Custom
Soft Enamel Pins
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Color below the metal
A soft enamel pin carries color below raised lines of metal. Each filled area sits in a slight dip you can feel with a fingertip. Light catches the metal, so the outlines stay clear and the color stays bright. People picture this pin on a jean jacket, worn by someone who wants a group or a favorite thing seen. Soft enamel lapel pins keep that classic face because the metal draws every shape and the color stays inside it.
Restaurant chains and companies order soft enamel pins for staff who wear them through a shift. Schools request pins for their students, while youth groups and clubs order them for members. Leagues order pins for trading, and trading pins are usually soft enamel. Artists and gamers sell pins of their characters and their art to fans. Healthcare and safety teams wear a slogan where the people around them can see it each shift.
How a soft enamel pin is made
Every soft enamel pin begins with a die that carries the design. The die strikes the metal and stamps the artwork in as raised lines, with recessed areas between them. Color is filled into the low areas between the lines. The colors are chosen for those areas, and the plating is chosen for the metal around them.
The finished pin can be any custom shape.
Colors and finishes
Up to seven colors come included in a soft enamel pin. Options beyond those colors are upgrades on top of the pin, and upgrades can add production time. Glitter color can sit where the artwork should sparkle, and glow-in-the-dark color is there for a pin that has to show after the lights go down. Translucent color over textured metal lets the pattern in the metal show through the fill, and a clear epoxy dome can be added over the face if someone wants that surface smooth.
Gold, silver and copper are the classic platings for the lines. Black nickel and black metal make those lines dark and bold, the way ink outlines a comic drawing.
Soft enamel vs cloisonné
Choosing a soft enamel pin or a cloisonné pin comes down to where the color sits against the metal. A cloisonné pin fills the color to the top of the metal lines and polishes the face flat and glossy. A soft enamel pin keeps those lines standing above the color, so the face has texture. Both start as die struck metal, and die struck pins carry only the shape of the metal.
Offset printed pins and silk screen pins print the design on the surface. A printed face can hold a photograph or a gradient, and it can hold colors that touch. A cartoon character with clear, separate areas of color sits well in soft enamel. A logo or a line of lettering does too.
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Crew
pins
Restaurant and store staff wear one pin every shift. Soft enamel is what gives them bold outlines that read at a glance.
Season
pins
Members of a league or a club can collect a new pin season after season. Each soft enamel design stays bright enough to join the ones they already wear.
Student
leader pins
At an induction, a school gives each student leader a soft enamel pin that marks the role. The student wears it to the meetings that follow, and younger students see who was trusted with the job.
Ready to create your Lapel Pins?
We've got answers
A few questions come up about soft enamel pins.
Soft enamel pins are metal pins with color set below raised lines that outline each area. Each area of color sits a little lower than the metal, which a fingertip can feel.
The difference is the level where the color stops against the metal lines. On a cloisonné pin, color is filled even with the lines and the face is polished smooth. Soft enamel keeps the metal higher than the color, so the edge of each area can be felt.
The process begins with a die that stamps the design into the metal as raised lines and sunken areas. Color goes into the sunken areas and stays under the lines. Plating sets the color of the metal that frames each area.
A soft enamel pin can have up to seven included colors. Glitter color and glow-in-the-dark color are options when the design needs them. Translucent color is an option too, laid over textured metal so some of that texture stays visible.
You need 100 pins to meet the minimum order for custom soft enamel pins.
Production takes 3½-4 weeks from proof approval, often sooner, plus a few days in transit. Shipping is free to US addresses.