Beau & Barry
Meet Beau & Barry, the Makers behind Beau Bear
Beau and Barry create digital art from their own original artwork and photo collages to create products using the sublimation transfer method to apply the art permanently onto each piece. Each item is designed, assembled, and packaged by them.
Read their story below
What inspired you to start your creative enterprise?
We had our own international sourcing company for 10 years. At the same time we also created and designed toys and gifts, including a very unique educational gift/toy called “Grow-A-Head”. We sold our wares to Mom and Pop stores and then to big stores such as Urban Outfitters, Michael’s, Bed Bath and Beyond.
We love traveling and through our travels we learned so much about the cottage industry. Meeting families and villages around the world from India, China, South America, and many more Asian Pacific countries, we too got the bug to create our own home “cottage” side business.
So after years of hard work and good success, we decided to retire and only continue with one item to sell online and through mom and pop shops only.
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“The art can be from our stock collection of hundreds of images we have created or we can do custom images. Beau is a graphic artist and he can almost make any design.”
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How’d you get your start?
Wrist Art Bracelets were born. They are made from old school stretchy watch bands. We repurposed the watch band by reworking the parts. We create artwork and sublimate it (which is a heat transfer process) onto the watch band. We are the only company in the US that makes these bracelets.
What steps did you initially take to set yourself apart?
We’ve been quite successful with the watchband and store owners started asking us to expand our line with other items. So we added in old school flip lighters, flasks, prints on metal, magnets, and good old Velcro wallets… all perfect unique gifts for anyone. What’s so great is we do it at home, we can customize the art for any of these items.
Describe your perfect day out and about locally.
Locally we take advantage of Long Beach’s bike friendly streets and paths - we love a nice bike ride on the beach path and through the streets. We take our pup (well she’s 11, so not so puppy like) Bijou to Rosie dog beach, she absolutely LOVES the ocean and beach!
Since we live in Rose park we enjoy retro row for the nice local bars and restaurants.
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“There is nothing better than a short walk to food, drinks, and window shopping. One of our favorites is the Social List! ”
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What is your favorite local mural or piece of street art?
We appreciate our Long Beach community. On our walks with Bijou we enjoy visiting the many spectacular art installations around the city. It is hard to choose a favorite but we do like the one painted on the side of Alex’s bar by Dave Van Patten. We also like the Rose Park Mural by Cody Lusby.
