Rare! Fred Babb Earrings Pierced VTG 80s Pop Art Ear-mights FB 1.5" Lightweight

Description

Excellent set of Fred Babb Earheads!
Among all of his other wonderful features, Fred was also extremely innovative, and this was evident in the process he designed to create his Ear Heads: There are machines that can roll out a thin slab of clay for you; however, those machines can be very costly, and the Babb family just didn't have the cash at the time. Fred was searching for something that would absorb moisture upon which he could roll out his clay to create slabs. See, the clay needs water on it to remain malleable. If the clay dries out, it is no longer workable, and if it dries too quickly, it often loses its shape and/or cracks. If the clay remains wet there can be a multitude of other problems. So Fred needed something that would absorb the water, but not too quickly. He experimented with a number of different things, but it wasn't until a remodel of the Babb home that he discovered exactly what he needed: a sheet of drywall. With the drywall as a surface and some paint stirring sticks glued flat to it as borders and levels, he would use a rolling pin to roll his clay out perfectly flat between the stir sticks to give the jewelry a uniform shape. At first, he simply used an Xacto knife to cut the shapes out of the clay, but when this proved too inefficient to keep up with the demand, he fashioned his own Ear-Head-shaped "cookie cutters" out of a piece of sheet metal and 2-ton epoxy. Simply put, Fred literally could do anything he put his mind to, including invent his own personal one-man Ear Head factory. This is the process he used for years until the demand for the jewelry got so high that he had to hand the job over to his close friend and fellow artist Tony Natsoulas to create the "blanks."
Within a couple of years there were stores and galleries across the United States selling Fred's work. Fred's initial products were limited to images. One day he designed a pair of earrings which said "Do it" on one and "Don't Do It" on the other. That began his venture into the world of words. From that time forward Fred has used words as a means to encourage people to think for and believe in themselves. As the popularity of his jewelry line grew, stores requested other products, and the line grew to include other products such as T-Shirts, Clocks, Cards,
Magnets and Mugs. These, too, were a success, and posters and framed prints were added. They have, over the years, acquired a somewhat irreverent bent, poking fun at human behavior and how it relates to art. In 1988, a wholesale outlet and retail store were opened in Cambria, California, and in 1991, the name of the business was changed to "What Iz Art."
Source:
https://www.fredbabb.com/
Lit Vintage Effect
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