I rented out for Sara/my office since her husband passed, so it's been a bit of an unexpected dance at the beginning of this month getting packages out. I'm the only person shipping things out so that's limited my time between packages and running a company, but I am very nearly done, with a few exceptions:
• 34 priority domestic packages are left. These will all be 2-3 day priority mail, so they shouldn't take very long to arrive.
• 20 international packages were held because of a weight cutoff - these were already bagged and sealed into a container at the end of February before I left for Portland (right before I got stupidly sick) so I don't actually know what remains here; the next pickup will be at the end of this coming week and I'll get a manifest of what was on that shipment shortly after that. It should be anything that remains!
• 10 media/priority domestic contributor packages are left (mostly because I need to finish writing some notes for them)
The remaining packages are a bit more complicated so they take a smidge longer, but I don't see a reason that I'll need more than the end of this coming week for anything further. We're basically done!!
PDF copies will go out on Friday/Saturday (depending when I get a chance to sit down and finish the compression - the original printer file was over 10 gigs in size, and I have it down to 100 mb... but that's a smidge large.)
Overall, we homed just over 700 books so far! Thank you so much for your patience as two artist dorks drowned under some boxes. We do have 100 books that are going on sale starting tomorrow (2/16) at 4 PM EST. We won't be posting more than that to 1) ) keeping a 5% remainder for any particular reason and 2) make sure that I can process the remainder before our office move officially begins.
If you have any friends that want the book, please send along the notice to them! The two main moderators actually weren't paid for any of the book's production, so the remaining books will go toward helping sustain what we do and to continue bringing on artists in the future for projects (the artists in this project were paid, for example!). We really appreciate any help to spread the word. We truly loved putting this together!
That's basically all we had to note in this update. I'll send out a notice next weekend once the PDF copies have been delivered (via BackerKit).
Let me know via email if you have any further questions: [email protected]
Thank you!!
- Mel (& Sara)
Wed Jan 15 '20 Announcement
about 5 years ago
– Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 06:50:26 AM
Hey all - just dropping in before heading to the office with a short shipping schedule for the rest of the month. Please keep in mind that I'm still running Alchemy and need time for that too, so I can only do about 8/hours per day on days I'm not traveling for conventions we're showing at, so things are going as quickly as they can go.
Echoes of Thunder Shipping Schedule (For January Requests):
January requests include requested delayed books, the remaining contributor books, convention purchases and post-sales books (whether via backerkit or the store that was up briefly in November)
**NOTE: If you're wanting one of these books, you have until January 26th (aka, when we return from Portland Wizard World) to keep the current prices locked in at $38 for a book (including the cards). After that, they are going to increase due to storage, shipping increases & post-production costs. Please email for a reservation.
CURRENT PROCESSING TIMES
Remaining International shipments: now through 1/17
Remaining Domestic shipments: 1/20 through 1/22, 1/28 through 1/31
Note: It's just Mel packing and I'm trying to keep human packing hours (opposed to the 95 hour weeks that were pulled in December). I will be reserving weekends as catchup periods as I'm officially moving shortly and will need that time for getting reorganized and moved.
Simple book packages can be done at a rate of about 60ish per day, while complex packages are around 45 at best (and that's pushing it) - this is with stuff already pre-assembled. There is a ton to putting together packages, including assembly of cards, sticker sheets, pin grading and more! I appreciate your patience, so bear with us while I get through the remainder of packages.
PDF copies will be sent out once all books are in the mail, so look for them at the end of this month. These are fulfilled through BackerKit (we'll post a notice in here).
Thanks!!
- M&S
Tue Jan 7 '20 Announcement
about 5 years ago
– Tue, Jan 07, 2020 at 04:51:42 PM
Hey adventurers! I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of the year! We’re here today to update on progress as well as show off some photos of the books!
The books arrived in the first week of December, and Sara and I worked two 95-hour weeks getting the books that were requested out the door before our hiatus for conventions and moving. We did get everything out the door (you should have a tracking email sent last month if so); all domestics should have arrived weeks ago, and internationals should have arrived or be arriving very soon (it’s variable due to travel distance and the holidays).
We had three back-to-back conventions (Austin after Christmas, then New Orleans right after New Years, and another convention starting this weekend in Columbus), so we’ve been doing a lot of travelling with little downtime. I (Mel) will be returning to Columbus after this to resume packaging and shipment.
Here are some photos of the books:
Other notes:
> If you have anyone that is interested in getting a book, we are taking orders still by email order only. We will be posting it in store eventually, but it will have adjusted pricing per production/storage/labor costs. Any emailed orders ([email protected]) will be shipped shortly after the original pledges.
> If you have any questions or order issues, please email. There’s only one person who looks over all social/etc (ie., me) and I’ll be packing orders for the next few weeks with not much downtime, so it’s much easier to keep all requests in order when they’re in the same space! Thank you for understanding!
Welcome to our Pin Club:
We’ve also launched a pin club starting this month! If you’re interested in it, we really appreciate the support to continuing making our creations & more projects! We have two lines: Pokemon Sweets and Mythical pins. More information can be found on Patreon!
If you have any questions, please email! We're very excited to continue our adventures this year!
- Mel & Sara
Thu Nov 14 '19 Announcement
about 5 years ago
– Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 10:55:58 AM
Gosh, time has really been flying over the past month! We’re just a week (and a few hours) from Season 3 dropping! (Exciteee!)
We (Sara and Mel) are here with another production update, with some timetables and general notes. If you have any direct questions, feel free to email and let us know ([email protected]).
Book Arrival
The books are due to arrive from Nov. 29th to 30th, which is on par with the original schedule. Mel will be doing most of the preassortment and sleeving/packing of items as best she can beforehand to make the process as smooth as possible.
IMPORTANT REQUEST: Due to some unfortunate circumstances (including one of the Mel’s landlords passing away very suddenly), Mel is moving her office mid-to-late December. Because of that, a large chunk of shipping time is probably going to be lost due to the scramble of moving offices to another city. Sara will be flying in to help with packaging in early December, but we’re still not 100% sure if we can get all of the books out prior to the two events we have in December and the holidays and the disaster that is moving an entire office (if you've ever moved... nothing goes completely according to plan).
That said, if you are willing/able to delay your package by about 3 weeks (aka, it's not required for a Christmas present), we’re offering a free sticker sheet or extra vinyl sticker package for anyone who signs up -- even if we end up not needing the delayed packages, we’ll honor any and all item requests: Click here to sign up!
(If you don't want anything extra... that's fine too. We're just grateful to anyone that helps give us a bit of a buffer. Please fill it out by this weekend (Nov. 17th, 11:59PM PST) so we can reserve the extra sticker sheets for you. All packages come with links and tracking via email!)
The Current Timetable:
Domestic Media Mail Packages: Dec. 5th through Dec. 6th
International Packages: Dec. 7th through Dec. 11th
Domestic Packages: Dec. 12th through Dec. 16th (might be a smidge longer, but these are all priority packages with 2-3 day shipping times)
Adjusted Packages: January 6th to January 9th (ish, we have an event in a different state the first week, so it’ll be right after we return)
Current Progress and Shipments:
Many of you have probably gotten notifications in the past few days! Mel has started to separate out the posters that came with the Startouched tiers (or if you added a poster), and is sending them out in waves.
More specifically for all items:
> The international posters are all sent out. All tracking codes should be active/in your emails for that.
> All domestic posters should be fulfilled by Sunday of next week (shipping these in waves).
> We’re waiting on giclees, but those have an extra production time (should be here in the next week or so!).
> Sticker sheets (and vinyl stickers) have all arrived! :D
> The gift box has been approved. They’re in production right now, due around at the end of the month as well.
> The CMYK cards are all in production as well! These should be arriving in about a week and a half.
> Sketchbooks are what we're finishing up right now! We should have them by the end of the month. Lots of material testing!
> Pins are due to arrive at the end of next week if all goes well. :D
That's all we have for today! Please let us know if you have any questions directly - [email protected]. We're happy to help out. :)
- M,