March 2: Getting a prototype made

In less than a year, Poom Poom evolved from a whimsical thought to a trademarked product. John Mayer was the first artist I wanted to pursue. The tricky part would be convincing his management company to allow me to use his image.

Starting by phoning his record label, Sony Music, I managed to retrieve a few contact names from the receptionist. I found that e-mailing was the most reliable way to get the answers I needed. After about a week or two of following phone-call and e-mail trails, I found the decision-maker, the direct link to John Mayer. The interest was generated; now, I needed to come up with a prototype, quickly!

I became my prototype. I started by contacting my friend and professional photographer, Lyle Trenchard. After several photo sessions in his Shadowlawn backyard, we came up with the right pictures; full-bodied front and back images of me. Since the pillow actually resembles a real person's body, posture and position of my stance, feet, head and hands were very important. The front had to match the back.

Next stop: the fabric store to pick the perfect cotton fabric and stuffing for my pillow. I had to figure out how I was going enlarge 5 by 7 pictures to approximately 34 inches in height and then transfer them to my fabric. Starting at Kinko's, I blew up the photograph myself, but, because of the photograph's size, Kinko's copiers weren't big enough to transfer the image onto fabric. I called every t-shirt manufacturer, digital design company, and advertising agency, in the book. No one had the capabilities to take a 12 inch image, expand it to 24 inches, and then, enlarge it another 10 inches. Someone needs to invent a humongous copy machine!

Finally, I found a little air-brush store inside Pembroke Mall, called Airworx. They said they could help. Since their machine, that applied the transfers, wasn't as large the photos, they needed to be dissected in order to apply them to the fabric. They succeeded, but unfortunately, since then, Airworx went out of business. With the photos on fabric, on I went to a local tailor who stuffed and sewed me my first prototype Poom Poom!

Keep on reading! In two more weeks, I'll tell you about my Poom Poom's first flight to NYC and what John Mayer's people had to say

Thank you for your feedback. I will try and answer all your questions.

In response to my last blog, Amanda asked me if Carbon Leaf would be selling the Barry Privett Poom Poom at their shows. I thought they would but when I talked to Barry, he said it was not likely because of licensing rights and interference with Carbon Leaf's own merchandise sales. That definitely throws a wrench into my plans. However, I will be selling them at The Shamrock Festival at the Oceanfront, St. Patrick's Day Weekend, where Carbon Leaf is scheduled to play. Look for our table and buy a Poom Poom.

Sales have been very slow the last two weeks. I've sold a total of twenty so far. There are 980 more in the warehouse. Please check out my web-site at Poompoom.net. You can purchase one there as well. The first of many Poom Pooms to come! Who knows, my first one may become a collector's item one day. Once I sell enough Barry Privett's, I'll be on to my second celebrity. He's a big one! See you in 2 weeks.