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.

Scraps to Stamps

Over the last six year of JackBear Stamps, I have carved hundreds of stamps.  I haven't counted lately, but I'm confident it's over 500, maybe higher.  In the course of carving an image, I generate a fair amount of scrap (that's "crap" with an "s").  As you can see from my old pistachio containers pictured, it comes in all shapes and sizes.

My parents grew up in the Depression, so they weren't the kind of folks to throw stuff away unless it was beyond repair or worth.  So I keep the bits of corners that get cut off when making a larger image, or the long line that is leftover from trimming something square.  I do throw out tiny bits and shavings that can't be used again, I'm not a total hoarder!

But over the years I have generated quite the stockpile. The thought in my head was I would use this material to carve tiny stamps.  The size of which could probably be mounted to a penny or a quarter. So into the extra jars this material went.  I certainly have enough, and I am more confident in my abilities to carve smaller details.

Some of my letterboxing or stamp carving friends immediately notice the difference in colors of the material above.  The pink stuff is the tried and true, "smooth as butter", material from Speedy Carve from Speedball.  They also will notice the white material.  This is hard to tell apart, but I'm sure the containers are full of PZ, MZ, NZ, OZ, and Firm Kut (as I have carved a little bit of all these) from Stampeaz.com.  Of course the one that would bring the most attention is the now defunct Orange PZ Kut from Stampeaz.com.  Carvers think back to the days they carved on this material like they think back on their favorite Christmas present from their youth.  I still have a few scraps of it left.  I usually just stare at it wistfully.

With one of my biggest shows of the year on the horizon, Mayday Underground, I decided it was time to put the scrap to good use.  So I have been busy carving some sets of stamps to use it up, though honestly I haven't even scratched the surface yet (no pun intended).

Some of the scrap I used to make fault washi tape stamps.  Washi tape is decorative tape used in crafting to decorating just about anything you can tape, from clothespins to clipboards.  So I used a bit of the scrap to make sets of three designs that can be stamped side by side to create a washi tape effect.

I found this font online of all kinds of sci-fi ray guns.  Being a Sci-Fi fan, I was immediately drawn to them, and figured I could downsize them onto my scrap bits of carving material to create a set.  They are small enough that I think you could use them with other stamps of people or aliens and get it to fit snugly in their hands.  The one pictured in black reminds me of Han Solo's blaster.  The purple and green ones pictured remind me more of the Flash Gordon or art deco style sci-fi ray guns.

I have to say I am a skeptic.  I believe in proof, not intuition. However, there is a small part of me that wants to believe.  I hope aliens are out there.  I can't totally rule out that Illuminati are secretly controlling the world.  Is Bigfoot really wandering around the forests of our continent?  I don't think any of these things are true, but the lack of evidence does not immediately disprove it's existence.  So I totally get sucked into shows on the History channel that speculate on the treasure of Oak Island, or the hidden troves of Templar artifacts.  I guess my older brother and sisters watched a bit too much of "In Search Of..." with Leonard Nemoy and I got sucked in.

Pennants and chevrons are all the rage.  You see them all over craft shows, and all over Pinterest. So some of my scrap is going toward some pennants with patterns.  The cool thing with these is that you can use just one from the set of three, or you can use two, or all three, to create a line of banners. You can ink them up in any color you have, or even multiple colors of the rainbow.  They are VERY versatile.  I have fun printing with them, and then taking my pen and drawing a line to connect them. This could not be easier.

If you are interested in one of these sets drop by Mayday Underground this Saturday or Sunday at the Village Gate in Rochester, NY.  Or if you aren't local, drop me a message on my etsy.com shop and I'll carve you up a custom order.

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

Winning

I won the RNEST team September Challenge! The theme was "vampires" and I carved a cool classic image of the godfather of goth, Dracula, as represented by the face of Bela Lugosi for my rubber stamp. I can see this stamp used on trick or treat bags, Halloween postcards, on envelopes of Halloween cards, party favors, or all over a blood stained t-shirt (no, haven't tried this one myself).


I had some gory competition from FrancescaDeCaire and Sculptress Link but I will admit I really wanted to have my monster stamps at the top of the RNEST blog for the month of October. So what do you do when you want something? You call up your friends. So I harassed my letterboxing comrades and they responded in droves! Thank you my inky brethren!

Hope you have fun this Halloween season, and be sure to check out all my Halloween themed stamps at my etsy shop!

Mayday Underground April 30th

This will be my third "Mayday Underground" event! The first two have been smashing successes that I am really looking forward to this one. It's April 30th, from 10 am - 4 pm.

What I love best about this arts and crafts show, is the wide variety of artisans at the show, and the knowledgeable crowd that frequents it. Amanda and Casey do an incredible job organizing and executing this show, and this time around we will be at the Main St. Armory at 900 E. Main, Rochester, NY.

I have lots of my usual correspondence stamps (Air Mail, Snail Mail, Owl Mail), as well as some of my "LOL stamps" (brb, h8r, omg, etc.), "man stamps" (tools, westerns, beer), horror/goth stamps (Vincent Price, zombie, Creature, Godzilla, etc.), as well as a big selection of bird stamps.

Did I mention this is going to be the biggest Mayday yet? Around 90 vendors! I doubt it will be this big again. This is going to be a fun day of shopping. I'm going to have a hard time not trading all my stamps away for other great art!

See you all there!

ArtAwake: "Rochester in Rubber"

ArtAwake is another one of those shocking events for me. Let's role play for a moment. I am pitching an idea to you. Here's the idea: I want to have an art event that shows fine art, interactive art, and musicians, all from the Rochester community, and I want to find some old abandoned spaces in the city to use for the event, and I want to get dozens and dozens of student groups to sponsor it, some that have very little to do with art, and I want to throw this incredible party. Oh yeah, we'll throw some food and drink in there too.

Sounds crazy. Sounds unlikely. Sounds brilliant. This is Artawake.

This is the fourth ArtAwake. I was a spectator at the first, and I have to say, I was blown away. I couldn't believe how many people were there. And not just students. There was a real cross section of the Rochester Community there, wandering around this old warehouse, looking at art, dancing to music. It was nuts.

So when the idea floated my way to enter some art this year, I got kind of jazzed to do it. I got accepted, and "Rochester in Rubber" was born.

What is "Rochester in Rubber?" I tried to take some images that are iconic to Rochester, and capture them in a rubber stamp. I have created a display of those images, and some of the stamps. Images include Susan B. Anthony, the Kodak Tower, a lilac. To go along with the visual, we have an interactive component. We have a big rubber stamp of a front of a postcard that says, "Greetings from Rochester: ArtAwake)." You can stamp this yourself, and take the postcard home with you as a souvenir of the night. Attach a stamp and mail if you want.


When I heard about a week ago that I couldn't mount anything to the wall, I rushed to make a display that could be self standing, and luckily my savior and friend Brian came up with a design and helped to execute it with his Valhalla of power tools. Of course, this took hours and hours of time to assemble, and I owe the luxury of this time to my wife Laura for helping keep everything else a float last week. Big hugs and kisses!



So, I hope you can come and check out ArtAwake on Saturday, April 16th, from 3 pm to 1 am in the Alliance Building, 183 E. Main St., Rochester, New York.

Back to the swamp!

I am quite excited to be back at the Shreve Migration Sensation on March 26th, 2011 in Shreve, Ohio!

I set up with my father-in-law Dick Beery two years ago, and we had a great day of meeting birders from the area, and getting a chance to talk about our passions.

I got to carve lots of bird stamps, and will be doing the same this year!  Dick (3 Oaks Enhancements) got to display his wonderful photography and he has even more bird photography to share this time around.  Dick won some of the photography contest categories last time around too.  We will be sharing a booth, so we will have a blast no doubt.

If you haven't heard me talk about Shreve Migration Sensation before, know this, it is a great day to watch birds, or people!  The fine people at Shreve Elementary school help to sponsor the day with many other outdoor organizations.  They have workshops, speakers, and experts set up at viewing areas all around the area.  The draw is migrating birds to the wetlands of Killbuck Marsh and nearby Funk Bottoms.  This year, Greg Miller, who was one of the birders featured in the book, "The Big Year" who will be played by Jack Black in the movie of the same name this year, will be the keynote speaker.

The only part of the day I don't like?  That I'm inside and not watching birds!  I'm sure Dick and I will sneak out on Sunday morning to see what we can see!

Got an Idea for a Rubber Stamp?

You need a stamp? Well do you....punk? Make my day.

Seriously though, I hand carve custom stamps, but I'm always looking for input for rubber stamp ideas. I got started in carving rubber stamps because I needed a stamp of a bear track, and couldn't find one for sale. So I'm hoping there is an idea for a stamp that you have had, but can't find at the craft or stamp store.

So here is my CHALLENGE to you!
1) Post in the comments of this post an idea you have that would make a good rubber stamp and why.
2) Please make sure the idea is a generic one, like "spaceships", not "an X-Wing Fighter" (since that would be a violation of copyright.)

[Please note, the Clint Eastwood stamp pictured was never a stamp for sale, it was only used for my personal use! I don't sell copyrighted work!]

If I like your idea, I'll probably carve it!

Let's hear you idea!