Gen Con Recap! (OMG I Survived Edition)
Aug. 26th, 2012 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flameravenRight, so, Gen Con!
I meant to write this up on Monday, which I took off from my job at Curtis so my brain didn't melt from 10 straight days of work. However, as it turned out Monday turned out to be, instead of a restful, chillaxing day, a day where I did all the chores it had been impossible to do the week prior, which included tackling the massive, massive pile of dishes that result when no one does them for a week. Fortunately I had more energy on Sunday/Monday than I'd expected, so this wasn't too much a problem.
Anyway, the recap:
The days prior to Gen Con were not terribly kind to me; I got a really flat tire Monday night, spent the first bit of Tuesday morning dealing with that (which mostly involved throwing the full-size spare on until the following Monday when I could get new tires), and then Wednesday my prints arrived. They looked really good and I was pleased.
But then I realized that one of the prints was missing-- the Clockwork Oriole. I went upstairs to check my order and realized it wasn't just the one print, it was five or six different designs, including Space Turtle and Fox Fires, my two big sellers. I rather frantically e-mailed the printer, asking what was going on. He replied that he'd check for me, and if he'd just missed packaging them he'd overnight me the rest so I'd get them Friday. The next morning I got another e-mail-- he'd checked, but he could find only 20 of the missing 60 prints, and they were damaged enough he couldn't send them. This did not help my mood, which was already fraying due to several nights of poor sleep, and that combined with my attempts to set up everything Thursday morning ended in a brief meltdown when, naturally, everything continued to go wrong.
I did eventually get set up, just in time, but it was a frantic affair all around. The booth looked pretty good when everything was laid out, though:
Once the hall opened my faithful booth lackeys Ellie and Scott arrived, dressed as Black Mesa Saftey (sic) Inspectors:
The day progressed from there and slowly things got a bit better. The hit of the day Thursday were my Space Turtle buttons, which I brought out of storage to fill up some of the blank space on my table. People loved them. As always, Space Turtle was the star of the show, with everyone commenting on that piece.
I was so exhausted when I got home Thursday that I only made it three quarters of the way through my dinner before I pretty much fell asleep at the keyboard. I went to bed and slept for a glorious 11 hours and felt much more alive Friday, so that morning I went over to Repro Graphix and ordered prints of the missing designs, to be ready Saturday. They went above my expectations-- I got a call at 1:30 that they were ready to pick up, although I opted not to go fetch them until Saturday morning.
Friday was another solid day, with a minor blip around lunch when the lines for the food trucks were really, really long. Also, sadly, I didn't get to enjoy another one of the couscous/cucumber/chickpea salads that had been so delicious the day before, as I went out around 4pm and the food trucks were leaving. (The food trucks were definitely a highlight of the food at Gen Con; I had planned on bringing sandwiches, but there was enough varied and healthy food from the trucks that I just bought lunch every day instead.)
Saturday and Sunday were both incredibly busy. I think I managed to leave the table twice each day, and one of those was for lunch. Sunday even more than Saturday. Oddly enough, the masks sold the best Sunday-- the day after the con's Masquerade Ball. They still weren't as popular as they were last year, but I had a lot more competition this year-- I saw at least three other artists selling masks, even if they were mostly leather masks. We also had problems with the masks cracking/chipping off some of the more delicate pieces (horns and tentacles, for example). I can only assume it's because Model Magic changed their formula in the last year or so-- I've had a lot more trouble with cracking making the masks, and one or two of them this year cracked just when I dropped them a foot or so down on to the table. This is really strange. Previously, the only time anything cracked was when Beatrice managed to drop my entire bin onto the floor from the top of my closet (a 10 foot drop!) In any case, it's the kind of thing that makes me glad I'm phasing out the masks.
The large prints did really well this year, and I'll definitely be expanding along those lines for next year. Ellie also suggested doing more buttons and possibly magnets, in addition to the Clockwork Bird calendar I want to put out.
We also got a ton of interest for the Circle City Aerodrome's Steampunk Masquerade Ball, which Ellie was promoting. I won't be surprised if they sell out their tickets.
I didn't do much shopping this year, largely because on my chosen shopping day (Sunday) I was so busy, but I did pick up a really nice set of glass earrings & pendant, some dice, and a really cheap rules book for the Exalted RPG, which I haven't played in some time but I would like to play again. But I did go ahead and sign up for next year, even optioning for the four-panel table.
Overall, it was a big success: I made more than I did last year (and Sunday was so successful I made over half what I made last year on that one day) and my profits were better since I spent less on prints and preparation. And, surprisingly, I wasn't even that tired Sunday afternoon.
We also saw lots of cool cosplay, which I made more of an effort to take pictures of this year:
Carmen San Diego (with personal Eiffel Tower!)
Steampunk Santa Claus
Black Mesa Inspects!
Old School Link and Tetra
Zelda, Red Link & that villain from Skyward Sword in the background
Extremely dapper Steampunk gent.
Bug Catcher & MissingNo. from Pokemon
Sad Dr. Horrible
Tiny Kaylees from Firefly
REALLY well-done Dalek; it moved and had a working speaker and everything. I initially thought this was part of the Who America booth (this guy hung out there the entire con) but apparently it was a homemade costume! He won one of the major prizes.
Clockwork villain from Doctor Who
Disney Villains!
I meant to write this up on Monday, which I took off from my job at Curtis so my brain didn't melt from 10 straight days of work. However, as it turned out Monday turned out to be, instead of a restful, chillaxing day, a day where I did all the chores it had been impossible to do the week prior, which included tackling the massive, massive pile of dishes that result when no one does them for a week. Fortunately I had more energy on Sunday/Monday than I'd expected, so this wasn't too much a problem.
Anyway, the recap:
The days prior to Gen Con were not terribly kind to me; I got a really flat tire Monday night, spent the first bit of Tuesday morning dealing with that (which mostly involved throwing the full-size spare on until the following Monday when I could get new tires), and then Wednesday my prints arrived. They looked really good and I was pleased.
But then I realized that one of the prints was missing-- the Clockwork Oriole. I went upstairs to check my order and realized it wasn't just the one print, it was five or six different designs, including Space Turtle and Fox Fires, my two big sellers. I rather frantically e-mailed the printer, asking what was going on. He replied that he'd check for me, and if he'd just missed packaging them he'd overnight me the rest so I'd get them Friday. The next morning I got another e-mail-- he'd checked, but he could find only 20 of the missing 60 prints, and they were damaged enough he couldn't send them. This did not help my mood, which was already fraying due to several nights of poor sleep, and that combined with my attempts to set up everything Thursday morning ended in a brief meltdown when, naturally, everything continued to go wrong.
I did eventually get set up, just in time, but it was a frantic affair all around. The booth looked pretty good when everything was laid out, though:
Once the hall opened my faithful booth lackeys Ellie and Scott arrived, dressed as Black Mesa Saftey (sic) Inspectors:
The day progressed from there and slowly things got a bit better. The hit of the day Thursday were my Space Turtle buttons, which I brought out of storage to fill up some of the blank space on my table. People loved them. As always, Space Turtle was the star of the show, with everyone commenting on that piece.
I was so exhausted when I got home Thursday that I only made it three quarters of the way through my dinner before I pretty much fell asleep at the keyboard. I went to bed and slept for a glorious 11 hours and felt much more alive Friday, so that morning I went over to Repro Graphix and ordered prints of the missing designs, to be ready Saturday. They went above my expectations-- I got a call at 1:30 that they were ready to pick up, although I opted not to go fetch them until Saturday morning.
Friday was another solid day, with a minor blip around lunch when the lines for the food trucks were really, really long. Also, sadly, I didn't get to enjoy another one of the couscous/cucumber/chickpea salads that had been so delicious the day before, as I went out around 4pm and the food trucks were leaving. (The food trucks were definitely a highlight of the food at Gen Con; I had planned on bringing sandwiches, but there was enough varied and healthy food from the trucks that I just bought lunch every day instead.)
Saturday and Sunday were both incredibly busy. I think I managed to leave the table twice each day, and one of those was for lunch. Sunday even more than Saturday. Oddly enough, the masks sold the best Sunday-- the day after the con's Masquerade Ball. They still weren't as popular as they were last year, but I had a lot more competition this year-- I saw at least three other artists selling masks, even if they were mostly leather masks. We also had problems with the masks cracking/chipping off some of the more delicate pieces (horns and tentacles, for example). I can only assume it's because Model Magic changed their formula in the last year or so-- I've had a lot more trouble with cracking making the masks, and one or two of them this year cracked just when I dropped them a foot or so down on to the table. This is really strange. Previously, the only time anything cracked was when Beatrice managed to drop my entire bin onto the floor from the top of my closet (a 10 foot drop!) In any case, it's the kind of thing that makes me glad I'm phasing out the masks.
The large prints did really well this year, and I'll definitely be expanding along those lines for next year. Ellie also suggested doing more buttons and possibly magnets, in addition to the Clockwork Bird calendar I want to put out.
We also got a ton of interest for the Circle City Aerodrome's Steampunk Masquerade Ball, which Ellie was promoting. I won't be surprised if they sell out their tickets.
I didn't do much shopping this year, largely because on my chosen shopping day (Sunday) I was so busy, but I did pick up a really nice set of glass earrings & pendant, some dice, and a really cheap rules book for the Exalted RPG, which I haven't played in some time but I would like to play again. But I did go ahead and sign up for next year, even optioning for the four-panel table.
Overall, it was a big success: I made more than I did last year (and Sunday was so successful I made over half what I made last year on that one day) and my profits were better since I spent less on prints and preparation. And, surprisingly, I wasn't even that tired Sunday afternoon.
We also saw lots of cool cosplay, which I made more of an effort to take pictures of this year:
Carmen San Diego (with personal Eiffel Tower!)
Steampunk Santa Claus
Black Mesa Inspects!
Old School Link and Tetra
Zelda, Red Link & that villain from Skyward Sword in the background
Extremely dapper Steampunk gent.
Bug Catcher & MissingNo. from Pokemon
Sad Dr. Horrible
Tiny Kaylees from Firefly
REALLY well-done Dalek; it moved and had a working speaker and everything. I initially thought this was part of the Who America booth (this guy hung out there the entire con) but apparently it was a homemade costume! He won one of the major prizes.
Clockwork villain from Doctor Who
Disney Villains!
