If you are planning on spending Thanksgiving weekend at Orycon, consider coming to the three panels they have me speaking on.


Sat Nov 28 11:00:am Steampunk: Victorian marvels of science fantastic
Discuss and learn about the marvelous world of steampunk. What's new and what's classic in books, movies, art, toys and even music!

Sat Nov 28 12:00:pm Intro to Steampunk
Introduction to Steampunk costuming and weaponry


Sat Nov 28 1:00:pm Punk/Cyberpunk/Goth
Turning counterculture into mainstream.

So helix90 and I went to Dragoncon in Atlanta last weekend. It was a lot of fun. We attended a few panels in the well dressed altered history track, mostly the steampunk themed ones. We went to a great steampunk meetup where we coerced everyone into taking a huge group shot. We talked about steampunk and Steamcon to everyone who came up and asked. One guy I expected to ask about steampunk actually asked "What's with all the little hats?". Lol!
There were many fabulous costumes. We took lots of photos. You can see them here The steampunk starts about half way through.
I started a group for just steampunk at Dragoncon like last year, but I seem to have been beaten to the punch by this group.

Anyway, go enjoy photos and get inspired for Steamcon!

Off to Dragoncon! Back next week. Wish me good costume karma!

So despite my best efforts to avoid this, I am planning three costumes per day for Dragoncon. Except Monday.

Friday : A steampunk outfit (TBD) I am still undecided on this one. So many to choose from.
Next the debut of Widget, then into my Abney Park outfit to help run the table and such.

Saturday: Brannigan's daughter, my Abney Park outfit (again) for running the table and then into Captain Heliotrope

Sunday: The debut of Poison Ivy, the debut of a new Steam Queen of Hearts, then a different Queen of Hearts (TBD).

Monday: casual day for me. Give the feet a rest mainly.

But most importantly the prop box is now packed and will be shipped off Monday. So, now to see if all the clothes will fit into a couple of suitcases...

For those of you whose steampunk tastes run to frills and lace, you should check out Innocente Seraphim, the new Sweet Gothic Lolita, ball-jointed doll convention taking place in Bellevue August 8-9th. Lots of opportunity to dress up and have tea! They are having THREE tea parties!

Hilights:

• Steampunk was huge this year!
• Our Steamcon table was in a good spot and although we had to share with Rustycon, they were cool with our giant sign. We sold lots of memberships, gave out flyers and talked to many people.
• The Steampunk Fashion show went over well. The ballroom was almost full and people seemed okay with our impromptu style. All the participants were dressed wonderfully well. I had several people say they have been “converted”! Whoohoo!
• The steampunk panels were all quite well attended, and seemed to be well received.
• We discussed helping with steampunk content at upcoming local conventions!
• I sold two pieces in the artshow, and got a commission to do another one.
• All my costumes were well received. I even had two more that I could have worn, but things just didn’t work out.
• I danced my feet off.
• I made new friends and got to talk to not so new ones.

Lowlights:

• I am currently sick, extremely tired and fighting off post con depression.
• I was astounded at how many people were disappointed that I wasn’t dressed up on Sunday morning. I will endeavor not to disappoint next time.
• Also on Sunday, it was funny to see people react to my real hair. I was apparently not recognizable.
• My “not for sale” pieces in the show garnered a few concerned comments. They were some of my postcards in frames, and were meant to help fill out the panel so I honestly don’t think they would have sold, but who knows.
• I didn’t get photos of a few of my outfits for the weekend and overall got many less photos than I would have liked.
• It all went by too fast.

Not as many photos as I hoped, but here is the second batch also known as Helix90’s Norwescon gallery. Enjoy.

Please let me know if you have or see any photos from the fashion show. Kthxbye!

Let me show you them...
My gallery of Norwescon pics.

Meanwhile, I am very tired and fighting off con crud, so helix90's photos will not be up tonight. Tomorrow if I feel up to it.

So, working on lots of things for Norwescon.

My entries in the artshow will be an experiment. No idea how they will go over, but it was lots of fun creating them.

On the costume front, I'm doing a couple of new outfits. Madame Carnelian, the hostess for the steampunk fashion show is an entirely new ensemble. Lady Reynard, the adventuress will debut on Saturday for the panels and group meet-up, complete with new aetheric pulse pistol. I'm thinking of doing the Steam Queen of Hearts for part of Friday night along with M as the March Hare. Saturday night I am debating reprising Brannigan’s daughter. Since it sort of crosses steampunk with Dr Who, it seems like a fun choice. It's a lot of work though, so I am torn. Any encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

I had a wonderful weekend sitting part of a table at Emerald City Comicon, thanks to a kind offer from winterjaye. I sold a little art, got lots of wonderful and encouraging compliments on my art, and promoted Steamcon. I even went ahead and signed up for my own table in artists’ alley next year. I took a few pics of some of the steamfolk who came by and some other good costumes. You can see them all here.
We were near a table that had a huge contingent of booth bunnies who were literally dressed as bunnies in black vinyl. Every now and then they would block the aisle for a photo opportunity and I kept saying that we really needed to do that too. When a cute brunette in goggles came up to the table and admired Tony’s guns, I figured it was the opportunity I had been hinting at. We got a couple of cute shots.

A shot of me at my booth at Emerald City ComiCon on Saturday taken by Doug Herring. I am going to try and edit my photos sometime today.

So, I am just back from three days of sitting at a table, selling stuff and doing art on demand at Further Confusion in San Jose. I began the weekend with a very early morning flight and a head cold, so it was not an auspicious beginning. Despite the handicaps, I soldiered on. The dealer's room opened about 11:00 and closed at 6:00. Lather rinse repeat for three days. My husband graciously helps out at these events. I have a wide array of merchandise with my art on it; postcards, magnets, stickers and mouse pads. I also take art commissions. Those are more popular because people can get exactly what they want drawn, within reason. I enjoy the challenge of this work and sometimes it really pays off. Sometimes, the pieces don't turn out so well, but you do what you can. I really enjoy doing the color work, but it requires taking a lot of design markers with us, which adds to the load.

Friday was a very successful day, and Saturday and Sunday weren't bad. I made slightly more than usual, which with the current economy is a good sign. I by no means make enough to even cover expenses, but it's marketing value has to be considered as well. I make contacts and handout flyers and business cards. We were also promoting our steampunk convention, Steamcon in October. There seems to be a great deal of interest in the steampunk, and we met some great folks. I even got to do several steampunk commissions for folks.

All in all it was a successful convention and we were even a little bit social on Saturday night. The cake wasn’t a lie! Unless you showed up late, in which case cookies were not a lie, but cake was. I helped out in the photo pit because I was feeling helpful. Or bossy, not sure. If we didn’t already pack so damn much stuff, I would costume as well. I probably don’t really have that much extra energy after an entire day of making art. It’s pretty exhausting. The cold didn’t help either.

This experience usually gets me all inspired to do more art, but this time I may even be inclined to do something new. It's all kicking around in my head, so we'll see what eventually comes out. If (as the signs seem to indicate) there is a new studio in my future, it would certainly help that come to fruition.

If anyone is planning on attending Rustycon this weekend, I thought I’d point out that there is a steampunk costuming panel on Saturday @ 5:00 entitled “Steampunk Costuming: More than just a pair of goggles”. I don’t know who is on the panel but it sounds interesting. helix90 and I will be in attendance, so if you do attend, please find us to say hello. We will only be able to attend for Saturday afternoon and possible part of the evening.

Our gallery is up on helix90's Flickr gallery. Lots of steampunk stuff. Click on the pic to see the rest.

Hilights:
• Lots of steampunk costuming!
• Our Steampunk panel went well
• The Steampunk Meet & Greet was quite fun
• Domestic Bliss Photography at the meet & greet were wonderful. I think I have another idea for Steamcon.
• Having two of the hotel maids squeal in delight when they saw me as the Steam Queen of Hearts.
• I had one very enthusiastic woman tell me that I really should have won the masquerade. *blush* I only got three votes though. Oh well.
• Nice con t-shirt design
• Finding the exact tights I was looking for in the dealer’s room
• The hotel sports bar. Yes, really. The staff is great. The music is good and the drinks are good. I ignore the televisions. I will miss that place now that the con is moving.
• Seeing friends and catching up, which is always great.
• Getting to hit Gustav’s for fondue and beer sausage on the way to the con!


Lowlights:
• Worst DJ evar! Figure out your damn sound levels moron! My ear drums nearly ruptured when you began Rasputin!
• Configuration for the room for the dance still sucks
• Masquerade was slightly better but still flawed
• Getting asked if I was supposed to be Boy George when wearing my Steampunk Lolita outfit (Mundanes are weird)
• Having my heart necklace break when I took it off. I have the worst luck with heart jewelry.
• Miserable headache on Friday night.

Since we didn't have any big goals for the con, it was okay. We found ourselves fairly low energy for most of it. If not, we might have been a bit bored. Most cons are what you make them though. We have some pics which I will get around to editing soon.

Just a reminder that if you are going to be at Orycon this weekend there are a couple of steampunk events you should catch:

Saturday noon-1pm PANEL: Steampunk fashion and culture: Portland Room

Saturday 10:00pm-midnight Steampunk Meet 'n Greet: Salon A

helix90 and I will be there promoting the con, so come say "Hi!"

Okay, my report. Yea. Um. Where to start. It’s just too overwhelming. OMG OMG OMG! Okay, how about just the highlights and I’ll elaborate on other bits later.

The good (in no particular order)
• The dark fantasy track steampunk panel. Wow!
• Running the guerilla steampunk panel and getting asked if we’d do it again next year!
• Getting adopted by two of the most amazing young steampunk fans, and gaining two sisters!
• Making friends with so many fabulous people! Really! All of you rock my socks!!!
• The steampunk meetup at the Hyatt
• All the various steampunk photoshoots (planned and impromptu)
• Much steampunk goodness everywhere
• Getting asked about steampunk by everyone
• Promoting Steamcon
• Meeting new steampunk authors
• Meeting Stephen Segal from Weird Tales
• Helping Abney Park with their table so they could meet their fans. They were quite grateful and very nice to hang out with as well.
• Dragoncon Hard Rock Café Pins!
• Having a Legend of the Five Rings fan bow to me after learning who I was
• Being told I was adorable in my least favorite costume
• Having several people realize that wigs are an important touch
• MARTA from the airport is so easy
• Getting to gab with Ted Naifeh and his lovely girlfriend Kelly
• All the costumes (unbelievable!!!)
• People wanting to take a posing class if we held one
• The waitresses in the coffee shop at the Hyatt were really cool.


The bad (again in no order)
• Tiny hotel room with no storage!
• Uncomfortable bed and pillows
• Miserably hot weather
• Any line for any one famous ended up being outdoors (oh hells no!)
• Steampunk panel rooms were way too small (although that lead to the serendipitous guerilla steampunk panel)
• Parade is a cool idea, but …it’s outside in the heat! Ack! (again, oh hells no!)
• My carefully worked out schedule was completely thrown out the window due to practicality and I still had the most kick ass time I have ever had. Maybe that should be in the upper section.
• One security person decided that a person having a possible allergic reaction ought to go all the way up to ops to get help. Um. No. The EMS in charge was not amused and neither were we. On the plus side, my friend will be working for them next year.
• More costume malfunctions than ever. Grrrrr.
• The Hyatt bar stops serving food during the con. Feh.
• The No photos zones are annoying and not always enforced. I realize that they want to keep aisles clear, but we never could find out where the official photo areas were.
• On Delta airlines, the pillows are a lie.
• Small children sitting behind me on the long trip home with too much energy and no off switches.

In an effort to make it easier to find all the steamy goodness that appeared at Dragoncon this year, I’ve created a Flickr group. Please feel free to add any relevant photos here.

Thanks to all you participated! You all looked smashing!

(My apologies, but only three of our photos are currently up. The rest will be up soon, but not immediately. I like to edit a bit first. They will be on my husband’s Flickr account : Helix90. I’ll post again when I get them up!)

{X posted for maximum visibility}

Okay, all packed. Just waiting for the shuttle to the airport. Off to way too sunny Atlanta for five days. Oof! Why do we always end up going to hot and sunny places? Well, at least there will be air conditioning.

So, I'm looking through the Dragoncon schedule trying to figure out which of the millions of cool things to do are absolute musts, but I might as well give up now. It all happens at once. Sigh. I won't even have time to eat at this rate, much less see the dealer's room. And I thought I'd have time to do costume changes! What was I thinking? I need to clone myself.