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This is my lovely “blue-eyed carpenter bee” Ki-Rin painted by Mmloda! 🥰 He looks wonderful in with my emerald peacock family. I’ve really been enjoying him! This is my second swap Ki-Rin from Mmloda, I’ll have to see about getting a herd photo one of these days too.😁
My sincere apologies to her too, for taking so long to post this beauty! I ended up having to travel out of town for work during the shipping period and then life got bad for a bit when I first returned home. So it took awhile before I was home and had the ability to both ship mine to my person, and receive & open mine from her. But he did arrive safe and sound and I really love him! Thank you! 💖💕
This is my lovely Kirin from the swap!
I actually got her last week, but life got crazy and didn’t have time to post. My apologies to my poor swap partner if I freaked you out by waiting. She’s very lovely and fits in great in between my emerald peacock dragons and my morpho griffins.🥰😍
Not a great photo. Hopefully her painter has better ones too share (apologies, I don’t know her forum name, only her real name; and not everyone likes their real name shared here so trying to be discrete).
Sent mine in too! I haven’t had time to do a swap in at least a year or two now. So really looking forward to this. 😁
Just emailed John about the same etsy sculpture you recently flagged. Lol.
Missed seeing you’d already flagged it. Oh well, better safer than sorry I guess. 😁
This is my gorgeous safari! Bad photo (hopefully this link works) it doesn’t due him justice. In person he’s a rich, warm nut brown shade with metallic tan eyes and green feather/stone accents. Really rich and subtle coloring. No idea what his pattern is supposed to be based on as I missed the live stream though.
I’ve been putting in so many hours at work that I’m still amazed I saw the messages in time to even snag one.
Awesome blue foo Natasha! He really matches the requested theme beautifully!
My person should get their’s tomorrow as well, so fingers crossed.
Meanwhile, I got mine today! He’s a super awesome sushi cat with the color theme “lucky in bronze”. I love him! Thank you very much!
Woohoo! Christmas muse… that’s awesome. I love it!
GO FOR IT BODINE! ;D I’d love it if you wanted to host.
Whew, loving everyone’s pieces so far! That kitsune makes me feel like we need a quicky, small piece, holiday themed swap! 😀
I haven’t received mine either. And I owe my recipient a massive apology!!! I am so sorry 🙁 I completely wrote down the wrong ship by date, so mine got shipped out really late. I feel awful. BUT it should arrive this week!!! *fingers crossed*
Here is my cutie. He’s way more vibrant and colorful in person, I have some nice photos, but I had no luck trying to resize my photos to upload. So below is a cropped screenshot of him that Kim had posted earlier from Melody’s FB feed. 😀
Okay, so forgive me for how long this post is, and I know some people are probably going to slam me for saying some of this, so before you do please just keep in mind these are my personal opinions and thoughts. I am NOT blaming or even intending to imply anything bad about anyone or any particular event from last night’s livestream, no one at Windstone or among the participants.
I REALLY (and I do mean REALLY) appreciate the sentiment for why Melody said she wanted to try this livestream approach, and heavens, but Melody and Griffin had exceptional amounts of patience last night! I truly have nothing but kudos and appreciation for them for going through all that work!!!!!
Based on comments on this thread so far, this may be just me, but personally as much as I love the show off grab bag livestreams, I do not think doing one and allowing people to pick their poads for the Kickstarter campaign is a good idea (I see the same concerns for pre-pulling select poads based on preference emails from early backers too actually…). So here are my thoughts on why this maybe should be re-considered:
1. We are still very early in the Kickstarter campaign, and more than just forum members will or already are (hopefully!) backing the project. So whatever is offered now in the campaign has to also be done, equally, for later/future backers, which seems like it could get pretty overwhelming if the number of backers continues to really climb…I’ve been involved in other Kickstarter projects that got overwhelmed that way…
– and especially if later backers feel they won’t get to pick from the same amount of choices, that it will be down to just the ‘leftover’, less desirable poads not claimed by the earlier backers. (I don’t like calling any of the poads not desirable because they were definitely all pretty darn gorgeous last night! So no one take offense, but we also all know that everyone has preferences and favorites and it can be pretty crushing to think you have a shot at one of those, only to find out they are all completely gone and claimed; or worse maybe, were pre-pulled before you even had a chance).
2. If I was looking to back the project now, after the livestream and early backers have already emailed in or otherwise claimed poads, and I already see what may be all my top favorites shown in the campaign videos, that were supposed to be fair game for all, are now pre-selected and gone, it doesn’t really encourage me to back the project, and its even more frustrating I think if they are already a backer, couldn’t make the livestream (or did and it still didn’t matter), and didn’t get even a chance to claim any of their favorites.
3. It also doesn’t match what is described/advertised in the Kickstarter, which is that these are all blind grab bags. The Kickstarter page really needs to be updated since that is not actually true anymore (unless its reverted back to a true grab bag of course).
– The advantage of a true grab bag is its a raffle, you know cost and the prizes, you know your odds basically of getting the ‘prize’ (or ‘prizes’) you want most, and you made a decision to roll the dice and try your luck. But, regardless of when you backed the project, you also know the odds that you may get your top choice(s) won’t change. The livestream changes that; so its awesome for those that could attend it all start to finish and were successful in getting their requests “heard” and heard first on the stream so that they could claim all their favorites. BUT, its not so great obviously for those that missed it entirely and whose favorites are now all gone, or who attended but couldn’t get their requests fulfilled (for whatever reason).
4. Also, just got to say it but a few times in the livestream what you may call special add-ons or options were offered as well.
– Some people were allowed/told they could add-on the special poad for example, which is not an official Kickstarter add-on option; and
– I think at one point Melody even offered up painting semi-custom matching sets for those that liked an already painted adult poad that wasn’t already one of the paired sets, wanted it to be, and had signed up for a paired set…which is an awesome idea and is a typical, totally bend over backwards for us crazy Windstone collectors Melody idea! But it may not be feasible once the campaign ends and Melody realizes just how many backers may fall in to that group.
So I would just caution that anything offered that is not already an official Kickstarter option, just needs to be something that can be added to the Kickstarter options officially and committed to for everyone.
5. I’d also caution against adding add-on options that right now, are basically the defining elements that divide a lower and upper tier, especially those upper tiers that have limits on the number of backers.
– Take the special poads again for example, those were all in tiers with limited spots and so the only way to really get one was to go to an upper tier and go there early while spots were still available. To be frank, the entire point or draw behind the upper tiers in a more art based Kickstarter like this one (one that offers what you may call out as limited, custom art options as benefits to a higher level tier & pledge) is precisely because its only at those tiers that you can snag the more rare and limited options. So if those options suddenly become no longer limited part way through the Kickstarter, or are being provided to people that had not pledged to that tier (and especially if its preferentially before those that did)…I’m sorry but that is not exactly a great thing to do to the backers that have properly stepped up and pledged to those tiers obviously. Business wise, it is also not good to do because you don’t have to increase your pledge upfront to account for add-ons during the actual campaign, you typically also get an option to add to your pledge to accommodate selecting add-ons when the Backerkit survey comes as well at the end of the campaign. So it can mess up a campaign pretty good obviously if most of the backers wait until the survey portion to up pledges and to only up it purely for the extra add-ons, and I imagine it can overwhelm Melody as well if the survey results come in and suddenly 300 backers have all added on the special poad or something.
So my two cents for whatever its worth on the more business-based reasons for why this idea of getting to pre-claim poads should maybe be reconsidered…AND…
If there are more livestreams done, I would strongly recommend they be limited to one type of poad per stream, maybe should only occur either at the end of the campaign or when a limited pledge group is full. Especially for the paired poads and specialty poads that are limited to explicit tiers and a set number of backers; focus those livestreams on the actual pledged folks for those particular poads since that would be a much smaller and more manageable group (and a much shorter livestream too). You maybe should also consider not doing the mini poads and maybe not even the baby poads as livestreams…for those, because people can or have signed up for tiers with really large quantities of these, I think you may be better off doing a general “show off the options” type livestream like you usually do (which can also entice people to up pledges for an add-on once they can see those options better) and then if you still want to accommodate preferences, just stick to asking people to email you general preferences only on colors, patterns, or eye colors, that you will then do your best to accommodate (but no hard promises).
So actual personal opinion time on how last night went for me…to be honest, I absolutely hated it! Even if offered again, and even though I still have several poads to claim, right now I plan to flat out avoid future livestreams and emailing in preferences even if offered and think I will just rely upon the traditional grab bag to randomly get what I get. I truly hated how the livestream worked out in reality last night. I did not think it fun, just very VERY frustrating and realized eventually that it was only making me really upset, to the point where I finally just called it and exited out once we switched from the special poads back to the regular ones again. Call it bitter grapes if you really want, but to be blunt, so few of us have pledged to the tiers with the special poads, and yet when that time finally came last night and I tried to claim the one I really wanted from actually the very start of that process, not only was I not able to, my requests kept getting lost or overlooked it seemed in the general chatter that started to occur at that point and in the end, even after being the first to try and claim that particular poad, multiple times no less, it was still not only given away to someone else but after that I wasn’t even able to claim my second or even third choice because we switched back to the regular poads before I could. That was one of the most frustrating points in the night, but I had similar issues with the earlier parts of the stream too when trying to see and claim some of the other types of poads; not to mention the lag got really bad at times from all the people and you’d have 10-15 minutes of colorful fuzz where you couldn’t make out anything that was going on, and there were times where it wouldn’t even post my comments in the chat. I did really enjoy seeing them all up close and I really wish it had been just a regular show-off live stream of the options; but from here on out I personally have decided that I think I prefer to stay happy and ignorant. In the end, I’ve never gotten a grab bag I was unhappy with or didn’t fall in love with ultimately whenever its been a true grab bag, but I also usually try not to spend a lot of time trying to pre-select explicit favorites because I find I can enjoy and appreciate the one I actually get a lot more if I don’t fixate on a particular favorite or two just based off photos when we all know how difficult it is to photograph a Windstone. So bitter grapes or not, I want to try to get back to actually enjoying this process which I think for me, means I’d prefer to remain in the dark, not watching livestreams where I have to truly pick out a top favorite right then and there, where because of the situation I found myself starting to fixate and getting more and more upset when I couldn’t claim my top choices…I’d rather keep thinking that those that caught my eye the most in the original class videos are still available and I will even to the end, still have a legit shot at getting them because otherwise I felt like I was mainly just watching my odds of that continue to go down, to the point where I even questioned my pledge level some…because as more livestreams, or the results of livestreams I couldn’t make (since it was purely a miracle I got off work and home in time to even make part of last nights stream) occur, its quite likely just going to keep getting worse. So I’m truly glad that for some people it really worked out and you guys had fun and are happy. But personally, how I felt after last night was mostly stressed, unhappy, and extremely frustrated…which are not the emotions or memory I want to have in association with such an awesome event.
Follow what Stephanie said Bodine. 🙂
Just Edit your pledge so the total amount is (your pledge tier) + (total cost of any add ons). Then at the end of the month when the campaign ends and your card gets charged, you get a survey to fill out where you can actually select what the extra pledge money was for in relation to add ons.
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