Hence its name, a lapel pin is a small pin that is affixed to the lapel of a dress jacket. Lapel pins can be worn just for fashion’s sake, but most of the time, they represent a person’s affiliation to a certain organization (charity, sport, fraternity, etc.), political beliefs, or past travels (lapel pins are popular souvenirs for tourists). Lapel pins, much like coins or stamps, are collectible and some can be worth thousands of dollars. Before the advent of lapel pins, boutonnieres were the most popular decoration for dress jackets and business suits. As with lapel pins, certain flowers used in boutonnieres represent certain people or events, such as red poppies representing Remembrance Day. Lapel pins are very cheap (sometimes, they’re free) and can be found anywhere, so it would seem that in this day and age of technology, if someone wanted to make a lapel pin, they could just upload a doodle into a computer and the computer would spit out the finished product. However, even though technology has allowed for a faster and more streamlined mass production of different products; lapel pins are mostly handmade, so a disproportionately large amount of work goes into making these tiny pins. Creating the design is the first step in the process of manufacturing the pins. The initial design can be done either digitally or it can be hand-drawn using a light-box to allow for more precise lines and color mapping. Once the design is approved by the customer, it is reproduced on a metal sheet, usually made out of magnesium. The metal stamp of the design is called a master and acts like a blueprint for the pin throughout the manufacturing process. To create the industrial mold for the pin, the front and back of the central design of one of the masters is cut out using a small coping saw. Once the front and back of the pin design is cut out, they are glued together using epoxy glue that comes in a dispenser the size of a sewing needle. The glue takes only about five minutes to dry. After the glue is dry, multiple copies of the master are made to fill up the space of a rubber disk. The person who makes the pins then traces the outline of the master onto the rubber disk and carves out the cavities with a scalpel. The rubber on the disk is usually dabbed with paint thinner to soften it and allow for easier carving and precise cuts. Once the carving of each pin is finished, a copy of the master is inserted into each little cavity. Another rubber disk is then put on top of the rubber disk with the mold prototypes and then the rubber “sandwich” is put into a machine called a vulcanizer to cure. The vulcanizer decreases the stickiness of the rubber while increasing its resiliency and strength by treating the rubber with sulphur under high heat and pressure. After the rubber sandwich is taken out of the vulcanizer, the once-soft rubber is as firm as the rubber of a car tire. The heat of vulcanizer also melts the rubber around each master imprint, therefore embedding the various details of the copies into the rubber to create the production mold. After the imprint has been made in the production mold, sprues, or little channels to, are hand-carved out of the rubber using a scalpel to allow the flow of metal into the cavities of the various pin molds on the rubber disk. Curved channels called runners are also carved into the rubber disk along with the sprues to filter out air and dirt particles. It is crucial to position the sprues and runners correctly because one mold produces an entire line of a particular lapel pin. If the person carving the mold makes a mistake, the mold will have to be reproduced from scratch. After the carving of the sprues and runners, a brass tack called a post is inserted into each cavity of the rubber mold. The post will later fasten to a clasp to attach the pin to clothing. The post is inserted before the body of the pin is made so that the post can better fuse to the metal during casting. At the beginning of the casting process, the two pieces of the rubber sandwich are aligned and stacked to match each mold’s depression with its corresponding depression. The rubber sandwich is then placed into a spin casting machine, which uses centrifugal force to distribute the molten metal (usually pewter, zinc, or a tin alloy) into every nook and cranny of the cavities. After the rubber sandwich’s time in the machine, usually a minute, it is pulled out and the metal cools within five minutes. The new or “raw” pins are then taken out of the mold and put into a bath composed of soap, water, and abrasive stones so that the rough edges can be smoothed out and the pins can be cleaned of any dirt that might affect the look of the plating. The newly washed pins are put into an electroplating tank, which uses an electric current to draw the metal particles onto the pins, to receive a surface coating of metal. The number of coats and types of metal for plating vary with the design of the pin and the customer’s demands. After the pins are plated, they are hand-painted individually using a numerical guide (like a coloring book) and epoxy paint, which is distributed through a tiny syringe that is powered by a foot pedal. Once the paint is dry, the pins are put into a pad printer, which uses ink to print details that are too small to paint by hand onto the pins. After the pins emerge from the pad printer, they are ready to wear. As shown by the long and arduous process required to make one set of pins, although lapel pins are very commonplace and inexpensive, their production requires a great amount of creativity and skill on behalf of the workers who make them.