Strange Little Creatures

The strange little creatures of Jessica Peffer. Artist and co-creator of Flight Rising. Formerly @neondragonart http://strangelittlecreatures.com

[strangelittlecreatures]

I was cutting backing cards so that I can have a better self-serve display for Matsuricon. I just figured out that my isopod charm earrings can fit on the smaller backing cards. The smaller backing cards are much easier to display, so I’m pleased!

[strangelittlecreatures]

Any axolotl people out there? I have a few questions on color morphs & genotypes:

I’m working on an axolotl dragon Backerkit project for later this summer to create a small production run of hard enamel pins. I would like to use real axolotl color morphs in these little guys. Alongside each pin I wanted to include information about the real-life color morph below each dragon’s personality/character. Example:

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Pearl:

Pearl loves swimming just below the water’s surface each night so that she can gaze at the moon. She likes to imagine there might be axolotl dragons who live there in their own pond domains, gazing back at the earth with wonder.

Pearl is a leucisitic axolotl dragon. Leucisitic axolotls are pinkish white with dark eyes. This color morph is caused by a combination of a homozygous recessive dark genotype, homozygous recessive albino genotype, that lacks expressed melanoid, axanthic, copper, or GFP genotypes.

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I’m not sure that I’m phrasing things correctly. What would you say is an approachable way to phrase something like this so that I’m being accurate, but not plopping punnett squares all over the dragon description? I would like to have some fun facts about the color morphs so that there’s a bit of science to enjoy alongside the whimsy.

For color morphs, So far I have a golden albino, leucistic, lavender, and am probably going to make the laying pose be an axanthic. (Admittedly for the pins I did make the colors a bit more vibrant and candy colors than in real life, but they should still be somewhat in the same wheelhouse.) I’d love to draw up a couple more poses as stretch goals, and potentially use pied, melanoid, or copper colors for them.

Additional question: I’m a bit unclear on what exactly the combination is that produces a lavender. I’ve seen some that are described as melanoid axanthic copper. Is this the same thing as a lavender? Or is lavender an inaccurate term that’s being thrown around, and is not present in axolotls like it is in some of the snake morphs?

Any help is appreciated!

[strangelittlecreatures]

The finished designs and pencil sketch for the large "Dragon Tide" pin from my Elemental Myth enamel pin campaign this past February. Trying to keep the designs simplified enough that they could work with an enamel pin was a bit of a challenge!

I prefer sketching physically if I can, as it's a bit more comfortable for me.

I brought this drawing into Photoshop to ink it, and later drew the water shaping digitally so that I could more easily tweak it as I went.

[strangelittlecreatures]

Are you hoping to do any cons this year or has that window closed? Not super familiar with con dates but I would love to say hi if you end up going to any of the cons I'm planning to attend!

Yes, I will be attending a few conventions in the Columbus area this year. If you happen to be attending any of these, I’d love to say hi!

Animate! Columbus (June)

Matsuricon (September)

Galaxycon Columbus (December)

For right now all of my conventions are local because I do not yet have enough inventory or experience to justify the expense of travel and accommodations. I would like to try attending a couple non-Ohio conventions in 2027 if all goes well!

[strangelittlecreatures]

I realized that I never posted the finished designs for the Backer’s Choice stretch goals from my Elemental Myth Backerkit campaign that ran in February.

For the white and red design, I am using rose gold colored plating on the metal. I’ve never used this color before, so I’ll be excited to see how it turns out!

[strangelittlecreatures]

Here are the drawings for the Backer’s Choice collection for my enamel pin campaign on Backerkit. The top voted theme was Kitsune with Foxfire. I will be finishing the final artwork this weekend. As with the Wyvern Wind and Phoenix Fire collections, there will be two color variations for this set.

[strangelittlecreatures]

A few of the pin collections from my Pintopia Backerkit Campaign.

I decided to have the molds do double-duty and make some jewelry from them as well! I did this during the Isopod colony campaign and got pretty handy around a jump ring!

You can view the project here if enamel pins are your jam: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/strange-little-creatures/elemental-myth?ref=SLCTumblr

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The project has reached the needed goal to fund the pin production of the phoenix and wyvern collections, and the campaign will be running until February 12th.

We even reached the needed stretch goal targets to fund two additional pin collections beyond the wyvern and phoenix. These pin collections were backer’s choice, and the backers voted for Kitsune Blind (Kitsune + Foxfire Elements) and Dragon Tide (Eastern Dragon + Water Elements). I’ll be designing these collections and the artwork should be posted before the end of the campaign.

I’m glad that I did backer’s choice for my stretch goals. Left to my own devices, I would have gone with Unicorn Glade (Unicorn + Foliage elements) and Gryphon Rime (Gryphon + Ice elements) as the next two collections.

[strangelittlecreatures]

I'll be participating in Pintopia 2026 over on Backerkit! I'm creating enamel pins that feature mythological creatures with elemental theming! Pintopia starts on January 22nd, but if you want to follow my project now, there's a teaser page and launch party that will have updates as I create new designs: https://tinyurl.com/elementalmyth

[strangelittlecreatures]

Isopod Colony Early Fulfillment:

Everything except for the sticky notes have arrived, pins have been graded, items packaged, and early fulfillment has begun! 70 packages have gone out so far, and I will continue to ship out items as quickly as I can. It is super satisfying to package these little guys and send them to their new homes. Packing everything has been a very zen task that leaves me feeling happy and accomplished. I hope that everyone enjoys their isopod goodies, and thank you so much for supporting this project!

[strangelittlecreatures]

The Isopod Colony Backerkit campaign will be ending in a few days. A big thank you to everyone who was able to support the campaign and help fund the production of some spiffy isopod merch! This week we unlocked several new stretch goals; in addition to being able to produce the isopod leaf pins & jewelry, the star candy isopod pins & blind bags, we’ve unlocked a series of mini pins and a sticker sheet!

Here are a few of the unlocked mini pins. The backers have also unlocked four upcoming mini pin designs (with two unique shapes) that are currently having their designs finalized. These new designs will include a balled up sakura & orange clown isopod and a spiky pineapple & crystal pineapple isopod mini pin. These new pins will be added as options this weekend. The crystal pineapple mini pin will even feature a shimmery pearl enamel fill!

The mini pins range in size from 0.75”-1” (19 mm - 25 mm) along their longest side. They don’t have background design elements like the leaf and star candy designs do, so it’ll be like a bunch of little bean-shaped frens crawling over your bag or pin display!

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I’m so happy to see the campaign has been successful. I was unsure if we’d be able to reach our initial funding goal, let alone have enough to produce additional designs!

If you are interested in acquiring some isopod pins, jewelry, and stickers, the campaign will be running on Backerkit until Tuesday, September 9th at 3:20PM EDT.

[strangelittlecreatures]

The Isopod Colony Backerkit campaign is live! http://bit.ly/BK-IsopodColony

This campaign is for a collection of hard enamel pins and jewelry featuring isopods in two themes: earth tone leaves, and candy colored stars.

[strangelittlecreatures]

Isopod Pin Project Update

The start date on the Super League of Science backerkit collab changed. If you've been following my isopod enamel pin project, it is now launching on August 11th and ending September 9th.

(The collab provides additional visibility and cross collaboration opportunities with the other creators involved. However, my start date has been bouncing around because the collab's start date has changed to the 11th!)

[strangelittlecreatures]

I recently learned that Clip Studio Paint can save a timelapse of your process, so I thought I’d try making some short videos. I will admit that I’m still a creature of the early 2000’s, and prefer still images with long blog posts and giant, threaded conversations. But this was still fun to try out.

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My second star candy isopod pin design for an enamel pin blind bag collection. I plan on doing 3 more unique pin shapes with 1-2 variants each. Dairy Cow, Orange Dragon, Ember Bee, Gestroi, and Cuban Spikey are what I’m looking to design for next! https://bit.ly/BK-IsopodColony

Isopods (among other invertebrates and reptiles) are things I enjoy researching and imagining keeping. Alas, I know my daily creature maintenance plate is full with my cat, dog, and fish. It’s still fun to learn about.

Like, I don’t need to know all of the dominant, recessive, and co-dominant ball python genes… but the research rabbit hold beckons.

[strangelittlecreatures]

I’m working on a series designs for an Isopod enamel pin collection on Backerkit. (Prelaunch here: https://bit.ly/BK-IsopodColony)

I definitely want to continue the star bits series with some new designs. To get the most out of each mold, I’d like to do one color variant per design.

I have some personal favorite isopod morphs I’d like to make, but I’m also really curious if there are any specific species or color morphs people would be enthusiastic to see included?

[strangelittlecreatures]

I'm creating one of my first enamel pins as a test run for the process and working with a manufacturer.

For this design, I wanted to do two variants. I'm stuck on the night sky variant. It's going to be a larger 2.75" hard enamel pin with gold metal. I don't know if making the wings glitter enamel makes it more deluxe, or if the screen print details on the white enamel a better choice.

The glitter costs a bit more than the spot color, but not so much more where it's prohibitive. The question is more if the glitter adds to or detracts from the design! If you like one more than another, I'd love to know. I have no idea what to order. XD

For the other color variant (brown) I'm going to be doing all flat enamel and spot colors and black nickel metal. So there will be a non-glitter version either way.

[strangelittlecreatures]

Some isopod studies from reference. I wanted to get some practice in before attempting to make some isopod pins. Fun fact: Terrestrial isopods have 7 main scutes (plates) before their little butt plates start.

Col erase pencil and marker.

[strangelittlecreatures]

I applied to the Galaxycon Columbus 2025 artist alley and was accepted!

This will be my first time vending at a con since 2010. I used to sell at 5 to 8 conventions a year, and conventions were a big part of how I put myself through college. However, all of my signage, storage, displays, and product are no longer around and I will be starting from scratch.

The convention is in December. Time to make some trinkets!