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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:

🪲 Life Update + Pin Reveal! Plus a Little Muerte & Magic~ ☠️🔮✨
10 months ago – Mon, Oct 20, 2025 at 04:56:52 PM


Hi everyone! 💖

Thank you all so much for your patience during this time 🙏🏼 I know it’s been a little quiet on my end, and I want to keep being transparent here in these updates to keep you all in the loop.

➡️ Life Update (no worries, everything is okay!)

If you didn't read my last update, my mom ended up being hospitalized after a small spider bite turned into a serious life-threatening infection. Not that long after writing the last update, my mom's infection began spreading all over her body and she had to be hospitalized for quite a while to go through multiple surgeries to stop and drain the infection completely. I spent the last several weeks driving back and forth between home and the hospital to be with her during this time.

When she was finally able to come home, we had to go through several follow-up appointments to confirm that everything was alright. It took so long going to multiple doctors because there was a potential cancer scare that thankfully turned out *not* to be cancer (they described it like a layer of fat cells that grew rapidly after the infection, and ended up forming a non-cancerous lump that kept showing up in the MRI). It’s been a long and emotionally draining time dealing with all this, but my mom is finally fully recovered and is doing so much better now 🥹🙏🏼

I'm so sorry for the delay getting back here to give an update, my mom going into the hospital was the last thing I was expecting to happen as I was wrapping things up. I wanted to let you all know I didn't forget about the campaign at all, and I’ve actually been working really hard behind the scenes to keep things moving along 🚂 


✏️ Stretch Goal Artwork Reveal! 🪲

Luckily I finished the majority of the pin art in between visiting my mom. The only pins left for me to finish are the Scarlet-Bodied Wasp Moth, the Pink Orchid Mantis, and the Madagascan Sunset Moth 💖✨

I've had the rest of these pin designs done for a while, but I never had the chance to sit down and form an update revealing them. Finally here they are, I hope you love them!!



I have the surveys halfway done and I just need to finish these last 3 pin designs to release the full survey <3 


 🇲🇽 A Peek at What’s Next~ ☠️🖤✨

In between my mom's recovery and finishing the stretch goal artwork above, I also had to wrap up details for a project I signed up for earlier this year: Pintober!

Introducing my Pintober project launching tomorrow: Muerte & Magic ||: La Eternidad! This project is a continuation of my Day of the Dead pin series, this time featuring Aztec deities as the main focus of this campaign!! ✨

Here's the full Day of the Dead collection so far! And more Aztec deities will be revealed/voted on by our community~


✨Sign up for notifications here on the Teaser Page so you don't miss out tomorrow!!✨


❗➡️ Pintober launches tomorrow: October 21st @1pm EST! ⬅️❗


There's 50 Limited Slots available at launch, and I'm giving away the most freebie pins here than any other campaign I've done in the past!

Allison and I are also teaming up again to do another Artist cross-collab! ☠️ Here's the 4 pins we'll be giving away for backing both our campaigns together, along with a 3rd Pintober campaign~






Thank you so much to each and every one of you for standing by me through this pin making journey. Your patience and incredibly kind words in the comments is really what keeps me going when I'm down and life seems difficult. It means so much more than I can ever express 🥺 Thank you again from the bottom of my heart for just being here and supporting my art/dream to become a big enamel pin artist 🥺🙏🏼

I can’t wait to show you all the finished insect stretch goal pins soon!! I'll release another update when art and surveys have been finalized~ 

💖 Jess~!

🌿 Thank You for Supporting Pinned & Preserved! 🪲💖
11 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!
11 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! 🪲
12 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~ 🦋❤️🖤
12 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