What’s an antidote to too much time spent online? Joe Sandor’s answer was making something with your hands and spending face-to-face time with friends. It was the social aspect of making and eating crepes that originally inspired the Captain Crepe Pan. That success lead this sculptor to his second adventure in limited-edition artist cook-castings: the Pirate Pancake Skillet.
Captain Crepe was a hand-crafted cast iron pan launched nine months ago with a successful Kickstarter campaign. Joe learned a lot from this process and founded RPM Designs LLC. With all his new insight as a successful maker pro it was time for a second act. He still had the ambition of making enough money to fund his sculpture and selling 267 Captain Crepes was only a start.
So what to do as an encore? During the design of Captain Crepe, Joe had worked with six designs before choosing the Triskell (swirl) as the pattern for the bottom of the pan. Along the way he had come across the skull and cross bone. Much as the imagery of “captain” worked for Joe’s first product, he believed “pirate” would work for his second. It, too, is iconic. It’s free of IP constraints and there is an abundance free art on which to design derivatives. Pirate Pancake Skillet would be its name.
As with any new product a long series of prototypes led to the current version. Along the way, Joe created 22 versions of the skull and cross bones. It went from raised to recessed mold. He changed the character of the framing and much more. It was advancing nicely, but the pirate imagery was weighty and needed a dousing of whimsy. Chocolate chips for eyes? Why not!? And if the mood strikes you then swap in a blueberry or two.
When I spoke with Joe and sampled a pirate pancake in Maker Faire’s Homegrown Village, he told me that his latest Kickstarter campaign was a hair’s breath away from hitting its goal of $13,000. In Joe’s quest to gain financial freedom to pursue his art he has discovered a niche to satisfy a need. He’s been successful twice with limited-edition castings for cooking, providing detached 21st century workers with an excuse to get together, make food, and socialize. This maker pro has arrived.
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