#pridepin

A fun and (hopefully) straightforward tutorial on how I make my clay pride pins! 💚💚💚The reason I made this tutorial is becuase I know how hard it is to find pride merch sometimes, given costs of buying from stores online and shipping too (I've heard one too many horror stories of customs fees when buying from the states) 😭😭 If you're in a position like that, or if for whatever reason you just can't buy pride themed items, you can still make your own in a really subtle way! It's also a great craft if you want to make a few extra pins while you're at it for friends 💚💚✨ On my notes from the tutorial itself: Sandpaper - Personally, I have a lot of sanding tools because of my degree, but by no means do you need to have all the bells and whistles to be able to make pins! You can definitely get some sandpaper from the dollar store or similar places if you or nobody you know has any. But, if you are like me and value *craftsmanship* 😤😂 I'd totally recommend getting a dremel or small files if you have them/can borrow, and really go to town on sanding down the pins. It's not the end of the world if you don't, but you can get a REALLY smooth, rounded form that looks fantastic. Paint - Again, it's one of those things where if you have the nice stuff (acryla gouache), that's fantastic, but you definitely don't need to go out and spend a lot of money on it! You can buy a far cheaper and still REALLY good crafter's acrylic at most craft stores, or even the dolalr store. They're generally a dollar or two for a bottle, and you really only need black/white plus the basic colours in your flag. Alright that's it, if you're somehow still reading I hope you like it! 🥺🥺 Let me know if you have questions, I'll do my best to answer!! 💚💚💚 And I'll be back next week with the usual stuff 🐸

[Image Description:

Slide 1: Cover Slide. Title reads: “Celia’s Clay Pride Pin Tutorial”. Celia is pictured wearing a black jean jacket adorned with heart shaped pan and aro pins, as well as a frog. She gestures to the title, and she says “Customize for your own flags!”. In the corner is a photo of the pins in real life, with a note that says “The final product”. 

Slide 2: [Note: All of the tutorial from here on out might be a bit text heavy, so I will paste the original script with necessary descriptions]

About & Materials:

About - “This Tutorial is aimed specifically at making heart shaped pins for collars! You can of course adapt the info here to create pins of your own design too”

What you will need: 

Clay - either air dry or polymer can work. If you only want to make a few pins I recommend finding a small pack of polymer on sale (about two dollars canadian).

A smooth surface - I’m using a tile

A roller - not for food, you can use a cardboard tube in a pinch

A knife/sharp edge

Superglue

Pin Backings

Sandpaper (note: please check description for more thoughts)

Paint - acrylic gouache, see description for cheaper alternatives

Paintbrushes

Gesso and Acrylic varnish

In the bottom right a picture of most of these materials, save for the gesso and acrylic varnish, are pictured. 

Slide 3: Steps, an Overview

Roll out your clay

Cut out desired shape

Let dry/bake/boil

Sand! (the word sand is written out again, spaced out, for dramatic effect)

Glue backing

Gesso

Paint your flag!

Varnish/Let Dry!

Slide 4: Step 1: Roll out clay [A photo of Celia rolling out the clay, with an accompanying photo showing her measuring the slab she rolls out. It is 0.5 cm thick]. “I recommend using 0.5 cm thickness for this design”

Step 2: Cut out shapes [Photo of celia cutting out heart shape with an exacto knife, then her holding up the finished heart shape to show viewer]. “Pretty straightforward [shrug emoji] you can cut out a paper template to be extra precise”

Slide 5: Step 3: Let dry (for air dry clay) [A picture of dried air dry clay hearts made from crayola brand air dry clay is shown; it apparently took around 1 day to dry]

… or for polymer clay, boil/bake according to instructions. 

A note from Celia: I personally boil all my polymer pins and I highly recommend it. You don’t need to wipe down your oven after, and you can buy a pot specifically for this purpose for cheap from a secondhand store. 

Slide 6: Step 4: Sand! 

A few pictures of Celia sanding down the pins are shown. Her process is 1) And down the front/back to smooth, then rounding down the sides with a file and sandpaper. 

Text: “... I could ramble a lot about sanding [sweat drop emoji], but I’ll spare y’all the rant. Just smooth down any imperfections to get a shape you like, I recommend 220 grit sandpaper. If you have some files, or a dremel, use them!”

Slide 7: Steps 5 and 6: Glue pin backing and Gesso (... pretty self explanatory).

A series of photos showing Celia gluing down the pin backing to a sanded pin, then her holding the pin with said backing as she applies gesso. 

Slide 8: Step 7: Paint! A few photos showing Celia with a blank pin and some aro flag colours mixed out, then another photo showing her applying the paint to the pin. 

Text: “Now paint your desired flag! I recommend doing the top and bottom stripes a bit thicker, if only so they look proportional from the front.È

Slide 9: Step 8: Varnish

A photo of Celia holding up a bottle of liquitex gloss varnish, and a note pointing to it that says I use acrylic varnish, but some people use UV varnish. 

Another photo of Celia applying varnish to a pin. Text says: “Once your paint is dry, apply your varnish! Whatever you do, don’t water down the varnish. I try to apply 2 to 3 coats, after each previous coat dries.”

Slide 10: … and you’re done!