Simon Says

As a class project, Simon Alciere created a site called stampguide.com. It’s an old fashioned directory of art rubber stamp sites.

Unfortunately, the world changes fast, and Simon has been slow to update the site. The latest, coolest art stamp sites can’t be found there anymore, and dead links are accumulating. We need to improve the site, or else give up on it. Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do with it?

(Gulp!) We’re getting ready to completely redo a big part of our website. All the code that allows you to typeset, upload graphics, and complete your order will be improved.

Why are we doing this? Well, the old code sometimes slowed down, and we’ve had complaints. But the big reason is that we want to offer our customers more stuff. Instead of just rubber stamps, we want to make engraved signs, awards, plaques, personalized gifts, etc. We actually already do make these things, but most people don’t know about it because we haven’t put them up on our website.

This looks to be a big, expensive (for us) project, but we have high hopes. Stay tuned.

A long time Simon’s Stamps employee has a 4 year old daughter who goes to the excellent Cushman Scott Children’s Center, in North Amherst, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the school needs money, for building repairs, heat, and teachers’ health insurance (very expensive in Massachusetts.) Of course we made a donation, but the school needs big bucks, which we can’t afford. So we found another way to help, and you can join in.

We’ve created a special website, CushmanMall.com. Next time you’re doing some online shopping, just visit the Cushman Mall, and and click on one of the links to merchants. When you complete a purchase, the school gets a commission, anywhere from 1% to 28% of  the total. There’s no extra cost to you - you just visit the merchant’s regular website. Their server keeps track of the fact that we sent you.

We’ve gotten over 80 merchants signed up. They include WalMart, Lands’ End, ebay, amazon.com, itunes, The Sharper Image, buy.com, Target, 1-800-CONTACTS, Academic Superstore, Sierra Trading Post, Overstock.com, Magic Cabin, Lillian Vernon, Sears, Spring Hill Nursery, net flix … you get the idea.

So you can help kids - and we’re not even asking you to write a check! Just visit CushmanMall.com before your next online purchase.

A while ago, one of our customers, St. Helena Olive Oil Company, called with a special request. Even though it was afternoon (at least here on the East Coast), they needed some stamps made. And they needed them overnight, for a big project they were doing tomorrow.

Well, we did some quick figuring, and we were able to say yes. We made their stamps, and drove them to the UPS depot at 7:00 PM, just in time to make the truck to the airport.

 Well I guess they appreciated it, because they sent us a gift. A big bottle of one of the best olive oils I’ve ever had! It went on our bread, popcorn, vegetables and potatoes pretty much every day. Highly recommended. Check out their website: St. Helena Olive Oil Company. If you’re in the neighborhood, tell Roselle and Peggy that Simon’s Stamps says Hi!

We are honored and excited to be part of the Sampler (which we’ve been calling “the Stampler” in the office ever since we started this project) for September! Subscriptions went on sale today, and we’re hoping to be able to inspire loads of crafty folks to get stampin’!

We sent in 300 little stamp packs (phew!) and so we’re hoping that those various designs, from little robot heads to fat bears dreaming of cupcakes, find their ways into the hands of folks who love cute stuff!

Go Team Sampler!!

We here at Simon’s Stamps have been wanting to write for a while about some of the fabulous designers and artists who order through our website, and when we first began thinking of distinctive artists we thought immediately of Maybelle. She’s a calligrapher based on the West Coast, whose work is so breathtaking that we all want her to work her magic on our address stamps!

We know her through her fabulous calligraphy work as well as her work through Stumasa, but you should have a look at her website for examples of her beautiful design work…her portfolios are truly amazing things. She’s done design work for weddings and family gatherings as well as for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Gap, Inc. (among others).

You can read more about Maybelle here on her website, as well as learn more about her approach and the specific design elements which go into each of her calligraphic creations.

If you’re not familiar with letterboxing, we’d like to introduce you to something that we think is kind of cool. It’s similar to geocaching, in that it’s a little bit scavenger hunt, a little bit science, and a little bit problem-solving.  

According to Wikipedia, “letterboxing is an outdoor hobby that combines elements of orienteering, art and puzzle solving. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and distribute clues to finding the box in printed catalogs, on one of several web sites, or by word of mouth. Individual letterboxes usually contain a logbook and a rubber stamp. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox’s stamp on their personal logbook, and leave an impression of their personal stamp on the letterbox’s logbook — as proof of having found the box. Many letterboxers keep careful track of their “find count.”

Letterboxing actually has a long history, dating back to 1854, and there a number of different kinds of letterboxes as well. While there are a number of similar things in the States, such as folks hiking the Appalachian Trail and folks checking in to hostels, letterboxing is considered more of a hobby rather than a tracking system (check out the Wikipedia article for a little bit more information about letterboxing and the different kinds out there).

While we’re not outside, we actually do have one that’s been in our shop since 2003. It’s pretty cool to go through the little book and see who’s been here and stamped in…

You can see Anita Fritz’s article, originally published on 22 June 2007, in its entirety on the Greenfield Recorder’s page here)
We’re cutting and pasting a little, but Greenfield, the town where Simon’s Stamps is based, “is creating a program to help downtown building owners repair and restore facades with matching federal tax dollars.The program would target Main Street, as well as part of Federal and Hope streets.” (We’re located at 138 Main Street).

From the article:
”I don’t think something like this is going to bring us any more business,” said John Roberts, co-owner of Home Furnishing Co. ”We’ve actually been doing a lot of work on our building over the past seven or eight years.”

Home Furnishing Co. owns the building it is located in at 122 Main St.

”I do think there are buildings that could use this program,” said Roberts. ”Then again, if building owners kept up their buildings, a program like this wouldn’t be necessary. I think it would make more sense to put a stronger police presence in the downtown if you want to encourage people to shop here.”

Simon P. Alciere, president of Simon’s Stamps, agrees. He does not own the building where is business is located.

”It’s hard to turn down $15,000, but as a Massachusetts citizen I’m wondering why the money isn’t going to schools or libraries or police and fire.”

Alciere rolled his eyes as he continued, ”Fixing up the front of my store, painting or installing a new awning, isn’t going to draw customers. People aren’t coming to the downtown because they’re getting parking tickets or can’t find parking. Local merchants have to compete with malls and big boxes and the Internet. You don’t get parking tickets when you go to one of those.”

In researching a little bit about the history of rubber stamps, we found this really interesting website, who have information quoted from The Rubber Stamp Album by Joni K. Miller & Lowry Thompson, 1978, Workman Publishing, New York (which is apparently currently out of print). We here in the shop were particularly struck by this section:

The early days of rubber stamps and their creation are inextricably entwined with those of early dentistry. Around the same time that Goodyear received his patent on vulcanizing, anesthesia was patented by a fellow named Wells. Relatively speaking, Wells’s discovery made getting your teeth pulled a moderately painless experience, so teeth were being pulled left and right. This meant, of course, that the demand for false teeth was rising proportionately. Before vulcanization, denture bases had been made primarily of gold and were both costly and difficult to make. After vulcanization, denture bases could be made of vulcanized rubber set in plaster molds. This process did not demand a great deal of skill, and soon scores of dentists had small, round vulcanizers with which to ply their trade. These were called “dental pot” vulcanizers and would be used eventually to manufacture the first rubber stamps.

Interesting, no? This site has an overview of the various methods through which rubber stamps are manufactured as well as the varied history of the different components in rubber stamps, and this site has a timeline of the invention of those different items. And if you’re wondering what those components look like, and their other uses, have a look here.

In addition to our website, we do have a retail storefront located at 138 Main Street in downtown Greenfield, MA (you can find us through this Map). We stock a number of different things in our shop, from embossing powders to skin-safe temporary tattoo stamp pads (fun for summer!)

We have a full line of Color Box stamp pads in our shop, which are ideal for printing on paper, as well as the Ancient Page line, which is best for glossy papers.

But what we’re really excited about is that we’ve just added a whole bunch of new stamp designs for the shop, like this little robot guy here drawn by one of our employees). Stop in and see the selection of our stamps ranging from quirky to classic!