Friday, December 2
AFA
AFA is finally over!! I honestly have so many feels about it I haven't really had a chance to rest SIGHS!!
I'm an exhibitor! this is my corner~
Eating ice cream
We had an awesome corner booth next to a large empty space~
Me with my bf (rilakkuma)
He's the best, posed for all of us!!
My A1 poster
OBJECTION
I was so tired as if I died 1923843 times like Subaru
NANASHIMA!!!
PPAP guy came to perform!
I have an apple~ I have a pen~
I sold stamps and people were just stamping it on each others' skin at my booth. Little do they know that the ink will fuzz-explode and look uber scary!!!
Viktor stamp (Yuri on ice) sold out first. I was really shocked because when I posted the stamps on my art page, there was literally no response so I thought it was a failed venture.
I'm so glad I jumped into it. All the new forms of interactions that stamps have created! It feels nice to see people having fun stamping what I've drawn on their stuff ahmg!!
Jesmond has really cool cosplay. he made the Zapdos himself!!
Me holding one of my
shirts. I was very heartened by their reception omg T_T There was a customer who lifted up another customer to grab a shirt i hung high up LOL.
When I sold out of Snorlax-Gudetama shirts on the second day, some people came by 3-4 times to check for new stock.!!
THIS. GIRL. sold everything for us I'm so grateful for her existence
Packing up after! Good bye AFA!
Unarrived merch
The days leading up to AFA were filled with anxiety, stress and sadness. I cried a lot. I spent the bulk of my time and remaining savings making charm designs...
I worked so hard on them. I sent them in early because they were the most important..
But, the seller put the wrong address and
they never arrived. So, I prepared for the worst by printing paper versions of my charms as placeholders.
All of these did not come.
I was serving a customer on the first day when
it was confirmed that my important merch was still stuck in China. I was about to burst into tears. But I made myself carry on and I started a pre-order form. My boothmates were very supportive throughout.
At the end of the event, I had
120 pre-orders, which I'm still trying to settle. Even now, as I'm leaving for Taiwan,
they are still lost and I feel very worried. My folders/new stickers/packaging never came as well.
At least I'm learning how to execute a pre-order/mass mailing system. I hope my Excel skills do not fail me and I manage to deliver on all my orders. :(
However...!!
The most memorable thing that happened was THIS.
My idol
Namie actually dropped by my booth and bought my stuff.
I repeat.
my!
fucking!!
FAVOUR!!ITE!!!
ARTIST
CAME BY ON HER OWN AND
BOUGHT MY ARTWORK!!!!
Holy shit I still can't believe it - and she even bought badges that no one else cared to buy from me!!! From a series she doesn't even know. So it was for the artwork??!!! I DON'T KNOW HOLY SHIT
SHE ALSO LET ME HOLD HER ROWLET
ASHJGHASJFSFKAL
I was just SO HAPPY and still am. She's been my inspiration for years. She probably doesn't know but
she is a huge influence on me and I learnt a lot from her. Obviously I'm still a small fry right now but I'm going to use this as motivation to work harder!!!
And not to forget...
The most important people -
MY CUSTOMERS.
I saw kids
spend the last of their allowance on my merch. A kid wanted to buy more things but had no money left. He asked if he could bank me the money when he reached home - I simply gave him the item and said I trust him. He returned an hour later with borrowed money to pay me back.
I saw kids
pull out money their angbao they saved from Feb, just to spend it on things I made.
It means so much to me that
people appreciate my work enough to buy them - honestly, I thought with my stuff not arriving, my shirts/stamps would be a flop. I thought no one would want to pre-order from me. I thought it was a mistake spending all my earnings on this.
But I managed to break even!!! I feel that the sacrifice is worth the excitement/smiles I got :')
And of course,
my boothmates!!! I love that we all try to help and support each other while suffering together!! ;w; We know exactly what each other is going through and try to encourage each other to push on!! I'm seriously so thankful for them and they are so nice sometimes that I feel that I'm taking advantage of them aaaah!!! Thank you girlss!!!
And one last shout-out to the
AFA organizing committee!! I truly think they did a great job setting up this event for us to have a great time at.
Afterthoughts
At my lowest point, I asked my boyfriend whether this was all a mistake. All the time, money, blood, sweat and tears I was sacrificing to make this happen. Would it be worth it in the end?
He said "
This is your dream, so it's not a mistake." And he was right. AFA is what I wanted to do, and I'm glad I did it.
I wanted to
diversity my merchandise this time. It was one of my rare chances to experiment. I went all out. In a month, I
drew 5 badge designs, 13 charm designs, 13 stamps, 3 folders, 1 bag, 3 shirts, 2 pouches. I planned the merch, sourced for suppliers on my own, made my orders in
CHINESE, marketed my work, hosted my first giveaway. All while speaking to several Google teams...
Some people probably worked harder than me. I admit I half-assed a lot of art in order to cover as much as possible; there are a lot of things I wish I did differently. But when I look at those numbers,
I think I did a lot and I'm satisfied!!!
I feel like I'm showing off right now BUT AFTER ALL THIS HARD WORK PLS LET ME BRAG A BIT ON MY BLOPG THANK U
Gimme all dis
These are so adorable!!!! I'm stocking up on winterwear!
2016 schedule
... is super packed!
Labels: AFA, art, taobao, travel
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