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Pinned & Preserved: Insect Enamel Pins

Created by JBlake Design

A beautiful line of scientific enamel pins inspired by insect pinning: a technique used to preserve and display insects for scientific study or collection. Capture scientifically styled Cicadas, Beetles, and Mantis pins ready for your display case~

Latest Updates from Our Project:

🌿 Thank You for Supporting Pinned & Preserved! 🪲💖
9 months ago – Thu, Sep 11, 2025 at 09:16:43 AM



First of all, thank you all so much for your incredible support during Pinned & Preserved and for joining the Super League of Science event here on BackerKit!! 🥰💖 I wanted to wait at least a day to post this update to give your inboxes a little break from the wave of "campaign ending” emails.

Because of you, this campaign was an amazing success and the most interactive campaign I've ran so far!  Thank you so much again, I can't wait to revisit this Entomology series later 💚🌿

🪲 Stretch Goal Artwork Delay
I want to be transparent with you all about why the final stretch goal artwork has been a little delayed. Ironically while wrapping up this insect-themed campaign over the weekend, my Mom was bitten by a spider during her trip to visit our family in Mexico. Luckily it wasn’t venomous, but the bite did cause a serious infection and I had to rush her from the airport straight to the hospital when she got back last Sunday (About 3 days before the campaign ended)

The good news is she’s doing so much better now. Her recovery is slow, but headed in the right direction 🥹🙏🏼 It’s been a bit of a scary/exhausting time for me and my family since we had already lost my Dad a few years ago. So that's why I wasn’t able to finish the stretch goal artwork before the campaign ended (long drives to the airport/hospital/home + dealing with this situation has left me physically/mentally exhausted)

I have most of the lineart done, just not all the colors/details finished yet. By the time I build the survey, I should have everything finalized. 

✨ Next Steps:
  • I’ll be finishing up the stretch goal artwork this week/weekend
  • Surveys will be built and sent soon so you can confirm your pins and add any extras if you’d like
  • I’ll also be catching up on comments and messages I missed from this week (Thank you for your patience while I try to balance my family life and the campaign 🥺🙏🏼)

🛒 The Add-on Shop
Even though the campaign has wrapped up, we can still unlock more pins together~ In the Survey Add-on Shop, I’ll be including several of the insect designs that didn't make it during the campaign. If enough people grab these locked pins in their carts, we can unlock them together post-campaign 😊💖

I’m pretty confident we can unlock the Orchid Mantis since it was one of the most wanted designs!! 👀🌸✨



Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for your support, patience, and for being a part of this amazing community we've built here 💕 I can't wait to get these pins made and sent to their forever homes 🥰

💖 Jess~!

⏳ 24 Hours Left! 🪲 Scarab Beetle unlocked + Patches!
9 months ago – Mon, Sep 08, 2025 at 12:51:18 PM


Hey friends!

We’ve officially hit the last 24 hours of Pinned & Preserved! 🪲🦋 I've got some last minute announcements! :)


🪲 Scarab Beetle is Unlocked!

The Egyptian Scarab Beetle is one of my absolute favorite insects, and I couldn’t let the campaign end without it! Even though we've been teetering back and forth between unlocking this little guy, I’ll be self-funding the difference so it’s officially unlocked for everyone! 🎉 I can’t wait to bring this design to life, I'm almost done with the artwork <3


🧵 New Add-On: Embroidered Patches

In the last poll, the majority of you voted YES to embroidered insect patches!! So I went ahead and added them as a brand-new Add-on at the top of the shop~ These will be larger patches to show off the detail in the embroidery, perfect for jackets and bags <3 I'll be getting samples made soon



🦋 A Note to Higher Tier Backers:

If you pledged for a larger tier with more pins than what was unlocked and still want to keep your pledge, you’ll have two options:
  1. Choose multiples of your favorite unlocked designs -or-
  2. Receive a credit to shop in the Survey Add-On Shop to use toward other pins, mini pins, or merch when surveys go out ---> more insect pins might unlock in the Survey Add-on shop

If you're in one of these tiers and there is a specific pin you wanted to see unlocked, please comment here because I still might be able to self-fund some of these extra pin designs + raise funds later in the Survey Shop to get more of these little guys unlocked together 💖 (~Looking to self-fund that Orchid Mantis~ 👀🌸)


Thank you so much for all the amazing support for Backerkit's Super League of Science event and for helping make this Entomology pin series possible!! 🥰🙏🏼 Let's finish this campaign strong together!! Don't forget to share the campaign with your friends for the last 24 hours!! 💪🏼


💖 Jess~!




🐝 ~Pinned & Preserved campaign here!~ 🐝

 

🐝 Bee + Wasp pins unlocked + Poll for insect patches! 🪲
9 months ago – Wed, Sep 03, 2025 at 09:27:51 AM


Hello friends! I’ve got some exciting updates for you today :)

Honey Bee + Wasp Mini Pins

Even though we didn’t quite hit the 25 orders goal (almost half the orders), I’ve decided to self-fund the difference so these little guys can just be straight up unlocked! 🎉 That means the Honey Bee and Wasp mini pins are 100% available to add to your orders with no worries about losing them~

Some folks mentioned they wanted to pick them up later in the Survey, so this way everyone has the chance to grab them! 💖🐝  (~Mini pins are only $11 each~)



🎨 New Pin Designs Coming Soon~

I’m almost done finishing up the artwork for the next stretch goal designs, I'll share them soon in the next update! :) 


🪲 Scarab Beetle Status

The Scarab Beetle pin was unlocked last week but has teetered back into the "locked" status. If you’d like to help push it back into the unlocked zone, don’t forget to take a look at the Add-On Shop for some extra pins I already have made that count towards funding :)






✨ ~Add-on Shop Insect Specimens to help boost funding~ ✨



  • Firefly/Lightning Bug mini pins (glow in the dark set)- $20 set = $5 mini pins
  • Luna Moth pins- $15




🧵 New Poll: Embroidered Patches?



I’ve been thinking about adding some large and detailed embroidered patches as a potential add-on. Would this interest anyone besides me? 😄 A new poll is live now at the bottom of this update! If we get enough "Yes" votes, I'll release those in the add-on shop!


Thank you again for all your support, I'll have a new update very soon after I'm finished with the new pin designs ^_^

💖 Jess~!




🐝 Check out + share the campaign page here! 🐝

 

🐝 New Add-on Pins! Honey Bee + Scarlet Wasp Moth~ 🦋❤️🖤
10 months ago – Wed, Aug 20, 2025 at 10:19:03 AM



If you missed yesterday's big update, we have two new mini pins to unlock via the Add-on Shop!!



👉🏼  Since mini pins are a different price than the XL pins/pledge levels ($11 vs $25), they’ll unlock separately in the add-on shop instead of through stretch goals! 

This way, you can add the $11 mini pins directly to your order without affecting your $25 XL pin tiers~ (It also makes it easier for me to build the surveys this way)
 

After these mini pins get 25 orders of each design, they will be unlocked! Seeing how many orders we got for the existing Firefly/Lightning Bug *glow* mini pin set, I think we can definitely unlock these new mini pins together :)



🎉 Help unlock these little guys by grabbing them in the Add-on Shop: 🎉

➡️ Add-on Shop link here!



 

There's also new Pledge Level Tiers to celebrate the new XL unlocks! 🎉



🪱🐦 **If you're an Early Bird backer, upgrading to these new tiers will include the free Early Bird Fire Ant sticker so you don't lose your reward! :)





🐝 Check out + share the campaign page here! 🐝

 
~Jess <3

🕷️ Black Widow Pin Unlocked + Poll Results + New Tiers! 🦋
10 months ago – Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 12:49:52 PM


Hey everyone! Big update here~


Thanks to your amazing support over the weekend, the Black Widow Spider pin is now unlocked! 🖤🕷️❤️



✏️ 1st week recap ✏️

We've unlocked 8 out of 11 pins together!! 🎉 The last 3 pins of this batch to left to unlock are the Egyptian Scarab Beetle, the Orchid Mantis, and the Madagascan Sunset Moth! 🪲🌸🦋🌈



Next 3 pins to unlock:




🗳️ Round 3 poll winners 🗳️


Your votes in the 3rd round of community polls helped decide the next specimens to unlock! :)

  • 🪲 2 Mini Pin Add-ons (unlocked separately via the add-on shop)
    • Honey Bee 🐝
    • Scarlet-Bodied Wasp Moth 🦋❤️🖤


Mini pins are only $11 each, compared to $25 for the XL pins. Because of the price difference, mini pins will unlock separately via the add-on shop after 25 orders of each design!

------

  • 8 new XL pins to pledge for: 
    • Blue Morpho Butterfly
    • Leaf Bug
    • Centipede
    • Rosy Maple Moth
    • Tailless Whip Scorpion
    • Walking Stick
    • Green milkweed locust (African Bush Grasshopper)
    • Monarch Butterfly


If we can unlock all the stretch goals, that's 21 pins total!! (= 4 mini pins + 17 XL pins) If we make it this far in the campaign, there will be a 4th Community Poll featuring some new additions from myself and the community comments~ Make sure to pledge for all the pins you want today to help us unlock more insect pins! :)




🎉 New Pledge Level Tiers! 🎉


I’ve added 8-pin and 10-pin tiers you can upgrade to, as well as a Full Collector’s Set: 21-pin tier for those who want to go all-in! 

🪱🐦 **If you're an Early Bird backer, all these new tiers include the free Early Bird Fire Ant sticker so you don't lose your reward when upgrading! :)




Add-on Shop "Live" Specimens ✨


To help boost the campaign, there's a few in-stock insect pins available in the Add-On Shop~ ✨ 
 
  • Firefly/Lightning Bug mini pins (glow in the dark 4-piece set!)- $20 set = $5 mini pins
  • Luna Moth pins (already produced + ready to ship)- $15 for the 2" wide pin


 
Thank you all again for the incredible support on this new XL pin campaign!! I can’t wait to see how many more specimens we will unlock together this month! And don't forget to share the campaign with your friends and family so we can unlock everything~ :)

💖 Jess~!




🐝 Check out + share the campaign page here! 🐝