#pin making | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

piebaldpins · 1 year

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New pins are in! 😭 I love them all! I’ve gotta grade and then ship out preorders but I’m hoping to have extras in my shop before the end of the month!

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ultrainfinitepit · 7 days

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When you first started making pins, how did you advertise them? And vs now? I really want to get into making some of my own :]

That's a great question! There's lots of ways to advertise and I'll share what worked for me. But your mileage may vary or you might find ways that work better for you than they did for me.

Here are my first angel pins, by the way, it's been four years since I first started if you can believe it.

Here's what I did at the beginning that I still do now:

Build your following on social media and post about your pins. This is probably the most important thing to do, but also the hardest. Focus on a small number of social media profiles that you can manage comfortably, don't stretch yourself too thin as it is important to engage with your audience to build it. Each site has their own quirks as well. I can go into detail on my favorites and what I've observed for each if anyone is curious, just send a follow-up ask.

Run crowdfunding campaigns to fund your pins and then advertise to backers. Specifically start on Kickstarter if you are a beginner. While I am loving Backerkit it is a lesser-known site and it's harder to get discovered on it. I have gotten comments from artists who worry that they need to be popular before doing crowdfunding. However in my case it was my first campaign that built my audience the most. And in my opinion, it is never a waste of time to try out a campaign. If it fails you still have the artwork ready, you can gauge interest and see which designs are popular, and you will have a starter pool of people interested in your art that you can build off of.

Create a merch newsletter and share monthly updates. Since it is independent of social media it is a lower barrier to entry for customers interested in your art; and doesn't require them to check social media and happen to catch your posts. It takes some time to build a list but you can be assured everyone who signs up is invested in your merch.

There's quite a few things I did at the beginning to get started pin making and then advertise, that I don't do now. Mainly it is an issue of time. I used to spend hours and hours running around on all these sites, as well as reading over posts for research. Nowadays, social media and shop following are enough for me. But I would recommend the following for anyone looking to start out in pin making.

Things I used to do that I would recommend, but don't do much of now:

Join PMR on Facebook and post in their weekly share thread. "Pin Maker Resource" is the best place for beginner pin makers. It is a huge group of dedicated pin makers, all eager to answer questions and provide valuable insights into pin making. Most of all, it has those manufacturer reviews and names that everyone is always asking for! I have personally posted many reviews to this group. It is open for applications once a month. You have to apply because they specifically prohibit pin manufacturers from joining so people can post their reviews freely.

Post in Facebook groups. These communities can be large so your post may get lost in the crowd, but it will be seen by people specifically looking for pins. I like "Pin & Art Collector Marketplace" and "Pin Nation." "Enamel Pin Collectors, Artists, Trades and Kickstarters!" is decent but smaller.

Join a pin Discord server and share your designs in promotion channels. Many pin collectors such as myself join these servers to look for pins to buy. We are also in multiple servers and will crosspost if we like something. I have found these servers mainly by joining pin creators' Patreon clubs.

Post on Reddit. The communities are small but a guaranteed place to find people interested in pins. I like r/EnamelPins and r/pinprojects. If your pins are for a specific audience, you can post to relevant subreddits. For example, I have shared my work on angel art subreddits.

That's just about everything I can recall. I hope this is helpful, good luck on your pin journey!

#ask #pin making

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veganbread1 · 4 months

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MORE PINS SINCE I MADE A BUNCH LAST NIGHT AND THIS AFTERNOON (+ Dom pin WIP :33)

#HIS HORNS AND HOODIE OR WHATEVER IT IS ARE SO HARD TO DRAW #pin making #phighting #vine staff phighting #subspace phighting #medkit phighting #ghostwalker phighting #shuriken phighting #valk phighting #phighting dom #cthulhu art

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rainestormy-nights · 3 months

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I thought I'd post this little toki pona pin I made. The classic "kijetesantakalu tonsi li lanpan e soko anu seme?" But I couldn't fit tonsi so it's just a kijetesantakalu lanpan-ing the soko. Surrounded by toki pona

#cardinal rambles #toki pona #my art #crafts #pin making

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your-stranger-halfblood-things · 5 months

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Jonathan teaches Will how to make pins from random household items, and now they make pins for their friends

#pins as in pin buttons #i make them out of a metal bottle cap and a can tab and a safety pin #its a really cool way to make pins #and then you just paint it and boom you have a homemade pin #punk subculture #punk #pin making #stranger things #will byers #jonathan byers #byers siblings

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little-blurry-stars5 · 3 months

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i love my mom.

i was making pins to put on my jacket/backpack, and one of them said "kill all rapists" on it. white backround. black text. that was all it said. it was a big pin too.

all she said when she saw it was, "i dont know if the school will allow the word 'kill'."

i said, "it will."

she said, "oh, alright then."

i love my mom.

#she was only worried about me getting reprimanded #not anything else #i love my mom #shes the best #kill all rapists #pins #pin making

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gargoyle-doyle · 8 months

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Some of the brooches I’ve made for my dark wizard cloak. It’s mostly stars and gremlin heads but I’ve been experimenting with hearts, crucifixes, moons and Darren Shan related pins

These are a few of the Darren Shan ones unfinished. I don’t think they’ll all become brooches, I might just blutac some to my wall for decoration:-3

#brooch #fae #darren shan #cirque du freak #pin making #: 3

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borianag · 10 months

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Decoupaged handmade air-dry clay pins - vampire mouth badge

View On WordPress

#air-dry clay #badge making #clay crafts #clay pins #Crafts #decoupage #design transfer technique #goth pin #goth pins #handmade pins #horror pins #how to make #how to make pins #maker #pin making #pins and badges #vampire lips #weird pins #whimsigoth

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fiatluxillustration-portfolio · 8 months

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thinking about doing the Naboo arch as a jumbo pin… sketch + linework has been completed for a while now

[x]

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drawyourheart · 7 months

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pin progress! using @coveredinredpaint 's tutorial for diy pins (link) and finished my first pin design! used too much mod podge to seal the pins, but eh. theyre sealed now! my sun pin came out good ^_^ so happy!!

#posted to wrong blog gonna kms #pin making

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ginnymakespins · 2 months

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a hoop sent in by one of our customers! they look lovely, thank you for your support and the kind words!

(DISCLAIMER: this blog is a school assignment where i have to pretend to be a business. the actual pin makers are tealteacup and madebynuwa)

#pin #pins #anime pins #anime #pin making #pin collector #pin collection #enamel pins #enamel pin #artists on tumblr

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lucaparkk · 5 months

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#diy punk #folk punk #punk #punk diy #diy #pop punk #punx #queer punk #baby punk #puppy punk #pin making #pins #buttons #button making #tfb #the front bottoms

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ultrainfinitepit · 10 months

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hi! i hope you dont mind me asking a question about the pin manufacturing process as i know you are not personally involved in the actual physical production of your pins, but i was wondering if you knew why rainbow plated pins are always (or at the very least near always) soft enamel? is there something in the iodizing process that renders them incompatible with the way hard enamel is put in the pin frame? what makes epoxy different that allows it to be used? no worries at all if you can't answer, i was just curious :]

Hi there Anon, no worries, I love talking about pin stuff and I'd be happy to explain.

Pin manufacturing basically has two major components: enamel fill and metal plating. The order in which these take place is different depending on the type of enamel: hard or soft.

All pins start out as metal "pin blanks" or "embryos", without enamel or plating.

In hard enamel pins, the pins are overfilled with enamel and then polished down to a smooth surface. Below is an example of an in-progress hard enamel pin, notice how the enamel is spilling over in some places. After the enamel is polished the pin is plated, only certain plating options are available that would not affect the enamel.

In soft enamel pins, the plating comes first and then the enamel fill. Soft enamel pins are never polished so more plating options are available, such as anodized and dyed metal. Dyed metal is actually just paint that is sprayed onto the metal pin blanks: so you can imagine it would come off if the pin was polished, and could not be applied after the enamel is filled in.

The tradeoff is, because the enamel is never polished, soft enamel pins do not have a smooth surface. In the below image, the first two pins are hard enamel, and the third pin is soft enamel with rainbow (anodized) plating.

I prefer a smooth finish on my pins, I think it makes them feel more high quality. So what is a pin maker to do? Well after the enamel and plating is done, we can add a layer of epoxy over the surface of the soft enamel pin to give it that smooth finish.

In the below image, the gray pin is hard enamel and the indigo pin is soft enamel with epoxy.

So basically: hard enamel pins get enamel, polishing, then plating. While soft enamel pins get plating, enamel, and then optionally epoxy.

One last important difference I'll mention is cost, for anyone who is looking into making pins. Hard enamel pins are more expensive to make because of the polishing step. Soft enamel pins without epoxy are cheaper, but if you add epoxy the cost can be about the same as hard enamel because of the additional work needed.

Anodized plating can easily triple the cost of a pin because the materials are expensive, and they have a higher plating flaw rate, requiring the factory to make extras.

If you let me I'll easily continue talking about pin manufacturing, but I'll stop here for now ahahaha - hope that answers your question Anon!

For more details and videos, you can find a great article by WizardPins.

#pin manufacturing #pin making #ask

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veganbread1 · 1 month

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