LA Dolpa report
. . . obviously my doll brain is in the gutter, since I saw "FS Unoa Mule part" and did NOT think of shoes. (You can figure this out, I think. What IS the optional part in question called, anyway?) Ah, I forgot to link before that I got photos from the last Chicago meet online.
Dolpa photos
I'm sorry, it got long-ish e_e;
I got into LA early afternoon on Friday, after less than two hour's sleep the night before (I was desperate to get as much done as humanly possible). We got lazy dragging foot locker of market stuff and got a taxi - for $17 to go down the street. Ouch. Found resin_ga_miteru in the lobby. I'd originally planned to chill and then go to LosCon down the street but we wound up going to Denny's for food instead. Ran into shadrad who was just arriving on the way out, who's that waving from the shuttle? XD I was mostly delirious for the rest of Friday, so it's really kind of a blur, but probably nothing interesting happened anyway. We met up with some friends from San Diego for dinner, and afterwards I had no energy left to go down to the doll meet so I worked on things that needed hand-sewing. shadrad came by with her roomie crew for a while to keep us company and she drew a page of cats in my sketchbook (which I really should scan).
Saturday morning I barely remember, lol. We went back to Denny's for breakfast, and found out that since they were already open for FCS, we could pick up our registration downstairs. Took photos also and said hi to strawberrygoth. I went back upstairs to work, but it turned out that the Doll Doctor didn't have any business. resin_ga_miteru was kind enough to take one of my kids downstairs to get worked on, but came back up - they were REALLY not busy, and could do more than one doll. So ultimately between her and my mother, everyone but Sahara, Dee, and the Yos (none of whom really needed work) got sent down for an exam. XD; I'm perfectly capable of doing restringing, but it was nice not to have to! He also fixed the problem I scarcely knew was really a problem with Malcolm's ankles, and he stands much better now.
Then Roomie #2 (Man of Mystery until he tells me otherwise) arrived. More random working from me, they took their customize contest entry down while I finished getting dressed, and then it was dinner time. They'd already snagged the first row table, center front (choice!). Our other peoples were already camped out at their own tables, so we got to meet some new folks, including one of the people who got to do the omukae (with her first and only doll). It was mostly wandering around looking at the one-offs and then the customize contest, lots of running back and forth between the table (so hopefully no one got stuck doll-sitting overly long?). Then the announcement that it was time for dinner - and we had 30 minutes to do it. lol. They were serious, too, after one go the buffet was taken up, but we did manage to snag some of the pretty desserts (the chocolate pyramids were very good).
For my personal experience of the Dolpa: I put in for the Tsukasa one-off (this is getting to be a tradition of mine, lol), didn't get drawn. I was pretty tempted by the F-35, also, she was super cute. I was completely not paying much attention during the lotto drawings and missed being called XD I won the pattern book set. Man of Mystery won an MSD dress set, a pair of shoes and that cute outfit from last year I think with the green plaid skirt and the black capelet. I also knew several of the people who won Sei and Reitenshi. :3 Ciera came up while we were hanging around the table and took photos of my dolls, she was really into Stellan (Sakaki). Apparently a lot of people were rather entranced with his forehead gems - and here I thought I just stuck some cheesy nail decorations on the poor boy! lol. She was so friendly and enthusiastic though, she insisted on shaking my hand for some reason. I should have said something more coherent to her, but I think I was still sleep deprived. I was pretty impressed with the customize contest - not that I wasn't in NY, but several people were really into their displays at this one.
Probably anything of note has already been mentioned in people's reports or on forums. I'll post whatever scattered bits. Since there was some confusion, from what I heard, Shigeta-san said that there are three dolls smaller than the Reitenshi in the works - Ai-tenshi, Star-tenshi, and the third he did not name. The omukae was very sweet, I've never seen one before; though I guess I'm not much into rituals, myself, since it seemed a bit over the top at the same time. Shigeta-san and co. were in incredibly hyped form, being very silly (including some things Kuni didn't completely translate). From my standpoint, the NY Dolpa was pretty emotionally intense; so it's possible that this was partially a response to that? I also think that the melodramatic stuff about making doll history in America on the site and in the program they gave out was not just PR; I think they were all excited about this being the first "real" US Dolpa. I started watching the other Volks employees checking their watches while Shigeta-san was talking to the dolls before giving them away, lol! He seemed very proud of himself for making a pun in English (the Japanese like wordplay, don't they?) - "are you hungry?" I think also from what I've heard from Japanese bands that Americans are more into making noise in response to people so maybe he was high on that.
Anyway it went a lot better than the NY dinner, not having the limited items AND dolls at the same time as everything else. For me at least it was totally stress-free and a lot of fun. In the present thing I got a winged heart pendant and a very pretty kanzashi (which Stellan has claimed already, of course).
I didn't make the Saturday night meet, either, since we were busy pricing and such (yes, I know, last minute, I swear I tried - life intervened), and also co-ordinating with Roomie #3. I got to bed around 2AM and was back up at 5:30ish. x_X; My mother and I hauled some of the stuff downstairs and got our vendor badges; I did what I could while she ran up to get the rest. I had a near attack of feeling utterly unprepared when I saw people setting up with all kinds of crazy "real store" display cubes and such but I tried to focus on doing my thing.
Re: Volks booth limited items, for the record, I browsed the Volks section before it was open to the public. There were two outfits each by Village Pine and Pure Drop, and four sets from Junkie Monkey. I didn't count the others; some of the Volks limited items were being restocked, since they put out more, so I'm not sure how many of the Yo sets there were, for example. I do know that the BtSSB - the tickets were not gone for the white dress until the VERY end of the day, and I never did see the salopette set sell out - though it may have after the last time I went over, around 3ish. Neither did Garnet, Ruby, or Kuuta/Chinatsu. I went by at around 3PM and one of the Japanese Volks people tried to get me to take tickets for Kuuta and Chinatsu both XD; (I tried to tell her I would NOT argue because I love them, but I already have a Chinatsu.)
The day was pretty chaotic; I was sort of alternating between half falling asleep and total chaos writing receipts and taking money and giving change. This was my first time doing any kind of in-person selling, unless you count some very half-assed garage sales, and definitely my first time selling things I'VE made (not counting a handful of lolita ties I made on a whim and sold via eBay). So it was kind of intense! But there were some breaks just chatting with people who came by also. I didn't really get to leave the booth much, I was hoping to get more photos and look at the other dealers' stuff, but every time I'd start to wander off I'd be needed. Mikey and Shigeta-san both came by the booth. ^^ Mikey took photos and got in a good stare at Gideon (I think she was looking at the piercings). In some fit of something I told her I did the faceups on all my dolls; she was talking to herself, but I did get "good" out of it, lol. ^^; (She's so sweet she wouldn't have said anything else, though.) I got a thumbs-up and an "ok" sign from Shigeta-san when it was explained to him that it was my designs and manufacture on the items. He was walking around with this proud father expression and his hands behind his back - it was very sweet and made me honored and glad to be there.
Anyway, things went better for the launch of "House of Darkly" (Dee will get a huge head over it being named for him) than I could have asked - I very nearly sold out. I will be posting up which items I have in stock soon, the delay is due to having it take way longer than I thought to edit my photos, and also the fact that I sold almost ALL my prototypes and have to remake them. @_@ My kids are probably not at all thrilled - Stellan was sold out completely down to naked TWICE; Malcolm lost the shirt off his back; Nao lost his shirt twice and had to borrow a pair of pants; Chance spent most of the day with a Star Wars book over his lower half when he lost his pants and came home in loaners. People would have bought a lot of my props, also, if I'd been selling them (I could have, but I was so surprised by it...). I got a lot of inquiries about things also. So, I hope it wasn't a fluke, and I can still sell some items online also, because I really could use the income. I was so worried about it, I wasn't sure anything would sell. It was really cool to see dolls of people I didn't know wearing things I made (since at least a few got changed during the Dolpa).
I didn't get to meet as many people as I'd hoped, since I only briefly saw most people and didn't properly say hello. One of these days I will manage to not be viciously sleep-deprived at social events. ^^; I'm not a terrifically outgoing person anyway and being half-conscious is not helpful. I will keep trying. e_x;
Hopefully tomorrow I will have up the photos of what little stock I have left, and I will have info about the prototypes I still have/have remade also. I'm not sure whether I should make a selling journal or not yet, but until then those posts will be LJ-cut for your convenience.
Dolpa photos
I'm sorry, it got long-ish e_e;
I got into LA early afternoon on Friday, after less than two hour's sleep the night before (I was desperate to get as much done as humanly possible). We got lazy dragging foot locker of market stuff and got a taxi - for $17 to go down the street. Ouch. Found resin_ga_miteru in the lobby. I'd originally planned to chill and then go to LosCon down the street but we wound up going to Denny's for food instead. Ran into shadrad who was just arriving on the way out, who's that waving from the shuttle? XD I was mostly delirious for the rest of Friday, so it's really kind of a blur, but probably nothing interesting happened anyway. We met up with some friends from San Diego for dinner, and afterwards I had no energy left to go down to the doll meet so I worked on things that needed hand-sewing. shadrad came by with her roomie crew for a while to keep us company and she drew a page of cats in my sketchbook (which I really should scan).
Saturday morning I barely remember, lol. We went back to Denny's for breakfast, and found out that since they were already open for FCS, we could pick up our registration downstairs. Took photos also and said hi to strawberrygoth. I went back upstairs to work, but it turned out that the Doll Doctor didn't have any business. resin_ga_miteru was kind enough to take one of my kids downstairs to get worked on, but came back up - they were REALLY not busy, and could do more than one doll. So ultimately between her and my mother, everyone but Sahara, Dee, and the Yos (none of whom really needed work) got sent down for an exam. XD; I'm perfectly capable of doing restringing, but it was nice not to have to! He also fixed the problem I scarcely knew was really a problem with Malcolm's ankles, and he stands much better now.
Then Roomie #2 (Man of Mystery until he tells me otherwise) arrived. More random working from me, they took their customize contest entry down while I finished getting dressed, and then it was dinner time. They'd already snagged the first row table, center front (choice!). Our other peoples were already camped out at their own tables, so we got to meet some new folks, including one of the people who got to do the omukae (with her first and only doll). It was mostly wandering around looking at the one-offs and then the customize contest, lots of running back and forth between the table (so hopefully no one got stuck doll-sitting overly long?). Then the announcement that it was time for dinner - and we had 30 minutes to do it. lol. They were serious, too, after one go the buffet was taken up, but we did manage to snag some of the pretty desserts (the chocolate pyramids were very good).
For my personal experience of the Dolpa: I put in for the Tsukasa one-off (this is getting to be a tradition of mine, lol), didn't get drawn. I was pretty tempted by the F-35, also, she was super cute. I was completely not paying much attention during the lotto drawings and missed being called XD I won the pattern book set. Man of Mystery won an MSD dress set, a pair of shoes and that cute outfit from last year I think with the green plaid skirt and the black capelet. I also knew several of the people who won Sei and Reitenshi. :3 Ciera came up while we were hanging around the table and took photos of my dolls, she was really into Stellan (Sakaki). Apparently a lot of people were rather entranced with his forehead gems - and here I thought I just stuck some cheesy nail decorations on the poor boy! lol. She was so friendly and enthusiastic though, she insisted on shaking my hand for some reason. I should have said something more coherent to her, but I think I was still sleep deprived. I was pretty impressed with the customize contest - not that I wasn't in NY, but several people were really into their displays at this one.
Probably anything of note has already been mentioned in people's reports or on forums. I'll post whatever scattered bits. Since there was some confusion, from what I heard, Shigeta-san said that there are three dolls smaller than the Reitenshi in the works - Ai-tenshi, Star-tenshi, and the third he did not name. The omukae was very sweet, I've never seen one before; though I guess I'm not much into rituals, myself, since it seemed a bit over the top at the same time. Shigeta-san and co. were in incredibly hyped form, being very silly (including some things Kuni didn't completely translate). From my standpoint, the NY Dolpa was pretty emotionally intense; so it's possible that this was partially a response to that? I also think that the melodramatic stuff about making doll history in America on the site and in the program they gave out was not just PR; I think they were all excited about this being the first "real" US Dolpa. I started watching the other Volks employees checking their watches while Shigeta-san was talking to the dolls before giving them away, lol! He seemed very proud of himself for making a pun in English (the Japanese like wordplay, don't they?) - "are you hungry?" I think also from what I've heard from Japanese bands that Americans are more into making noise in response to people so maybe he was high on that.
Anyway it went a lot better than the NY dinner, not having the limited items AND dolls at the same time as everything else. For me at least it was totally stress-free and a lot of fun. In the present thing I got a winged heart pendant and a very pretty kanzashi (which Stellan has claimed already, of course).
I didn't make the Saturday night meet, either, since we were busy pricing and such (yes, I know, last minute, I swear I tried - life intervened), and also co-ordinating with Roomie #3. I got to bed around 2AM and was back up at 5:30ish. x_X; My mother and I hauled some of the stuff downstairs and got our vendor badges; I did what I could while she ran up to get the rest. I had a near attack of feeling utterly unprepared when I saw people setting up with all kinds of crazy "real store" display cubes and such but I tried to focus on doing my thing.
Re: Volks booth limited items, for the record, I browsed the Volks section before it was open to the public. There were two outfits each by Village Pine and Pure Drop, and four sets from Junkie Monkey. I didn't count the others; some of the Volks limited items were being restocked, since they put out more, so I'm not sure how many of the Yo sets there were, for example. I do know that the BtSSB - the tickets were not gone for the white dress until the VERY end of the day, and I never did see the salopette set sell out - though it may have after the last time I went over, around 3ish. Neither did Garnet, Ruby, or Kuuta/Chinatsu. I went by at around 3PM and one of the Japanese Volks people tried to get me to take tickets for Kuuta and Chinatsu both XD; (I tried to tell her I would NOT argue because I love them, but I already have a Chinatsu.)
The day was pretty chaotic; I was sort of alternating between half falling asleep and total chaos writing receipts and taking money and giving change. This was my first time doing any kind of in-person selling, unless you count some very half-assed garage sales, and definitely my first time selling things I'VE made (not counting a handful of lolita ties I made on a whim and sold via eBay). So it was kind of intense! But there were some breaks just chatting with people who came by also. I didn't really get to leave the booth much, I was hoping to get more photos and look at the other dealers' stuff, but every time I'd start to wander off I'd be needed. Mikey and Shigeta-san both came by the booth. ^^ Mikey took photos and got in a good stare at Gideon (I think she was looking at the piercings). In some fit of something I told her I did the faceups on all my dolls; she was talking to herself, but I did get "good" out of it, lol. ^^; (She's so sweet she wouldn't have said anything else, though.) I got a thumbs-up and an "ok" sign from Shigeta-san when it was explained to him that it was my designs and manufacture on the items. He was walking around with this proud father expression and his hands behind his back - it was very sweet and made me honored and glad to be there.
Anyway, things went better for the launch of "House of Darkly" (Dee will get a huge head over it being named for him) than I could have asked - I very nearly sold out. I will be posting up which items I have in stock soon, the delay is due to having it take way longer than I thought to edit my photos, and also the fact that I sold almost ALL my prototypes and have to remake them. @_@ My kids are probably not at all thrilled - Stellan was sold out completely down to naked TWICE; Malcolm lost the shirt off his back; Nao lost his shirt twice and had to borrow a pair of pants; Chance spent most of the day with a Star Wars book over his lower half when he lost his pants and came home in loaners. People would have bought a lot of my props, also, if I'd been selling them (I could have, but I was so surprised by it...). I got a lot of inquiries about things also. So, I hope it wasn't a fluke, and I can still sell some items online also, because I really could use the income. I was so worried about it, I wasn't sure anything would sell. It was really cool to see dolls of people I didn't know wearing things I made (since at least a few got changed during the Dolpa).
I didn't get to meet as many people as I'd hoped, since I only briefly saw most people and didn't properly say hello. One of these days I will manage to not be viciously sleep-deprived at social events. ^^; I'm not a terrifically outgoing person anyway and being half-conscious is not helpful. I will keep trying. e_x;
Hopefully tomorrow I will have up the photos of what little stock I have left, and I will have info about the prototypes I still have/have remade also. I'm not sure whether I should make a selling journal or not yet, but until then those posts will be LJ-cut for your convenience.