Onyrica

Update // Septem-bruh...

Added 2025-09-06 17:08:19 +0000 UTC

Given that I already alluded to the state of things in my post earlier this month, I’m going to follow that up with a quick sketch to save us all some time:

I really, really need to learn to stay in my lane and stop tempting fate.

To summarise what I’ll elaborate on throughout the update, there were a few major bumps in the road last month - starting with a disorienting upheaval to my ability to mail merchandise to the US courtesy of The Times We’re Living In ™, followed by some extremely disappointing developments in the process towards my upcoming surgery and lastly, injuring my drawing hand after I lost a fight against gravity and an inconveniently placed curb. In short, my foray into a “moment of zen” was pretty brief.

But not to dwell on the gloom of it all as, after all, it is September - widely regarded to be the best month. Not because you can finally justify your cottagecore antics by smothering your home in porcelain pumpkins, ruining your youtube timeline by playing 8-hour long fireplace videos or taking out a loan to pay for all the tea you won’t drink, but because on this month, approximately 245 years ago, I was hatched into this earth with the sole purpose of making art and causing chaos.

Not sure about the art part, but so far I’m nailing it with the chaos.

And because it is known that the universe owes one a break on their birthday, I’m going to move forward with a whole lot of unearned confidence and press on with the update. It’s a chunky one, so buckle up!

[ StarStickers ]

A limited batch of Illustrated rewards will be opening from Sept 8th to Sept 11th. Please note that Limited means that only a few types of rewards will be available this round (namely, simpler pieces such as busts and linearts).

Additionally, a few clarifications based on recent queries in the Discord:

Applications are priority based, meaning those who haven’t received a reward or who have been denied several times in a row will have higher priority than those who’ve already received one or more. The exception to this are patrons on the Ultimate Tier, who get auto-accepted as well as queue priority.
If you delete your pledge prior to booking a reward, you won’t be able to apply for any upcoming reward openings. Your points will remain frozen in your account for 3 months before being reset to 0.
If you book a reward and then delete your pledge, assuming the reward is accepted, it will still be completed though it will be bumped down to the bottom of the list to be completed after all the rewards from active pledges are done.

As always, feel free to DM, comment, or drop a note in #starstickers (Discord) with any questions—I’m always happy to help.

[ Merchandise ]

On the situation regarding UK/US mailing:

So last month I had the unpleasant and sudden news that mailing to the US had been halted due to an Executive Order. While thankfully the service was restored a few days later, it did resume with a few additional complications, mainly:

I now require the recipient’s email and phone number to be able to send them anything (only US patrons).
There are additional levies on top of shipping fees and applied tariffs. These vary depending on the weight and value of a parcel and will substantially increase the cost of mailing over time.

To tackle the first point, I’m working with my developers to add an extra field for phone numbers to the address form. However, while that’s in the works, if you’ve booked or plan to book anything in the next few days please include your phone number in the following field of your regular account page:

Regarding the second point, that’s a slightly more challenging one. So far I’ve gladly shouldered shipping costs as a way to preserve the “reward” nature of merch, but over the last year or so this cost has pretty much doubled. To put it in perspective, sending 10 parcels in 2023 would’ve cost me approximately £100 ($135) whereas now it costs me short of £200 ($270).

While I don’t have a solution for this yet, and I refuse to tack on shipping fees to the point cost of merch, the one thing I’d kindly ask you when shopping for prints is to bundle them up in as few orders as possible. To give an example of what I mean: quite often I will ship a parcel and a day or so later that person will go and purchase an additional batch. Although it’s an absolute honor to know they want my prints in their home - this unfortunately does mean doubling up an avoidable cost if those prints had been booked together.

I wholly appreciate that a part of this issue is caused by my non-existent shipping schedule so to that end, I will endeavour to be more organised and create a monthly shipping rota that people can rely on to time their purchases. More details on that to follow soon.

New prints added in A4 and A3 sizes:

A5 Prints to be phased out in November:

This is something I already did for my convention appearances a while back and held back on StarStickers on the basis of wanting to offer more product diversity. That being said, A5’s are, on one hand, a low-demand product and on the other, quite wasteful to produce for various reasons.

So with that in mind, if you’re looking to acquire any A5 prints please do so before they go away at the end of November!

[ Patreon ]

The current available slots on limited tiers are:

Extreme Tier: 1 slot
This tier entitles you to 50 points a month on StarStickers.
Mentor Tier: 1 slot
This tier entitles you to a private 1-to-1 art session every month to help you in your art journey. For more info check here. Additionally, you also get 20 points a month on StarStickers to spend on rewards such as custom illustrations, prints and other merch. This tier is limited to 12 spots.

As September is my birthday month I’m also throwing in some perky bonuses:

New members will get a 20 point bonus for joining during September.
All friend referrals this month will be doubled up. What this means is, if you bring a friend over you’ll both get double the points for the tier that they sign up to (ie, they join on the 5$ tier = you’ll both get 10 additional points)
And not to neglect my current patrons: everyone who’s subbed by October 1st will get an additional 10 points added to their account.

T’is the season of giving! I guess there’s a reason why my middle name is a reference to St. Nicholas.

[ Other ]

As I mentioned last month I will be showing, once again, at MCM London in October! I am 50/50 on the hype/panic scale with this one, as there is so much going on that I have no idea how or when I’m going to prepare for it but either way, if you’re going to turn up make sure you come find me in whatever remote corner of Artist Alley I land in so I can give you a squeeze (or, if contact averse, a bookmark or something).

[ And finally… The State of Things ]

So… and please insert a heavy sigh as I start this sentence, the situation with my upcoming surgery isn’t going well.

For those who missed the February update: I had mapped out a whole two-year roadmap around orthognathic surgery, based on repeated assurances from clinicians that I was firmly on track. That was the foundation for a lot of choices I made here—including how rewards and points would phase out.

Fast forward to now, and those assurances have crumbled. I’ve been told the NHS timeline is essentially a mirage, and if I want this surgery before I hit middle age, I may need to go private—at a cost of £20–30k.

It’s hard to describe how devastating this feels. I banked on the system, and it’s let me down in ways that I can’t begin to wrap my head around.

Now, to the important bit:

What does that mean for you?

The roadmap I set out in February will need to change. The December 2025 cutoff for point allocation will almost certainly be extended while I reassess.
I’ll have more concrete info in the next month or two once I know what’s possible.

In the meantime, this is where I have to be honest: your support matters more than ever. Not just because of the financial reality (which... yes, it's big and imminent) , but because this community has carried me through more setbacks than I can count.

I know my pace hasn’t always been what people hoped for. I know I’m juggling too much and often falling short. But I am still here, fighting every day, still committed even if some days the sheer thought of crawling out of bed feels like too much. Your support plus my tenacity are the things that keep me going and I am ever so grateful for it.

So, to be bold, here are some things that I’d like to ask of you:

If you have a concern that makes you think about leaving, bring it to me first. I’ll always do my best to give clarity and find solutions.
With 300 of you and just one of me, I can’t always catch everything—so if I’ve missed or postponed something, please reach out first.
If your situation changes but you’d still like to stay, remember you can always lower your tier rather than step away completely.
And if you do decide to move on, a quick DM or note in the exit survey helps me understand what’s working and what needs improving.

Whether you stay, lower, or leave, I’m grateful you’ve been here. If you stick around, know that I don’t take it for granted for a second.

[ In Closing ]

I think the section above pretty much summed up most of what I’d say in in this portion. Things are tough- and I know it’s not just me. We’re all dealing with our own individual issues, which - for some of us - seem to get larger by the day.

I’m a firm believer that things can and will get better. But it takes a lot of patience, resilience and community to get there.

For me - as someone who doesn’t have much of a support network, or who doesn’t get to touch grass as often as she’d like - the community aspect has come from our little Discord server. A group of eclectic creatures hellbent on supporting and teaching each other how to deal with life.

The “it takes a village” mantra takes on a new meaning when it’s a bunch of people from different countries walking you through life and I’m ever so grateful that I managed to be at the helm (and occasionally, heel) of that.

So a big shoutout to all of you in the server. And to those of you out of it - well, I guess you’re just missing out on all these beautiful people, ain’t cha?

Either way, before someone comes to take the mic away from me, here are some quick links: