by Amber Helsel
City Pins’ Coliseum Pin
Catherine Lee sports a collection of enamel pins on her bag and her jacket.
Among them are a purple Share Bear pin from a Care Bears x Kidrobot blindbox and one of her and husband Garrad Lee's own creations, a green basketball jersey with a shamrock and the name "Ingram" imprinted on it.
Among them are a purple Share Bear pin from a Care Bears x Kidrobot blindbox and one of her and husband Garrad Lee's own creations, a green basketball jersey with a shamrock and the name "Ingram" imprinted on it.
Catherine designed it in honor of their friend John Ingram, who passed away a few weeks before this year's Hal's St. Paddy's Parade & Festival. She says Ingram loved basketball, specifically the Boston Celtics, so they designed the pin with inspiration from Isaiah Thomas' jersey.
"We knew a lot of people were hurting and wanting to carry on his memory in some kind of way, so we talked to a few people who were planning on doing buttons for krewes for St. Paddy's Day this coming year," she says.
Through City Pins, an initiative that they launched under Garrad's Homework Town LLC, they ordered about 200 pins to sell at the parade for those who wanted to honor Ingram. The proceeds, which Catherine says totaled more than $1,000, will go toward a local nonprofit that Ingram supported, the Hard Places Community.
"We knew a lot of people were hurting and wanting to carry on his memory in some kind of way, so we talked to a few people who were planning on doing buttons for krewes for St. Paddy's Day this coming year," she says.
Through City Pins, an initiative that they launched under Garrad's Homework Town LLC, they ordered about 200 pins to sell at the parade for those who wanted to honor Ingram. The proceeds, which Catherine says totaled more than $1,000, will go toward a local nonprofit that Ingram supported, the Hard Places Community.
Offbeat’s Anniversary Pin Since starting City Pins in 2017, the couple has created a line of custom pins that is mostly Jackson-centric, focusing on the aspects of the city that are familiar to people.
"I guess it's a tongue-in-cheek way to address some of the more painful things about being a Mississippi resident and from Jackson," Catherine says. "A lot of our city landmarks have been degraded or lost over time or have complicated meanings just because of the complication of our history."
The couple's large pin collection gave them the idea to start designing pins that were specific to the capital city last year.
"We start tossing around some ideas about what we could do that would be very Jackson," Garrad says. "... We were just wanting to contribute something of our own and have something to sell and to keep it rolling and to trade in stuff. It was all about taking something we already dug and then making it specifically about Jackson."
The Lees' foray into the pin trade has also helped others in Jackson to create custom pins. For the last couple of years, Phillip
Rollins, owner of comic-book and record shop Offbeat, has been selling buttons with the store brand, but he decided to do something different for the business' fourth anniversary in May.
The Lees pointed Rollins toward City Pins' manufacturer, The Studio, to create Offbeat's special-edition pins, which feature the mascot, Wesley the Bat, with a boombox and sell for about $7.
"It's interesting to see how people are collecting them now," Rollins says. "... They're fashion pieces (and) accessories, just as much as, like, buttons are. (They're) just a little bit more detailed or have a little more thought into the process and are shaped into whatever you want them to be."
"I guess it's a tongue-in-cheek way to address some of the more painful things about being a Mississippi resident and from Jackson," Catherine says. "A lot of our city landmarks have been degraded or lost over time or have complicated meanings just because of the complication of our history."
The couple's large pin collection gave them the idea to start designing pins that were specific to the capital city last year.
"We start tossing around some ideas about what we could do that would be very Jackson," Garrad says. "... We were just wanting to contribute something of our own and have something to sell and to keep it rolling and to trade in stuff. It was all about taking something we already dug and then making it specifically about Jackson."
The Lees' foray into the pin trade has also helped others in Jackson to create custom pins. For the last couple of years, Phillip
Rollins, owner of comic-book and record shop Offbeat, has been selling buttons with the store brand, but he decided to do something different for the business' fourth anniversary in May.
The Lees pointed Rollins toward City Pins' manufacturer, The Studio, to create Offbeat's special-edition pins, which feature the mascot, Wesley the Bat, with a boombox and sell for about $7.
"It's interesting to see how people are collecting them now," Rollins says. "... They're fashion pieces (and) accessories, just as much as, like, buttons are. (They're) just a little bit more detailed or have a little more thought into the process and are shaped into whatever you want them to be."
Emily Hamblin’s Owl Pin Pins are an artform that is growing in popularity beyond Jackson, as well. On a given day, a search for "enamel pins" on art-and-crafts website Etsy may have more than 27,000 hits. The pin-maker community is also prolific on Instagram, with more than 564,000 posts under the hashtag #enamelpin.
The affordability of pins is what draws many artists to the medium. The Studio's website shows example prices as low as $2.53 per pin for an order of 100.
For artist Emily Hamblin, the choice to make her own pin was a creative one, as it allowed her to maintain the bright colors of her blockprinting while also getting a shiny, textured piece.
The Clinton resident, who is a studio artist at Good Citizen and general manager at Cups Espresso Cafe in Clinton, says her artwork often has themes of nature, animals and even video games.
In November 2017, she decided to make her first pin and chose one of her favorite prints, a teal checkered owl, for the design. To create the pin, she scanned her print and saved it as a digital file. The company's designers then made suggestions to help it work better as a pin, including making the owl's nose black.
"You send them your artwork, and they go, 'Awesome, we can do this for you. Here's what we think you should do,'" she says. "... At that point it does become a cool collaboration with the people that are actually working in this material for you."
Although Hamblin has only designed one pin thus far, she says that she is excited to make more in the near future and to see what other local artists do with the art form.
The affordability of pins is what draws many artists to the medium. The Studio's website shows example prices as low as $2.53 per pin for an order of 100.
For artist Emily Hamblin, the choice to make her own pin was a creative one, as it allowed her to maintain the bright colors of her blockprinting while also getting a shiny, textured piece.
The Clinton resident, who is a studio artist at Good Citizen and general manager at Cups Espresso Cafe in Clinton, says her artwork often has themes of nature, animals and even video games.
In November 2017, she decided to make her first pin and chose one of her favorite prints, a teal checkered owl, for the design. To create the pin, she scanned her print and saved it as a digital file. The company's designers then made suggestions to help it work better as a pin, including making the owl's nose black.
"You send them your artwork, and they go, 'Awesome, we can do this for you. Here's what we think you should do,'" she says. "... At that point it does become a cool collaboration with the people that are actually working in this material for you."
Although Hamblin has only designed one pin thus far, she says that she is excited to make more in the near future and to see what other local artists do with the art form.
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