so many pins !

well, something i've learned on this failed "post everyday of october" challenge is: posting when i have the closing shift at the cafe is quite literally impossible. 

i was able to keep up right at the beginning because i would write more than one entry per day and then post them throughout the week, but time ended up catching me, so i run out of back-up posts. i had a lot of fun while it lasted, and like i said i am still gonna try to make this month the one with the most posts by the end of the year. 

so let me tell you today about the trials and tribulations of getting an upgrade for my pin maker machine,

many christmas back in time, my dad gifted me a pin maker machine. it came with the molds for tiny pins, the regular ones everyone sells, 32mm. i had lots of fun with it, making my own shitty designs, and bringing to life the dream pins of my friends that they could've never bought anywhere, because they were too specific and weird. but for the longest time i've wanted the molds to make giant pins, 75mm. 

this time, size does matter y'all, and such a big surface to create a design makes all the difference, so many more details you can add, so many more words you can fit. and most importantly, it makes it easier to create it all by hand. 

i've been watching people make tiny collages to turn them into pins for so long, and i've always been jealous, it's impossible to make an over the top, full of stickers collage, on a 32mm canvas, nothing fits in there ! !!! 

the 75 mm molds are very expensive tho, between 80 and almost 200€, depends on the store and the shipping. i am a very indecisive person, and i also hate to spend money on myself, it feels wrong, so it took me years and years of staring at the molds for me to finally decide i deserve a little treat, even if the treat is not little, in any way, shape or form.  

three months or so ago i bought the cheapest version i could find, 82€ on aliexpress. i know, i know what you're gonna say, aliexpress is a terrible website, full of scams, why would you buy something so expensive from there ! !! ! 

well i've been buying from there for years now, and they've never disappointed me yet, i think their knock-off products look good (for the price), they also have many original merchandise that you can't find anywhere else, and they're very good and fast with returns, so even tho it's true i've never bought something that expensive before from them, i trusted them enough to give i a try. 

it got home broken. completely broken in half, because they put zero effort on the packaging, they just put a bunch of heavy metals and a plastic stick on a bag. of course the plastic parts were broken, and the metals were all scratched and damage from crashing onto each other fro days on the delivery truck !

i told them, i sent the pieces back, and they gave me my money back immediately. and you know what i did with the money ? i bought it again, yes the exact same one, from the exact same store. my bad ! but the price difference was so huge, i wasn't ready to pay more when i knew this cheaper version was right there ! !!

it got home broken, again. it was all scratched and damaged, and it had missing pieces because there was a hole in the bag, a mess. once again, i sent it back to them and they gave me my money, no problem. 

i would've gave up, i still didn't want to pay more than 100€, but the truth is, at the same time i bought the molds for the first time, i also bought all the other material i needed to make the pins, so i had everything but the molds, and i got soooo many materials, it would've been such a big waste not to buy the molds....

so after days trying to find the molds somewhere else, i ended up on my least favorite place on earth, amaz*n. 102€ and fast delivery, they said. well not only wasn't the delivery fast, it also got home broken. they cared about the packaging as much as the aliexpress store did, in fact, the care was so extremely similar, i suspect they got sent from the exact same place, a storage unit somewhere on china, with an underpaid (if paid at all) team. i would also don't care one bit about the products i sent if i wasn't being paid, btw.

this time tho, it was fixable. both my dad and i are pretty crafty, and we took one look at the damage and the missing pieces and we thought, we can make it work. but i was tired and mad, after paying 102€ i wanted the product to be perfect, not fixable. so i decided to proceed with the refund, and finally give up. maybe i could sell the other materials on vinted or something. 

the seller sent me a message asking for pictures of the damage, and they wondered if i rather get a new one than a refund, i said no. i explained to them this was my third try, and that i was tired of paying for it, and waiting for weeks, just to get some broken shit delivered. they said they were really sorry, and that they will put the refund in motion immediately, and here's the best part: they said i didn't have to send it back, i could keep the broken molds. 

which means, now that it was 0€, it was completely worth fixing them. and oh boy did we fix them ! !!! ! they work perfectly !! !!!! ! i've made so many pins already, i am obsessed ! !! !  

 

a few moths ago i watched a vlog of a girl going to a littlest pet shop event, there was a lot of small business selling their art, one of the stands had these big pins with funny one liners and a photo of a lps, i've been obsessed with the concept ever since then, and i've been designing my own on canvas for months. i had so much fun and to finally be able to make them real and see them in their final form: a giant pin, it's making me so happy.  

 

although this is definitely one of those cases in which i don't know what to do with with the craft once i've made it. there's no way i can use them all, nor do i have that many friends to give them away....  

 

let me show them anyway ! they're cute :D

 

 

i already know which one my friends are gonna want, and i even have in mind a couple of  coworkers that would enjoy a few, so i am definitely giving a bunch of them away.

 

what about you ?  if i could give you one, which one would you want ?? ? i think my favorites are the ones about pronouns and the monkeys. i also have a few other lps designs without words in them, but i haven't make them into pins yet... i will tho, eventually. 

 

oh ! and i also made a few for my bags, and my friends,

 

 

that's it for now, we'll see into what adventures these big pins take me, it wouldn't be the first time someone ask me to make a bunch for their small business, or their themed party, heheh

 

on a complete different note, now that i have your attention, my keyboard broke, and i've been using my little brother's, and its driving me craaaazy ! it's so loud, it has way too many colors and lights, and it's very 3D. i like my keyboards to feel like i'm writing on a laptop, not a 200 years old typewriter. but the type i enjoy, even tho they're super cheap, they break pretty fast. so i was wondering if you might have any recs ? for a soft, low, silent keyboard, that would survive longer that the ones i've been using. but also i don`'t want to pay more than 40€ for it.....