Not a big update, just an announcement for the poll with some captions to be selected from! Some of the suggestions were too long for me to write out and guarantee it would remain legible, so I had to boil them down to a shorter joke. There's still credit for each user on the poll though!

We just wrapped up fulfillment on our 2025 Pintopia project Carrion Baggage, so I am focusing on making sure this campaign will be the best it can be! 

Hey all, just so everyone knows well in advance, I've updated a lot of the pin art! Specifically I got rid of a lot of screen printing and turned it in to full enamel fills instead. Since the pins will have magnets applied to their surface I want to avoid having too much that could simply be scraped off or otherwise damaged. For a few things I also fixed it up since after some time has passed I wasn't as in to it anymore. The rest were color error corrections, like the bearded vulture's eyes. I'm really sorry if this changes your opinion on a pin you wanted! I promise that this is largely for durability's sake.

We'll be participating in the Pin Safari banner like mentioned in the last update! Each campaign you back under the banner past a certain number will give you a freebie sticker. They're all themed like polaroids of wildlife scenes! I took the bear from the pin set and showed him catching his meal. It'll be printed on vinyl and 3.5in in size. Each photo needs to have some kind of caption though, and I'm not sure what to put for his. Anybody got suggestions?


To bed with me for now, there's finally going to be decent weather later this week for me to make a giant post office run and I want to get out as much Carrion Baggage stuff as possible. It's so frustrating to have had everything at a trickle since my driveway is seemingly very scary to delivery vehicles of all sorts despite being blown and salted with a turn around. I need to have that off my plate by the new year so I can focus on conventions and Pintopia for January and shift right to Big Brew Bash for February. Busy times!

With the completion of the dragon pin design we now have all of the pin designs revealed, other than the final goal mystery design! Between the features and the colors I realize I subconsciously drew a mash-up of 2 older designs I made, but that's ok. They are still their own unique dragon. The dragon and the werewolf are the only 2 fantasy animals that are non-freebies. I'm so happy to've seen them through well in advance!

We're going to be part of the Pintopia 2026 Pin Safari banner! Banners are something new this year. When you back enough campaigns in the banner you'll receive a freebie from each one you support! In the case of the Pin Safari, you'll get to collect awesome nature snapshot stickers drawn by the artists you support so you can fill up the safari scrapbook in your heart. At the moment I plan to draw something involving the bear! I look forward to unveiling it in the future.

Midwest Furfest went great! To those of you who followed the campaign after scanning the QR code at our booth, hi! Thank you for checking out my project. I hope you find something you love! Now that the last convention for our schedule this year is over, my wife and I made an important decision. She is going to begin working on Lairbrew full time starting at the beginning of the new year! She won't be doing any design work since that isn't her thing, but having 2 people to work on the business means I have more time and things will run more smoothly with faster bounce back whenever my disabilities catch up with me.

Back to resting up for me. I've still got a big push to get Carrion Baggage fulfillment completed! Now that all the pin designs are out I likely won't have a ton to share. Maybe some recolors? Possible plush concept sketches? Who knows! If you want to see something in particular let me know.

The spinosaurus, ferret, and bearded vulture pin + magnet set designs are all done! Now there are only 2 more designs to go: the dragon and the mystery set! The dragon might be the hardest one since I don't have a specific design to work off of. Limitless possibilities can be intimidating sometimes!

What do you think the mysterious animal + food is? I am torn between thinking it is something no one will be able to guess and thinking it will seem painfully obvious once it's actually announced. I will give you a hint: it's an omnivore with insects as a primary protein source!

Since there's just over a month to go I'm trying to get everything locked in to final appearances. The collab pin cannibal unicorn got a very slight update! The unicorn itself is unchanged, but I made the fur on the meat white so it will pop better when actually attached to the unicorn, and I simplified the colors so it looks less like one of those simon games from the 90s.

Have you seen the design that AsherBee is going to be offering for the Rude Moods campaign? It is a gorgeous 8purple werewolf with some glow in the dark elements! I hope you will consider backing both of us to get these because they're gonna be so pretty

If you're going to be attending Midwest Furfest 2026 we're going to be vending there! You can find us at booth Q3. We're gonna have TONS of plush looking for homes, including plenty of our popular giant werewolves, grub bags, and kobolds!

I've been working on doing sizing tests for the completed pin designs and should hopefully have those on hand at the table to show what the true size of these will be. I will try to bring them to other shows before the campaign wraps up too.

Other conventions we will be attending before the campaign ends:

I would like to make the size tests available as a digital download so you can print them out at home and see the estimates yourself even if you're not heading to any of those conventions!! Before I head out, here's a reminder that early reservations for the campaign are open to secure your free Guz + Potion pin and magnet set! I have my work cut out for me so you likely won't hear from me for a little bit after this update. Next time I should be popping back in with a dragon to share, but until then farewell!

Do you already know you want to back Gnawesome Predators? If you already have plans you might as well get a freebie! Folks following the campaign before launch will get a free mini potion magnet with their items, and if you reserve your spot before launch you will get a free Guz pin too! Together that makes a free set.

Guz is about 2.5in in size (which is a pretty big pin, try looking at a ruler to understand the scale!) and both they and the potion are very colorful! They feature some screen printed markings and are the same high quality hard enamel as the other campaign critters. If you do not know, Guz is our mascot! They are a member of an original species known as Potion Dragons, silly, slippery creatures born spontaneously from cauldrons with active brews.

If you do not reserve your spot a Guz + Potion set will still be available to purchase separately, but they are more expensive than a regular set. Special pin sets (Guz and the Cannibal Unicorn) are $45, so I highly recommend backing our amazing partner campaign for the unicorn and reserving for Guz.



A couple other fun things! The coyote pin art got updated. I woke up and hated it so I relined it completely. You know how it is! New is on the right, original on the left. Tho looking at it now I'm realizing the hind leg changed color whoops. Gotta fix that!

I'm also working on making new bag designs for Carrion Baggage: Second Bite which will be launching about a month after Pintopia ends! I've been shy about sharing designs in detail as someone has, to put it politely, taken strong, direct inspiration from the Carrion Baggage line for their own bags. To the extent that not only is calling it taking inspiration very generous, but I am also worried about someone using my shared concept art before I can. These two bags are already in prototyping and my partner manufacturers are on alert for unauthorized use of my work, so hopefully sharing this small amount is safe.

A sardine tin bag and a cracked quail egg bag! The tin has sardines printed inside and the egg has a the zipper hidden in the crack, along with a yolk drip reminiscent of the trash can bag's ooze.

Carrion Baggage: Second Bite will also have an early follower and early reserve award, so if you'd like a unique bag to display your pins on in the future I suggest following! I'll be sharing about Carrion Baggage: Eat-A Bags along the way too if that's more your thing!



Anyway! Back to Midwest Furfest prep for me. Come say hi if you attend, I will have the Second Bite prototypes with their updatde hardware and I might have my pin sizing test sheets on hand if you want a good idea of the size for the Gnawesome Predators pins!