What is a Photo Etched Soft Enamel lapel pin?
Same principle as pictures taken by camera, photo etched soft enamel is manufactured by taking an image of your design and transferring it from film onto the surface of a sheet of metal. Your design is then etched into the bronze or stainless or aluminum using an acid etching process. Then all of the acids and other impurities are carefully cleaned from the surface. The indentations created by the acid etching process are then filled with the enamel colors. Each color is applied by hand, one at a time, using different sized syringes. The sheet of metal is then fired at 160 degrees centigrade for 15 minutes. The lapel pins are then cut from the metal sheet according to your custom design. Non-colored (raised) sections of the pins are then plated and brushed to a shiny finish. An optional epoxy protective coating (dome) can then be applied to protect the color enamels from being scratched or damaged. Compared to pins of cloisonn and die struck soft enamel, the advantage to photo etched p
