Updates for March

We've been busy gearing up for our shows this year, and we can't wait to jump in. 

*Next weekend, March 19-20, we'll be on USC campus for Nashicon, an anime convention.  Everyone there is great, and we always have a fun time, so if you're local, come visit us! 

*We have an official logo for the WonkyDolls! 

I love it, and it's going to be on all our new tags!  Yay!

*We're still trying to get up to 25 followers so we can hold our first giveaway!  Remember, the prize will be one of our dolls that was featured in STUFFED magazine.

*We will be attending A-Kon this year!  And we should know a lot more about upcoming shows in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned. 

Upcoming shows

Just a brief note to let everyone know we'll be at Con Nooga this weekend.  It's a multi-genre convention in Chattanooga, TN.  It promises to be a lot of fun. 

In other exciting news, we just got accepted into Crafty Feast, which will be held April 16 in conjunction with Indie Grits, an independent film festival here in our hometown of Columbia, SC. 

We're really psyched because we know this is always and awesome show, and a lot of our friends will be there too!

Also, after much debate, we've decided to do Finster Fest this year, which is a folk art festival.  We just sent out our application.  It's held May 14-15 in Summerville, GA

Keep checking our Events page for updates on shows, we plan to be booked pretty solid this year! 

STUFFED magazine giveaway

We just got our WonkyDolls back from STUFFED magazine.  Now we want to show how much we love all of our supporters.  We're going to give one of the STUFFED dolls away, for FREE!  As soon as we hit 25 followers on our blog, our first ever jellykoe giveaway will begin.
Make sure you hit follow to keep up with us.  ♥
UPDATE: we will be doing giveaways on our facebook page, follow us at www.facebook.com/jellykoe

We're adults! ...sort of

One thing that always bothers us at shows is when people look at our plushies and then say things like "oh, I don't have kids" or "my kids are too old for those."  We try to stress that while yes, a lot of people purchase them for their children, we don't make our WonkyDolls for kids.  When we design them, we have adult collectors in mind.   We also like to tell folks that we are toy collectors ourselves.  It seems that this is a foreign idea for most people. 
Well, lest anyone think we're exaggerating our own collection, we want to invite you to see some of our "house of oddities." 

Some of our plush collection.  Several are from other independent plush artists we met at shows

Invader Zim, Spawn, My Little Pony, Barbie Fashion Flairies

Majority of the My Little Pony Collection

The designer ponies- notice the pet net in the background broken from too many stuffed animals

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Friends With You, Disney, Peanuts, Futurama

 Like I said, this is just some of it.  There are toys scattered all over our house because we don't think anyone should ever be too old for toys.  And for those of you who don't know us personally, no, we don't have kids and we don't plan to.  All the fun stuff is just for us! 

Show Report- Ichibancon 2011

Ichibancon is a small anime convention in Charlotte, NC in January.  This is only its second year running, so we were surprised at how many people were there.  They are quickly going to outgrow that hotel.  We were lucky enough to get an Artist Alley table at the last minute. We were only there Friday and Saturday, because we had a prior engagement on Sunday, so our report can only be based on those two days.

Specs:

Jan. 7-9
Cost of table: $40
Juried: no
Tables/chairs provided: yes
Indoor/outdoor: indoor
Attendance: 1500
Profit: high

Pros
-The table was cheap
-The AA was pretty much the first thing there when people walked in the door
-Lots of our cosplayer friends were there
-They locked the room up at night, so we didn't have to take all our stuff back home.
-We were told there were good panels, too bad we couldn't attend any.
-We had several very nice, super enthusiastic fans. 
-Someone actually recognized us from STUFFED!  Not just recognized, but knew all the characters' backgrounds!  We felt so cool.
-Most people weren't put off by a $20 plushie.   It's hard to tell which conventions will have poor teenagers and which will have adults/people who save up for cons.  This one was really good for us.

Cons
-Bad con security.  The majority of the time, there was no one checking badges anywhere.
-No visible staff.  I only spoke with one staff the whole time we were there.  And he wasn't wearing a staff shirt or anything.  I know it's a small con, but I think I should always be able to quickly find a staff member.
-Super small AA.  9 tables.  No wonder the tables filled up so fast. 
-One of the tables in the AA was a con promotion table selling badges and retail merchandise.  Now, I have no problem with other cons getting tables to advertise, but seriously, when there's only room for 9 artist tables, please give them all to artists.   I felt that staff could have put that table in the hallway without being obstructive. 
-There was some problem with the lights in the AA.  They kept going out throughout the day.  That was annoying.
-The first day, the room closed an hour before it was supposed to.  It was ok for us, since it was slow and getting late anyway, but it still isn't fair to stop people from making money when they've paid for their table.  

 In the end, all of the bad things were just minor annoyances, and we still did very well.  This was a high profit show for us because of the low table cost and the fact we didn't have to get a hotel room.  We plan to be back next year.