Featured Seller : Kim Jones Creativity has a way of slowly seeping into every national financial hardship of the past century. During the New Deal, the PWAP created jobs by commissioning public art, and the recent financial crisis hasn’t required any less creativity in job creation.  Kim Jones has always been creative, but it wasn’t until she was layed off from her corporate job that she seized the opportunity to do what she had been wanting and fearing all along - create and sell art with her husband, and become fully self-employed.  It hasn’t been an easy road, but as Kim explains at the end of the interview it’s scary, humbling, exciting and the hardest thing she’s ever done. And she loves it. Check out her Copious store and find something for your loved one this Valentine’s Day (or - let’s be serious - any other day). Copious: How do you make your polymer stamps? Kim: The process is a bit like developing a photograph. First I scan the original image (which in most cases began as a stamp I hand-carved, but is sometimes a drawing, clip art or customer-provided graphics). Then I convert it into a negative and print it on transparent film.  Essentially, photosensitive polymer + negatives of artwork + UV light (and a couple other messy steps) = super cool polymer stamps! C: Do you do your own screenprinting? K: The screenprinting is done by myself and my husband. We’re trying to build that side of the business together, as we’re not longer gainfully employed (longtime corporate cubicle slaves hit by layoffs, now trying to follow our hearts). All printing is done in our garage with a four color press - although we intend to upgrade our equipment soon.  Everything is done by us, by hand, from artwork to final product. Our hands are usually stained some odd color. People stare. C: How did you get interested in making stamps/screenprinting? K: I actually began carving stamps about 16 years ago. A friend of mine was making super cool things with rubber stamps, but being an artist I had weird guilt pangs using stamps for some reason. Then I ran across an article in Rubberstampmadness about “eraser carving,” realized I could make my own stamps and an addiction was born! It remained a hobby until recently. The screenprinting was something I’ve always wanted to try my hand at, so when my husband and I lost our jobs we decided to give it a shot. We’re also delving into sublimation printing - a really fun process that allows for amazing detail and color, and allows us to print on so many different things.  C: Can you tell us a little bit about your background? K: I grew up in Virginia Beach and remained there until I graduated from high school. I moved to California to live with my father shortly thereafter and never left. I love it here. I attended community college for a year, then decided it wasn’t for me. I got a job with the phone company and there I remained for 17 years until layoffs set me free! C: What do you do in your spare time? K: Spare time? What’s that? No, actually I have a crazy addiction to hoopdancing (like it sounds - a very artful, athletic form of hula hooping). I attend a lot of hooping workshops and local hoop jams in Los Angeles. Last summer I even went to HoopCamp. Yup, I have a problem.  I also read constantly, love to camp, fish, hike, hang out with friends and family, spin around in circles (wait, that’s hooping again). The usual stuff. C: Any new outrageous ideas for stamps? K: Oh wow, don’t get me started! I have all these ideas for various animal mixtures, zombie pinup girls, internal organs, Dia de los Muertos imagery (a favorite of mine), and I would love to hear what stampers would like! C: Do you dabble in other areas of art? K: Of course! I paint, draw, sculpt, and I’m a rockhound - so I often tumble and polish rocks I find and make wire-wrapped pendants. And of course there’s the printing thing, which is fast becoming another obsession. I’m also dying to try out precious metals clay - I just need to get a kiln. C: Anything else you’d like to add? K: I’d just like to say thanks for featuring my work - it means a lot to me. Everything I make comes from my hands and heart, and it amazes me every single time someone buys something I made. Trying to build a business doing something I love, rather than something I “should” be doing (i.e. my former phone company job) is scary, humbling and exciting. We lost our home to foreclosure a few months ago (we’re trendy like that - trying to be like everyone else in the country), so making a go of self-employment in unstable times under less than a steady paycheck is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I love it.

Featured Seller : Kim Jones

Creativity has a way of slowly seeping into every national financial hardship of the past century. During the New Deal, the PWAP created jobs by commissioning public art, and the recent financial crisis hasn’t required any less creativity in job creation. 

Kim Jones has always been creative, but it wasn’t until she was layed off from her corporate job that she seized the opportunity to do what she had been wanting and fearing all along - create and sell art with her husband, and become fully self-employed. 

It hasn’t been an easy road, but as Kim explains at the end of the interview it’s scary, humbling, exciting and the hardest thing she’s ever done. And she loves it.

Check out her Copious store and find something for your loved one this Valentine’s Day (or - let’s be serious - any other day).

Copious: How do you make your polymer stamps?

Kim: The process is a bit like developing a photograph. First I scan the original image (which in most cases began as a stamp I hand-carved, but is sometimes a drawing, clip art or customer-provided graphics). Then I convert it into a negative and print it on transparent film. 

Essentially, photosensitive polymer + negatives of artwork + UV light (and a couple other messy steps) = super cool polymer stamps!

C: Do you do your own screenprinting?

K: The screenprinting is done by myself and my husband. We’re trying to build that side of the business together, as we’re not longer gainfully employed (longtime corporate cubicle slaves hit by layoffs, now trying to follow our hearts). All printing is done in our garage with a four color press - although we intend to upgrade our equipment soon. 

Everything is done by us, by hand, from artwork to final product. Our hands are usually stained some odd color. People stare.

C: How did you get interested in making stamps/screenprinting?

K: I actually began carving stamps about 16 years ago. A friend of mine was making super cool things with rubber stamps, but being an artist I had weird guilt pangs using stamps for some reason. Then I ran across an article in Rubberstampmadness about “eraser carving,” realized I could make my own stamps and an addiction was born! It remained a hobby until recently.

The screenprinting was something I’ve always wanted to try my hand at, so when my husband and I lost our jobs we decided to give it a shot. We’re also delving into sublimation printing - a really fun process that allows for amazing detail and color, and allows us to print on so many different things. 

C: Can you tell us a little bit about your background?

K: I grew up in Virginia Beach and remained there until I graduated from high school. I moved to California to live with my father shortly thereafter and never left. I love it here. I attended community college for a year, then decided it wasn’t for me. I got a job with the phone company and there I remained for 17 years until layoffs set me free!

C: What do you do in your spare time?

K: Spare time? What’s that? No, actually I have a crazy addiction to hoopdancing (like it sounds - a very artful, athletic form of hula hooping). I attend a lot of hooping workshops and local hoop jams in Los Angeles. Last summer I even went to HoopCamp. Yup, I have a problem. 

I also read constantly, love to camp, fish, hike, hang out with friends and family, spin around in circles (wait, that’s hooping again). The usual stuff.

C: Any new outrageous ideas for stamps?

K: Oh wow, don’t get me started! I have all these ideas for various animal mixtures, zombie pinup girls, internal organs, Dia de los Muertos imagery (a favorite of mine), and I would love to hear what stampers would like!

C: Do you dabble in other areas of art?

K: Of course! I paint, draw, sculpt, and I’m a rockhound - so I often tumble and polish rocks I find and make wire-wrapped pendants. And of course there’s the printing thing, which is fast becoming another obsession. I’m also dying to try out precious metals clay - I just need to get a kiln.

C: Anything else you’d like to add?

K: I’d just like to say thanks for featuring my work - it means a lot to me. Everything I make comes from my hands and heart, and it amazes me every single time someone buys something I made. Trying to build a business doing something I love, rather than something I “should” be doing (i.e. my former phone company job) is scary, humbling and exciting. We lost our home to foreclosure a few months ago (we’re trendy like that - trying to be like everyone else in the country), so making a go of self-employment in unstable times under less than a steady paycheck is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And I love it.