Third Eye Bear Moodmat
A factory test print of a meditating third eye bear crest, raised crackled ink and all, die cut on eight inches of recycled rubber. Bear Mountain Studios, unnumbered, never part of a released run.
The Print
The Ink Sits Proud of the Rubber, and That Is the Point
Start with the print, because it is the first thing you will notice in the hand and it is the reason this piece exists at all. The ink is laid on heavy. Every flat color area stands up off the rubber with a crazed, crackled, orange peel surface you can feel with a fingertip, and the black keylines stand proud of the color with a glossy rounded edge on them. The band of lettering across the bottom is measurably out of register against the art behind it. Several of the small white catchlights are partly filled in by the ink around them, and a few of the white dots have soft feathered edges rather than clean ones. None of that is damage, and none of it happened after the fact. It is what a screen looks like while it is still being dialed in, which is exactly what the applied yellow sticker on the back says in the maker’s own words.
The art under it is a symmetrical badge that fills the whole die cut shape, drawn in a retro seventies poster style with thick uniform black keylines and a tight palette of dusty rose, slate blue, warm tan gold, off white cream and deep maroon brown. The studio name arches across the top in a groovy display face. Dead center sits a fat, round, front facing maroon brown bear with a shaggy tufted chest ruff and small rounded ears, seated cross legged in a meditation pose. Its two large white eyes carry black crescent pupils, a third almond eye sits on the forehead between them, and a vertical column of three graduated dots runs down the muzzle. It holds a round tan chocolate chip cookie at each cheek and clasps a small upright blue grey glass piece with a banded stem and a flared base between its paws.
Behind the bear a tall tan gold halo arc rises over a cream field, with cream snow capped peaks on either side and concentric slate blue, salmon and tan gold arcs wrapping the lower half like a rising sun. Two large disembodied white eyeballs with crescent pupils flank the composition at mid height, each perched on a slate blue wave crest with bubble dots and three falling teardrops underneath. Across the bottom, on a slate blue pool speckled with outlined bubbles, an event line and a year arch in the same groovy face. There is no UV in the print. It is standard ink, full color, on a piece that was never meant to leave the shop as part of a run.
Designed By
Bear Mountain Studios
The studio name is printed twice on this piece, arched across the top of the front artwork and again across the top of the back. That makes this a rarer thing than most test prints, which tend to come off the press anonymous. The back also carries a circular retailer badge, a row of sponsor marks from the event this was made for, a stencil logo that is partly hidden under the applied sticker, and the moodmats wordmark on the sticker itself. We are describing those rather than reproducing them, because they belong to the businesses that backed the event and not to this listing.
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On Video
See It In Hand
Photos only get you so far. This is the actual piece, shot in our hands, so you can see the scale, the finish and how it behaves in real light before you buy it.
Made in New Jersey Since 2009
Rubber That Already Had a First Life
Moodmats started with scraps from old wetsuits and discarded scuba and surf neoprene, material that was headed straight for a landfill. That became Lava Rubber, and Lava Rubber is what every Moodmat is cut from. The feedstock now comes from wetsuits, gaskets, weatherstripping, seat molds, and other clean scrap that gets collected or donated. More than two tons of it moves through the New Jersey shop every month, gets pressed into sheet stock, then die-cut and screen printed. Keeping that material out of the ground has been the point from day one.
Closed-Cell Neoprene
Closed-cell rubber does not drink up what you spill on it. Water, reclaim, and terp splash sit on the surface instead of soaking in, so a wipe with soapy water puts it back to new.
It Stays Put
The rubber grips whatever it is sitting on and grips whatever you set on top. A rig that would skate across a glass table or a finished desk stops moving the second it lands on a Moodmat.
Tough and Self-Extinguishing
Heat resistant, self-extinguishing, and built out of material that already survived a first life. This is not a printed coaster that curls after a month on the table.
Where People Actually Put These
It Does Not Have to Hold a Rig
A Moodmat protects a surface and grips what sits on it. Whether that thing is a banger, a camera, or nothing at all is up to you. They are called Moodmats for a reason. Pick the one that matches how you feel and put it wherever it belongs.
Rig and Glass Pad
The job it was built for. Keeps glass off hard surfaces and keeps hard surfaces off your glass.
Display Surface
Figures, models, controllers, dice, cameras, watches. Anything worth setting on something intentional.
Wall Art
Plenty of these never touch a table. Hang it, frame it, or pin it behind the setup and let the print do the work.
Desk and Everyday
Trivet for hot pans, landing spot for keys, pad under a pet bowl, cushion on a camp table.
Why It Matters
Runs End. Prints Do Not Come Back.
Moodmats print in runs, and runs end. Once a design is out, it is out. Artist collabs and drop exclusives regularly land in quantities of ten to twenty five pieces, which is why the people who collect these track drops, trade them, and frame the ones they will never put a rig on. If this specific print matters to you, the time to grab it is while it is still on the shelf.
A Proof Never Goes Out With the Run
This piece has no number on it because it was never counted into anything. Test prints get pulled to check a screen, then they sit in a shop, and the ones that leave the building leave one at a time rather than as an edition. It was made for a private event, it was never part of a released run, and it was never sold on the maker’s own store. What it does carry, which is unusual for a proof, is the studio’s own name printed on both faces, so it is documented rather than anonymous. That, plus the yellow sticker on the back warning that these may be imperfect, is the entire provenance of the piece.
No Reprints
Moodmats does not go back and run a sold-out design again. When this one is gone from our shelf and theirs, the only way to get it is from somebody who already has one.
Worth Hanging
A print this limited does not have to earn its keep under a rig. Plenty of these end up on a wall, in a frame, or stacked with the rest of a collection.
The Details
Specs and Care
| Size | 8 inches at the widest point, approximate |
| Shape | Die-cut to the scalloped petal edge of the badge, rounded point at bottom center |
| Material | 100% upcycled closed-cell rubber, Lava Rubber stock |
| Screen printed, full color, standard ink, heavy raised deposit | |
| Condition | Factory test print. Raised crackled ink, misregistration in the lower band, some soft feathered white edges |
| UV | None. Standard ink only |
| Artist | Bear Mountain Studios, printed on the front and on the back |
| Edition | Unnumbered. Not part of a released run |
| Back | Studio name, a circular retailer badge, event sponsor marks, and an applied yellow test print sticker |
| Origin | Made in New Jersey, USA |
Wipe it down with warm water and a little dish soap, then let it air dry flat. That is the whole routine. Do not run it through a washing machine or a dryer, do not scrub the print with an abrasive pad, and do not rest a lit torch or a glowing-hot banger directly on the surface. Use a stand or a puck for anything still at temperature.
Straight Talk
Know Before You Buy
Upcycled Means Variation
The rubber is reclaimed scrap, so base color, speckle, and surface texture shift slightly from sheet to sheet. Two mats of the same design will not be photocopies of each other. That is how you know it is the real material and not virgin stock.
Heat Resistant, Not Heatproof
The rubber is self-extinguishing and handles warm gear without complaint. It is not a torch pad. Park anything still glowing on a proper stand or a quartz puck, not on the print.
The Print Is Imperfect and We Are Not Hiding It
Raised crackled ink you can feel across the flat color, black lines standing proud with a glossy edge, a bottom band that landed off register, white catchlights partly filled in and a few feathered white dots. If you want a flawless flat print, this is the wrong piece and there is no argument to make. If you want the proof that came off the press before the run, this is exactly that, and the flaws are how you know.
The Sticker Is Applied, Not Printed
The yellow test print notice on the back is a sticker sitting on the rubber rather than part of the print, and it looks like it would peel. We are leaving it on because it is the maker’s own documentation of what this piece is, and it also covers part of a logo on the back. Whether it stays on once it is yours is your call.
No UV, and Both Photos Are of This Exact Mat
Standard ink only, so a blacklight does nothing to it. The front and back shots on this page are of the piece on our shelf rather than a maker product image, which matters more than usual here, because the ink texture is a large part of what you are buying and it is visible in the photograph.
Set the Mood
Recycled rubber, made in the USA, printed with art worth looking at. Free shipping on orders over $75, and every order ships from a veteran-owned small business.
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