Xia Hunt - The Children of Ostara Tarot

We are starting to charge cards this week (11/18/24)!
4 days ago – Sun, Nov 17, 2024 at 11:09:07 AM

Hi everyone,

I'm so excited that we are expecting our decks, mats, and pouches to arrive tomorrow, Monday 11/18. That said, we are going to start charging your cards for any BackerKit add-ons and shipping charges this week. If you have any concerns or questions about that, please message me as soon as possible so we can address them before we start shipping. 

Please note that we've had trouble with the manufacturer in the re-production of the Hanged Man (mermaid) enamel pin. They have not been able to match the color of the original pins, so those are not done yet. Hopefully we will get those in by mid-December, but we may not be able to ship those this year. 

Also, we have started receiving the wooden apothecary boxes from the craftsman and they are amazing! However, they are not all complete yet, so there may be delays on those as well. I'll keep you all posted on our progress as we go. 

But again, if you have any questions or concerns about your specific order, please let me know. 

I'm so excited to get the fulfillment underway!

All the best,

-Xia

Backer kit pre orders lock on OCT 31st!
29 days ago – Wed, Oct 23, 2024 at 07:26:18 AM

Hello Everyone! 

I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the fall season! I have just a few updates for you all. 

BackerKit pre-order store closes Oct 31st!  

The backerkit pre-order store CLOSES at the end of this month, the last day of October, as we prepare to receive everything from the manufactures and begin shipment asap! This means you will have until then to secure or change any add-ons you want.  I believe BackerKit sends out one final email notification before this happens, but try to take a look and make sure everything looks right. Note you can still change your address up until charge your credit card. We will do that right before we are ready to start fulfillment...which we expect will be in a few weeks!

Add-ons & Shipping reminder

Please note that you have NOT yet been charged for shipping, OR any add-ons you placed through Backer-kit! The Kickstarter charges covered your selected Kickstarter reward tier, and any add-on items you added though KICKSTARTER. This means that you will still have to pay the shipping cost through BackerKit separately, as well as any add-ons that were selected through BackerKit when we begin shipping.  We will not be charging your cards for shipping UNTIL we have everything and are ready to ship, which should be in early November, and will be done in batches. Please also note that the shipping prices quoted on BackerKit were only estimates. Shipping costs change daily, sometimes while they should still be pretty close, they may not be exactly what was quoted.  

YouTube Live showing the official Children of Ostara Tarot black and gold editions! 

For those who follow me on Instagram, you may remember me saying that I was going to be doing a live unboxing of the official cards I received ahead of schedule from the manufacturer. Well, Instagram has been giving me issues lately, so I did the unboxing on YouTube! If you missed it, fear not, it was saved so you can watch it at your convenience. My internet got cut off, so I had to make it into two parts…And please ignore the part in the beginning where I figure out how YouTube works lol!

You can watch it here:

You can also listen to the first two episodes of my new podcast In The Cards (Tarot Talk & Magickal Musings)! If you are interested in enjoying the next installment of my podcast a full month early, or other cool and exclusive Xia Hunt sneak peeks and exclusive content, feel free to check out my Patron too! 

Here is the link for that: patreon.com/Xiahunt

Thank you!!

So I think that is all! Thank you so much for your ongoing support and patience! I will be traveling abroad on vacation for my anniversary from OCT 24th to Nov 2nd, so I might be a tad slow on the communication front, but please feel free to contact me with any questions! 

Sending you all love and light,

-Xia

The Cards are being shipped to me at last! Last call for add-ons!
about 1 month ago – Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 11:12:46 AM

Hello everyone! I am so sorry for the lack of updates, it seems life just won’t let me catch a break! I do have some good news for all of you, however! 

The cards are done! 

The cards are done, and I just made the final payment to the manufacturer yesterday! This means that they are going to ship them out to me very soon, (along with the pouches and mats) and as soon as I have them, I will be shipping them out to you!

Last call to add stuff through the backerkit pre-order store!

My plan is to lock down all the backerkit orders at the end of the month, so make sure everything is to your liking by then! 

 Last min new mat designs! 

So, I have some new divination mat designs available on backerkit! I sent this update via my site’s newsletter on OCT 1st and then just realized this morning I forgot to make it a kickstarter update as well…So sorry about that!!

 Anyway, these mats are all the same size and price as the Ostara mat, so take a look! Please note, these will also be available on my site after this whole process is done! So There isn’t too much of a rush on this, unless you want one of these designs instead of a mat you already selected! 

So that is all for now! I am going to be contacting my craftsperson soon and looking into the progress in the wooden boxes, but everything else is paid for in full and either with me, or on its way to me. Hopefully we can still ship out in novemeber and finish before Yuletide…But we shall just have to see! In my experience, trying to time these things is where my trouble starts lol

Thank you all again so much for your time, faith, support, and patience! I deeply appreciate it! Wishing good luck, light, snd love, to all of you! 

More delays...But some good has come of it!
3 months ago – Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 02:57:04 PM

Hello again!

First, thank you all so much for your continued support and patience! We have hit a few bumps in the road, but please rest assured that I am still hard at work and doing all I can to get things moving as fast as possible in the right direction.  

A few road bumps...What does that mean???

So, straight to the point. These bumps mean...

Color corrections to cards

First, I got some card samples back from the manufacturer, and the artwork was too dark, and often too grey or yellow-leaning. See, the different card finishes change the color and brightness of the artwork slightly (usually making them darker and less saturated; the effect seems most egregious to the integrity of the blue hues). I knew this from experience, but my initial corrections were not extreme enough to compensate to my satisfaction. 

This means I had to go through each and every card, compare the physical sample to the digital image, and adjust the brightness and colors accordingly. That's fine; it was not hard, but it was time-consuming. It is actually kind of funny that I even got this opportunity to check; usually, my manufacturers deny me physical samples before mass production. However, I have been working with my contact for over 5 years now, and she knows how nit-picky and protective I am about my art! She must have known it would not pass my inspection, and so she saved us all a bunch of trouble by sending those! I am really grateful to her and glad that this was caught when it was, all things considered. 

My manufacturers were also keen-eyed enough to notice that the CMKY code for the black background on the litha cards did not match the CMYK code on the black background of the Ostara cards. They know the two decks are supposed to be an interchangeable set, and so while I do not think anyone would really be able to tell the two different blacks apart when printed...I am not about to take the risk! They have been updated, and all should be well on that front now. 

Regardless, these changes did set us back. 

Book errors

Yep. True to type, we found typos in the book that needed to be corrected. I have read and re-read (and had others read and re-read) this thing top to bottom multiple times, and I bet you will still find typos in the final result. What can I say--to err is human, right? Anyway! I trust that I have now caught the worst of them so...futile as it may be...here is hoping all of the mistakes in the book were caught and corrected!

Communication errors

This mercury retrograde has been particularly hard for me. Might it be because it happens to be occurring in Leo--where my natal mercury is? Possibly. Anyway, I thought my manufacturer had the files for the box art and the book cover art already...but alas, they did not. So now they have them, and surprise! More CMYK-related problems. Again, we fixed them, but it was a whole thing. 

So that is that with that! All the other rewards have been made and sent to me, with the exception of the wooden altar boxes, which are still in progress. But we knew those would take a while as they are all handmade by one man! They will be worth it. Good things come to those who wait and all that!

Keep in touch!

Just so you guys know, I am doing live Tarot Talks on Instagram (@xiahunt) every Wednesday morning at 9:30PT! During this time, I draw cards from a deck requested by the chat and go over them in depth! I also go over any news or updates I have to share, and frequently reveal teasers for upcoming projects...So please be sure to check me out there and come say hi!

Once again, thank you all so so much for your support and patience! I could never do any of this without you!

Progress report for The Children of Ostara!
4 months ago – Thu, Aug 01, 2024 at 03:25:38 PM

Hello and happy August! 

August is my birth month; it is only the 1st, and already, it has whipped the floor with me! My deepest apologies for the delay in updates. As a general life update, today I leave on a road trip to Eugene Oregon, where I will be attending their Pagan Pride festival as a vendor and leading a workshop on the astrological correspondences of tarot. If you happen to be in the area, please consider stopping by and saying hello!! 

Where are we at with The Children of Ostara?

Good news! After unpacking literally boxes of manufacturing drama, all the coins, pins,  and keychains look beautiful and are safe with me. Well...Almost all of them. 

Coins

The long and short of this story is that the manufacturer sent me the wrong, clearly-not-copper finish and tried to tell me it was copper, and that actually my eyes are wrong, I guess? I was sooooo not about to take that lying down. Well, eventually, we worked it out. I spoke with a manager and sent photos of the copper coins they had made me in the past next to this new thing that was distinctly not copper colored, and anyone with eyes could see that was the case, so now the new batch of correctly colored coins are on the way. I still have the gold and silver ones, and they look great! So when you look at these photos...well, now you know why the new coins are not yet represented in copper. 

Pins

We have them, and they look awesome! 

Keychains 

We have them all, and they all meet my standard of approval. Now you can have a complete set of lucky sigils to take with you wherever you go! Don't they look cute all lined up like that?

Sadly, my sister took my Love Sigil Keychain and the rest are at the warehouse...oops! But below is a link to an Instagram live where I show all the sigil keychains and pins up close, if you want to check that out. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9K90XfSUJ2/

Pouches

My manufacturer still has to send me samples of all their green velvet so I can pick the best one, but after that is done, making this item will be very fast.

Altar wheels

We have them all, and I am SO pleased with them. Those of you who have been watching my weekly Instagram live readings and tarot card info-dumps every Wednesday morning at 9:30 PT (AKA: Taort Talk with Xia Hunt, @xiahunt ) have already seen this beauty in action. I love referring to the decan wheel when I talk about the cards. 

Altar Boxes

So! I have just spoken to my craftsman this morning, and he says he is on track to have the smaller 1-deck apothecary boxes done in time to ship out by mid-September to early October...which is my shipping goal as well. So that is good. The larger 2-deck altar boxes are taking longer, naturally. He thinks he should be able to finish before Christmas...for tax purposes, I sure hope so! 

Mats 

This is a fun one--my manufacturer told me the min order quantity was 1,000 mats. Well, that is WAY too many Ostara mats. So I asked if I could have 4 different designs made in the same size at a quantity of 250 each. She said yes, and I am VERY pleased with this. This also means you get new mat design options! They will all be 22X22 inches, double-sidded. One of them is just a larger Litha mat (those were only made in 18X18 before, so now Litha mats come in two sizes) but the other two are brand new! Have a look at the new lineup!  

This is the new Xian Evil Eye Divination mat! 22x22 inches, with a colored version on the front and a black and white one on the back...because I could not decide which I liked better LOL

Too bad this wasn't in time for pride month, huh? Anyway! This is another version of my zodiac mat, this time with a bold rainbow front, and a simple black and white back. I also added the decans and the sabbats to this one. 

I don't think I can add the new mat designs to the backer-kit preoder store at this stage, so I might just have to add them to my shop once we get them. I will look into that and keep you posted!

The cards!

We had issues formatting the cards at first, but in the end, we were able to figure it out. The book and cards are all done, formatted, color-corrected, and being printed by the manufacturer. I expect they will only take about 20 or so days to make and maybe 1-2 weeks to ship to me...So we should be able to meet our shipping date of mid-September to early October, Just before the holiday rush!

Want more frequent Xia Hunt tarot-related info and updates?

If you are interested in seeing The Children of Ostara cards in action, learning more about tarot in general, seeing sneak previews of my upcoming projects, or just wanting general updates regarding Xia Hunt related Stuff... then listen up, this is for you! 

I do live tarot-talk sessions every Wednesday morning at 9:30 PT on Instagram (@xiahunt), where I pull a few cards from the deck and discuss their meaning both academically and as a reading. I pretty much always start the tarot talk with general updates and announcements, including Kickstarter-related stuff. I also ask the chat which of my decks they want to see me use for the live, and of the 4 times I have done this, 3 of them have been using The Children of Ostara's test deck. So please stop by and say hello if that is something you might be interested in!

So that's that with that! Thank you all so much for your time, patience, and support. I deeply appreciate it. I feel I have been very behind and overwhelmed lately, but I am trying my absolute best to deliver something well worth waiting for!