Rochester Mini Maker Faire Preview: Ms. Lucha

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.

I will highlight each character over the next few days.

Today I am featuring Chris Charles's creation: Ms. Lucha

Chris Charles is a letterpress printer, and is the creator, owner, operator of Moon Rabbit Press.
I got to know Chris through our artist group that sells work on Etsy.com, the Rochester NY Etsy Street Team.  Chris has been printing her work on her own at Moon Rabbit since 2010.  Usually when I think of letterpress, I think of type, and sometimes some graphics.  Chris is all of that, but with another added layer.  Much of the graphics you see in Chris's work is also hand carved in linoleum by her own hands.  No machinery involved.  As a hand carved, I totally respect that.

Ms. Lucha, as we are now calling her, has been around for awhile actually.  Ms. Lucha is the star character on a poster Chris has been selling for years.  The story goes something like this.  Chris is approached to do a poster for an upcoming concert.  The performers are were Eilen Jewell and Los Strait Jackets.  Chris combines the flavors of both musicians and carves up a cross-dressed luchadore, complete with lipstick and cowboy boots.  It's a killer design, don't you think?

I have seen the poster for years in here craft booth at local art shows.  I'll confess, I'm a huge wrestling mark.  I love this gender bending design, and thought it would be totally rad to bring Ms. Lucha to life so she could be posed in the wrestling moves she was born to do.

Chris prints most of her work on the presses at the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education.   Her work can be found at most of the major arts+crafts show around Rochester and beyond, like Artist Row, Mayday Underground, and the Clothesline Art Show.  She always finds the right blend of text, graphic, and color to make her work stand out, like her best selling crowing rooster with the text, "Rise and Shine, Bitches!"

I can't wait to see how Ms. Lucha (prototypes pictured) gets further mashed up with other characters at Maker Faire.  I know the fists will be flyin'!

Rochester Mini Maker Faire 2016 Preview: Maker Kid

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 next character is Randy Duncan's Maker Kid.

Randy Duncan is a illustrator, sculptor, painter, and probably other hidden talents I'm unaware of because he always dazzles me with his talent.  When I asked Randy about collaborating on this project, he had Maker Kid drawn up within hours, and had sketched out all the body parts individually in the next 24 hours.  Randy is extremely productive, it isn't uncommon to see his new work on a daily basis on his facebook feed.

I asked Randy for a masked superhero type character, with long limbs.  I had seen illustrations he had done of Spiderman, and his version of Spidey reminded me of the work of comic artist Eric Larsen's version of Spiderman.  Long, thin limbs, that bend at almost impossible angles.  Randy hit the nail on the head in his first draft, with a boy like character, with a mask, cape, and long legs.  It was in Randy's second draft he gave our masked kid a mohawk.  That was a great addition, as it really cleaned up the design around the head, to highlight those long arms and legs.

I will confess, I am a not too subtle fanboy of Randy's work.  He is part of an artist collective called "Dude's Night Out".  The DNO exhibit work across the city or Rochester, and also exhibit at the Rochester Mini Maker Faire.  I got to know Randy through arts+craft shows, but I have seen his gallery shows at Roc Brewing Company, Record Archive, and several other openings around the city. I have several of Randy's illustrations in marker and watercolor hanging in my studio that serve as inspiration to continue to hone my craft.  I even have a swing top bottle covered in skulls and creepy worms he did as a commission for me to hold beer (or moonshine).

I am super pumped to be able to share Maker Kid (prototypes pictured) with the Maker Faire visitors, and spread the word about the artistic talents of Randy Duncan.

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 3: Postage Vending

Wait what?

If you have been following along my vending machine project part 1 and part 2 you might be wondering what happened to the toy capsule/gumball machine?  Have no fear, that project is still moving forward.  I can't contain all the ideas in my head so I had to add on more!

I got thinking about how I had to purchase some materials to work on the capsule machine.  If I was working on TWO machines, it would help disperse the overhead costs of the two.  Ok, so maybe I just really wanted a second machine to play with.  Yeah, maybe that was it.

Seriously though, this postage vending machine is the perfect vehicle to execute an idea I have.  A sticker vendor.  I have long had people suggest to me that I should offer stickers, stamped from my hand carved rubber stamps.  While I could do this from a capsule machine, it seems to make more sense to me to use the capsule vendor for stamps, and a postage vendor for stickers.

This old postage vending machine used to sell postage stamps in small cardboard "sanitary" folders.  Sanitary is on all these machines going back to the early 1900's when people feared that germs were getting passed along on the sticky back sides of postage stamps to the tongues of their victims.  The little folders held the stamp inside of it, protecting it from germs.  That might be true, but imagine if the stamps where not protected by some container, the gummy backsides would have probably stuck to each other in the machine as water vapor in the air moistening them.  These mini folders are about 1 inch by 1.75 inches, and will be perfect for protecting my sticker they will hold.

I also like the price point of fifty cents for a sticker.  Since I have two columns to work with on the postage vendor, my initial idea is to making it a kind of voting machine. Think of all those classic opposites... Coke vs. Pepsi, vanilla vs. chocolate, Chevy vs. Ford, Trump vs. Hillary (or whoever ends up getting on the ballot).  People can vote with two quarters.  Pick your side.  Pick'em and Stick'em.

What's that, this old machine looks dirty and old?  Nothing some sanding and painting won't fix.  I have to replace the lock, or create new keys, but the mechanisms on the inside are functioning great so far, and I hope that they will have years of life left in them.

OK, now I've got some work to do!

Stamping All Year Long

I have advertised JackBear Stamps for several years running in the pages of Rubber Stamp Madness (RSM) magazine. The staff at RSM and I having many things in common, and I feel that my mission and theirs is a good fit.

One shared passion is a love for letterboxing. RSM has had articles on letterboxing, and online tutorials. I love that they have embraced letterboxing as an art form. We also share a sense of humor in our work. The editorial staff at RSM take a very light-hearted approach to the rubber stamping art form, and it comes through in the pages of the magazine.

RSM is a real community. They readers make submissions, and the editorial staff sift through the best to make the pages. Submissions are a huge part of the magazine, and I love reading the mail section as the readers share their experiences in stamping. Even the ads in the book are incredible! I am always inspired by each page I turn.

Rubber Stamp Madness has published two previous large volume book releases, and they now have a third 116 page book published called "Stamping All Year Long (SAYL)". The newest release focuses on artwork from all four seasons, and covering all the holiday seasons. SAYL is not just a full color book of eye candy but, "Stampers share information about each piece, providing tips, techniques and inspiration for your own stamping projects." The book contains layouts for inspiring greeting cards, calendars, and scenes of wonder.

The folks at RSM have reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in offering "Stamping All Year Long" on my Etsy shop. So if you are interested in picking up this limited release (yes, they do sell out... good luck trying to find the first two they published), you can purchase it through my etsy storefront. I let RSM know, and they ship it right out to you!

Happy Stamping!