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Game on! June brings us gaming, contests, and artwork. Let's have an adventure this summer! Event News:Join Us for Games on June 21st! Game Day Fundraiser:Saturday, June 21st, 1pm-6pm Join us for a day of fun games and win prizes! Tickets are $5 per person and you receive 3 raffle tickets. For each game you play you receive an additional ticket and 2 tickets if you win. Use your tickets for raffle prizes. Refreshment stand will be open where you can purchase your favorite beverages and snacks. Fun for the whole family! All funds go to support our convention so we can continue to bring in fantastic artists in the doll industry. Check our website for more information. Click here for more information and to get your tickets! Contest News: This year the convention theme is Fantasy and this year’s contest will focus on the dolls’ origin and environment. You may enter your favorite dolls in the following categories which can be interpreted many ways: Earth - Wind - Fire - Water Each category might have multiple awards, including:
For more contest information, and to register in advance, click here. Display News:Something brand new! This year we want to try something new: an Art Show! It’s another aspect of our hobby - many people plan photo shoots for their dolls or use them as models for other art. We’d like everyone to bring their sketches, paintings and photos of their dolls. Panels will be set up for displaying all your 2D art on the lower level. For more information, click here to visit our Art Show page. Other News:A-kon Report:A-Kon is the premier Anime convention in Dallas, Texas, and 2014 is their 25th year. A-Kon has over 20,000 members and hosts a “Mini-Convention” known as Doll A-kon. We were very well received and made new friends. There were some wonderful guests, including local artist DeAnne Stephanic (VampireAngel13), Don Kinney of Bishonen House and Eileen Bowen of Silverbeam’s Magic... Eileen was a strong supporter of STLBJDCON, and constantly told everyone how AWESOME the St. Louis convention is and how they REALLY needed to go. WE LOVE YOU, SILVERBEAM!!! Overall, we had a great time. I loved interacting with the doll people and meeting new friends and talented artists. If you have the means to do so, I strongly encourage anyone who loves dolls to go to A-Kon and participate in their con-within-a-con, Doll A-Kon. To see Tricia's full report on Doll A-Kon, click here. Spring Fling Report:It was a small meet up but still lots of fun! We utilized the space that hosts the Dealer’s Room during our convention. It was a perfect size for our group. We had snacks and drinks to share, and lots of seating and display options. The photo area was decorated like a renaissance garden, and it was filled with many gorgeous dolls. Bast’s Garden sent their hand-crafted leather Masquerade Masks and 3d Printed ears and horns for dolls for sale, and other local collectors had items available for sale as well. The dollar table had all new items, and we raised $60 for the Food Pantry, plus lots of non-perishable foods and toiletry items. Some of the people dressed up in Renaissance garb as well. My Stars Photography brought out their light and camera rigs and took some lovely photos of people, dolls, and people with dolls. We would like to make this an annual event. We look forward to having it again next year! Registration Pricing:All Access Pass: Includes 3 day admittance to ALL programming and events, including workshops, the vendors room, special events and meals at no extra cost. Convention doll must be purchased separately. $125 Jan 1st - Aug 31st $150 Sept 1st - Nov 7th Day Passes: Includes access to demos, dolly spa, vendors rooms and panels. Workshops, food events, and convention doll must be purchased separately. Please visit our website for more details. $50 Friday $50 Saturday $25 Sunday Note: our convention space is limited to 100 members. Register early to secure your spot. Register Now! Click here! Convention Doll News:Basic Set: $225 Full Set: $340 There was some confusion at the start of the shop last month - we apologize if anyone wasn't able to order their doll! Click here to view the Doll Information Page. Click here to view the Doll Purchasing Page. Thank you for your patience as we figure out this new fangled technology! Programming NewsClick here to view all of our programming events. Did you see the list of Workshops and do not know what you want to sign up for? For the next few months we plan to whet your appetite with a little inspiring taste of them. First let us talk about the amazing, Tiny BJD Sculpting Workshop given by our own Anna Pope. This is its third time offered and still we have people who see the finished products and say, “Wow, I did not know what that was and now wish I would have gone to it!” You don't have to be a professional artist to create something adorable! Click here to view a list of available Workshops. Vending News:The vendors room is filling up fast! We only have a few spaces left. Click here to join us as a vendor! Jenny and Tricia ventured to the land of Texas for Doll A-Kon. Here's their story from Tricia:
"Jenny and I drove straight through starting very early on Friday morning. It was a pleasant drive and we didn't encounter any delays until we reached Dallas proper. On the way down, we stopped at one of the "Ozarkland" rest area/truck stop/tourist locations, and I inquired about any damaged Porcelain dolls that we might acquire for their clothing. I got two 16" dolls and an outfit for a larger doll for a total of $10. One of the dolls was a purple fairy, with jointed shoulders and legs; she was a quality doll and her outfit was gorgeous. Once we hit Dallas, we were in the middle of rush hour traffic, so that slowed us down a bit. We arrived on-site around 7ish. Many of the parking lots for the outlying hotels were already crammed full of convention folks. Fortunately, I was able to get a spot in the Fairfield parking lot where we were staying. The Fairfield is an excellent hotel to stay in for this event. It is very close, has a pool, and the staff is extra friendly and helpful. It's also a lovely hotel with comfortable beds. We were adjacent to the Denny's restaurant, but they were understaffed and overworked all weekend. The main hotel is stunningly gorgeous. I'd be tempted to stay there the next time I visit Dallas simply to experience the hotel (when there's not 20,000 people in it.) It has an asian theme, with displays of Indian, Japanese and Chinese art, architecture, and styling. The atrium had a mall of stores and eateries, though once again they were easily overwhelmed by the crowd. Doll A-Kon had its own space in the "Plum Blossom" rooms. It was right off of the beautiful atrium with seating nearby so you could sit and socialize with other doll people in between programming events. The programming was excellent. Many hands-on workshops and engaging discussions, plus two "socials" each day; one for breakfast and one at the end of the night. The socials were loads of fun, with people bringing in their dolls and showing them off. There were door prizes and sometimes swap meets at the socials. The second room housed the special Doll-A-Kon Marketplace, a small dealer's room of BJD-oriented vendors. I'd say they had about as many dealers as we did, in much smaller space. Mint on Card was there, as was The Doll Peddler, Sweet Dolls, and some artisans. There were some wonderful guests, including DeAnne Stephanic (VampireAngel13), and it was great to be supporting one of our local people! Eileen Bowen was a special guest, too, and she constantly told everyone how AWESOME the St. Louis convention is and how they REALLY needed to go. She pimped us hard! WE LOVE YOU, SILVERBEAM!!! Also, Don Kinney of Bishonen House was there, and he was charming and engaging and an excellent speaker. Jenny got to see the whole resin-casting discussion panel, and we agreed to talk to him about becoming a future guest of our convention. He's seriously interested, and I'm going to try to pursue him for our 2015 convention! Friday we got there and registered and everything just in time to catch the end of the Friday Night social. We handed out flyers and met some lovely doll people (and lovely dolls!) As we were tired, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel room to sleep. Saturday morning we got some breakfast and I got dressed up for the day. We headed over to the convention center and I went to the tail end of Silverbeam's body blushing panel, and showed off my Octoboy that I got from her at our convention. Anna attended the whole panel, and did some gorgeous work on her new teeny tiny 3D printed critter. We cruised the marketplace, tried to get some lunch (that took forever) and then decided to check out the artists' alley and dealer's room before the Display Contest got started. We registered our dolls first, then headed over to the Dealers/Artist's Alley area. It's a bit of a hike, but both rooms were absolutely HUGE. We didn't even make it all the way through the dealer's room before we had to head back to put our dolls in the display contest. The Artist's alley was pretty spectacular, though, and I got to say hello to Jeannie Breeden, as well as several authors and artists we know. Back at the Plum Blossom room, we set up our displays. There were two categories, each with two sub-categories. In the "Costume" category, one could display a doll in a completely original costume, or a commissioned/purchased costume. I put Sambuca on display in the purple fairy outfit from the porcelain doll I got on the way down. (See why I told that story?) Jenny displayed Rocky in his Cool Cat emo gear. The second category was "Face-ups/Modification" and you could submit a doll to be considered for its face-up only, or display something in the Modification category if there was body modding or body blushing. I chose to display Crikey the Crocodile for his all-over body blush. They allowed me to display him without clothing because he was anthropomorphic, but I had to sit him down because I didn't have a stand for him. I thought that the white soles of his feet might detract from the display, but then decided that this way everyone could see his original resin color. Mind you, my plan had been to display in both categories because I like to show off my dolls. I had no designs on the awards, and hadn't even really realized that they had real prizes other than the trophies. I wasn't feeling well, and went back to the hotel to lay down and take off my wig and headpiece, as I had a headache. After a bit of a rest, I saw that I needed to get back to the display contest to retrieve my dolls. I walked over and discovered that I had won an trophy for Crikey! There was also a prize swag bag with clothes, a wig, jewelry, and other fun goodies! Jenny says that they applauded for me when the award was announced, and that my darling little crocodile was a huge hit with everyone. She accepted the award on my behalf and had her photo taken with the trophy for me. She also announced at that time that the St. Louis BJD convention would give away a membership as the door prize at the social that evening. So after putting away our suitcases full of doll stuff (and in my case, changing my outfit) we headed back over for the social and swap-meet. I met a lovely girl and traded with her for a short blonde SD wig, which I wound up giving to mom's Sweet William because it looked great on him. (Sorry, Carmine.) I traded for a pair of MSD boots that hadn't really worked the way I wanted them to, but were perfect for one of her characters who didn't have any shoes. We chatted up the crowd and mentioned our convention, handed out flyers, and gave away a membership! The young woman who won happened to be the daughter of one of the people who runs Doll-A-Kon, but she was a convention member and won it fair and square and there were no hard feelings about it that I could see. On Sunday, we cruised the Marketplace again, checked out the programming, including Silverbeam's panel on 3D printing, which she did a really great job on despite the fact that they couldn't get her projector to work. I did a thing I rarely do; I waited in line for an autograph. Though I must say that it was a friendly, talkative crowd of fun people, so it was less annoying than I expected. I got to meet J. Michael Tatum, Taliesin Jaffe, Caitlin Glass, Amy Howard Wilson (old school!!), and I got to see (but not talk to) Kyle Herbert. Who are all these people? Voice actors for Anime English Dubs. Tatum voices Sebastian for Black Butler (as well as a TON of other stuff.) Jaffe is also a screen actor and was in Explorers, and was heavily involved in all of the Helsing dubs. Amy Howard Wilson was one of the first American voice actors to do voice over work for Japanese anime. Herbert was the voice of teen-aged Goku on Dragonball Z. All of them were charming, engaging, and fun to meet. They were very respectful and friendly to the fans, and stayed extra-long to meet all the people. (I was at the back of the line, so I really appreciated it.) Meanwhile, Jenny schmoozed with the doll people and had a nice time making new friends. We got on the road later than we intended, but we made it to Tulsa in time to hang out with my awesome cousin, Audrey. (Audrey is part of the team that put together the Tulsa Trek Expo.) Today we drove from Tulsa to St. Louis and other than the rain it was generally pleasant. Overall, we had a great time. I loved interacting with the doll people and it was really interesting to be a "fly on the wall" and listen to the commentary of everyone. In our home city, we're kind of popular so it's hard to "people watch" but in a new space like this it was great to just listen to the crowd and talk to people. We have some new thoughts to incorporate into our own events locally, and we'll discuss them at upcoming meetings." |
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