Making Enamel Pins

I receive a lot of requests for "custom enamel pins" of dogs and cats.
If you have read my FAQ, creating custom pins isn't a service that I offer because most of my customers are expecting to purchase one or two pins anyway, not the required minimum of a hundred pins by my manufacturer.

I hope this blog post provides an interesting peek into the process!

Designing pins
These days I draw on my iPad Pro using Adobe Fresco to create clean vector art.  My goal is always to create pins that express a feeling, are simple and eye-catching, and most importantly, the kind of pin that I would wear myself either on my jacket or on my bag.

The very first pin I made was of my Boston Terrier, Boogie. 

 

Silver-plated, 2 colors, soft enamel, 1 inch wide

There were 3 Sleeping Boogie pins. Over the years, I made many more Boogie pins: Ukelele Boogie, Pachuco Boogie, Boogie Beat, Boogie in Space, Roller Boogie... 

Most of my Boogie pins sold out after 1 or 2 runs, and were not remade. (Boogie passed away in 2020)

Pachuco Boogie (silver-plated, soft enamel, 4 colors, with chain)
Boogie Beat set  (black nickel-plated, 4 colors, soft enamel)

Through the process of designing pins and getting a range of production quotes, I learned about design elements that affect the costs of production. Here are some of them. 

• the size of the pin. The larger the pin, the more it costs.
• the number of colors. More colors = more expensive 
• soft enamel or hard enamel/cloissoné finish. Hard enamel is more expensive.
• additional off-set printed colors, special finishes like glitter, etc. cost more
• choice of metal plating: silver, gold, black nickel, etc. Some metals cost more.
• the back of the pin: name stamps, number of clutches, type of clutches etc.  I use rubber clutches because they are less likely to malfunction. 
  
• cut-outs in the metal (holes, finnicky inside contours etc.) cost more 

Examples of the difference between soft enamel and hard enamel finishes. Soft enamel pins have textured metal outlines and recessed areas for the color. Hard enamel pins have a smooth finish. Colors can be printed on.
 Left:  Roller Boogie. Soft enamel, lots of cut outs, 5 colors. 
Right: Kitty Pins. Hard enamel, finish, 3-4 colors. 

Aesthetically, I personally prefer a more minimalist style, with as few colors as possible.

The pins in my shop right now - e.g., my dog pins - are gold-plated with a hard enamel finish; maximum three colors (black, white, pink). No other colors.

I often receive very specific requests for colors. For example, a Chocolate Lab or a Blenheim (red and white) Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I tell people that my dog pins don't use realistic colors. This is intentional.  

Working with a manufacturer
I have been working with the same manufacturer in Kunshan, China, for almost a decade. I haven't experimented with different pin companies so I am not really qualified to tell you what to look for in a pin making company, who is good, what is a fair price, etc. Could I be getting a better deal elsewhere? I have no idea. :)

After submitting my vector designs to my manufacturer, they send me:

• Digital proofs to check and approve. 95% of the time these proofs are identical to what I sent them. Sometimes, I call for tweaks or realize that I need to fix some aspect of my design. 
• An invoice with three costs: 
  • the mold. $70-$100 on average. The cost depends on the design complexity.  This is a one-time cost every two years. 
  • the cost per pin. $1-$3 per pin on average. MOQ 100 pins.
  • the shipping cost from China to the USA. I tend to order several designs in bulk (500+ pins at a time) so this ends up being a hefty price. 

I pay upfront, and I receive the pins in about 3 weeks. 

Why China?
There are no factories that make enamel pins in the USA. All the pin-making expertise and infrastructure is in China. If you find yourself ordering pins from a US supplier, they are acting as an intermediary. The pins you ordered are still getting made in and shipped from China with the US supplier taking a percentage.

Total cost per new pin design
Speaking very generally, each new pin design costs me around $200 - $300 to produce, factoring in the mold cost, MOQ of 100 units, shipping, and backing cards which I get printed locally. This total does not include my time and labor designing the pin and manually attaching every pin to its backing card prior to shipping. 

In essence, every new pin I have made to sell (as with any new product) is a gamble that I take as a small business.  

I hope that people love the new pin and will spread the word, so that I can make back my production costs. 

Packing a wholesale order of pins 

My newest pins!
My Mahjong Dogs and Mahjong Cats pins are the most expensive pins I have ever had made! In short, I made a major mistake with the first production run of this design, and had to go back to the drawing board and spend a small fortune. (It's a long story and I won't go into it here).  

I am so happy with how these pins turned out and am thrilled to have these in my shop.

3 Lucky Dogs shows 3 dogs (the middle one is Bimo) on top of 8 dot, 80K, and 8 Bamboo mahjong tiles because 888 is lucky.
This pin is dedicated to my mahjong-obsessed dog-trainer friend, Kiem Sie. 

These two pins measure 5cm wide, have a gold-plated hard enamel finish, with additional off-set printed colors on the tiles so that these colors pop. 

Click here to see/buy my Mahjong pins and other Mahjong-inspired art

Click here to see ALL my pins

 Also check out my Yokai pins