Safeguard Your Special Badge with Safety Pins!

So ...

It's been on my to-do list to make a special post regarding "special button security".

If you're anything like me, you may have several buttons or pins on your jacket or bag or whatnot. It's never a good feeling to one day notice that neat little piece just disappeared! These are buttons with a single pinning mechanism, and perhaps likely, they're going to pop off at some point when you snag yourself in a doorway or on a bike or doing any day to day activities. This has been the story of special stuff I stick on jackets or cool jewelry I've ever had. One day, they fall off and that becomes the story of them, and it stinks.

In the particular case of the badges I'm selling, some of them are 7-10 dollars a piece, because I put a lot of work and care and decision making time into them. Most of them are little art pieces to me. Nobody wants to spend 10 dollars on something or more whether it's a button or jewelry and lose it to the elements. Now, what I have here is a suggestion to all you fine folks picking up one of my buttons, or anybody's buttons! I will try my best through pictures to explain how with a simple safety pin you may never lose another button again!

So pictured here is a real custom designed X Files badge. Lots of cuts and different colored paper layers. Do I want to put this on my jacket lapel and have it pop off when I bump into my pal while we're busting moves on a dance floor? Heck no.

Here we go. Badge is on the lapel of a jacket. This technique would apply to any piece of clothing or bag however you decide you wear your button. Here is your safety pin.

Pin your button to whatever you would like. If you then look at the back of the button you will see that there is a part of the pinning mechanism that has a little loop.

Now direct yourself to the inside of the apparel or bag, the other side of the fabric. You will see your pin poked through.

Take the safety pin and shove it through the side that corresponds with that little loop on the button. The safety pin intersects with the Button's pin.

The safety pin pokes through the inside of the fabric and through the loop on the back of the button and then back through to the other side of the fabric.

Here we are! This is what the safety pin should look like before you close it up. Your button is safe in it's stabby arms.

And now, pin in place and closed, you can rest assure no amount of tugging short of your lapel being torn right off by some twat on a roller coaster is going to rob you of your sick button you just paid 8 dollar for.


I hope these tips are helpful, and that the idea helps you all feel good when spending a little more on one of my pieces than the average impulse button buy in the record store checkout line!


And while on that note here are some documentary pictures of the making of this X Files badge!

Button image harvested out of a great section of a 1994 issue of Scarlet Street "The Magazine of Mystery and Horror". A collector might gasp "Why the hell are you cutting that up?!" and you know... a few years ago, I might have too. But the thing is, there are a lot of materials I will NOT cut up. I am a collector of too many things and I weigh the ideas at hand. This magazine whether or not it has any trade show value could sit on my shelf, or in an archival slip until the next generation wants to read analogue style about The X Files, or I can take it and make some really neat one of a kind pieces in tribute to my love of X Files. Completely nerdy, I sometimes ask myself if the average joe spends any time thinking about stuff like this.

So I might save the interviews or something, but the image quality in Magazines is way crisper and cooler than what even laser printers can put out a lot of the time. And maybe you could think of it as being slightly more authentic. I sometimes factor these things in when I put a price on a button.

There she blows, all cut out and punched to just the right size. Yellow vinyl letters and one banging silver foil "X". The rest, the triangles, cut out with an xacto knife. Cut another "x" in there, pick and choose the composition, the colors, pulling from my love of pastels and Suprematist design.

Colored layers taped to the back. The thickness of the image can have a long-term effect on a button maker. I'm crossing my fingers I don't suffer big time down the road for multi-layer pieces, but it's a chance I'm willing to take!

And presto. My little X Files collage goes in there, plastic over top, press it out and now it's a button!


Recent thanks to online friends and supporters Chris Luckey, Cheyla Wagner, & Leia Hohenfeld! And many thanks as well to anybody who came out to the Cleveland Flea or Lakewood Music Festival this past month and picked up any buttons!

Do you have any requests? Are you interested in any custom badges for your band or company, or a gift? Feel free to fire them at me!  memorabiliaproductions@gmail.com

I Miss You Robin Williams

It's been a very sad week.

Monday morning, one of my lifelong heroes was found dead. Robin Williams committed suicide. I was at first unable to believe it. As untouchable as people in films, on tv, on records seem to be in real time, it's pretty much just as unreal if they die. I'm trying to keep myself comforted by that notion. It doesn't really work though. Because despite how much Robin meant to me and countless others, he was still very much a real person, with real problems, a family, children and friends who loved him very much. And you can't not think about it.

Having been a kid through all of the 90s I feel really like I was graced with some of the greatest family films ever made. Maybe every kid who was allowed to watch movies growing up feels this, but I feel like in particular I owe a debt of gratitude to Robin Williams. I feel like we all do. He lent his humor not just to adults, but to children and people everywhere. It was this universal language he spoke. To my family, he was like another uncle, a cousin. He played babysitter to my sister and I. He got us through some of the toughest times of our lives with laughter and wisdom. He gave all people another perspective.

I'll repeat what I said the morning after I learned the news. I can't find a better way to say it again.

"Daniel Hillard, Batty, Genie, Mr. Keating, Armand Goldman, Peter Banning, Garp, Chris Collins, Leslie Zevo, Andrew Martin, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, Patch Adams, Robin Williams, these people changed my life. Suicide, case by case will never be fully understood. I do not understand, I don't want to accept it. But I do know everyone has a dark place and not one they always share with others. I can accept that. This man leaves behind his family, and I feel like we're all a part of that family. I know I'm not feeling this alone.

All of those people I mentioned above, he was all of those people. And they are all a part of me. Robin Williams, I will always remember like this. They will always be there, and so will he. My second dad, my friend, you will always be with me. I will see you laughing."

In the back of my notebook I keep all kinds of scribbles, lists, ideas. A "Robin Williams" or "TOYS" series was first on my list of buttons I wanted to make as a set actually. "TOYS" is certainly on my top 5 films of all time list, if not maybe my absolute favorite. Between the cast and crew and direction, the whole package just melts my soul. If you have never seen it, or have not seen it since 1992, I definitely recommend giving it a viewing. It's not hard for me to watch this movie and see in many ways how it has shaped me.

I don't like that it is now 4 days later after his passing that I am making some Robin Williams themed buttons. But either way, I am honored to, and excited to. I am excited to sit at my desk and play with prints of this person that I adore sooo much, and create these little badges of honor that I can share with others who maybe feel like I do. I kind of want to cry looking at them, but actually I just can't stop smiling.

I just created these today. They all have a lot of love put into them. It's just the beginning. I will post some soon to my etsy page for those of you far away who may like a button or two!

www.etsy.com/shop/memorabilia1

It's so sad that a person so lovely and so loving could be hurting so badly. I hope when people think of him they don't see him swallowed up in darkness. I hope they see the faces on these buttons, smiling, laughing, being silly, giving the world all of these characters to help enrich everyone's life! This is the Robin I will always think of.

I dj a radio show at local Cleveland State University WCSB, called "Pleasure Leftists". It's on Thursdays 9am-11am. This week I dedicated my show to Robin Williams. It's filled with clips from all of my favorite movies of his. If you would like to listen, the broadcast will be on archive on the WCSB website from now until next Thursday morning 8-21. I will probably put it up for download at some point, but until then, please follow this link to enjoy!!

"Pleasure Leftists" radio program "Robin Williams"

Let us all celebrate this rare individual!!

First International Sale + Tech Central + Buehner's Office Supply

Monday morning begins.

I prepare the package to send out to my second online sale customer. This lady is also my first international sale! Hallelujah, holy shit! Thank you Miss Reis, from The Netherlands. Apparently the Netherlands are more than just a breeding ground for great synth-music as in the likes of Trumpett Records or Nine Circles, but they also love the X-Files!

Thank you Netherlands! International love. 

I see you Miss Reis, maybe you'll make it to a sick show at the OCCII in Amsterdam where my group "Pleasure Leftists" played in May sometime. And maybe some universal-all-seeing force will be tickled at the true-smallness of our world.

Sale number deux also gave me more opportunity to work on the packaging, the branding. I went a little crazy stamping "Memorabilia" all over the place, as I tend to not like to waste ink. 

Amazingly enough I managed to make this bad boy mostly myself. It feels good to feel like you have the resources at your finger-tips to do this stuff. What it cost was time, patience, and maybe a handful of coin for parking between Thinkbox at Case Western University & Downtown while I figured out how to do it. ADVICE: In the end, if you are an able bodied individual, it is much better to bike or walk/ RTA to either Thinkbox or Cleveland Public Library if you're not carrying a lot. You won't spend the whole time stressing out about getting a parking ticket instead of focusing on your project.

Stamp made from "SPECIAL RUBBER FOR LASER ENGRAVING" (laserbits.com) scrap that friend and director of Thinkbox Ian Charnas gave me (thanks buddy!), glued to a chunk of sample hardwood flooring (thanks Mrs. Metter!), and finally attached to a gimpy peel-n-stick stamp handle I ordered by mistake from laserbits.com (truthfully this is not very helpful). You need special rubber for making stamps with the Laser engraver FYI. This stuff is non-toxic as opposed to some rubbers. Although it still makes the Library managers think someone is smoking cigarettes in the department like a 16-year-old girl in a high school bathroom.

I must thank the folks at Tech Central down at the Cleveland Public Library main branch downtown for their assistance and patience in helping me finally through hours of pulling my hair out, laser etch my very own stamp. I must inform you, this is a very invigorating thing. To take your own design and see a laser blast it out of rubber or wood or whatever it is. And it's all fairly simple. These guys and gals at Tech Central are really doing a public service to show people just how productive they CAN be with a little self-motivation. You don't have to send out to some company far away, or spend lots of money to have a graphic design graduate do up your design, Tech Central at CPL can show you so many methods of making your artwork and ideas look totally professional and sick!

Since I opened my etsy shop, I have been down there at least every other day working with the Laser engraver, Corel Draw, & Photoshop. I am NOT a computer savy person by any means. I am stubborn and old fashioned and tend to get a little impatient with these things especially. I have little to no understanding of Adobe or Photoshop etc etc. I must testify however, that since spending more time at Tech Central, I have been feeling a lot smarter, and able, and motivated, and self-confident. It's like having a free little graphic design/art school down there at the Maker Space. And this is an insane plus for someone with like me, having the philosophies on education in this country that I do. Please, if you're into creating things of any kind, do yourself a favor and go down there. It is an infinity valuable resource for all people alike. Libraries.... the "people's university", it's completely true.

So ... after stamping all kinds of scraps (namely lovely vellum leftovers from old projects.. finally very happy I always save that crap), I am ready with the little extension of myself to send out to the lady in the Netherlands, who I hope will be happy with her purchase.

I've been throwing in little extras for my first orders as well which is fun I hope! More materials from my scrap vault. Little tokens of wood that I lasered out of a piece last year to create a bottle cap holder when I etched "Rising Star Coffee" logos into them. I knew they would be useful someday, and now they are! One day, for those of you labeled as hoarders of this kind of thing, you like me will be able to say the same. This is for you!

Little "Memorabilia" totem pins I call em'. Logos also laser-etched into these, then stained, then pin backs glued to them. Totem's of my appreciation.

Now is about time I highlight another place of operation that is very special to me. Often overlooked, and dusty in the abyss of things, technologies, and methods now obsolete in our "Ghost World" is Cleveland business Buehner's Office Supply Co. Since my humble beginnings as a collector of oddball stationary, cool printed paper, & notebooks/journals of all kinds, I've mostly made these discoveries in thrift stores and some Japanese specialty shops. In particular Buehner's first brought to mind the first accounting book with columnar-ish paper I found at Unique thrift years ago I filled as a journal. But boys and girls there's a whole world of this stuff still sitting dead-stock on shelves. And in my geographical case Buehner's Office Supply Co. @ 5818 Detroit Ave. right across from The Happy Dog in Gordon Square.

Buehner's has been in operation since something like 1952. It has seen some of the glory days of office supplies. However the nice gentlemen behind the counter often recounts to me how soon we're looking at the death of the envelope industry and sad things like "people don't buy pens anymore". This man is a hero to me. I walk around this shop and I'm filled with inspiration. Me, I love textures, and smooth flawless printed lines, and colors, and stamps, and empty books for writing in. In it's 50 + years of operation Buehner's has accumulated all of these kinds of things, and most of what is on it's shelf right now is goes back nearly that whole time. You need address books, or columnar pad, or accounting books, or price tags, or mailers, envelopes, pens, pencils, sharpies, continuous feeding paper, office-signage, old stickers, or more? You will find these things here.

I picked up my first book I'm going to use to catalog all my buttons made and sold here! I'm a big fan of damaged-classic-red-marble-secret-diary-of-Laura-Palmer texture. This really stole my wool. And I'm gonna scan this mother-father and make prints of this texture to cut up in future buttons. How's that for self-sufficience?! I also grabbed my "ORIGINAL" self-inking stamp here as well. I'm gonna be putting that on all of my uber-time-spent-being-made one-of-a-kind ish button packages!

Now maybe I'm shooting myself in the foot by giving away all of my secrets. Scanning textures, my personal treasure chest of "vintage" office supplies... but it would be greedy of me not to I feel. I live and work in the name of integrity. I try to anyway. WWTWD I want on those weird grade school woven bracelets that mean for me "What would Tony Wilson do?". Well he would give it away I think!

There is a real problem in our world today (Not washing over real human issues like war and destruction, but in this smaller case) when we don't write anything down anymore. I get being "green" and all paperless society but... I think it's scary. Satelites, World Wide Web.... they are not invincible. Thank goodness people are buying and pressing records again! You can actually hold something in your hands! This is something I am very protective over. I will not stop writing on paper until I am pure energy with no body god %#$#$@#. I like analog. Taking something off a shelf and opening it to words, pictures, sound, blah blah will always be en-vogue! But another point I'm trying to make is the "small local business" thing. Buehner's has been and is still around! Please folks, especially to my friends making and doing stuff in the greater Cleveland/near west side area, check these guys out! Staples & Office Max make prints, sure! But they're in a sea of parking lots and to me not very convenient. It makes me sad to think possibly Buehner's may go out of business. Most of their orders are from catalogs the gentleman said. And everything they have is so up to interpretation as far as the many uses you could employ.

The "think local" thing may be really easy to make fun of, hell I'm not exempt from it, but there is definitely a point some of the time. Not all local businesses are as bad sport, pathetic, and rely on gimmicks like Ohio City Burrito! Local businesses still owe it to their community to sell a good product thanks very much. Get your tags and paper, postits, folders, pens at Buehner's folks! And then go put a hot dog in your face!

- H

Welcome to Memorabilia Productions!

Hello there!

I am a mam of many blogs as you can see. I saw "Memorabilia Productions" as a necessary way to talk about my latest project in badge-making! I'll give you updates, new ideas, new products, new lines, and maybe some of the concepts behind all of these things. In addition I'll be informative on the progress of the business and where and when you might be able to buy some/see some in person at markets and whatnot.

You can visit the store page at any time to see the latest wares : www.etsy.com/shop/memorabilia1

This is a blog in the life of running a small business with big ambitions. I don't want to sell buttons, I want to sell ideas and experiences! In the words of Corinne Drewery, "BREAKOUT!" You will know!

I am a mam of many ideas, too many ideas. As a person weighs whether or not to dive into the world of a college education, careers, jumping cities, trying to make the right decisions, I have remained mostly the same in what I think about all of that. I have come more impatient and full of unrest these days out of these conversations I have with myself. I know I'm not alone, but we all exist first and foremost in our own heads. I remain true to my views that a person should never stop holding themselves up to their own criticism. You should never settle for being great for ... "a woman" "a man" "a small mid-west city" "a person who didn't finish college" "a middle class person or poor person" "a minority person" or anything ... I hold myself and my work up to the challenge of being truly good, and truly meaningful, on the grand scale of anyone and anywhere. Down with mediocrity forever, EVERYONE deserves better. To a world where it's celebrated and top, I will never be party. Maybe you feel this too.

It's very important to believe in your own ideas, however big or small, because however dark it sounds, you cannot simply assume anyone else will. You are their only chance for survival. Don't lay them to rest in your body!

It's dark, it's damaged, it's "so chill". I'll celebrate imagineers, and special ladies, and heavenly bodies of my very own decree! Dig?



This is for you! MEMORABILIA!

- H