The art of selling.

So, I work retail as my day job. For all it's ups and downs, you do learn a trick or two about merchandizing stuff. And so, while I was spending an hour mopping up the flood that decided to expel itself from the pipes/walls/gates of hell at work, I turned my mind to booth setup.

Things that I have concluded/noticed/have come to mind.

1. Touch is key. Get people to touch an item, they create a bond with it.

2. Displaying something nicely is good - but too fancy, they get intimidated, to casual and it doesn't show off it's value. 

3. The further the hand has to stretch towards an item, there is a 30% decrease in likelihood the item will be touched/picked up/noticed. If all booth tables were therefore only a foot wide and 18 feet long, vendors would be selling 100% of their products.

And so, I am once again mulling over how I should change how my stuff is displayed.

For the hairclip flowers, I find that on their fancy stand didn't get them noticed as much, for that they were.... very accessible. But, something about that extra extension of the hand just made them unnoticed until I dropped them to the table surface right at the front. Current idea: Create a rotating display, right at the front of the table, that has the flowers. Create a card stock backing for them to clip onto which in turn would hang on the display. Could double as the display top for the head that usually has one of the fascinators on it, again putting it right out front.

I also want to ramp up the Chocobo fascinators display. Maybe print out an actual chocobo and put it right next to the clips. (Maybe on another side of the spinning display?)

The biggest thing to also consider is that the table sizes for Animenorth and FanExpo are slightly different, so it has to adapt to each. (Fingers crossed we get Animenorth again this year....)

Ah, well. To the sketch book.

Winter accessories

So, my daytime tutoring session was cancelled for this week, so I decided to take the time and be productive with organizing and tidying making pretty things. Been meaning to make a blue flower brooch for my Nanny for a while, to match the pink one I made. Also, I had bought some Christmas fabric (like two days ago...) to make Christmas hair clips for me and....whoever else wants one, heh. They look like poinsettias, so it works. Probably end up wearing one at work once it gets closer to Christmas, for that festive cashier look.

Random stuff.

So.... I've been shamefully neglecting this blog. Oops. To be fair I haven't done much in the ways of creative stuff lately. I'll post some Halloween stuff after I finish it all, since I have made a couple of tester things, which have served as experiments in techniques for future and more elaborate projects.

So in the meanwhile, here! Have a picture of a hair comb!

Yay!

I made it yesterday since I need something to match my outfit I wore to high tea today, which was all about Swans. ...The outfit not the tea. The flower matched the scarf I was wearing, pinned with a crystal swan brooch.

I very much liked the effect of the brooch on the scarf, so I might use that look again in the future.

I made a thing

Dean’s bracelet circa…before he lost it. Hell? Was it season 4? Whatever.

Anyway.

Opted to change the matte light brown coloured beads to ones that were a shiny amber colour just to give it a wee little bit femininity. Tuned out…. actually, how I wanted it. Cool.

That side of the brain...

The right side of my brain just woke up. It's impatient.

The gist of it's neural firings are these:

- You had Animenorth off.
-You had FanExpo off.
-Your booth work didn't count.
-You better start working on a project - NOW.
-Not a skirt or a accessories.
-MAKE ME AN OUTFIT HUMAN. MAKE ME A GOD.

I suppose that's my cue. Off to the sketch pad.

The history of a costume

So, we're back on planning our Costume Con costume. (For 2017). I'm thinking of slapping this under historical interpretation again since I liked the challenge of giving it a historical context.

Now, my intentions of giving this a historical basis is turning into a research project to justify the fashion choice into the fixed timeline I've allocated to this costume.

There might have been a fist pump when I discovered the historical basis for the shield might be perfectly accurate both within the cannon of the source material and the timeline of reality.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Three parts of the brain

There are three distinct regions of the brain.

One - What shall I wear for Hallowe'en?

Two - What shall I wear for my next costuming event?

Three - What shall I wear to Costume Con?

When all three parts of the brain are active at once, it makes for a very colourful yet counter productive grey matter.

I am attempting to allocate time to all three projects this weekend. As long as the Gland of Impulse Crafting Ideas doesn't send any signal molecules and disrupt this plan.