by gentlemanbeggar

Placing Custom Artwork On Trading Pins

Trading pins are as diverse as the people who collect them. Pins are created for professional sports teams, the military, fire and police units, service organizations and politicians. A great number of suppliers create custom pins. These can be quite elaborate, limited only by the creativity of those who design them. While many collectors admire the unique designs on trading pins, many may not be aware of the process for making them.

Everything begins with a great piece of custom artwork. It is important to remember that a quality design leads to a quality trading pin. Once the design is given to the manufacturer the job then becomes one of transferring the artwork to the pin. There are a few methods for accomplishing this, and choosing a method for placing custom artwork is largely influenced by the quality that is desired for the finished product.

EMBOSSED PINS

The classic trading pin that most people are familiar with is die struck, a process that produces a clean and detailed pin. With this method, a die (pattern or mold) is made which reflects the custom design. This die is then stamped or struck into a metal, most commonly iron. This process creates small recesses or cavities in the metal which are then filled with a liquid enamel of the appropriate color.

The enamel must be allowed to air dry before the next part of the process begins. After drying, an epoxy is applied to the surface of the pin in a very thin layer. Adding the epoxy layer makes the pin smooth to the touch, removing the recesses made by the die. Trading pins made in this manner tend to average a thickness of 1.2mm.

This method has been used for many years and typically produces a very clean reproduction of the custom artwork provided for the pin. If a classic look is the intention, a die struck pin is hard to beat.

PRINTED PINS

It is becoming more common to transfer a printed version of a custom design to a trading pin. In many cases, this process can be more cost-effective and the quality of these types of pins will continue to improve with advances in printing technology.

The current standard makes use of a four-color printing process. The custom design is digitally transferred to an adhesive label. These labels are then attached to a pre-cut metal backing. Just as with an embossed pin, printed pins receive a thin layer of epoxy which will help to prevent fading or scratching. The end result is a pin which has an average thickness of 0.8mm.

This type of custom design seems ideally suited to larger pins measuring almost two inches or greater because it is easier to preserve the features of the design.

VARIATIONS OF CUSTOM PIN CREATION

Those who wish to commission a custom trading pin for their organization will find that these two methods are most often used. Some manufacturers, however, have developed variations of these two methods in order to mass produce a greater number of pins. Some of these variations work very well while others often result in inferior quality. It pays to ask the manufacturer which method they use to create the pins, and it is always a good idea to request a look at some samples of recent work. If possible, one should try to take along a favorite pin for comparison. This will allow the buyer to note subtle differences in the quality of the pins and help them decide which method will be satisfactory.

Disney Trading Pins – Hidden Mickey Collection

by neoliminal under CC BY  with wpseopix.com

Mickey Pin

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Hidden Mickey Disney Pins have become very popular with pin collectors, since their introduction in 2006. These pins originally started out as part of the WDW Cast Lanyard Collection that quickly gained momentum and interest among Disney fans. Eventually the WDW Cast Lanyard Collection was renamed the Hidden Mickey Collection.

Disney trading pins have been very popular with Disney collectors for many years. In 2002, Disney started releasing the WDW Cast Lanyard Collection which consisted of pins that featured Disney attractions, characters, and more Disney icons on them.

The original release of the first set of pins was to encourage pin trading within the Disney community. After the huge success of the first released set, Disney decided to release a set of new pins every year.

After having two successful releases, the designers at Disney decided to put a new twist on the pins by adding a special Disney touch to them. They started placing silhouettes of Mickey Mouse on the third set of pins in the WDW Cast Lanyard Collection. Not only were the Hidden Mickey Disney Pins a huge success, but they started to get more people into pin collecting.

There is a certain excitement when looking closely at a pin and finding the hidden silhouette or a shadow of Mickey Mouse somewhere within the pin. Sometimes the whole image of Mickey Mouse will appear on the pin, while other times it will be just a part of his body or the infamous Mickey Mouse ears and the only way to know is to look at the pins yourself.

Disney releases a collection of these great pins once a year – in a set of approximately 75 pins each. The rising popularity of these pins has had fans rushing to the Disney parks, Disney hotels, and scrambling online to find them. No matter where you get them or what pin you get at first, Hidden Mickey Disney Pins will make a great addition to any Disney collection you may have.

Juan Legaspi loves to trade Hidden Mickey Trading Pins and runs the website devoted to Disney trading pins called The Disney Pins Blog where he talks about Disney pin lots. —-

Article Source:  http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Juan_Legaspi

Hidden Mickey Pins For Sale

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