Turn 3D Printed Faux Enamel Pins Into Unique Jewellery

I love buying new enamel pins and often come up with ideas of my own, but having real pins made only makes sense if they are to be sold, otherwise it can be really expensive.

3D printing your own pins is a great alternative, although you will be quite limited in terms of size and design complexity. On the plus side, you will be able to decide the design, size and designated purpose. These pins can be made into a variety of different jewellery types- tie pins, single or double collar pins, brooches, rings, earrings, cufflinks, necklaces.

You can use any design or turn your doodles or your kids simple drawings into one of a kind jewellery, all you need is a 3D printer and some nail polish.

3D PRINTED PINS

NAIL POLISH, RANGE OF COLOURS + BLACK AND WHITE POLISH

NAIL POLISH REMOVER (ACETONE)

TOOTHPICK AND SOME COTTON BUDS FOR CLEANING UP

The process of designing these pins is a bit similar to making 3D printed cookie cutters.

1) You have to find or make a design. It can't be too complicated or have too many lines, especially if your pin is small, because you won't have much space for the nail polish. Use JPG to SVG program or website to convert JPG design to SVG file.

2) Upload the SVG file into Tinkercad.

3) Duplicate the pin and move it up by a few cm.

4&5) Click on the lower pin. A window will pop up on the right side which will allow you to control the shape of the pin. Change Fill Mode to Inner Line and increase Line Width until the bottom pin is a solid, filled in shape.

6&7) Align top and bottom pin parts. Make the bottom part 3-4mm thick and the top part about 1mm. The shallower the pin is, the fewer nail polish layers you will need to pour.

Print and if you want to, you can paint the pins if your filament colour isn't to your liking.

This part is pretty easy, just fill in the empty spaces with nail polish all the way to the top. Spread gently with a toothpick and let it dry a few hours.

If you don't have all the necessary nail polish colours, you can always mix them together to create new colours. Or add a few drops of white polish to create lighter shades.

You don't need expensive nail polishes, the cheap ones will work just fine, I got mine in a poundshop and most of them are not suitable for actual nail painting, but they will work great for this project.

Nail polish contains solvents, which evaporate once exposed to air. It means that the level of polish will drastically decrease and the pin will look a bit hollow after that first nail polish layer dries.

For that reason you will have to do 2-3 layers of polish.

Wait a few hours between layers and fill all the way to the top.

Glue brooch pins, tie pins, blank earring studs or blank cufflinks to the backs.