Mad Scientists of Etsy Team

I am very excited that I am now a member of the Mad Scientists of Etsy Team (MSOE)!

The Mad Scientists are a group that all sell handmade items on Etsy.com that are either scientists themselves, have a science degree, or are in some way connected to the field of science. They have banded together as a group to help promote science, and the science related items that some members sell.

The Mad Scientists also have a blog and website where they announce monthly challenges that group members can participate in. Challenges are based on a theme, and members try to create an item focused around the theme. For instance, the theme for August was microbiology and September is Copernicus. October is "geothermal" which sounds king of hard, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. You can see what other members have come up with on the Flickr site.

So I hope you check out what the MSOE Team has to offer, and you buy some items from these members for all your science type friends!

Stamps in Spaaaaace!!!

Remember the Muppets, "Pigs in Space" soap opera spoof? Anyway, I'm doing some rubber stamp carvings of mankind's journeys into space. I'm starting off my line of space stamps with Sputnik, the first artificial satellite launched by the Russians, and with the Apollo 11 module that carried the first humans to the moon and back. The photo to the left here is my interpretation of re-entry for the module. I have plans to follow these up with some other stamps, including Yuri Gagarin and Neil Armstrong taking that historic first step on the moon. You can check in my space section in my Etsy shop.

I have taken most of the images from the NASA website, which the folks at NASA have made in the public domain (thank you!). I also have heard rumors that NASA and the folks at Etsy are teaming up on a special project. Maybe I'll get to send one of my rubber stamps into spaaaaace! More about that in the future though.

Blinded by Science!

I have a new line of science stamps now available. More stamps will be added in the near future, but we get this line started out with the most famous (was he the most brilliant?) scientist of all time (OK knowing scientists we can argue this) Albert Einstein. I have also added hand carved rubber stamps of Charles Darwin, and Bill Nye.

I love doing portraits and plan on adding more. If you have a famous scientist you would like to see a stamp of, leave me a comment!

I have also added a set of some science symbols, including "radioactive," "biohazard," and "atomic" symbols. This is a fun little set that you could use to decorate up the portraits or to warn people of the dangers of atomic energy...muhhahhahaha.

I plan on adding some more sets, like a set of lab glassware, maybe some instruments, microscopes, telescopes, etc. I take special requests, so let me know if you have anything you would like to see!

Now back to the lab!

Custom Work

One of the best parts of carving a custom made stamp for someone, is that the stamp is new and original. I've said before that carving the same things over and over again is a job for a machine. But carving a unique and different stamp for someone is a challenge (which I like) and keeps the task fresh and new each time.

I've made my first sale on Etsy (http://jackbear.etsy.com), and it was a custom logo stamp for another Etsy shop. There was a good deal of text, which is always a bit intimidating. However, I have found that I'm getting better at it, and I try to keep in mind that a letter is just a "shape." I've played around with font size a little bit, and have found that a font size of 20 is fairly easy in most styles of font. Smaller gets trickier depending on the font. As with anything, practice makes perfect!

I have a couple of orders in the works right now, both custom. I'm working on a design for a bride for her invitations and a stamp for the tables at her reception. I am also working on a custom bookplate. I'm looking forward to carving both after we work out all the details on the stamps (size, fonts, style, etc.).

I've added a custom bookplate listing on the Etsy site, and will soon be adding a line of "Science" themed stamps. I also updated the "look" of my previous listings so it was a bit more clear what I was selling.

Soft Opening

Jackbear Stamps is now open:
http://jackbear.etsy.com

This is a "soft" opening, meaning not all my inventory is up yet, but everything is operational. I will be adding products over the next several weeks, so please keep checking in. I will do a "GRAND OPENING" when everything is in order. Thanks for stopping in!