Thumbs Interview | Respect the Pin Maker
What is your artist name?
Thumbs
Tell us the story behind your artist name
Nothing spectacularly cool unfortunately haha. I used to work in a skate shop, grew up working there actually and I'd always be on my phone; texting or playing games or on social - but mainly ignoring customers and shop lifters - so my work mates started calling me Thumbs cos I'd be constantly buried in the phone screen with my thumbs going at it! When I started signing art pieces, I started using Thumbs.
Where are you from?
London baby - home of crumpets and tea
How did you get into pins?
Kind of by accident. I already knew stickers were a thing I wanted to make since I knew how popular they were from the skate shop and I had seen kids and adults drop money on stickers - so I knew if all else fails and no one wants my art on shirts or other stuff, stickers would always be a fall back and plus it's a cool feeling to have your art in a tangible form. I saw pin badges popping up on my feed on IG and I started following some OG pages like @patchgame - I thought, why the hell not. I ordered two designs, put them on my feed and over night almost sold out! I was like, ''Yeah man, I can get with this''. It helped that there weren't that many other mashup artists around at the time so I had kind of fallen into a niche. Especially with some big pages liking and sharing my art, that really helped to build a rep for myself.
What made you want to start creating pins?
As an artist, you have a need to create. You have a constant pull to making things and seeing your visions come to life - whether it’s on paper, canvas, on a wall, out of clay, on clothing - you have a desire to translate your ideas. So when you have an opportunity to make one of your ideas into something that you can touch and feel, well it’s just one of the best feelings. Turning my art into pin badges which is essentially wearable art and also its something that people collect, I think it’s really nostalgic and taps into when we were kids and we collected things like pogs and football stickers and pokemon cards - it’s on the spectrum of that I think. If you were a collector as a kid, you always have that urge to collect as an adult and pins tick so many boxes. You can trade them, collect them, small enough to store, cheap enough to buy and you can wear them and show them off - in a sense, they're basically affordable art.
What was your first pin purchase? / What were the first pins to really spark your pin collecting?
I’m actually really particular when it comes to collecting pins. I don’t have loads to be honest, if I see a pin I’ll just buy it. I don’t really like messaging a brand for a freebie, I respect the hustle of smaller brands so I like to support them by actually buying from them and reposting. There’s so many cool ones out there though, I’d probably go broke if I bought everything I liked haha. I’m a sucker for nostalgia so I’ll scout around on eBay sometimes for some vintage originals, I’ve got some pretty cool ones in my collection which I keep in a glass jar and I swap them out on my jacket.
Where do you draw inspiration from?
Haha might be pretty obvious from my work - but cartoons! Haha. I love older cartoons and a lot of the newer ones aswell - I’ll draw inspiration from anything from my child hood and make connections to other genres from the same era and try and create something new from them. I like creating something that can spark off a reaction from the audience, nothing bad, I just like people to be reminded of a cartoon they might not have seen in a while or for them to see my work and get a kick out of it. My work is pretty nostalgic so my main audience is the 25-35 year olds out there, so it gets shared around a fair bit.
What was your first pin release?
First pin release was a double whammy and they were small 30mm, soft enamel, single post pins of Bart x Jake the Dog and Bart x Mikey from TMNT. I was so excited to get them in I rushed the backing cards and there's even a small spelling mistake on them.
What pin release are you most proud of?
I don't know if it's the set I'm most proud of but it's my largest set that I've released. I did a mashup of all 151 Gen 1 Pokemon with 151 different Simpsons characters. My end goal is to still release all 151 characters as pins but I stopped at 50 - but I'll pick it up again soon and get some more in. Each pin comes with a matching trading card and sticker which I think people get a kick out of. I also did a limited edition set of pins for Pow! Wow! Worcester and they came out really rad, I like that set a lot.
How many pins do you have in your collection? / What are your favorite kinds of pins to collect?
I've kept one of every pin I've ever made and that's close to 250 or 300 I think? I need to get a bigger pin board for sure as most of them are in a box at the moment. Personal pins I've collected I probably only have around 25, my kid keeps taking them - but that's the cool things about pin badges.
What advice would you give you someone that wants to create pins?
Do your homework and take your time. Research is important. Make sure you're doing an original design and not treading on another artist or brands toes. Don't just go to Ali Express and buy a pre made mould. Go to a reputable factory or middle man and get something made that's your own design. Look into finishes and materials and colours and make sure you're happy with how it's going to look.
Hard or Soft enamel?
Ahhh the age old debate. I like Hard Enamel on some pins but I think Soft Enamel also has a place - it depends on the design to be honest. Each finish doesn't always work with every design.
Where can people find you? (social media, website, etc)