Rochester Mini Maker Faire 2016 Preview: Budd Jett

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.

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 creation.

I will highlight each character over the next few days.

The first character is Dan Bentley's robot, Budd Jett.

Dan Bentley creates sculptures of robots from found materials, like old radios and metal salt+pepper shakers that he calls Retrobots.  Dan has shown his 'bots at the first Rochester Mini Maker Faire, the Strong Museum, and Clothesline Art Show.  I have known Dan for many years, and I drool over his creations every time I see them.  He trolls local flea markets to find components for his futuristic creations.  One of his sculptures named Budd Jett was the inspiration for this paper creature (prototype pictured).  Budd was built from a bank, tumblers, and bowls to name a few of his components.  But he is way more than the sum of his parts.

I love Budd Jett mostly because of the bank.  The red, white, and blue stands out so well against the shining silver chrome.  This guy is such a throw-back to old patriotic superheroes. His jet pack on the back made from nautical navigation lights is the perfect accessory for this mechanical marvel.  I also in love with the flash bulb eyes, which remind me of my Dad's camera growing up.

To learn more about Dan's process and selection of his pieces, you should check out his short interview by WXXI's Arts in Focus program.

It is a great honor to help bring Budd Jett to life in paper.  Though Dan's metal version of Budd is immobile, I have imaged joints that allow his arms to swing, and his legs to bend at the hips and knees, so he can get into a flying position.  To infinity and beyond!  Or perhaps more appropriate would be Dan's tag line, "To the future of the past!"

Vending Machine Project Part 1

Back in April of 2015 I came across the idea of selling art in a vending machine.  I don't know if something came across one of my numerous social media feeds, or if someone mentioned it in a meeting, but the spark of the idea took light in the tinder in my mind.  Since then I have been finding other similar projects others have embarked on. I also started trolling Ebay until I found the machine I wanted.  But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

A great resource on art through vending machines I found at Callithump.org.  This blog has a great history page of other vending machine art projects over the last century.  Through their history page I learned aboutthe largest "art in a machine" projects: Art-O-Mat. Art-O-Mat machines can be found all over the US.  Each machine is a reconditioned cigarette vending machine that dispenses art in a cigarette pack, usually at the $5 price point.  Each machine itself is a work of art.  Out in Chicago, the Busy Beaver Button Company has been doing a Button-O-Matic project since 2002.  Using a toy capsule vending machine to sell buttons seemed like a natural fit.  I also reached out to the Vending Arts Project in London, Ontario.  Janine Wass said that the project wasn't a huge money maker but I love the idea of greeting cards through a repurposed snack machine.  And these were just a few I found!

With so much inspiration to draw from, I began bouncing ideas off my friends and family.  I began brainstorming idea.  Should I put mini rubber stamps in a machine, or buttons, stickers, or all of the above?  What would be the topic; mythical creatures, food, candy?  What price, 50 cents, $1.00? So after much thinking, and watching Ebay for a solid machine at a good price, I pulled the trigger.  I am now the proud owner of a Northwestern capsule vending machine that dispenses 2" capsules.

So the machine is mechanically solid.  It came with a 50 cent coin mechanism, but I will likely replace this shortly with a $1.00 coin mech (four quarters).  The paint is chipped in a few places, and it has a few dents, but I have been watching some YouTube clips and plan on giving it a nice facelift with a new color.  The plexiglass (polycarbonate) face has some scratches that I will try to buff our, or replace if necessary.  The machine can sit on a table right now, but I might add a wooden stand for it to sit on.  So after a little tender loving care, I'm sure it will be looking as good as new.

So what is going to be IN the machine?  What will come out of it?  Stay tuned....

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.

Olympics = televised CURLING!

I have been curling for ten years.  That's not much, but for those of us in the USA who are curlers, that isn't insignificant either.  Most of us didn't grow up in a curling environment.  I also live in New York state, which I believe has four dedicated curling rinks statewide.  Finding curlers is like finding endangered pandas.

So when the winter Olympics come around, that means those of us who live in the backwater countries where curling is still small, we finally get to see curling on TV.  I grew up in Northern NY, where we had the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Channel) on our cable package, so I got to see curling on TV out of Canada.  I miss those days now!

So in honor of curlers worldwide, I have listed some items in my shop for curlers, or friends of curlers.

First up is greeting cards.  I have three designs.  They come in packs of two.  You can buy them in my etsy shop.

Next I have an ACEO/ATC in serval choice colors.  Also available in my shop.

And last but not least, a mini rubber stamp set!

Enjoy some curling on TV for a change!