Monday, January 21, 2013

Ohayocon and My First Artist Alley~

I finally did it. My first artist alley! The weekend was a blast: I had a lot of fun, sold a lot of things (I was a lot more successful than I thought I'd be), learned a lot about what does and doesn't sell, and noq I'm super excited for future artist alleys. The weekend was a blur and I've got a lot of work to do, but I'm going to attempt a quick weekend recap.

 ✦Day One ✦

The week before Ohayocon, I was a nervous wreck, and the day before I had just about talked myself into not even showing up. Honestly I was that nervous, and I'd convinced myself that I'd be nothing but a failure. I don't consider myself a pessimist, but I'd rather think the worst in situations so I don't get crushed by high expectations. And since I'd only sold my things at a few other things - once at Frill, and I didn't have a booth, everything was together in a boutique set up, and I sold a whopping 2 items; the second time being at Anime Weekend Atlanta, where Frill set up another mock boutique and I sold... nothing. So can you blame me for having super low expectations?

On Friday, the Artist Alley didn't open until one, and we had four hours before then to set up. We got there at 12. Not intentionally! It should've been more like 11, but we had to stop at Staples to pick up my print catalogue thing for my booth, and they were moving in total slow motion =__=. It ended up taking us until a little after 1 to get totally set up, since there were only my bf and I, and I had to sit and watch the booth while he went back and forth to the car to get everything. Lesson learned! We won't be doing anything like this next time.

Day one's booth set up and me :3 Next time's booth will be better, promise!

My friend, Lindsey (wearing the Loli-Moxxi costume I made for her, which I haven't had time to blog or even post about yet) and I.


Paradise Rose was there! Sadly our booths were on the complete opposite sides of the room, so we didn't get to talk much. But she's super nice and I'm super happy I got to meet her :3 Aaand I believe she was the only other Loli-booth there...

Sarah! At last, a photo is taken of both her wearing the Wa-Lolita coord I made for her years ago, and I.

The Artist Alley closed at 8p on Friday, and we proceeded to get food afterwards. I was super exhausted and pretty much went straight to bed when I got home, as we had to be back the next morning at 9a to set up.

✦ Day Two 

So this weekend, we were blessed with sharing the hotel with America's Got Talent auditions =__=. Naturally, parking was a blast. But we managed to find a spot, and got there in time to get the booth set up, and then I was off at 10a to attend the Lolita Crush. I hadn't attended the Lolita Crush in the past, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was pretty much a tea party, and we were served by a super cute maid staff, they did cute dances, Pretty Princess (I think it's called?) board game was played, we had arts and crafts, and had a little fashion show. I was nervous leaving my bf in charge of the booth for so long - the crush was 2 hours - but upon arriving back at my booth, I found out he'd actually sold more with me not there, haha. And he was totally comfortable manning the booth, so that was my chance to walk around the dealer's room and see the rest of the Alley. I suck at spending money on myself, so I only purchased a few things on Saturday.

El booth. This was taken at the end of the day, as my signage is askew, and I'm looking super tired.

Quite literally, only a few things were purchased. A cutey bat necklace, and starry 2-way clip from Paradise Rose.

Oh yea. The con's theme was Zombies, so this is what we did during arts & crafts time at the Crush: 

Yep.


A few Lolis from my local comm stopped by: 



I also suck at getting photos of my bf and I (don't have any from Friday ;A;), so here we are. I don't know why his face is smirking, but this was our best photo - in all the others we were blinking or looking super pissed/tired, lol.

Saturday was the longest day, as the Alley was open from 10a-7p. We got out of there pretty quickly, and were sleeping a few hours later. Call me a killjoy, but most days I spend alone with my sewing machine, no human contact, and next to no physical activity. So this weekend left me completely drained. Saturday was also the day I ran out of business cards... >_>

 ✦ Day Three 

Sunday! The last day has finally arrived. I made a few makeshift business cards on computer paper... but sadly my printer ran out of ink after I'd only printed 2 pages worth, which translates to a meager 16. Haha. Those lasted all of 30 minutes. I resorted to using my little hangtags that I attach to clothing that gets shipped out. Although they're quite tiny, they have my url on it, so they had to do. 

The day began with everyone getting there... super early? There was a bit of confusion as there no set-up time listed for Sunday, so all the artists just came at 9a, since the Alley opened at 10a, and that's how it was for Saturday. We got there at around 9:20, and had to wait a while before they unlocked the doors for us. So we took pictures to pass our boredom.

The cliche Lolita-shoe-shot! I have no photos like this, so it had to be done. It was also the first time wearing these shoes in public, so I was quite excited.

Once again, I got no good coord-photos of my bf and I on Sunday, and this is all I have of him, lol.

Also my first time wearing this wig :3 Ooh, and my new 2-way clip!
So here's the thing. Pretty much all my loli-clothes are samples, made to fit a model. They're generally not the best in terms of quality, and they typically don't fit me very well. For example, this skirt has a pretty bad quality print. It was a test run, and didn't come out as expected. It's also pretty short, so I had to pull it down a lot in order to be comfortable, and y'know, not have my petticoat totally showing. This blouse is also a bit big, and the elastic on the wrist is big enough to be comfortable around my elbow. I'm not trying to diss my own clothing, I'm just saying. Most of the time, the clothing I wear wasn't specifically made for me.


Sunday was pretty low-key, as most everyone (as in the con-attendees/regular people) were up late the night before. So the alley was pretty quiet until closer to noon. Despite being not as busy, the day still went by pretty quickly. My bf and I took turns shopping around, as the Dealer's room either closed at the same time or earlier than the Alley all weekend. I ended up purchasing some plushies :3
Once the Alley closed at 4p, we were packed up and out of there before 4:30. We went straight home, and I promptly fell asleep on the couch for 2 hours. Yes, still completely wigged and fully loli-d out. I hadn't meant to, it just sort of happened, lol.

Overall, I had a pretty terrific weekend. I sold a lot more than I dreamed I would. Since I hadn't had any soaring experiences selling my things in person rather than online, my only goal was to at least make back my table fees. Which I did the first day, a few hours in. I absolutely loved this experience, and hearing people talk about my work/compliment me in person is such good positive reinforcement. (Seriously, one girl thought my dress was... brand. *O*) Sometimes I get so stuck in my bubble that it's hard to tell if what I'm doing is any good, or total crap. I hope to do many more Artist Alleys in the future, especially since my bf and I have a dependable, working car now~

♡MissChubi

4 comments:

  1. You're SO CUTE!
    I'm glad you had fun and enjoyed yourself!

    (P.S. I think our bf's have identical beards right now. xD)

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    Replies
    1. Hehe, thanks Miki! :3

      Lol, nice! My bf started growing for Novembeard or whatever, and just... never shaved it >_>

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  2. so beautiful outfits and drawing!!! *___*

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