What’s in a Name Tag

My very first name tags (circa 1990) were interesting affairs. I worked only in polymer clay at the time, so started out with a plain piece of white clay, fashioned into a rectangular shape by hand.

To this I added a hand crafted (of course) design of a dog or cat on one side or the other. Then (and I can hardly believe this now) I wrote the person’s name in clay!

Years later I thought it time to reinvent The Magic Zoo name badge. I suppose I had gotten a bit smarter in the ensuing years (or possibly lazier) because I figured it might just work to have someone else engrave the name. In metal, not clay!

In 1999 I brought back the name badge. The first engraver I hired was a local man with a little shop in town. He was a big German fellow who had a lot of trouble spelling names in English. Out of 15 name badges, 10 of them would be “creatively” spelled. Hans was friendly and he tried, but I had to find another engraver!

Many of my customers order the veterinary name badges; either the pewter vet caduceus name badge or the vet tech caduceus name badge. However, I have people from all walks of life wearing name badges with their favorite animals on them.

In 2005 I designed the pewter animals for my magnetic name badges Some of my favorites are the Labrador and cat name badge, the dog and cat combination name tag, the paw print name tag and the fat cat name tag. I also have some that are a little more obscure- like the bird,cat,and dog combination name tag and the black Labrador,  gold cat and African Grey parrot name tag.

I think of a name badge as a piece of jewelry. Maybe it has to be worn every day, but that’s all the more reason to have one that you love. And since all name tags have either a silver (stainless steel) background or gold (brass) background, they can be matched with whatever jewelry you most often wear. I also offer them with magnetic backs (the most popular) and pin backs.

I have made lots of personalized name badges for people with their special pet or animal on them, done from a photograph. These custom name badges are all done in the polymer clay.

I’ve added some pewter dental name badges to my professional name badge section. Yes, I have 3 different tooth fairy designs plus a smiling tooth holding a toothbrush!

I’ve also made name badges for real estate personnel, officers of the law, private detectives and many other professional people. All you have to be is an animal lover and you can pick out a name badge with your favorite pet.

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