Rochester Mini Maker Faire 2016 Review

Well, I did five PREVIEWS of my project for the Rochester Mini Maker Faire, I suppose I should do a REVIEW of it too!

The Rochester Mini Maker Faire 2016 was a great time.  The show began at 9 am and ended at 5 pm. We had someone in our booth until around 4 pm, when I turned to my wife who was there all day with me and I said, "Look, the booth doesn't have anyone in it!"  So you can see it was BUSY!

I was able to finish the stamps for all five of the characters.  All five were big hits.  I didn't keep track of how many of each got made, but it seemed that maybe Tory the Mermaid was the front runner, as I think the demographic of the attendees in my booth trended female, and the mechanics of the tail is hard to pass up.

What was equally great was the number of people to did "mash-ups."  We had a great assortment, and lots of combinations of characters.  I love it when someone uses a part for which it wasn't intended, like an arm gets used for an ear.  You will see a lot of them in the album below because I really tried to get as many as I could captured in the moment.

We definitely had more kids than adults.  The littlest ones really needed help with the scissors, so my wife and I helped cut out a lot of shapes.  As someone who works with stamps nearly everyday, I am still astonished at the folks that I can tell have never picked up a rubber stamp before.  My stamps are not mounted to wood, so that can be confusing at first, but getting people to get a decent print can be done, but it takes guidance.

One unexpected thing that happened was my choice in inks.  I specifically picked dye based ink.  It dries way faster than pigment ink, and that was important since folks would be going right from the stamping step to the cutting step.  If i had picked pigment ink, it would have smeared. Dye based ink however stains.  Stains fingers.  Stains fabric.  So I had to put up a little warning sign about that.  I think I may have only had one family who didn't do it because of that though.  It was still the right choice, but it took a couple days for my fingers to look normal again.

I loved this project so much.  I loved working with my artist friends to bring some of their characters to a different medium.   I loved helping folks MAKE something from scratch.  I loved carving these stamps.  I really want to make more of these, and maybe get some into my Etsy shop for 2017.  The last few years I have recycled my Maker Faire project for the ArtAwake event. So if you missed it, keep your eyes out for ArtAwake in 2017 and maybe you will be able to make one of these for yourself!

CLICK on the picture to see the whole album of photos.

Rochester Mini Maker Faire Preview: Mermaid Tory

I will be presenting a new project for my third year at the Rochester Mini Make Faire on Saturday, November 19th, from 10 am to 5 pm at the Rochester Convention Center. Year one and year two were awesome, and I'm very excited about this year as well.

This year I am doing a project I am calling the Articulated Paper Creature Mash-Up.  That's a mouth full, but what is means is that you can come to my booth, stamp an image of various body parts of a character on cardstock, cut them out, and assemble the character with brass fasteners to create a poseable/jointed/articulated paper doll.  I have hand carved each of the pieces into a rubber stamp by hand, so you can build your creation from the ground up.

Oh, you mean like a paper doll that my grandma used to play with?  Well, sort of, but not exactly. The characters and creatures are not just little cute little girls with pony-tails.  The characters are from other local artist's imaginations.  You can build a single character, or mix-and-match pieces together to create a brand new mash-up.


Today I'm featuring Mermaid Tory!

Tory O'Neil is the woman behind Mermaid Tory and Friends.  Tory is a character performer and costume maker.  Tory says on her Facebook page that she began her career performing as various princesses for a "princess company."  Then she decided to create her own costumes and characters. As a character performer, she makes appearances at hospitals, festivals, parities, and museums.

Mermaid Tory's tail is an art piece in itself.  Made from neoprene and thousands of sequins, each carefully stitched into it's place, it is truly a show stopper.  That alone would make it incredible, but what takes it to another level is the fact that Tory can swim with it on.  That's right, it is waterproof, and she can swim with it!

One reason I was interested in doing a paper doll of Mermaid Tory was the fact that she has a strong sense of character.  Each of the paper dolls I carved this year had a personality beyond the paper. Some of the characters, like Fidget and Budd Jett, are three dimensional sculptures.  Ms. Lucha and Maker Kid are 2D illustrations.  Mermaid Tory though is a living, performing, art piece.  I think this variety nicely shows a range of what character art can be!

I'm very happy with how Tory's doll came out.  Carving each scale on her tail took a good deal of time, more so than some of the other dolls.  As I kept turning the block, and making a cut, just like the one before it, and repeating it over and over, I thought about how Tory had to stitch on each sequin, one after another, on her tail.  You get into a rhythm, a bit of zen, but you also wonder when you will finish it!

I'm very excited to share Tory the Mermaid's paper doll to the public at the Maker Faire this Saturday.

The Empire Stamps Back

Back in November, I participated as an exhibitor at the Rochester Mini Maker Faire.  This was my second year (review from 2014). This year my project was called "The Empire Stamps Back."  I had various hand carved rubber stamps that I made, and instructions on how to doodle Star Wars characters from finger and thumb prints.  Participants could use these to create a free postcard to take home. The inspiration came from the book, "Star Wars Thumb Doodles" by Klutz.  With the upcoming release of "The Force Awakens" I thought this would be the perfect year to let kids play around with the Star Wars universe.

Here are some pictures you can click through of prints I made leading up to the event, then some from the Faire itself...


The project was a big hit with the kids especially, and several adults.  The kids were willing to jump right in and take a risk.  Many of the adults seemed intimidated to make a postcard, or get inky.  It was interesting watch this psychology all day.  The children would run up to the table, and start right in, while the adults would take two steps back into a supervisory pattern to watch their offspring make something.

I didn't get a chance to circulate much around the Faire, but several adults circled back to tell me that my table was their kids favorite.

The project really helped me think about how each of these characters are made up of different shapes.  I know illustrators really start with shapes as the structure of a character, and this project helped me reverse engineer what some of the shapes were for humans and aliens alike.

May the 4th B w/ U

Ah, May 4th... Star Wars day.  May the fourth be with you.  Only geeks would come up with this stuff (myself included).  It is so cheesy it's tasty.

So much of my playtime as a child of the 80's revolved around Star Wars.  I had nearly every action figure, and would spend hours inside and out playing with them.  In fact I think there is still a Luke Skywalker in Besbin outfit buried somewhere under my parents pine tree near the fence.  I have shown my daughter the original trilogy so "the circle is now complete," as Vader would say.

In honor of Star Wars Day, and in anticipation of the upcoming Episode 7, the Force Awakens, I have posted a few photo's of rubber stamps that I carved for letterboxes several years ago.

Can you tell my favorite movie was Episode 4?

Now go check out my sister's blog and her works of art she posted for Star Wars day.

WXXI Arts in Focus Feature on JackBear Stamps (behind the scenes)

The story begins at the Rochester Mini Maker Faire.  My friend Dan Bentley, who makes the most incredible robot sculptures called Retrobots, had his 'bots on display near my table.  We were passing time as we waited for the doors to open.  He mentioned that he had been approached by WXXI producer Tom Dooley about being featured on a new program that would be called Arts in Focus. The show would showcase artists from Rochester and around the country.  He asked if he should put in a good word for me.  "Sure!" I said.

Before the end of the day, Tom Dooley who had stopped by to talk to Dan and check out the Maker Faire came over to my table to introduce himself.  I explained what I did, gave him my card, and he said he would get in contact with me.  I was a little surprised when he did, and we set up a time for him to come to my home and do an interview.  He said he would like to do the interview in my creative space.  I don't think he knew that at that moment that my creative space was a cold basement room with pretty crummy light.

Tom showed up at my house in late December with videographer Jim Day.  I said we could shoot in the dining room with good light, or the living room that was a bit less echo-y. They said they wanted to see where I worked.  As soon as they walked into the basement they said, "yes, let's do it here." Fortunately I worked for days cleaning it up.  Not too much, I wanted to leave artwork from my friends in RNEST, and that made by my daughter to remain in the background had they chose to shoot in this space.  Jim asked up to give him a little time to set up a few lights and get things set up in the room.  Tom and I talked a bit about how the show would go and I pried into his world travels a bit.

Jim called us back to the basement and we got the microphone and sounds checks done.  Then Tom asked me questions.  I did not know what the questions would be before time.  I was confident in being able to field most questions they would have.  After doing some podcasting in the past, I wasn't afraid of the camera or microphone.  Unlike podcasting, I didn't have the ability to self censor myself, or do something over.  However, I had trust that the pro's at WXXI like Tom and his editors would be able to cut things together to make me sound good, and to tell a coherent story, even if I wasn't able to do that on the fly.  I think all the questions went great, until they got to the question I had dreaded, but knew would come up, "how is what you do art?"

Well, I fumbled my way through the question, going in very esoteric directions.  After I finished, Tom asked me the question in a different way, and asked me to clarify some things.  I don't remember exactly what he asked, but it worked, and I answered the question in a different way that didn't sound so idiotic.  I have always viewed my work as a bit more mechanic, more craftsman.  But after answering the questions Tom presented, I came to a new conclusion.  Sometimes my work is very "paint by numbers," but other times I am making artistic decisions about what to include, what to leave out, what mood or movement do I want to bring to the stamp.  And wouldn't you know, this was a very important part of the interview that made the final cut.

After about an hour of talking, we moved over to the carving table and I worked on a stamp of the Bausch & Lomb building from the Rochester skyline.  I felt very comfortable in this roll, as Jim worked his way around the table getting different angles.  I always wanted some video of me doing this, so this was cool to see it happening.

Tom and Jim finished up and we said our farewells.  They informed me that the segment would be cut down from a couple hours of footage to about 5 minutes.  I didn't envy them that job, but knew as professionals they had it covered.  I emailed a few high-res scans that they wanted to use in the segment, and I waited patiently for the premiere.

I was a bit shocked when the show got advertised in the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper in mid-January, and they used a picture of me carving!  I didn't see that one coming.  Cat was out of the bag now!  People at work started calling me Jack Bear.  Oh boy, time to embrace this thing.

Well, the day came, and the show aired on WXXI on February 6, at 8:30 pm (prime time people!)  I DVR'd it, and watched it with my wife later that evening when she got off of work.  I crossed my fingers and hoped I wouldn't sound ridiculous.  My fears were immediately relieved when I heard my voice and knew I had been well taken care of.  And what good company I had on the show; Ward Stare for crying out loud!  Man, am I honored to be on the same show as this talent.



So that is the behind the scene story of my interview!  Thank you so much to Dan, Tom, Jim, and all the other behind the camera folks that work to put this show on the air at WXXI.  I'm on cloud nine.

Rochester Mini Maker Faire Review

Rochester Mini Maker Faire took place at the Rochester Convention Center on Saturday, November 22.  I had a blast being a maker on exhibit there!  I would recommend it to any artist/maker/creator for next year!  I found it very well organized, and attendance was great.  It was a wonderful opportunity to share my work, and make connections I never would have made if I was sitting at home carving stamps in my basement.


I created a series of stamps that I called "Godzilla's Monster Melee." I wanted to make a series of stamps in homage of the giant monsters from japanese films that I grew up loving as a kid.  The stamps would be used to stamp on blank postcards that attendees could save as a free curio, or send to a friend.

I wanted the monsters to have  local focus.  What better way than to imagine the monsters had come to Rochester, and were battling it out in the Rochester skyline.  I carved the familiar buildings like the Xerox, Bausch & Lomb, and Times Square buildings.  I also carved the Anthony/Douglas bridge.  To my surprise one of the bridge designers (Howard Ressel) attended the Maker Faire and I got to meet him, and make a couple more stamps of our amazing bridge for him.  What an honor!

I chose a host of the kaiju monsters.  Of course, the King of Monsters himself, Godzilla was star. But I also tried to hit some of this allies, like Mothra and Jet Jaguar.  I did Gamera also (who is not technically in the TOHO Godzilla pantheon) so you could set up a dream style match with the giant turtle vs. some of Godzilla's most famous opponents.  To face off against Godzilla or his allies were Gigan, Rodan, Hedorah (Smog Monster), and the MUTO from the newest Godzilla film from 2014.  In the near future I plan to add Mechagodzilla, King Kong and Ghidorah, but didn't have time to get them ready for the Make Faire.

Since carving these stamps I have fallen back in love with this genre and am gobbling up all the old DVDs I can find of these films. An honored guest I also got to meet was Prof. Joanne Bernardi. She teaches a film studies course at the the University of Rochester called "Atomic Creatures."  It focuses on this genre of films, and students watch and study films like Rodan, Gojira, and King Kong.  Her family attended the Faire and made several postcards.  I hope I can take her course in the future and really immerse myself further in the genre.


If you missed the Rochester Mini Maker Faire, stay tuned.  The Monster Melee will likely make a return in 2015 at other events.  For more pictures from this event, check out my Flickr album.

* Godzilla is a licensed trademark of the TOHO Co., so sorry I can't make any of these stamps or postcards for sale.

Origin Story

original photo

First I will confess I am tired of origin stories.  As a comic book reader in my youth I read so many stories about how superheroes came into being.  And very often the comic book writers rewrote those stories with new details, so I got those stories over and over.  Now that all the Marvel and DC movies are coming out to the big screen, I am seeing all these stories again.  I get it though, producers need to introduce the characters to new audiences.  Origin stories answer questions like "Why" and "How" the characters got to where they are now.  Who will ever forget: Adam and Eve, A babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, the Earth on Turtle's Back, or Krypton exploding.  They are both memorable and powerful.

I have probably written enough about how I became involved in a hobby called letterboxing, my need to carve my first stamp, and my letterboxing handle "jackbear."

But an origin story that I haven't told in much detail is the one of how I turned an avocation into a vocation.  It answers the questions, "How did I create JackBear Stamps?"

It began with an email and a photograph in May of 2008.  I received a message on Atlas Quest, my favorite letterboxing website.  A letterboxer, going by the handle of JBBK, contacted me to carve a portrait stamp.  She was not confident in her own skills yet to carve faces, and she had a photo of her friend's boys (or maybe it was a relative?) that she wanted carved into a stamp to give to him as a gift. She wanted to know how much I charged.  I told her that I wasn't really carving for cash, but since I didn't know her at all up until this point, she could just order me some PZ Kut from Stampeaz.com, my carving medium of choice from my online supplier.  She was very pleased with that arrangement, and I had an opportunity to test my skills without too much pressure.

I ran the photo through some filters in photoshop, and managed to teach myself how to transform a full color photo into something black and white, and then into a line drawing that I could carve.  We worked out a size and I got started carving.

finished custom rubber stamp image

I don't remember how long it took me, but after I proofed it for the first time, I felt like I was onto something.  The biggest challenge for me, and many newer carvers, are "eyes."  If you don't get them right, the person looks strange.  If I had to carve the stamp again today, I would make a change or two, but for my first commissioned stamp for compensation I was pleased with the result.

The feedback I got was overwhelmingly positive. JBBK and the recipient of the stamp loved it, and I got some extra PZ Kut in the arrangement.  But more importantly, it sparked an idea in my head. Up until this point the people I knew through letterboxing all carved their own stamps.  No need for my services.  But after this transaction I realized there might be people who weren't confident yet in their carving skills, or they might have friends who were NOT in letterboxing that needed a stamp.  That had never occurred to me before.

Around the same time I had learned about Etsy.com.  Now there was a marketplace with low overhead that I could market my work through.  I rapidly researched how to set myself up as a business and get a sales tax number.  By that Fall I opened my etsy shop, and started selling stamps.

The rest is history as they say.  Every time I look at this stamp I think about how this was the one that started me on this journey of JackBear Stamps, and I will always remember it as part of my origin story.

Book Plates

Why do I love book plates?  Maybe it's the graphics.  Maybe it's the ownership of a great book.  Maybe it's the uniqueness and personalization. Maybe it's the Latin!

Whatever the reason I have carved a ton of great bookplates.  I took some quick snapshots of a few I have done and pictured them below. I keep a master book of all the stamps I have carved so I have a visula record of stamps I have carved before.  Some of the images were provided by the customer. Some of them were modified or designed by me.  Enjoy!

Guitar Effect Pedals and Rubber Stamps?

OK, I'll admit, I am not a musician.  I quit trombone in the sixth grade.  So when Terry T. at Push + Pull Pedals contacted me about getting a stamp of the Sputnik space probe I didn't know what he was doing with it.  Afterwards I saw a picture of it on his facebook, and BLAM! there is was.  With kickass LEDs and everything.

So I began to appreciate what it looked like (and man did it look sharp), but what did it do?  So if you are like me and don't know jack about guitars, you would google guitar effect pedals to find out that they are electronic devices that modify the tone, pitch, or sound of an electric guitar. If you want to hear what they do, here is a video of one of Terry's pedals in action, as posted by Youtube user Brett Kingman.

OK, so they look sharp and SOUND awesome!

I was very happy that Terry wanted a lucha mask stamp done for him. I dig wrestling, and have done some lucha masks for other custom orders in the past. He shot me a design and the dimensions and again was stoked to see it with LED eyes! He also picked up a fortune teller looking stamp from my etsy shop and put that on his Mindbender pedal. HA! Love it. You can check in what he has in stock at his etsy shop or check out his Facebook page for new pedals he is making by hand.


So that was rad, but what happened next kind of shocked me. A LOT of people follow Terry at Push + Pull Pedals, and I started getting some really nice feedback on the stamps. Before I know it, other people who like Terry are masters at the craft of handmade effect pedal production, are contacting me about getting stamps for their handmade pedals.


Enter Jason at Pedal Monsters.  He ordered three stamps from me with some really challenging designs.  Some images work better for stamps than others, and while those three stamps came out 
OK, I think the finest of the three was the Bruce Lee stamp.  Jason says Lee was a childhood hero of his.  He put Bruce Lee's likeness on one of his Klone pedals as you can see in the picture. 

After that order Jason needed a stamp of his company's name and logo.  He was stamping it on some bags he was using to protect the pedals in.  A very nice compliment to a fine piece of metal and circuitry.  And just this past week I finished up a couple of other little logos that I think we will be seeing on some of his future pedals.   You can check out his work or buy some hardware at his website.


Needless to say, the folks out there that are in the market for effect pedals have some incredible technicians AND artists to shop from.  What a cool way to enjoy your craft of music.  I am really honored to have my stamps on this artform.  Terry and Jason have been great to work with, so if you play electronic guitar, or know someone who does, consider watching what these guys are doing, because it doesn't get more personal than this.

So what's next?  Well, keep your eyes open.  You could see more stamps on these pedals in the near future.  Oh, was that a teaser?  Yes, stay tuned to my facebook page to see what comes out next, I'm talking to a few other pedal producers too! 

Photos by: John Ballou, Terry T., and Jason Chong

Jackbear Makes History

Last week I had two really exciting stamp projects come to finality.

First I delivered an order of five hand hand carved stamps, ten buttons, and ten magnets (all adorned with a portrait of Susan B. Anthony) to the Susan B. Anthony House here in Rochester, NY.  The citizens of Rochester know the legends of Susan B. well.  Her work along with her sister suffragettes were pivotal in getting the vote for women in the US.  One of her homes is here in Rochester, along with her grave.  Many sites in Rochester honor her with her name.  Household name in Rochester?  Absolutely.

So when I was contacted by Joann at the Susan B. Anthony House gift shop, it took me all of 3 seconds to know I wanted to do something to help them promote the name of Susan B. Anthony.  We agreed to an initial order as listed above.  She said that others she knew had purchased my pins at other art shows I had done, and told her about my work.  Can't beat word of mouth!  So if you want one of these buttons/pins, magnets, or stamps, drop by the Susan B. Anthony gift shop at 19 Madison Street and help support the SBA mission.

The second historic order I got to do was for Jim with the Welkins Base Ball Club of Port Huron, MI.  Jim was looking for a way to mark some of the vintage baseballs for this team.  The Welkins play vintage base ball (yes two words) with other similar clubs in Michigan an Ohio.  They are in their seventh season in 2013, and play other teams like the Royal Oak Wahoos and the Midland Might River Hogs.

Jim sent me the "shield" they use on their uniforms, and I carved that for the ball logo.  The carving was straight forward but stamping on a sphere is not trivial.  Taking something that is flat and trying to roll it onto a ball is an exercise in patience.  From the pictures that Jim took, looks like he has the knack for it!  I did the stamp in the softer "pink stuff" carving material to allow for some more "squishiness" to take into account the leather and the curve of the material being stamped.

It is exciting to think these little logos might get cracked into the air.  I'm glad this stamp turned out to be a home run.  (Sorry, couldn't resist the horrible pun).

Susan B. photos by John Ballou
Baseball photos by James Fisher

Mayday Underground, Spring 2013 Wrap-up

 

It is hard to describe my excitement when I was setting up my booth at Mayday Underground Art + Craft this past Saturday at the Village Gate.  The other artisans setting up were just an amazing peer group to be affiliated with.  All have such vision and creativity.  I humbled to set up alongside them.

It was a wonderfully sunny day out, and the filtered light that comes through the skylights on the second floor of the Village Gate in Rochester fills the room with a nice light that make the room cheery.  The installation art in the room just lets you know you are in the right place.

I went with a traditional table arrangement.  Straight line of tables, try to vary some heights, and spread my items around.  A craft table is eye candy after all, so I try to keep it orderly.  I try to spread around the color since much of my set up is dull in color.  I worked on a new sign made of wood.  I plan to dress it up in the future, but it did the job at this show.

I often struggle with how to let the customer know what they are looking at.  It is very common for me to get a customer proclaim after looking at my table for several minutes, "Oh, you make rubber stamps!"  The way I have things packaged, it isn't obvious.  Something I need to work on.

The customers came out, and I had a steady stream by my table.  I had some great friends stop by to say "Hi," many who know be from the craft world, others from curling (thanks Dorothy, Stacy, and Cait).  I always love when previous customers come back and tell me about the other stamps they bought from me before.

Sales were brisk for a spring show.  Not my strongest Mayday show, but no complaints here.  Success at a show isn't always based on sales.  I made some great new contacts, and I usually get some interest in custom sales following.  Can't wait for the next Mayday this November.

A special thanks to Amanda and Casey and their team of volunteers who do an incredible job setting up, advertising, prepping, and planning this show.  Best organized show that I do.