Good Love Charms!

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been a fan of gumball/ vending machines. The mystery of what you’re going to get, the simple bubble packaging, the accessibility of a cheap toy or candy.

In 2014 I bought a toy capsule machine. I painted these small cityscapes on these tint wooden hearts, they weren’t functional, just a painted cityscape on a heart, like a wooden nickel that would get lost in a drawer and found years later.

Shoot to last October 2024, I was in a heart themed group show at Basin Gallery in Red Hook and I thought, “you know what, I’ll bring back the hearts, but I would give them function, I’d make them necklaces and magnets, and not only that, I’d kick it p a notch and have different kinds, and colors, and some with Brooklyn landmarks.

It was widely enjoyed and sold out mostly the opening night. I was doing these 100 at a time. I did another round of 100 before the show ended in Nov. Sold out as well. Then another round in Dec, and latest Rond in Jan 2025. With each round, I introduced another landmark not used before.

My process at first was thus, I gessoed each heart on the front, painted the color fade on each, outlined each heart with black, outlined each cityscape, painted the white stripes that would be the windows. Then I’d fill in the outlines, cutting the windows to shape with the black, and then would poke holes in each of them with a hammer, seal them all with clear coat, hook up the push ring and necklace (or magnet). Lastly I’d sign and date stamp the back.

This took forever! The second round, I made a template that could hold rows of 6 hearts, I could paint the blends of the hearts 6 at a time, which made things faster. Thinking I could speed things up even more, I made a template that held 10 rows of 6, so I was eventually painting blends of 60 at a time. I also was referred to a hole stamping gadget for jewelry, which I started using, and would poke holes before I even gessoed the pieces, this was a lot better than a hammer and nail poke. These 2 shortcuts were great, but still the individual painting, sealing, stamping, as much as I stream loaded it, it still sucks up a lot of time.

So here we are 4 months later and I am about to start on my 5th round of 100. It’s a labor of love for sure, the cost and time consumed making these far outweighs the profit. The idea of making art accessible to people who maybe can’t buy a painting has always resonated with me, so I push forward. However- I just bought a new coin mechanism, so now these will be 4 quarters instead of 2, and make now I’ll at least break even!

I love to see photos of people wearing their cheap ass, I mean accessible jewelry, so send me your shots!