The Great AWA Coaster Project (big images)

[Schala-Kitty]

It's been way too long since I've posted here. But that's because for the last month or so I was super busy getting ready to display my work in the Artist Alley at Anime Weekend Atlanta. I've worked Artist Alleys before about three times now (one other time with my own work, then art prints, and twice helping at friends' tables), but this was the first time I brought my sprite stitching to the masses.

I chose to work in my trademark format - Coasters! I love making my 3x3 hexagon coasters because they are simple, easy, and frame the sprites just right. And of course, they are quite useful if you've always got a drink handy. So to sell directly to people I made 12 coasters, each with a different character from a different series.

Coasters 1-6

The Duck Hunt Dog, Mudkip from Pokemon (Ruby and Sapphire Pinball to be specific)
Meta-Knight from Kirby Super Star, Princess Peach from Mario Hoops: 3 on 3 (edited by me)
The Prince from Me & My Katamari's 8-bit level, and Link from The Legend of Zelda the Link to the Past

Coasters 7-12

Bridget Gulity Gear Petit Style, Chocobo and Mog from FFVI
Crono from Chrono Trigger, Sonic the Hedgehog of the same
L (Death Note) from Jump Ultimate Stars, and the Keyblades Oathkeeper and Oblivion from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

I bought along some of my other projects for examples - My Chef Kirby Potholder and two other coasters, Knuckles and King Slime - which I did not plan to sell.

Well, I managed to sell 10 coasters at $15 a piece. King Slime ended up being sold, but you would have sold it too if you saw this woman's amazing Slime costume with the most ingenious use of hula-hoops. I ended up being left with Link, The Duck Hunt Dog, and the Prince, must to my chagrin because pretty much everyone commented on the Dog, but mostly about how much they hated him. So I took the Dog home with me, and the other coasters went to my tablemates - Kohaku who is a Katakmari fanatic and acted as our pitchman took the Prince, and the utterly fantastic mixed media artist Sumimasen who happily took Link with her.

But the more important thing that I was was take commissions. I printed up a book full of designs that I could do and showed them to everyone who stopped by. And garnering 24 commissions, two of those being "couples coasters" was well worth the effort. I'm working on my first, very romantic, set right now - Matching Autobots and Decepticons logos for as a wedding present for a pair of Transformers fans! Ah, geek love is the purest love of all.

Basically, I made $540 at this convention and part of that is going to materials for my commissions, and some of it got spent at the con, but the rest was all for my hard work. So, if you have a chance to get an Artist Alley table at your local anime/gaming convention - Do it! I guarantee you that you will be the only Sprite Stitcher there, something you can tell people with pride while you assure them that no one else has art quite like yours.

[johloh]

wow, very interesting! awesome coasters too...$15 is a pretty solid price too! (assuming the plastic part isn't too expensive). 24 commissions?? youre going to be busy!!

[Schala-Kitty]

I special order the coasters through my local JoAnn's at $3.50 a piece (it only gets in 6 at a time normally) with help from my friend who works there. So, it's actually going to be a bit before I can work on the majority of them. Which is a good thing since in two weeks I'll be in Arlington, VA for another convention. (No Artist Alley this time, I was invited to do panels about amateur voice-acting and Kingdom Hearts).

And I thought that $15 was a good price, but we did have to convince a few people at the con that it was. Not that I blame some of them who just had no experience with cross-stitching but I had people asking me if they could come pick their commission up later that day. So we just explained that each one was "an original, hand-made with love." Which is mostly true... when I'm not cursing at something.

[sirinth]

I actually sold several of my framed works at a con in similar manner.
No comissions, though.

And my kefka stitch I ended up giving away to the coolest kefka cosplayer ever. xD

[Holly]

Very cool! I'm working on sets of coasters myself, but in perler bead with glass instead of cross stitch.

[melxstitch]

Where did you get the guilty gear patterns? I know someone who loves GG but I haven't seen any cross stitch versions until yours.