Hi again!!! I come bearing exciting news today! The first preliminary samples of tristan, luca, and sandy have been shown to me! There are changes aplenty that need to be made, but I want to share that process with you!

I also wanted to remind you to vote in the next backers choice poll, attached to the bottom of this update!! :D

Preliminary samples don't usually include embroidery, since the goal of the first sample is to test for color and shape. So details like eyes, toe beans, noses, mouths, and some markings that will need to be applique embroidered are not included. My manufacturer puts these parts on paper and pins it to the plush so that they don't look so naked without their essential facial features. They look really wonky still!! Please rest assured that I will not declare the samples finished until I am satisfied they look how I intended them too!

Here are some photos:

As for changes that need to be made, there are quite a few.

For Sandy:
- The ears need to be a bit shorter, and closer to the top of the head!
- The markings on the right side of her back are swapped in color (the back spot on the right should be yellow, and you can't see the middle spot on the right but it should be orange.
- Her bandana will be added later on! It is being made by a different manufacturer that specializes in printed fabrics.
- I am not 100% sure but I may move the wings up the back, a bit closer to the head.

For Tristan:
- The lightest purple shade is much more saturated than I anticipated, but I am kind of in love with how it looks actually. I may change it but most likely I'll keep it this way! Let me know what you think.
- The hoodie is a perfect shape, but I want to check the color book to see if there's an option that will mesh with the other colors of his body better.
- His ears need to be shorter and rounder to look more raccoon-like!
- The tail I'd like to be a bit longer, fatter, and rounder, with less of a pointy curve towards the tip.

For Luca:
- Same with Tristan, their tail needs to be longer, fatter, and rounder, with less of a pointy curve at the end. other than that imo they're pretty close!! I love how their ears turned out and the colors look lovely to me!

I will be drawing out these changes and then sending the revisions for them to be adjusted! Ash and Em should have preliminary pics soon as well, which I will share as soon as I have them!

Onto some other things: The final design chosen for Em was the wavy gray stripe down the face and body! I finished up the design sheet for them and the sample is in the works. As mentioned in the other post, the only way this design is possible is by having the wavy gray stripe be embroidered to join the two fabrics. This is why I didn't want to make it too thick as I feel like having a really thick bit of embroidery down the whole body would be a sensory concern. Here are the top and bottom view to give you an idea of what we are going for!

I'm excited to keep developing these plush and share the progress with you!! :D

I also wanted to ask your opinion on a few add-on ideas I had!! Let me know if you're interested in them or if you think there's already too many add-ons haha.

These enamel pin designs for critter and bug would have little dangly collar charms! I'm not sure what size they'd be yet, but probably just around and inch for the faces? I'll have to get a quote to see how much they would cost, but I had the idea and then had to draw it out immediately. These would be hard enamel, black nickle pins with screen-printed detail!

I also plan to make bandanas available as an add-on. I will infidelity offer Sandy and Ash's designs, but I thought the AuDHD pattern I've been using could make a cute one as well!! Let me know if you're interested in that one :)

I will also ask my manufacturer about this but I've had a few people ask me for tristan's hoodie as an add-on for other plush! That would be fun, so I'll see if it's doable.

The other main add-on I am considering are pull-over hoodies! (For humans lol.) If you follow me on twitter you've seen them already, but I designed some critter + bug inspired hoodies and started some samples for them! I'm really new to making and designing clothing, so I'm anxious about how they'll turn out and will wait for the samples to be done before I put them up most likely. But let me know if you're interested in them! They would be about $55 USD. (A lot of people have suggested adding ears/antenna, but for my first clothing project I want to keep it a bit more simple, plus this would add at least $15 onto the cost just for complications.)

Let me know about how you feel about add-ons and what you're looking forward to!! I love hearing from you all :)

- Han <3