Perfectly Normal Deer is a series of five enamel pins funded through my inaugural Kickstarter campaign. The concepts for the collection of spooky deer have been kicking around in my mind for many years now– this truly was a passion project for me to bring to life.

Years ago in a conversation with a friend, the topic of deer came up, and it was stated deer look a bit otherworldly, and would you really notice if a deer was a little off? And thus, the idea of “perfectly normal deer” was born. Deer are a rather blank slate to build off of and play with, which I think is part of the appeal of spooky deer as a trope.

Deer hold a certain amount of significance to me, and as a result tend to show up in my work rather frequently. I find their presence to be wholly captivating, and something of a comfort (from what, I’m unsure). Other projects of mine that heavily involve deer include Penumbrae, an illustrated Latin poem book, and Overcast, an abandoned webcomic that currently exists in a sort of limbo state at the moment. Six-eyes first showed up in Penumbrae, and her page quickly became everyone’s favorite from the book, so I knew I had to bring her to life in the family of deer pins.

From the start of deer worming their way into my art, I knew I wanted to make a collection of spooky deer pins someday, but unlike stickers or prints, pins are a costly sphere to break into. I knew I’d have to do some sort of crowdfunding to make it happen, which is a learning curve all of its own on top of what the art and design for enamel pins calls for so the concept sat on the shelf for many years.

Cue the pandemic, which turned everyone’s life upside down, and I began to branch out in other areas with my art all while dealing with a loss in the family and fighting my unending health issues, which prevented me from returning to school in the fall. I’m writing this in August of 2021– I have had nine procedures in the past year, the majority of which have had major complications that have been running my life since October. I’ve been severely limited, can hardly leave the house, which comes with many personal challenges that I’ll admit have been really difficult. It hasn’t been all bad, though, I’ve made so many wonderful friends in my online communities– including some who are pin makers themselves and graciously gave me some tips and answered my questions when it came to Kickstarter and manufacturing (major shoutout to the lovely Aislyn of Dragons’n’Doodles who has some gorgeous pins, playing cards, and stickers). With a couple years of college under my belt, new connections, and nothing happening outside of my health in my life, I thought it was as good a time as any to try my hand at designing pins.

I knew going into this that running a Kickstarter campaign for a series of five separate enamel pins was incredibly an ambitious ask for my introduction to pinmaking, but I’ve always approached life by hurling myself into the deep end and figuring it out from there. I’m nothing if not ambitious, after all. The campaign ran for a month, from mid-March to mid-April 2021, and I’m proud to say it was a huge success. I honestly didn’t expect much to come of it– much less fully funding all five pin designs, an acrylic charm add on, and stickers. Antlers was funded within just a few hours of the campaign’s launch, and I am so grateful to everyone who supported and shared the campaign.

The pins are hard enamel, rose gold plated, and each measures 1.25,” the charms are 2.5″ and feature a glitter epoxy coating on the front side.

All of the Perfectly Normal Deer, the peryton charms and stickers, and more can all be found for purchase in my Etsy store!