Updates and Survey Reminder
over 1 year ago – Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 05:27:52 AM

Hi Everyone, 

Just a quick update to let you know I received the revised mat prototypes from the manufacturer yesterday and they are perfect! So I already placed that order, as well as the order for the pouches, coins, and dice. So basically, everything is done except the little instructional booklets, which I'm just finishing up. So that's all good news!

Also, remember that you have 1 more week from today (Aug. 25) to complete your survey through BackerKit. A few people already contacted me that they didn't receive theirs. I am able to send you a direct link if you have any issues with yours. Just let me know. 

That's all for now. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

-Xia

Survey FAQs so far
over 1 year ago – Sat, Aug 13, 2022 at 12:13:16 AM

Hi everyone,

So all of the surveys were sent out this morning (Pacific time) and already I have gotten several questions that I think would benefit everyone to know, so I'm posting a quick FAQ update. 

1) When is the deadline for surveys? There is conflicting information. 

Yes, I didn't mean to mislead you, but I did. Short answer: deadline is 8/25.

Long answer: Originally I wanted the survey deadline to be 8/18 (my birthday and 8 is my favorite number, if you haven't noticed!) But, Backerkit's best practices said to give people 2 weeks so that is why I changed it to 8/25. 

2) Why do I have to enter my credit card number again, when I was already charged by Kickstarter for my pledge? 

I just got official confirmation on this, because I wasn't 100% sure myself.  The reason is because I have the "charge shipping later" feature enabled. So, even if you don't add on additional items, you still need to enter the credit card information at the survey phase so we can charge shipping when we get ready to fulfill orders. That will also enable us to iron out specific shipping preferences you may have before you are charged. 

3) When will my card be charged for the add-ons that I purchased? 

This was another questions I had to confirm with Backerkit (good question everyone!). They say only that I have to "lock the surveys" and then I can charge the cards. My interpretation of that is that I have some manual control over it. Meaning, it's not an automatic thing. (I need to get a confirmed answer on this one.) So I'm going to say that I will charge cards on 8/26 (one day after the surveys are locked). If you have any personal concerns or issues regarding that date, please message me and I'll try and work it out with you.  Also remember that you can still change your address up until the date the order ships even if the survey is locked. 

4) Can I change my pledge level on the survey? 

No. It turns out, at a minimum you have "pledged" to your specific reward tier. However, you can add any of the add-on items or pledge level "bundle discounts" to your existing rewards. 

5) What about the Free Pouch...how do I get that? 

I had no idea how tricky this was going to be when I offered this little freebie. What we've done is manually added this item to every backer's cart if they pledged for a reward tier that included dice or if they added on any coin. If you an now deciding to add on a dice or coin option, we decided the best approach was the "honor system" approach. You have the option to select the "free pouch" or the "pouch +$11. If you add the free pouch and do not have the coin/dice add-ons, we simply will not fulfill that. If you paid for a pouch and are entitled to a free one, we will refund you. If you are entitled to a pouch and do not add it to your cart, we will send you one anyway!

That's about it for now. Please get to your surveys ASAP if you can so we can confirm final counts with our manufacturers and have a wonderful weekend!

Sending love and light,

-Xia

Surveys are on the way (soon!)
over 1 year ago – Thu, Aug 11, 2022 at 02:20:12 AM

Hi everyone,

Sorry about the delay in getting surveys out. Since this is the first time I've used Backerkit, it took a little longer than expected to get set up.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help me with the smoke test. You all sent such lovely messages and I really appreciate your offers for help! Then...I find out that Backerkit actually sends them to a random sampling across pledge levels and I cannot choose who participates :( I'm really sorry about that...especially if you did not want to participate and you randomly get chosen. Hopefully it all goes according to plan and you don't experience any issues. But if you do, please be sure to let me know so we can fix it! Those should go out tonight or tomorrow. 

Everyone else should get their surveys soon thereafter. If you plan to add on or change your selections, I would really appreciate if you submit your surveys ASAP as I'm anxious to submit my final orders to manufacturers. But I will leave the surveys open for a few weeks. And if they close and you should end up moving before we ship, you can still go in and update your address, so don't worry about that. 

As always, thank you so much for your support. I really, really appreciate that you put your trust and hard-earned dollars into my artistic endeavors. I'm so excited to see these mats, dice, and coins made. I could not do any of this without you and you have all my gratitude. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Sending love and light,

-Xia

Dice update and Survey Status
over 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 03, 2022 at 05:28:36 AM

Hi everyone...

Sorry to be blowing your Kickstarter inbox with updates, but everything is progressing so quickly....not complaining! I just want to keep you posted. 

Dice update

First, my dice manufacturer just sent me the samples with my new font...I'm absolutely in LOVE with these dice. Just turning them in my palm brings me such joy and peace. I'm so excited to start using them in earnest. I've used astrology dice for a while, so I'm curious to see if these "read" any differently considering these are imbued with my personal artistic intent. Here's a short little video so you can see the clear quartz version. 

Survey status

Second, I'm busy working with Backerkit to prepare the surveys. But I can't send them out until I receive the funds from Kickstarter. I do expect that to be this week, or the following at the latest. Meanwhile, I'd like to ask for any volunteers who'd be willing to help me and participate in the survey "smoke test." Since this is the first time I've used Backerkit, and we have a fairly complex campaign with several items with variants and a free gift, I want to test the survey out first with about 20 backers. If you are willing to be one of the first 20 to complete your survey and report any issues or confusion you faced, so we can fix them before sending out the over 600 surveys to everyone, please message me on Kickstarter. I would sincerely appreciate your help and feedback. 

Other than that, things are moving forward very quickly and easily so far. I'm very hopeful we can ship rewards ahead of our estimate, but no guarantees! However, if you're thinking of adding on items as holiday gifts, I'm almost positive...at least for those in the US...that you will get your goodies well in advance of the holiday rush. 

I guess that's it for now. I'll continue to update you as new samples arrive and milestones are met. Meanwhile, take care and I hope you can feel my gratitude for your support!

-Xia

What an incredible journey...what's next?
over 1 year ago – Sun, Jul 31, 2022 at 02:38:13 AM

Hi everyone, 

So excited to announce that my "mini-campaign-that-grew-real-big" is now over. 

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

I just cannot express enough gratitude to all my backers (past, present, and future) for supporting my projects. I am just itching to get to ordering all these lovely things! I want them in my hands...as I'm certain you do too! As I've mentioned in prior updates, we are staged and ready to go. I'm just waiting for the final Kickstarter and Survey numbers to figure out how much to get of everything. I'll continue to keep you all posted on that. 

Meanwhile, if you've just stumbled upon this campaign and are sorry you missed out...don't be! We are working with BackerKit and have set up a "preorder store" for anyone who wants to get these goodies at the Kickstarter prices. To check it out, you can go here: https://xia-hunt-divination-mats.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders. I plan to leave it open for about 3 weeks, until the survey process concludes. If you are already a backer, please use the Survey to add/select/change items and not the preorder store, to simplify fulfillment and minimize your shipping costs. 

Speaking of surveys. Many have asked if I'll be using a pledge manager. Yes, I'll be using BackerKit. Once Kickstarter finalizes their part of the campaign (usually 10-14 days) I'll be sending out surveys.  At that time you can add/select/change items  to your pledge. Please remember that SHIPPING WILL BE CHARGED LATER.  As soon as we are ready to fulfill orders and have all the packaging weights and dimensions finalized, we can figure out the precise shipping costs. At that time we will let you know what the shipping cost will be and charge your credit card.  If you have any specific concerns or request regarding shipping method, just be sure to reach out to me and I'll do my best to accommodate. 

Again, thank you all so very much for all your love and support. You're pledges really, truly mean the world to me. I'll be checking in again soon but for now, let's celebrate an amazing campaign that we have all worked together to bring to life. Cheers!!!

Sending you all love and light,

-Xia