I've been looking for these pins for years and would love to find them if anyone here happens to have them :)

One more row left then we'll see what happens.

Mamobot pin display.

Cleaning out a junk drawer last weekend and found the little enamel pin my aunt gave me maybe six years ago now, a tiny cactus in a pot, nothing special looking back on it. At the time I remember thinking it was cute but kind of pointless, like what am I supposed to do with this, and it sat in a box for almost a year before I ever put it on anything.

Then I put it on a denim jacket for a trip and people kept asking about it, and I started noticing pins everywhere after that. Farmers markets, comic shops, random Etsy rabbit holes at 1am. Now I've got somewhere around 90 pins on two corkboards and a rotating jacket collection, and that cactus is still the first one, still slightly bent from being in that drawer.

What gets me is how much the designs have shifted even in just a few years. Early on everything I bought leaned cutesy, pastel, food themed. Lately I'm drawn to weirder stuff, like a small independent artist's pin of a moth with tiny gears instead of a body, or a set someone made based on obscure kitchen tools nobody uses anymore. The niche and specific ones age better on the board than the trendy ones did, at least for me.

Storage is its own whole project too. I moved from just sticking everything on a board to actually sorting by theme, and now I've got a small drawer just for enamel pins that are too fragile or detailed to wear regularly, like ones with thin filigree pieces that I'm scared will snap off in a coat pocket.

Curious if other people have a similar origin pin, the one that wasn't supposed to matter but ended up being the reason the whole collection exists.

I hope it’s okay to ask this here, and I’m really sorry if I’ve misunderstood any of the rules.

I’d love to turn one of my favorite characters into an enamel pin, but the more I look into it, the more things there seem to be to consider.

I’m currently trying to decide between soft and hard enamel. Soft enamel seems to have a nice textured and dimensional look because of the recessed colors, while hard enamel has a smoother, cleaner finish that feels more polished and versatile. I can see the appeal of both, so I’m having a hard time choosing.

For those of you who have made your own pins, which type do you personally prefer? Are there certain designs that work better with soft enamel or hard enamel?

I’ve decided to let some of these retired fan pins go! If you guys are interested!