File :-(, x, )
A shameless self-advertisment aimed at people going to AWA A.r. !!1J3JRobqN2a
As some of you may recall from last year, I got a table in the Artist's Alley at Anime Weekend Atlanta and did a pretty decent job at selling origami. Good news for me is that I got a table again this year, but based on my experiences from last year a few things will change. And besides this being a shameless self advertisement, I'd also love suggestions on other stuff I should do or sell ;) Now for stuff that has changed:

1. The price for premade dolls of existing anime characters is now 3.50$ instead of 5$. Most, if not all of the dolls I'll be selling this year will be ones left over from last year.

2. The price for doll commissions is now 5$ instead of 7$. I do commissions of original characters only, and if the character has a fully human body (i.e. is not a mermaid, centaur, etc) the body will be picked from a bag of premade bodies with various skin tones. A normal "human" doll commission comes with one main outfit as well as a pair of white pants and a shirt. I can also do commissions of characters who are mermaids/men, nagas (lol), centaurs, and fairies (getting into that more in 3.). Commissions for mermaids/men, centaurs, and nagas include the doll (obviously) as well as a fancy shirt and/or loin cloth thing (mainly for the nagas), and a plain white shirt. These fantasy creatures are also 5$.

3. I now can make fairies. A normal fairy is maaaaybe 2 inches tall (much smaller than my regular dolls), and commissions for these small fairies are 2$. They include hair, skin, eyes, and wings in any color or style you want that I have/am capable of doing. However, they do not include clothes, as they are too small to make clothes for and the wings are glued on their backs, making it even more difficult.
>> A.r. !!1J3JRobqN2a
Continuing from the above post...

4. I now offer what I like to call the "Pokemon Trainer Special". Read about it here: http://www.awa-con.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7491

A NOTE FOR ANYONE THAT WANTS A DOLL COMMISSION: It would make my life a whole lot easier if you bring in a reference pic of your character. That way I won't have to spend so much time sketching out one myself.

5. I now can make Pokemons (see attached pic of my Mews). The link in 4. features a list of the Pokemon I can make. Unless you are getting the Trainer's Special, the Pokemon are sold with no faces or marking on them yet. If you want to add a face/marking, it will cost you between 10 and 50 cents to add one (except for Ditto's, which is free). The Pokemon will come in two sizes: the smaller ones will be 1$, the large ones 2$.

6. The prices for all other origami is as follows. They will be in boxes depending on price.

Simple/small origami - 50 cents. This includes things like cranes, shuriken, and most other traditional models, as well as small versions of more contemporary models (such as Kawasaki's fox).

Medium sized/more complex origami - 1$. This includes most John Montrol models folded from normal kami, Kimono dolls (my variation on Geoline what's-her-face's model, available in both male and female), and simple Hina Ningyo (emperor and empress dolls made from two squares. Both the emperor and empress are included for 1$).

Large origami - 2$. Things included in this category are Michael D. LaFoss's three piece Griffons and Pegasus (they are kind of simple, but too big to be included in any other category), Kasahara's Adam and Eve (includes both for 2$, though Adam is also anatomically correct I think they are beautiful models), four sheet large Hina Ningyo (found in the book The New Origami. Price includes both of them), and other stuff just folded with big paper.
>> A.r. !!1J3JRobqN2a
Final part...


Now I don't know if I'm going to do this, but I have an idea for "Mystery Eggs". Basically, it's a two piece origami egg that when opened, reveals a fantasy creature or dinosaur (i.e. dragons, griffons, raptors, etc) inside. If I do this, I will have small eggs for 1$ and big eggs for 2$. I might fold the creature a similar color as the egg to give the customers a hint at what's inside. I still haven't made up my mind about this, what do you guys think?

I guess that's about it for now. I hope you all didn't get too annoyed with this shameless advertisement, and I'd love to hear your suggestions on anything, especially the Mystery Eggs. If I think of anything more to add, I'll post it.
>> Jen
First question. How difficult are the 2 piece origami eggs to make? There may be a possibility for you to even sell them seperately for those who want to give these as a simple gift from the con and wouldn't mind having the origami egg as a little gift box to keep it in.

I've never been able to hold a table at the Naka-Kon convention I go to each year, but I have known someone else who has. Last March I had him sell some of the origami and papercraft I had with me. I made a lot off of Kamiya's chocobo origami. He ended up selling both of the papercraft dolls I had there for $5 each. One was the four swords link, and the other one was an unfinished Neneko from Yumeria. She didn't have arms or legs, but she was a bobblehead doll. I later met the person who bought it, and I reassured her that it wouldn't break easily, and told her how it worked. I've started putting fish weights at the bottom of the bobbleheads I've made since then.

If there are 3 days to sell items in the artist's alley, then you can start with items costing a little more at the beginning, and then discounting all or some of them on Sunday for liquidation purposes. There are people who actually wait until Sunday to buy anything because of this possibility.

With the booth that you have, try to keep everything as neat as possible. Try to show as much of your wares off as you can without having the space too congested. This really helps sales a lot. It also helps sales to make the main prices for things very easy to view at a glance. People don't tend to go out of their way to buy something if they can't figure out what's going on very easily. It gets crowded and people either get too annoyed or shy while dealing with the crowds. So when all else fails, try to make it as easy as you can on any and all potential customers.

And if you can do something to give people entertainment, then they may buy more from you just because they like you or what you did.
>> A.r. !!1J3JRobqN2a
>>61979
The eggs are extremely easy to make. I like your idea of setting empty eggs aside so people can put the creature of their choice in it to give as a gift (that was what you were getting at, right?). However, if I also do my plan, the buyers of Mystery Eggs will get to keep the shells as well as the creatures of course, though I want it to be a surprise what they get. However, if someone is very unsatisfied with the creature they got, I might allow them to exchange it for no cost maybe a maximum of two times. Of course the first egg they got can't be damaged in any way, or they're stuck with it.

I might also do as you said and mark the prices down on Sunday.

As for my table layout, I'm going to try and make it much neater then last year. Yes, the origami will be in shoe boxes, but I'll try to see if I can wrap said shoeboxes in thin paper to make them look a lot nicer. Not to mention that I'm definitely going to have typed labels this year, as well as flyers telling about doll commissions and the Pokemon Trainer's Special.
>> A.r. !!1J3JRobqN2a
     File :-(, x)
Also, here is an example of what a fairy doll will look like. I should probably take a pic comparing her to a normal doll, just to show how much smaller she is. Of course, if you commission me to make a fairy at AWA, I'll make the hair whatever style and color you want, as well as the eyes, skin, and wings whatever color you want. I can also make male fairies. Though as stated in the first post, they don't come with clothes, they're just too small and the wings glued on their backs doesn't help matters either. However, they can be made from scratch (i.e. no premade bodies) in under three hours (it took me roughly and hour and a half, maybe two hours to make the fairy in the picture), so they're pretty quick and easy and both me and the customer :)
>> A.r. !!1J3JRobqN2a
     File :-(, x)
And here is an example of a (male) naga doll. These will have to be made from scratch as well, because I don't know if I can make premade halves of bodies and make them fit into snake tails. I estimate these guys taking 3-4 hours to finish because they are full sized dolls, however they have no legs that need coloring in and really only need a shirt, dress, or loin cloth as clothing, so they're definitely not going to take as long as regular human dolls.