Looking for a beautiful gift for Diwali this year. Read On…

This year wish Happy Deepawali with our Dazzling Diyas. Paired with bamboo less incense sticks this auspicious gifts feels quite complete. Packed in a festive red gift box our dazzling diyas are a delightful Diwali gift for business, family and friends.

Our Dazzling Diyas are crafted from the finest quality porcelains once casted into beautiful star shape, individual pieces go through a unique and specialized process of electro-plating. In this process layers of metal in microns are coated on diyas turning our porcelain diyas into gorgeous and dazzling diyas. The coating of metal is quite durable it does not turn black from the flame of a lighted diya. Electroplating on porcelain is a very specialized art and a complicated process reason why this new craft is limited to luxurious porcelain products.

We have also designed the gift box keeping in mind that most corporate customers need to send their Diwali gifts all across India if not the world. This easy to pack and sturdy gift box can easily be put in courier without the need of extra padding. However we add a simple white outer box so that this gift reaches beautifully packed without any scratches.

We are really excited as this is first gift Pinnacle has exclusively designed for Diwali. We have just launched it and currently only taking advance bookings and we already have quite a few orders lined up. It feels nice when people like your work especially since we have been working on it for the past five months.

Happy Deepawali !!

Dazzling Diya Set includes: 4 Dazzling Diyas; 12 Bambooless Incense Sticks; 1 Incense Stick Holder; 1 Diwali Card; 1 Gift Box .

Dimensions : Diya: 3.25″ x 3.25″ x 1″ height (each), Incense sticks: 5″ height (each), Incense stick holder: 1″ diameter, Diwali Card: 5″x3″, Gift Box: 8″x8″x2″ height.

Looking for a fun desk gift or better still a crazy one. Look no further our Butt Station will pass with flying colors. Its rare to find a crazy looking fun gift which does have good functionality built into it. Somehow the two don’t seem to go together. But our [...]

Looking for a fun desk gift or better still a crazy one. Look no further our Butt Station will pass with flying colors. Its rare to find a crazy looking fun gift which does have good functionality built into it. Somehow the two don’t seem to go together. But our Butt station is a perfect marriage. You can store pins, Post IT pads and pens all at one place. But I think the part i like the most is the bowl which stores paper clips. Our little man has magnetic butts so when ever you need pins just lift our man and remove pins from his butts. Sounds crazy and fun too.

Plating is commonly used as short form for ‘Electro Plating’. Technically speaking it is a chemical process in which a product, typically metal is coated with tiny ions of another metal through a process of electrolysis. I am not getting into the technical or more specifically chemical details of electrolysis [...]

Plating is commonly used as short form for ‘Electro Plating’. Technically speaking it is a chemical process in which a product, typically metal is coated with tiny ions of another metal through a process of electrolysis. I am not getting into the technical or more specifically chemical details of electrolysis but certainly would like to talk a little more about the application of plating. Electroplating plays a huge role in our awards and promotional industry.

Almost always awards and gifts are casted in bare metal and than plated with the desired metallic colors such as silver, chrome, gold, copper, black just to name a few. There are many many variations within each color as well, such as matt gold, bright gold, champagne gold etc. Besides the fact that platting makes the object look very impressive it also plays an important role of protecting the award or the gift from rusting.

Many times plating is also done to bring down the cost. For example many awards and gifts are casted in metal and than plated with real 24 karat gold or real silver. If platting is well done than once finished the awards and gifts look as if they are made entirely of real gold and real silver. This is used extensively to make artificial jewelry.

Now a days some very unusual substances are also electro plated. For example real flowers. Yes you heard it right. Real flowers. In fact rose flower plated in 24 karat gold is a very popular gift, especially as a romantic gift or a perfect gift for valentine. At Pinnacle how ever we have used it as an award, as a Thank you gesture gift to special employees and customers also as a long service award.

Hope now the term plating is absolutely clear if I could be of any additional help feel free to leave a comment below.

Need an exciting invitation idea for your next corporate event? Want to send a 3D invitation or a gift invitation but don’t know what to send? Not to worry. You are reading the right blog post. Following are the 5 great invitation ideas which have worked wonders every time we [...]

Need an exciting invitation idea for your next corporate event? Want to send a 3D invitation or a gift invitation but don’t know what to send? Not to worry. You are reading the right blog post. Following are the 5 great invitation ideas which have worked wonders every time we did them for our customers. Need more ideas as these don’t match up with your theme. No worries just write to us at customerservice@pinnacleworks.com and one of us would be happy to take this forward with you.

1. Put your message, theme or logo on a Shot Glass.

Small cute shot glasses always work wonders. They are easy to send. You could send a set of two or four depending on your theme and message. Most artworks looks really nice and best of all it usually ends up as a collectors item unless you have some very hideous artwork which people will not like to keep. Assuming this will never be the case with you. This is a must try item.

2. Invite etched on a Wine Bottle.

The mere mention of wine, and something magical happens. You can send you entire invitation card etched on the wine bottle. It makes for a perfect gift invitation. This works real wonders especially if you are celebrating a milestone achieved or some other special occasion.

If you are sending this within India the trouble is that you can only hand deliver them you cannot courier wine bottles as this is illegal.

3. Send an Engraved Coffee Mug.

Don’t want to associate with liquor? Send an engraved coffee mug. Works just as well and if it is creatively done or its a personalized mug, than chances are that it will find its rightful place on the desk.

4. Sand Timer

Sand timers have something of an old world charm. Its been around for centuries but even today when people like to own one. It makes for a good gift invitation. I personally like the sand timers which are finished in and old rustic style metal. Looks quite nice. if you have enough quantities your message or logo can also be embossed in the metal on the timer.

5. Engrave it on Stones

Small pebble stones crafted by nature over tens and hundreds of years and now you get to put your message on these beautiful pebbles in a matter of days and send it as your 3D invitation. This works even better if you are sending an invite for a green event.

Hope you find these ideas for sending 3D invitation and gift invitation helpful. Do leave me a comment or your question below. Your comments are an inspiration for me to keep writing.

When I started Pinnacle Blogs I had all good intentions of writing religiously and posting a new article every 2-3 days. Since our aim for this site to be a reference guide its no fun if people visit this blog and it only has scanty information. But posting new articles [...]

When I started Pinnacle Blogs I had all good intentions of writing religiously and posting a new article every 2-3 days. Since our aim for this site to be a reference guide its no fun if people visit this blog and it only has scanty information. But posting new articles every 2-3 days is a big challenge. Especially when we don’t want to outsource the writing and want to write it all by our selves. We want each of our writing really to come from our own experience.

So my due apologies to you if you have not found what you wanted on this site and it did not match up to your expectation. Trust me this will change and hopefully you will have a great reference site with lots of information. Soon.

Dazzling pins perfectly finished to the T but not sure what these tiny little pins can do for you and your brand. Don’t worry just read this post. Its packed with time tested ideas. Ideas which you can put to use instantly. 1. Let your Sales Force embrace your brand [...]

Dazzling pins perfectly finished to the T but not sure what these tiny little pins can do for you and your brand. Don’t worry just read this post. Its packed with time tested ideas. Ideas which you can put to use instantly.

1. Let your Sales Force embrace your brand and your message
If you have lots of people on ground meeting customers day in and day out. Giving a company pin to every one is a great idea. It makes for a good impression, people feel connected they feel they belong to a tribe. Don’t worry our pins don’t spoil clothes and since they are of real good quality people would like to wear them.

2. Promote your Special Event
Planning for a special event and you want to add a special touch. Let a custom event pin work a little for you. There are many ways in which lapel pins can help you promote your special event.

* Send an event pin (a custom lapel pin with the event theme) along with the invitation. If you are taking people abroad or to Goa or any other exotic place you could include the theme in the event pin. Lapel pin will look more interesting.
* Welcome every one with the event pin at the venue. Every one wears the pin during the event, once the event is over the memory and the message last longer with these pins.

3. A perfect Donor Gift which never fails
Are you an NGO? Or trying to raising money for a good cause? Make a donor’s pin in support of the cause and gift it to people who donate a certain fixed amount of money. People who contribute money get their own donor lapel pin which they can proudly wear. Its just a small gift but it feels real good. It also helps to spread the message silently. People may not go around telling that they have donated money or they strongly believe in something but yes they can always wear their pin and when any one asks, the whole story is shared.

4. Launching a new product or service?
Mark a small budget for Lapel Pins. It will go a long way.

* Distribute these pins for on ground promotion.

* Distribute it to limited first purchases.

* Make a 3D pin for the product and gift that as a memorable keep sake for the launch of the new product.

Compared to all other marketing expenses lapel pins cost far less but something of great value which delivers high on a brand recall value.

5. Recognition Pins
Though I am writing about this at the end but recognition pins are no less important. Recognition pins work very well. People who win these pins as awards can wear them proudly or pin them up on their pin board. Its works pretty much like the stars people get in armed forces which they wear proudly on their uniform. Recognition pin promise high visibility yet they are quite subtle. Additionally they are cost effective and any day a better option than poor quality low budget awards.

Hope these ideas work for you. if you have some better ideas which you would like to share please feel free to add a comment below. There is one more post on lapel pins which talks about different finishes in lapel pins. Chances are in you have made this far into my post you will find my other post equally informative. Click here to read the Post on Lapel Pins 6 different finishes to choose from.

Article talks about an interesting story about the invention of glass.

Recently I bought this beautiful book ‘The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. This book has one complete chapter dedicated to Glass. The book effortlessly transported me into a time when we humans lived in sync with earth and not as the most powerful creatures who’s hunger for resources never seems to slow down.

The book talks about the origins of glass; this is no ordinary story of invention where a scientist had his eureka moment. Instead its a story which can easily qualify to be in a children’s bed time story book. It goes like this…

“Once a ship belonging to some traders in natural soda (nitrum) put ashore here ( near the river Belus) and that they scattered along the shore to prepare a meal. Since, however, no stones for supporting their cauldrons were forthcoming, they rested them on lumps of soda from their cargo. When these became heated and were completely mingled with the sand on the beach a strange liquid flowed in steams; and this, it is said, was the origin of glass. (Pliny the Elder, 1st century AD). So the origin of glass is some what obscure but long predates the account given by Pliny the Elder.” (The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. Page 49)

Honestly up till now I always thought that glass was invented some where during the industrial revolution and of course I was wrong by hundreds and thousands of years. Well so much for my history knowledge. I found few other interesting notes which I found interesting.

* The first known objects in glass were beads and amulets dating to 2500 BC from Mesopotamia region.
* The first glass vessels was probably made before 1500 BC around western asia.
* Glass Blowing, a technique use to produce our artistic awards such as Regency Crystal Award and Signature Crystal Award was discovered sometime around 1st century BC on teh coast of Syria.
* Float glass or window glass which we use for awards was a roman invention used in Italy around 1st century AD.
(The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World’ Edited by Brian M. Fagan. Page 49-51)

As I mentioned all the above information is from the above mentioned book if this information is not correct please leave me a note and I would correct it here for every ones reference.

Planning to make your own custom lapel pin. Great Idea! Confused which finish is right for you? Worry no more. I have explained 6 of the most popular finishes below. Choose the one which fits your artwork the best. Still have doubts and questions write to us us at customerservice@pinnacleworks.com [...]

Planning to make your own custom lapel pin. Great Idea! Confused which finish is right for you? Worry no more. I have explained 6 of the most popular finishes below. Choose the one which fits your artwork the best. Still have doubts and questions write to us us at customerservice@pinnacleworks.com and we would be happy to help you.

1. Dye Struck Enamel Color Lapel Pins :

Each piece of lapel pin is casted in metal from a mould. Once casted all pins are individually polished, plated in gold or silver color and finally sent for color filling. Vibrant enamel colors are filled as per your artwork in the lapel pin one color at a time. Finally your perfect lapel pins are ready for you.

When your lapel pins are dye struck your artwork appears as high relief. That is if you run your finger over the pin you can feel all the lines of the artwork in metal quite distinctly.

2. Photo Etched Enamel Color Lapel Pin :
Lapel pins made from this process look almost similar to the Dye struck enamel color pins the only difference being the metal pin is not made from a dye. Your artwork is etched on metal. All your lines in your artwork look much finer in metal. If you run your finger over the pins you cannot feel the lines if your artwork clearly.

3. Dye Struck Copper lapel pin without coloring :
Rustic, macho, different. You can call this finish anything. Different people have different reasons to go for this finish. This pin is casted from a mould and platted with copper. No additional colors are filled in this pin.

4. Printing on Metal with lamination :
Make no mistake this is no ordinary printing. Your artwork is printed through a special process directly on metal and than laminated for that perfect gloss finish. Many times an artwork cannot be casted in metal from a dye. For example our Lapel pin for the Indian Flag. There was no way we could make a perfect chakra with 24 spikes in the Indian Flag Pin using the casting process and than filling in enamel colors.

5. 3D Model Lapel Pins;
Yes, we can make 3D or a 2D design for a lapel pin. In this process first a perfect clay model is made by an artist for the object looking at various pictures from different angle and than a master mould is prepared from which the pieces are casted. Once casted each piece is polished and perfected before plating in silver or gold color. This method needs detail and precision working especially in you are making a scaled down model of aircrafts.

6. Custom Cut acrylic pins and badges :
Made from acrylic sheets this is the fastest way to get two color Lapel. Any custom shape is possible. However no additional color can be added. We can ship these pins in 3 days after artwork approval.

Hope this information was helpful. If you have questions do feel free to leave me a comment.

New to engraved coffee mugs. No worry. Just read this blog and hopefully all your questions would be answered.

This questions comes up many times when our customer hear first time about our engraved mugs. Its quite understandable since engraved mugs are rather uncommon. Personally speaking I just love engraved mugs. In some manner it is more like an everyday art piece.

Engraving on a coffee mug is done one piece at a time, pretty labor intensive and a time consuming process. Little wonder why it cost more than commonly available printed mugs which can be printed all at once in batches of hundreds if not thousands.

When we engrave on a coffee mug we are actually removing the top color on the coffee mug revealing the inside bare white mug. Engraving comes out best when done on a a dark color mug as the sharp contrast between the dark outer color and white bare mug makes the artwork look good.

Following are some more questions we are commonly asked. Hope they will be helpful. If you have some specific questions do feel free to ask me and I would be happy to reply on Just Ask Pinnacle.

Are engraved mugs safe?

Absolutely. We have been making them for over 10 years and many more people around the world have been making it even longer. No complaints till now.

Does the artwork get spoiled over time?

No. The artwork stays the same. The only way it can get spoiled is if you break the mug.

Can you fill in color in engraved mugs?

Technically color filling can be done. But practically I don’t advice color filling especially if you are using it for drinking coffee or tea. The color will come out as you will be washing the mugs after every use. Their are no permanent colors which are not guaranteed to fade with repeated washing so we never advice color filling on coffee mugs. But yes we have done it for many of our customers as they were using their personalised mugs essentially as a pen stand.( see Engraving Mug with color filling)

Hope this post was helpful if I have left any question unanswered feel free leave me a comment below and I would be happy to answer.

This question has come up many times especially since we started selling hand crafted crystal and art glass awards so I decided to make this my this weeks blog topic. Yes ! even a good quality crystal can have fine lines and bubbles. However a good quality Optic Crystal should [...]

This question has come up many times especially since we started selling hand crafted crystal and art glass awards so I decided to make this my this weeks blog topic.
Yes ! even a good quality crystal can have fine lines and bubbles. However a good quality Optic Crystal should not have any fine lines or bubbles. But remember despite having bubbles and fine lines many times crystal can be more expensive than optic crystal and things made from art glass even more expensive. Having fine lines or bubbles is not the only deciding factor for either price or quality of a product. Confused. Don’t worry. Just read on and in a matter of minutes you will have more clarity on what is Optic Crystal, Crystal and Art Glass?
Firstly all crystal or optic crystal or art glass or lead glass or float glass belong to one family Glass. Yes you have read it right even crystal is fundamentally glass.
Glass is turned into crystal by adding lead oxide. Lead oxide makes the glass clear, heavier, softer and more refractive. There are many different grades of crystal depending on how much lead is added to glass. Again content of lead alone may not qualify for a better quality of crystal. A number of other factors such as final application the process of making are equally important.
Many of the crystal items are made directly from molten glass either by hand or by machines and this is the reason why fine lines and tiny bubbles can come while making pieces as air tries to escape hot molten glass. But with advance techniques and using better quality raw material and workmanship this can be avoided in a machine controlled environment like when drinking glasses are made but when it comes to handcrafting each piece which is especially the case in our awards industry this is is not possible and fine lines and bubbles are bound to come in lead crystal pieces. Click here to see an Example of Lead Crystal Award, Hand crafted Crystal Award.

Optic Crystal on the other hand is 100% lead free crystal. This type of crystal is very hard and perfect for engraving. 90% of our crystal awards are made of Optic Crystal. Within Optic Crystal also there are various varieties the best among the lot is K9 A grade crystal. This is the crystal which does not have a yellowish tinge or turn yellow with time. In this crystal having fine lines and even small bubbles inside the crystal is a poor sign of quality. Click here to see our range of Optic Crystal Awards.
Hope this help. As always please share your comments below and if there is some new knowledge you can share I would be happy to learn.