Cardart Superfractors

The latest crafty cardart idea I've been running with lately is creating "superfractor" style mods of junk wax classics.

The first batch to show off is a run of 1993 Topps Black Gold, probably my all-time favorite inserts. 

The original gold foil pairs nicely with the added gold vinyl to make 'em really pop in the light!

I'm not saying it's an improvement over the original design-- I love the black/gold contrast, too-- but I think it's a pretty cool alternate take on it. 

I've done these 10 cards so far, calling that good as a first "drop". This is an in-progress project that I plan to continue with for the next few weeks. I probably won't create such mods of all 44 cards in the insert set, but there are still several big names I intend to get to shortly. Anybody have '93 Black Gold cards to trade? lol. The Griffey is especially tricky to find cheap.

The second line of this type of mod I've been making are "1st Bowman super" parallels of 1989 Bowman.

The set is like the red-headed stepchild of the junk wax era, and this is my cheeky attempt to revitalize these slightly oversized albatrosses into desirable cardart. I just think it's funny to make a thing over these since "1st Bowman" has become so important in the modern hobby but of course nobody ever cares about 1989, right?

I find the posed shots like this are the best to work with.

Of course these have got to be numbered "1/1" to stick with the theme. What I usually like to do is make 2 of each one of these I whip up. The worst of the two gets rejected and I stamp it as an "Artist's Proof" and it stays in my PC. The one that turns out better goes towards my cardart side hustle, and becomes available for purchase or trade. Since they're dated with the year on the back, I just need to be sure not to make another one until at least the next year at the earliest. Sort of like how Topps Archives Signature Edition puts out many of the same buyback autographs each year. But I probably won't be repeating myself much because I typically get pulled away to a new idea. So don't expect me to do a new batch of these every year, or even ever again, is what I'm trying to say, but who knows.

Despite doing transformative tinkering on cards since the early days of this blog a decade ago ("I asked myself how I could 'hack' virtually worthless cards to make them better?"), I know I'm late to the Cardart scene that thrived during the pandemic, and the hobby is trending down from that whole bubble, but I'm hopeful I can still find an audience for my border art mashups, sun-bleached borders, cut-superfractors, and the like.

But yeah, I bet I'll be cranking out lots of cardart superfractors over the next few weeks. So many neat possibilities to work on...

I really love "making cards" and it would be a dream come true to be able to get a successful venture off the ground along those lines. Losing my tech job earlier this year sucked, but from a mental health standpoint, it was a blessing is disguise. Now I'm trying to pivot to a healthier, creative use of my time. Of course I'm not expecting to get rich or anything, but if I could get into a "make a thing/sell a thing" daily groove, I'd be happy. (And sure, if Fanatics is reading, I'd love to talk about remote employment in some sort of creative or even QA role; hit me up.)

Here's the link to my eBay store if you're interested. Thanks for reading!