Badge Trends? - Page 3

lovespink88 · #31 10-30-2009, 12:51 PM

I'm pretty sure the majority of my chapter got the plain gold badge due to costs. I honestly think maybe only five got either the 3 pearl badge or 15 pearl badge (the only other badges available at the time).

Also, I'm pretty sure just about everyone got the yellow gold option. Since we were a colony, we get to wear our colony pins with our badge, and I think a lot of sisters thought it would look weird if they had a white gold badge with a yellow gold colony pin.

I'd imagine that now that there are a TON of new badge options that new members are going to start getting different badges. I hope to get either the vintage 20 pearl badge or the one that amanda6035 pictured up there ^^^ someday.

AOII Angel · #32 10-30-2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lovespink88

I'm pretty sure the majority of my chapter got the plain gold badge due to costs. I honestly think maybe only five got either the 3 pearl badge or 15 pearl badge (the only other badges available at the time).

Also, I'm pretty sure just about everyone got the yellow gold option. Since we were a colony, we get to wear our colony pins with our badge, and I think a lot of sisters thought it would look weird if they had a white gold badge with a yellow gold colony pin.

I'd imagine that now that there are a TON of new badge options that new members are going to start getting different badges. I hope to get either the vintage 20 pearl badge or the one that amanda6035 pictured up there ^^^ someday.

What does your colony pin look like?

honeychile · #33 10-30-2009, 01:26 PM

When I was an active, everyone got at least the pin with pearls and a guard. To not order at least pearls was to question the initiate's loyalty to the chapter. My initiation pin is white gold (which I never wear now!) with pearls and sapphire points. It's the white gold version of the one seen on most ADPi publications.

Then my chapter went through a period of the "poverty pin" - the plainest one possible. Many alumnae just shook their heads, as the price wasn't much less than the pearls.

Last weekend, I noticed that every sister has at least the pearls and guard again! Obviously, it goes through stages, and we're in a pleasant one again.

We have a lot of options for pins, but not quite as many as there before we changed companies. I'm fairly certain that the only thing not allowed is the double rows of diamonds, which is only for the Grand Council.

AZ-AlphaXi · #34 10-30-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

What does your colony pin look like?

Here's the link to the insignia page on the Alpha Xi Delta web site ...

http://www.alphaxidelta.org/index.ph...category=About

basically the colony pin is the regular new member pin except all in gold with a link chain encircling the pin.

Most colony members I've know wear their colony pin as their guard after initiation.

SydneyK · #35 10-30-2009, 01:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by honeychile

Then my chapter went through a period of the "poverty pin" - the plainest one possible. Many alumnae just shook their heads, as the price wasn't much less than the pearls.

Last weekend, I noticed that every sister has at least the pearls and guard again! Obviously, it goes through stages, and we're in a pleasant one again.

This is sad to me. I love my plain pin just as much as my jeweled one. It means just as much to me, if not more, since it's the first pin I got. I hope there aren't alumnae who looked at my beautiful, but plain, diamond pin and shook their heads, hoping to return to a "pleasant" pin stage.

This "poverty" pin is one of my greatest treasures, and is plenty pleasant to me.

ISUKappa · #36 10-30-2009, 01:40 PM

One of my goals is to rescue a plain gold badge from the earlier part of the 1900s. Some of them are absolutely amazing, even plain.

Munchkin03 · #37 10-30-2009, 01:43 PM

We have the 22 crown pearl badge in yellow gold, which I thought was the only option. It was the only option my chapter offered and I thought it was just grand. About a year and a half after initiation, I met sisters from a chapter at a smaller unhoused school and they had the 3 pearl badge. They said that a lot of them worked to pay for their dues and the price difference was a big deal to a college student. Now they have white gold badges as well. So many options! I know they're trying to work with different financial backgrounds and tastes, but it's weird to me still.

chopperdude · #38 10-30-2009, 01:48 PM

My guys get the plain badge as it is figured in to our initiation fees. Man, there are some very nice pins out there.

AOII Angel · #39 10-30-2009, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

Here's the link to the insignia page on the Alpha Xi Delta web site ...

http://www.alphaxidelta.org/index.ph...category=About

basically the colony pin is the regular new member pin except all in gold with a link chain encircling the pin.

Most colony members I've know wear their colony pin as their guard after initiation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SydneyK

This is sad to me. I love my plain pin just as much as my jeweled one. It means just as much to me, if not more, since it's the first pin I got. I hope there aren't alumnae who looked at my beautiful, but plain, diamond pin and shook their heads, hoping to return to a "pleasant" pin stage.

This "poverty" pin is one of my greatest treasures, and is plenty pleasant to me.

Thanks, AZ-Alpha Xi. I guess I should have looked

SydneyK...I love the plain, shiny badges, too, but I have to say that I'm a little biased towards the jeweled and chased ones over time because they hold up better. The plain gold scratches up so easy and looks kinda icky....I bought a really pretty 10k Gold badge on eBay, and I'm so careful to keep it from getting scratched.

Smile_Awhile · #40 10-30-2009, 02:23 PM

We have the option of badges with 3 pearls, or one with 22 pearls, or with all pearls but 1, 2, or 3 diamonds, or all diamonds. We can also get them in white gold, as well as yellow gold. One of the coolest options, in my opinion, is the "vintage" badges. These only come in all pearl or above configurations, and are slightly bigger than the others. The differences are minute, but noticeable up close.

My badge is the basic: 3 pearls in yellow gold. Most girls in my chapter have yellow gold badges. The main reason for this, in my opinion, is our new member pin. We're allowed to wear both our new member pin and our badge together, and there is no option for a white gold new member pin. Most of the girls of our chapters want their pins to match!

Most of our girls also work for their dues, so the basic design (3 pearl) is a lot more common than then embellished ones. A few girls in my chapter have rescued badges off of Ebay that they wear- these tend to be the embellished ones. I also know that many of us hope to "upgrade" our badges someday.

In our chapter, we also have a "president's badge" that is passed down to each chapter president. It's bigger than our traditional badges, and it's jeweled (with what, I'm not exactly sure- but it's not just pearls or diamonds!). It's simply beautiful.

SydneyK · #41 10-30-2009, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

SydneyK...I love the plain, shiny badges, too, but I have to say that I'm a little biased towards the jeweled and chased ones over time because they hold up better.

I like the jeweled ones, too. But there's a difference, I think, between preferring one type for yourself and judging (i.e. shaking heads at) a sister's pin choice.

VandalSquirrel · #42 10-30-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by agzg

Other squirrels can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think any jewel is allowed on our badge but the diamond, because the all-diamond badge is only worn by the international president or past international presidents.

The most common (if a member wears a jeweled badge) is 14 pearls, or 13 pearls and one diamond. Mine is plain (no jewels).

In my chapter the tradition varies by tree. So, in my tree, one badge is handed down from sister-mother to sister-daughter and so on. I think that badge is close to 15 or 16 pass-downs by now. The sister-mother then gets a new badge. They don't generally get to pick unless they want to pay more than they already have (new members do pay for their badge in their new member dues). I think that's why we do plain, too, to keep the costs down for new members. In other trees, sometimes the sister-mother "loans" her badge to her daughter, but then takes it back when the new badges come in.

I have my grandmother's 14 pearl badge, and never received the plain badge that was ordered for me. I don't mind that the chapter is using it for new members at initiation, and only ordered it because it was required for one to be issued to me. We can get a diamond point badge, which I really like, but I'd rather have a vintage one as the newer style is so much thinner and I'd rather "recycle" a badge than get a new one I'm not thrilled about.

What I really want is a guard that is the armorial bearings as I never get to display them and I think they are pretty awesome.

LucyKKG · #43 10-30-2009, 03:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ISUKappa

There's a great Historically Speaking on this topic on the Kappa site.

I thought I had read that, but apparently not! Woo! Gotta go see!

Quote:

Originally Posted by amanda6035

Oooh purdy!

After all of this badge discussion, I pulled mine out just to look at it. Maybe I should dress up a little and wear it today just cause I can!

AZTheta · #44 10-30-2009, 03:26 PM

At the University of Arizona, the new initiates are given the "standard" badge (below, left); the shape of the kite has remained unchanged since first designed by our four founders. I haven't noticed that the actives are ordering the more decorative badges (options for a larger size, yellow gold, white gold, pearls, diamonds (!), various other synthetic stones such as emeralds, rubies, turquoise, onyx, opal, aquamarine, on and on - but no topaz that I could find). I pasted a few pictures below, but there are so many other choices!

The actives are always very interested in my pearl badge, which I purchased after I was initiated. At that time we were not given a badge, but everyone in my pledge class purchased one, except for one member who inherited a badge from her grandmother (and that was GORGEOUS!). We did not wear chapter guards, for the most part; that seems to have been a regional item, and definitely I see lots of guards and dangles now.

Personally, I love the "white gold" option; to me, it resembles Sterling Silver. Living in the Southwest, I wear mainly silver jewelry and some day hope to have a white gold badge.

Occasionally a unique badge will surface on Ebay, such as the recent badge that was clearly custom made with opals. IMO that badge will find its way back into Theta hands, but that is a story for another day.

Left to right: Standard "plain" badge, pearl badge, alternating pearl and stone badge, stone badge. Just thought you good people would like an idea... the badges come in two sizes, small crown and large crown.

SthrnZeta · #45 10-30-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucyKKG

I thought I had read that, but apparently not! Woo! Gotta go see!

Oooh purdy!

After all of this badge discussion, I pulled mine out just to look at it. Maybe I should dress up a little and wear it today just cause I can!

Me too! I love my badge even more now that I got the guard and dangles. But, I'm still waiting on my rush counselor dangle to arrive - Herff Jones sent me the Rush Coordinator dangle instead and they're definitely not the same job...

HIJACK: Is it customary to get a Big Sister dangle for each little you have or just one for having been a big sister?