====== Bewhiskered 2025 ======

**Date:** March 8th-9th, 2025
Con was also open on Friday, but probably had no slots for the artist alley

**Cost of convention:** 

Saturday the 8th: $210
Sunday the 9th: $374

I heard Friday was very busy.  I was not there.

=====Day-to-Day=====

====Saturday, March 8th:====

Sold a bunch of wooden pins, some acrylic charms.  Sold two original pieces of art: xenomorph and snake/flower.  People seemed to enjoy looking through the original art, though my $50-$150 pay-what-you-can pricing seemed to confuse and scare people.  So next time I'll just have a static price stickered on each one.  

I did not have a "commissions open" sign up, rather I had a very small sticker on my portfolio of originals that said "ask about commissions".  One person came up and asked if commissions were open at our table, since they thought my art style would work for their sona.  I said yes, another person saw me working on that commission and queued up after them.  So it's good to have the art you're working on visible to other people!  Def would think about my table set-up to let me draw with the art facing the customer.

My kind neighbor, Smote, taught me how to use the Square tap-to-pay reader on my phone.  And advised me to turn tips on the device.  I found the tipping on the Square application awkward, because you have to finish the transaction, then it takes you to another screen where they can enter a tip.  That feels way too pushy cuz you have to hand the phone to the customer and say "eyyy enter a tip ;)" instead of feeling like a natural part of checking out.  This could probably be alleviated if I got one of those $200 dedicated reader devices where the customer could swipe themselves, rather than relying on me holding my phone and freaking their card awkwardly.  So after Saturday, I did not show anyone the tip screen.

==== Sunday, March 9th:====

Sold mostly commissions after making a lil sign that said $60 commissions open above one of my original pieces on display..  The hall was a lot slower, much less general con-goers, but other artists came around and bought commissions.  Did not sell many trinkets.  I had my small 4x6 prints and stickers out in a better spot, so I sold a couple more of those compared to Saturday.  

Still, made higher gross amount compared to the last day just from the larger chunks of commission sales.  A guaranteed $60 an hour is quite a chunk compared to sporadic $10 wooden pin sales.  But thinking of boothing as an hourly wage hurts my head cuz it makes you think trying to hit minimums per hour... still, ya gotta try to make a certain amount to pay for travel and admission, even if you're not making mad profit with a giant dealer's den table.

===== Would I go again? =====
Sure!  Everyone was friendly and understanding that art takes time.  I'd try the artist alley again, but the non-guaranteed spot is INTERESTING to say the least.  We only got a spot on Sat-Sun because the people didn't show up -- who knows if that would happen again!  And then the rest of the weekend you'd just have dead stock in the back of your car.