Rubber stampers with a waaaaay back machine may remember Paula Montgomery, Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers and the infamous rubber pit where many an instant friendship was made.
Used to be, back the heyday of the stamping conventions, vendors from all over the globe would show up three times a year at Carson for two days of rubber that had nothing to do with sexual fetishes. Oh, the times we had!
We traded pins, we referred to each other by what Mary Jo McGraw calls our "clown names" and we spoke a language all our own.
Those of you who own three or four little rubber stamps and keep them in a tidy little draw some where stored next to one little stamp pad just don't know. Take one of those stamps out. Imagine if you really, really went piss ant crazy and bought like 1,000 more. Where would you put 'em all? Look at your stamp now. Turn it over. The stamp part is really just the red rubber, isn't it? Really, if you had a system of a few blocks with some way of sticking the red rubber to them you could store your stamps a lot more efficiently, couldn't you? Oh snap! Wait a minute! You could BUY a lot MORE stamps!
Welcome to the rubber pit, my friend. The place where your cute little interest becomes a major obsession.
Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers or RBBB had some of the coolest stamps. Even better, the coolest people. Paula is one of those people who remembers your name forever. Husband Chuck was funny and the RBBB booth was always full of cool things to see and make. You could seriously blow your whole convention wad there if you weren't careful (I made that mistake at convention #1, but really didn't regret it that much.) But the main event was the rubber pit. Like the train at Disneyland, it was the place to sit when you were tired, but you still got to sightsee.
So you sat on the floor and rummage through thousands of unmounted rubber stamps with other diehard stampers and it didn't seem strange at all to hear someone say, "I need the flasher!" or "have you seen the Venus? No! I said VENUS!" or "I've got an extra Magritte! Does anyone need a Magritte?"
It was a sad day when Paula and Chuck announced no more conventions for RBBB. An even sadder day when word came of Chuck's passing. RBBB stamps are now available through Stamp Francisco who also have a blog, Les Papotages de Stamp Francisco. I beleive I met the owners a few years back when they had acquired Ivory Coast, Fruit Basket Upset and Stamp Francisco. I like that they are keeping my favorite lines alive. Paula, who has always done amazing collage, started her Kit Club offering all of her kitschy goodness and vintage lovelies in a monthly subscription package.
Hmmm. Maybe I'll do me some stamping tonight....
