"Shakyamuni Buddha" is the latest in my series of Eastern deity enamel pins. The project was inspired and informed by San Francisco pin shop, Oriental Art Gallery. So far, I've made a Quan Yin pin, a Ganesh pin, and now this Shakyamuni Buddha or "Number One Buddha" as Oriental Art Gallery proprietor Su Lee calls him.

The pin is finished in black hard enamel on gold colored metal. It has two clutches on the back to keep it from spinning when affixed to a jacket or bag. Patreon supporters always get my latest pins first with their $10 pledge of support or higher. The Shakyamuni Buddha pin is now available to everyone on my Etsy store.

Oriental Art Gallery in San Francisco also carries a limited amount of this pin and if you go there, make sure to bring lots more money for other pins. Su's prices can't be beat. Oriental Art Gallery is at 1340 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA. Open 1pm-6m, everyday.

Below are some of the process steps for my Shakyamuni pin design. I always start with loose pencil (and sometimes ballpoint pen) sketches. For this, I did more refined sketches digitally in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro using reference from other Buddha imagery online. Once I arrived at a sketch I liked, I brought the art into Adobe Illustrator to make mechanical lines and solid areas of black. The starburst and radiating lines came late in the process after reading that Shakyamuni Buddha's body is made of light. Reversing the chest and arm out in color also helped it stand out against the robes. Lastly, I needed to simplify the design further so that it would look okay at a height of only 33 millimeters tall.

Process Steps in Creating the Buddha Design