#sassyeol

Oh how awesome! :D

I’m a bit new to the con scene, but I think I can offer a bit of advice—

Some of the most common items you’ll find for sale in an artist alley are prints, buttons, stickers, and charms. Small things like buttons seem especially easy to sell since they’re low cost, durable items that don’t cost as much— or take up as much room— as a print might.

There are two things that you can do for making buttons:

1. You can have them printed and shipped through an online service

2. You can purchase a button making machine, bulk materials for pinback buttons, and personally print sheets of the designs you want to use.

Personally, I have my own button machine. Button machines are quite costly— especially good ones— but they eventually pay for themselves. They’re relatively easy to use and you can make a large amount of buttons in a short amount of time. I personally got my button machine from this company and I also use their website to purchase the materials for my buttons. I use our local Office Depot to print my button designs.

The most common button sizes you’ll see in an artist alley range from about 1-2 inches.

I’m afraid I don’t know many online services that are good for buttons, but I do know that Zapcreatives offers bulk orders of 1 inch buttons. It’s important to note that they’re in the UK, however, and that the prices on their site are set in British Pounds.

Zapcreatives also offers charms— various acrylic, wood, and metal varieties— and sticker printing. I’ve ordered charms from them twice now and have been relatively pleased with their service and the quality of the charms (excluding the fluke with my Journey charms). They print and ship relatively fast to the US (east coast) as well. I ordered my charms on the 12th of January, they shipped on the 19th, and I received them on the 26th. 

I’ve unfortunately had no experiences with their sticker printing service, however, since the only con I’ve attended is Katsucon and Katsucon does not allow artists to sell stickers (make sure to check the rules of your con very thoroughly so that you know what is and is not appropriate to sell! Keep in mind that, for copyright reasons, it’s generally important to sell your own unique designs as well as designs that include fanart).

Another service I know of that prints charms is Ink It Labs, though I’ve never personally used their services. I’ve heard good things about their charm quality; I almost ordered from them this year, but Zap offers more charm designs, 5 for an order of 50 1 inch charms, while Ink It only allows 2 designs, and it appealed more to my needs.

Some other things I’ve seen offered in the artist alley (by drawing artists, not crafters) are small bags with prints on them, printed scarves, magnets, and bookmarks (none of which I have personal experience with).

As far as preparing for the con goes, I think that my best advice would be to be completely prepared well before the con hits. When the con is 3-4 months away you feel like you have plenty of time, but if you still have work to complete when the con is a month away it becomes a royal stress. You can never prepare too early for a con. Make sure to work on your designs and prints whenever you can, and make sure that you have enough money to afford everything you will need (including expenses at the con, like food and hotel costs).

Other than your merchandise, make sure that you have plenty of supplies for your own needs as well as your display. I would recommend bringing the following with you to your table:

Duct tape and scotch tape (Duct tape for any potential display repairs; scotch tape for hanging prints)

A ruler

A calculator

A notebook or something to record sales in

Pens and pencils

A sketchbook (if you plan to do drawing commissions at your table)

Scissors

Table clamps (to secure your display to the table; not necessary but a good idea)

Small clear bags or sheets to put your merchandise in once sold (not necessary, but a lot of people appreciate it)

A cash box (with small bills and change at the start of the con)

Pliers and additional lanyards (if you sell charms and have jump rings that may need adjusting)

Food and drinks

Perhaps a cushion (you will spend a lot of time on your ass so you might as well be comfortable)

Hand sanitizer

A trash bag

Anything that you need for your personal comfort (such as tissues, ibuprofen, or other medications)

Something to entertain yourself during slow periods (such as a book or your 3DS)

Your phone (don’t forget to charge it every night!)

As far as your actual display goes, I would greatly recommend purchasing some gridwall. You can make a display out of PVC pipe, but gridwall is sturdier and easier to attach prints and other items to. You can also keep supplies in the back side of a gridwall display, which is great for organization.

I purchased my gridwall from our local Bed Bath & Beyond. You can find them on their site here but I purchased mine directly from the store to avoid shipping fees. Unfortunately, you have to buy two of these gridwall sets to make a display for a 6 foot long table (to form a sort of arch above you that’s 3 squares high, that is.)

Make sure to read the rules of the artist alley you are attending so you know exactly how tall you’re allowed to make your display. 

Also try to have a clear idea of how you will organize your smaller items on the table. If you have charms, where are they going? How will people see your buttons? I’ve seen some people attach their charms directly to their gridwall, but other times people will have separate, smaller displays specifically for their charms.

I’ve also seen buttons displayed in many different fashions. Some people choose to just print out images of their button designs and have a poster, some people lay them right on the table, some people pin them up on display boards, and others like to have them pinned to their table cloth in some way (the tables tend to have some form of cloth on them already, but you can always drape your own over the cloth if you wish to— particularly if you plan to display buttons in this way since it’d be a bit rude to make a pincushion of the con’s cloths lol.

This is getting rather wordy now but there are two more things I’d really recommend:

1. Business cards.

People readily grab business cards at artist alleys when they are available! Make sure to include your name, email, and a list of your online usernames (Tumblr, DA, FA, whatever sites you are on). It makes it all the easier for people to find you in the future; don’t be afraid of advertising yourself!

2. A portfolio or a binder with some of your additional work.

This can be for additional items you wish to sell that won’t fit on your display, or it can be just to show off some of the stuff you didn’t make into prints or buttons. 

I was strapped for funds last Katsucon and I made a binder filled with sketches I had done (since I don’t have a coloured printer at home and it was relatively easy to print out my favorite uncoloured sketches I had). A surprising amount of people took interest in that binder and I had a lot of nice conversations with people who stuck around to look through it! C:

UHHHH that’s most of what I can think of. The only other thing probably worth noting is to consider prices well before the con. $1-2.50 is generally a good price for buttons, depending on the size, and I’ve seen charms jump around $3-10 depending on size and detail (ones closer to $10 are usually larger, have extra parts, or are double sided.) 

As for prints, they can easily range around $3-15 depending on the size and quality. I’d recommend looking for sources online if you need further specifics.

I hope at least some of this helps! C:

I was tagged by my dear friend genericfanatic~ I figured I would give this a try xD

I have a pretty nice figure. 44in, 34in, 45in are my measurements- basically a prefect hourglass on the heavier side . Sometimes it’s just nice to look in the mirror, see how my body curves and actually like what I see.

I love my hair! I am a natural blonde and I love it. If I ever spend time outside I get these great highlights that add more depth to my hair.  :3

I am actually studying what I want to do. As in I am getting a degree in something that I love. I never thought that I would study art as my major or ever go into costuming. It just feels really great to know that when I get out of college I won’t feel like I wasted 5-6 years of my life getting qualified to do something I hate. The idea that I can possibly enjoy my work in the future is actually really liberating.

I am a fairly good artist. Like any artist my strengths and interests change often and because of that I get to experience many different media. My art style changes probably just as often as my interests. This past semester I actually came out of my classes with pieces that I liked and actually wanted to show people, which is a great feeling. As I get older I only seem to get better and that makes me really happy~

I like to think that I am a pretty open minded person. I’ll give almost anything a shot and I’ll listen to whatever someone has to say. I am accepting of many different kinds of people, regardless of any biases and I feel like being open minded is one of the best ways to becoming a well rounded individual.

I am TAGGING: idlebirdsparagon, sunshineraccoon, orianfalls, sassyeol, and fuckyoufuckyouimgoin2bed

HAVE FUN GUYS     (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*