NEARING A HALF A MIL! TWENTY SEVEN STRETCH GOALS NOW UNLOCKED!! FINAL (I think?) STRETCH GOALS ANNOUNCED!!!
over 4 years ago – Fri, May 08, 2020 at 01:35:33 PM

Hello dearest botanists and diviners!

We're really getting down to the wire here. There are thirty-three hours left in this glorious world-beating campaign for the most-funded Tarot deck in the history of Kickstarter. We've unlocked a whopping TWENTY SEVEN STRETCH GOALS, which is a little absurd when you actually count them up. You all have made this one of the most genuinely mind-boggling and wild experiences of our lives, and we're endlessly grateful to you for it.

You're unlocking stretch goals faster than we can even announce them. Overnight we passed our $450K and as-yet-unannounced $475K goals, and we're trending fast towards that bafflement-provoking half-million dollar mark. So here's where we're at:

$450K: UNLOCKED! EMBROIDERED HERBALIST'S POUCHES. Each ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST and ENCHANTER edition will come with an embroidered black velvet herbabalist's pouch to hold the cards and box. (We're working on a design for this now!) 

$475K: UNLOCKED! VIDEO OF KEVIN EXPLAINING THE MINOR ARCANA. We'll expand the video in which Kevin walks through all the major Arcana to include the entire deck!

We're getting SO CLOSE to that crazy $500K number... I have to post this update fast, before we cross it and I have to rewrite this darn thing!

Here are our upcoming stretch goals, which (barring the kind of unforeseen explosion this campaign seems to specialize in) will be our final ones. We've spaced them out a little more so we don't end up producing a bunch of extra stuff that doesn't add real value to the set. We're particularly excited about this first one:

$500K: DIE-CUT METAL DANDELION BOOKMARK CHARM! We will craft a brass-finish dandelion charm to be included with ALL physical editions of the deck! This means all HERBALIST and up backers will receive this as a token to display, wear, or use as a page marker!

$550K: TWO MORE TAROT SIZED POSTCARDS! We will unlock the last two postcards from our SOCIAL MEDIA STRETCH GOAL, for a total of SIX postcards included with ALL physical editions of the deck!

$600K: SPECIAL HOW-TO-READ-TAROT CLASS WITH KEVIN JAY STANTON! PLUS TWO MORE HI RES PRINTABLE PAINTINGS! Kevin will stream an online class in which he'll teach backers of this campaign how he reads Tarot, and some of the many ways to use BOTANICA. We'll also unlock two more hi res paintings for you to make your own prints out of!

$650K: PATCHES WITH ALL DECKS! We will include THE FOOL patch with ALL physical editions of the deck, including THE HERBALIST.

After that... I don't know. BOTANICA: The Musical? We'd really have to do something completely ridiculous, I think.

We've had a lot of questions about the availability of this deck after the campaign. So here's the rundown: it'll immediately be for sale via pre-order on our website when the campaign closes. We'll eventually release the basic deck in book stores and other retail venues, but we likely won't be releasing the ALCHEMIST/DARK ALCHEMIST/ENCHANTER editions outside of this campaign and a limited batch of pre-orders. So if you want to make sure to get any of those (once again, the DARK ALCHEMIST has become an insane deal, including an altar cloth, a hardcover book, an embossed metal tin, a patch, two enamel pins, three stickers, four postcards, a massive slate of digital rewards, and probably soon a metal charm), you might want to reserve one as we can't make guarantees of their future availability.

If you're so inclined, please give us one final push via social media, and let the world know that there's one last chance to get on board this runaway freight train! (Except it's... the GOOD kind of runaway freight train.) 

And then we hope you'll all join us at 2pm EST tomorrow May 7th on Instagram Stories Live, where Kevin and Maëlle will be giddily celebrating the amazing collective effort that's allowed us to build this beautiful campaign, answering questions from all viewers, and talking about the future of BOTANICA. You can join live via our Instagram stories @beehivebooks, (click our circular profile picture surrounded by the pink and purple circle to see Stories) where you can also follow us to see a lot of extra process art and production updates on BOTANICA in the weeks and months to come. You can also join and follow via @kevinjaystanton's account, to see more about this project behind the scenes -- and Kevin's other remarkable work -- on an ongoing basis.

These past months have been such a strange, hard time for so many people all over the world. The three of us have been incredibly lucky in all senses, but we're still so worried about friends and family, about the publishing, comics and art businesses, and about the big disconcerting question mark that is the future of everything. In this crazy moment it's so meaningful to us that this project could be a place where people come together to build something beautiful, to celebrate Kevin's five years of tireless work on this project, and to spontaneously form a 6,000-strong-and-growing community of people who love flowers and artwork and storytelling and magic. Your pledges and support of course mean the world to us, but even more heartening is the sense of camaraderie and fellowship we see in the comments and messages, the genuine excitement and passion that you bring to this work, and the sense that we're all in this thing together. Like so many of the flowers in BOTANICA, these are truly rare, fragile and beautiful things. It's so important to us to do our best to nurture them. 

Thank you so much. We love you. We wish we could truly express our gratitude, but there's no emoji extreme enough. You all have been on our side, and we're doing our best to be on yours.

Take care and be safe, friends. Let's bring this home together!

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

THREE MORE STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED! THAT'S ***NINETEEN*** STRETCH GOALS SO FAR!!!
over 4 years ago – Fri, May 08, 2020 at 09:39:40 AM

Hello friends!

It's us, here with your daily delivery of new stretch goals, because you once again demolished everything we had planned in barely a day. ALL OF OUR CURRENT STRETCH GOALS HAVE BEEN UNLOCKED! Y'all are hoarding stretch goals like they're toilet paper. 

The newly unlocked goals include:

$300k: UNLOCKED! BOTANICA PATCH! An iron-on 2" patch to be included with all ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST and ENCHANTER tiers. We will also add TWO MORE HIGH RESOLUTION PAINTING DOWNLOADS for you to make prints from, available to every backer of the campaign.

$325k: UNLOCKED! THREE TERRARIUM STICKERS! We'll include a trio of circular terrarium stickers with all editions of the deck.

$350k: UNLOCKED! MINI MEDITATION JOURNAL! Kevin will design a small journal, sized to fit inside the ALCHEMIST tin, which you can use to record your readings, notes and thoughts as you explore the world of BOTANICA. This will be included with all ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST and ENCHANTER tiers.

We're in uncharted territory here, and we want to make sure we don't set ourselves up for an unfeasible fulfillment process, so we won't be able to make all these extras available as add-ons. The two PINS ($18 each) and the COMPENDIUM ($20) are available as add-ons, but the patch, the journal and the altar cloth will only be available with the ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST and ENCHANTER editions.

Because things have spiraled so madly upwards, I'm afraid it's gotten a bit confusing what comes with what set. So here's a graphic laying it all out. Please let us know if you have any questions about any of this. (It's so much info we had to break it into three graphics so Kickstarter would post it!)

OK, on to the really fun (if by now customary) part: NEW STRETCH GOALS! 

We're trying our best not to overcrowd this project with random stuff just to justify the extra funding. We don't want to gild the lily -- especially in a campaign where we have already quite literally gilded a lily. But we've tried to come up with some cool stuff to bring us home in these final days! I can't believe we've gotten to this insane point! Here's where we're at so far.

$375K: VIDEO WALKTHROUGH! Kevin will make a video walking through the botanical and symbolic meanings of every card in the major Arcana! This will be available to all backers of the campaign. Here's a little sneak peek, where Kevin breaks down one of the cards in the deck.

$400K: DECKPLATE/BOOKPLATE STICKERS! Every deck will include a special bookplate sticker which you can inscribe with your name (or anything else!) and affix to your your COMPENDIUM or your tin, drawer-box or jewel case.

$425K: PRINTABLE TAROT WORKSHEETS! All backers at the GLIMPSE level or above will receive a PDF of downloadable/printable worksheets to walk you through various Tarot readings.

$450K: EMBROIDERED BAGS! Each ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST and ENCHANTER edition will come with an embroidered herbabalist's pouch to hold the cards and box. (We're working on a design for this now!) We also have a completely absurd, half-joking-but-not-really bonus stretch goal we'll unlock at this point. If you scroll down the campaign page you'll see that it's already been depicted, tho not yet announced.

We also have a CRAZY bonus idea we're planning for the EXTREMELY UNLIKELY event we cross the $500K threshold, but we're still figuring out exactly how viable it is, so stay tuned for one more potential act of complete madness.

This campaign has massively exceeded our wildest expectations, then exceeded the adjusted expectations of increased wildness, ad infinitum. We're ticking down to the last three days and we're just overcome with gratitude, excitement and hope. And that's all thanks to you, dear friends and floraphiles.

Much more info to come. We seem to send these updates on an hourly basis. Let's close this thing out with a bang. Go team!

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

NEW STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED: BOOKPLATE/DECKPLATES and ***SATIN BOMBER JACKETS!!!!!!***
over 4 years ago – Thu, May 07, 2020 at 06:17:50 PM

Hi friends! It's a day that ends in Y, so we have a new update for you about stretch goal unlockings and new rewards and specials!

This campaign continues to be a glorious floral smorgasbord of joy and madness. We're way above the OMG WE NEVER EXPECTED THIS levels and deep into the WTF THIS IS SOME KIND OF STRANGE DREAM, RIGHT?? phase.

We're about to power our way into our final 48 hours, and we frankly have no idea what to expect. Does this crazy roller coaster have one final loop-de-loop?

OK, down to business. We've unlocked a NEW STRETCH GOAL!!

$400K: UNLOCKED! DECKPLATE/BOOKPLATE STICKERS! Every deck (HERBALIST, ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST or ENCHANTER) will include a special bookplate sticker which you can inscribe with your name (or anything else!) and affix to your your compendium or your tin, drawer-box or jewel case.

And because we can't resist, we're unlocking our new Mystery Stretch Goal a little early! This one has been a bit of an inside joke for us since the start of the campaign. We laughed about the possibility of actually making these things, with no sense that it would ever be possible. Well, here we are. 

SATIN ON SATIN BOTANICA BOMBER JACKETS!! 

Kevin drew himself wearing one of these in his self-portrait, and we've been ogling it ever since. Well, now, because you all are amazing and because we're insane, WE'RE GOING TO MAKE THEM, in shiny Duchess satin with satin interior and silver polished Italian zip. 

This is its own tier and add-on, and doesn't come with any other tier. We know it's expensive (to include this with any tier would completely throw all our financial models out of whack) and we fully expect we might sell zero of these things -- we just wanted to give all our dear backers a chance to walk down the street together like a mystical band of street toughs. This is its own tier, or can be added onto any US order for $500, and any international order for $530.

We've also designed one of our most recent stretch goals: THE FOOL PATCH! Included with all ALCHEMIST/DARK ALCHEMIST/ENCHANTER decks will be this 2" floral embroidered patch. 

Also, a note for anyone who may want to consider upgrading to the DARK ALCHEMIST edition, some of our add-ons have made this an absolutely bonkers box set full of cool stuff. Here's what's now included with the DARK ALCHEMIST (and ALCHEMIST, though those sold out a while ago!):

• THE HERBALIST deck
• THE DARK ALCHEMIST embossed tin
• THE ALTAR CLOTH
• THE DANDELION PIN
• THE EGLANTINE PIN
• BOTANICA PATCH
• FOUR TAROT-SIZED POSTCARDS
• THREE TERRARIUM STICKERS
• THE MINI MEDITATION JOURNAL
• THE COMPENDIUM (embossed, expanded hardcover with silk ribbon!)
• THE BOOKPLATE
• FULL SUITE OF ALL DIGITAL REWARDS
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IN THE COMPENDIUM

I have to say -- for $100 that list has become kind of insane.  We should also note that while the HERBALIST deck will be available for pre-order after the campaign from our website, and will eventually be released in bookshops and other retail venues, we're not sure how long the DARK ALCHEMIST editions will be available.

I'd also like to address the fact that we've had some complaints that we're not including every stretch goal item with every edition of the deck. We understand your concerns! Accessibility is important to us, which is why we tried to keep the basic HERBALIST set as low-cost as possible. We've also tried to add a LOT of stretch goal bonuses to the HERBALIST, which include:

• GILDED EDGES ON THE CARDS
• DRAWER-STYLE BOXES
• THREE TERRARIUM STICKERS
• THE BOOKPLATE
• EMBOSSING ON THE HERBALIST BOXES
• PRINTING INSIDE THE HERBALIST BOXES
• FOUR TAROT-SIZED POSTCARDS
• DIGITAL EDITION OF THE COMPENDIUM
• 15 DIGITAL WALLPAPERS
• THREE HI RES PAINTING DOWNLOADS
• DOWNLOADABLE FLORAL CALENDAR
• VIDEO WALKTHROUGH OF THE MAJOR ARCANA

And we're not done yet! our very next goal will add PRINTABLE TAROT WORKSHEETS to every deck.

The fact that we've set the cost for the HERBALIST so low means we don't have a lot of margin for additions there. While the extra funding does mean that our per-unit printing cost is lower, it doesn't affect the per-unit shipping cost -- and adding bulky extras will spike our shipping costs (as well as production costs) to the point where the HERBALIST editions would become unsustainable. (We've also begun to hit this point with both ALCHEMIST editions!) We've already put most of the funds we save per-unit on printing into nice additions like the gilded edges, embossing, drawer style boxes and printing inside -- none of which are cheap extras!

The fact that we set the HERBALIST deck at such a low price means we can't include all of our higher end bonuses with it. If we did, the decks might cost as much to print and ship as we're selling them for! We're doing our level best to have a good mix of stretch goals that excite ALL of our backers. You can't please everyone -- but that won't stop us from trying.

While we'd also love to offer ALL of our additional items as add-ons for any backer, our fulfillment process unfortunately makes that unfeasible. Our shipper can't customize each individual package that way, and while I had initially planned to do a lot of that from our office in Philadelphia, the scale of this campaign has put that outside the scope of our efforts. (Because of all the uncertainty around the quarantine, we likely won't even be able to hire folks to help us pack and ship boxes, so the Philadelphia end of fulfillment will probably be Josh all on his lonesome!) As one of our beloved backers put it: for an extra $60, you can switch from the HERBALIST to the DARK ALCHEMIST and get a humongous package of extra rewards all at once!

We're also doing  our best to do right by our lowest dollar amount backers! The GLIMPSE tier has become an absolutely insane bargain, in which you get the following for $10:

• PDF OF ALL CARDS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THEIR MEANING AND SYMBOLISM
• 108 PAGE DIGITAL COMPENDIUM
• THREE HI-RES PRINTABLE PAINTINGS 
• 15 DIGITAL WALLPAPERS
• PRINTABLE DIGITAL CALENDAR
• VIDEO OF KEVIN JAY STANTON DISCUSSING ALL THE MAJOR ARCANA
• and, if we reach $425K, PRINTABLE TAROT WORKSHEETS

Thanks friends! I hope this all makes sense, and sorry for such a long update. We're scrambling to keep up with this mad frenzy of love and flowers. We're so grateful for each and every one of you. 

Now let's close this thing out with a bang! GO TEAM!

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

THE MADNESS CONTINUES AS WE UNLOCK THREE NEW STRETCH GOALS OVERNIGHT!
over 4 years ago – Sun, May 03, 2020 at 10:30:49 PM

OKAY! It happened again! We blew past multiple stretch goals overnight! 

Forgive us if the frazzled and overjoyed emotional tenor of these updates is getting exhausting or repetitive. Just know that it's utterly genuine -- we've never experienced anything like this before, and we're joyously racing to keep up. This is us right now.

Without further ado, there are...

THREE NEW STRETCH GOALS UNLOCKED! Here they are!!

$275k: UNLOCKED! DIGITAL WALLPAPER & PRINTABLE CALENDAR! We'll send you a bundle of 15 beautiful digital wallpapers designed by Kevin Jay Stanton (including one designed exclusively for this campaign!), and a digital floral calendar to print at home! These will be sent out to every backer of the campaign.

$300k: UNLOCKED! BOTANICA PATCH! We'll design an iron-on 2" patch, which will be included with all ALCHEMIST, DARK ALCHEMIST and ENCHANTER tiers, as well as as an add-on for any lower tier.  Just add $15 to any extant order if you want to add on a patch. We will also add TWO MORE HIGH RESOLUTION PAINTING DOWNLOADS for you to make prints from. This went too fast, so the patches aren't designed yet! But we'll share some ideas and process work on them with you tomorrow.

$325k: UNLOCKED! THREE TERRARIUM STICKERS! We'll include a trio of circular terrarium stickers with all editions of the deck. Kevin is working on designing these now!

It's really starting to look like we'll need some new stretch goals, it's it? Stay tuned -- we'll be back tomorrow with further details.

Thank you so much, friends. This is so deeply heartening and exciting. We can't wait to share more of you as we enter the final days of this campaign. You're our heroes!

Josh, Maëlle and Kevin

BOUTONNIERE PIN OPTIONS! Let us know what you think!
over 4 years ago – Sun, May 03, 2020 at 06:32:42 PM

We're getting close to unlocking our $100k tier of 1" hard enamel boutonniere pins which is, quite frankly, kind of nuts. Once unlocked, these babies will come free with every ALCHEMIST/DARK ALCHEMIST/ENCHANTER edition, and they'll be available as an add-on to any order or as their own stand-alone rewards tier.

We have three options we're considering! Which is your fave? Sound off in the comments!

THE DANDELION PIN:

 THE EGLANTINE PIN:

 THE KNIGHT OF CUPS PIN:

Thanks friends! It's all so exciting. Miles to go before we sleep! Wishing you all a bountiful spring.

Maëlle, Josh and Kevin