First show of 2015 - HRM Steampunk Sympsium

We're back at it for 2015 and I'm hoping that I can be a bit better at the upkeep of the blog and the goings on of Wyng'd Lyon. I'll do my best but I can make any promises.

Last night, January 15, 2015, Cindy and I loaded up and hit the road for Long Beach for our first show if the year, HRM Steampunk Symposium.

After leaving an hour later than we wanted last night we got to the Queen Mary with an hour to unload, which for Cindy and I is an amazing amount of time. 

We checked in with the vendor coordinator, found our booth space and had everything out of the truck in a total of 30 minutes.  The whole evening was a comedy of errors though, from the dolly having a mind of its own in the hardwood floors of the Promenade Deck, the wheel of my suitcase deciding that it was going to stop work and literally go sideways, right down to checking into our room and discovering that I booked a room with two twin beds instead of two queens. Certainly not conducive for sleeping 4 people, so back to the front desk to upgrade the room so no one had to sleep in the bathtub.

Once the room issue was straightened out, we went to find the bar and settled in with some friends for a couple hours of laughing and swapping stories.

  After finally turning in a bit after midnight, we both slept like the dead and are now working on caffeinating ourselves and waiting for the maintenance guy to come fix the shower. Yep, the fun continues! 

Oh look the maintenance guy just showed up and I need more coffee.

More to come as the day progresses!

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a safe and wonderful holiday, what ever you may celebrate and Happy New year to everyone. I hope that 2013 bring you all joy and happiness without any strife.

Cindy & I at HRM Steampunk Symposium

 2012 was a big year for Wyng'd Lyon Creations. We started off the year vending at HRM Steampunk Symposium on the beautiful Queen Mary. Our review of the event can be found here.  From there we did a few craft shows with the North Park Independant Bazar over at The Queen Bee Arts & Cultural Center and then prepped for GasLight Gathering in May. This was a second year at Gaslight Gathering and as usual it was a great time. The staff and all the participants are all so wonderful to be around. I did however slack on a review this year for the event. 

The next event was the North Park Festival of the Arts. The weather was beautiful and there was so much to see and fun to be had, though we ended set up near one of the stages and at times the volume was a bit unbearable at times. We're hoping to vend at the event again this year, but will have to see what the rest of the calendar looks like. 

Tawmis and his cool dog Odin

I actually took a couple big steps forward this year, the first was swallowing my pride and admitting that I really have too much stuff on my plate. I  asked my dear friend Tawmis from Pirate Booty & Neverending Nights to help out with the social media stuff for Wyng'd Lyon. For anyone who has a small business, you know how difficult it is to turn something over to someone else, but really I couldn't have picked a better person to handle it all. In addition to being smart, creative, and fun to be around, Tawmis has been there with lots of encouragement and to help life my spirits or talk me off a ledge when I'm on the verge of freaking out. 

Booth setup at SD Pagan Pride

For the first time I also vended at SD Pagan Pride. It was their 10 year event and to be honest it was the first that I have ever heard of the gathering. I vended with Sarah from Sinda Aran Glass and as always had a great time.  The recap can be found here. The people and the weather were amazing and I'm looking forward to getting out there again this year. 

Grand Opening Celebration

The second big step this year was signing a 6 month least for studio/retail space out in Casa De Oro. August was a full month of painting, moving and organizing the new space to make it workable. Not to mention nerve wrecking since it was such a big step for me and the business. We held a Grand Opening Celebration at the end of September and had a great turnout. 

SD Comic Fest Booth setup

Another new event that we participated in was SD Comic Fest at the Town and Country Hotel in Mission Valley. The event was a blast and was reported to have over 800 people for it's first run. The booth setup was quite attention getting because it was so out of the norm for a Comic Convention, but we had lots of people stop by and check us out. This is another even that we're looking forward to giving a second run in 2013. 

We had one more small craft show in November at Qualcomm Inc, which was our 8th or 9th year doing the event. This year we shared booth space with Elizabeth from Atomic Kitty and were blessed with beautiful weather and lots of great customers stopping by. 

Sewing on patches for a client

The Saturday after Thanksgiving was Small Business Saturday and we had an open house at the shop and had a nice amount of customers and friends stopping by to help support us and all the artisans that we feature at the shop. 

We wound down the year with family and friends for the holidays and then started up production for 2013. 

We're starting off 2013 back at HRM Steampunk Symposium, and then in March we have the honor of vending out at Wild West Con in Tucson, from there we'll be back at Gaslight Gathering and then who knows what the rest of the year is going to bring. 

Thank you to all the friends, family, customers and patrons for all the support and business that you gave us in 2012. We look forward to seeing you all in 2013 and joining us on the ride that we're about to embark on. 

We have some great things in the works for 2013 and we hope that you will be as excited about them as we are!

Best wishes in 2013,

~Colleen

PS: And because it was too cool not to post, here is a photo from Halloween of me as Mina Harker and Tawmis as a Pirate.

Mina & Capt'n Tawmis

Small Business Saturday!!

The Holiday season is fast approaching and what better way to start off by getting something handmade by those on your holiday list.

Come join us on November 24, 2012 and help support some great local businesses.

We'll have items from the following artisans and crafters:

Wyng'd Lyon Creations
Original Cin
Atomic Kitty Designs
GCat Studios
Lee Kohse
Twylite Creations
Christal Blu Creations
Leon de Glas

Grand Opening Recap

First off, I want to say "Thank you!!!!" to everyone who came out for Wyng'd Lyon Creations grand opening celebration on September 29, 2012.

You are all amazing with your support and patronage!! People like you are the ones who make running a business worth the time and effort.

I'd like to put out a very special thank you to the following people:

My dear friend Tawmis Logue from Pirate Booty &  Never Ending Nights. With out all his hard work promoting things not only on the Wyng'd Lyon social media sites but also on his own pages, and all his support in keeping me from freaking out because of the level of stress I was dealing with, I would have been a total wreck come Saturday morning. Besides that he gives some pretty damn good hugs! I'm fortunate to have such a great person keeping me grounded and from running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Katie is another one of those great people that I am honored to call a friend. She took the time out of her crazy, busy schedule and made all the food for the grand opening. Not only is she a fabulous person, she makes some seriously amazing food!

The DJ of the day: Michael over at DramaFree Productions. He spun some great tunes and endured the heat  outside to keep things going. If you need a DJ here in San Diego, check him out!

And last, but not least, my husband Tom. He's been there to deal with the ups and downs of everything and has been supportive of this endeavor. He's done all the installation work at the shop and helped set things up as well as took care of the kids so I didn't have to worry about them running rampant around the parking lot.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming days with the shop and growing the business. The grand opening was just the first of many events to happen. so please stay tuned for more.

Here are some of the photos, more to come soon!

Partial setup before the opening

More of the partial shop setup

Food & DJ setup

Me & Tawmis

Photos on top row by GCat Studios, Art Prints by OriginalCin

Final setup

Artwork by Lee Kohse & Handblow glass vases & goblets by Lance Burcham

Fabric ornaments by Wyng'd Lyon Creations

Vest by Wyng'd Lyon, Hair Barretts by Original Cin & Tshirt by SighCo Graphics

Bottles & Pillows by Wyng'd Lyon Creations

Ascots & Gift bags, by Wyng'd Lyon Creations

Outside the shop

Grand Opening Update

Things are coming together slowly but I still have a ton of work to do for the grand opening on September 29, 2012.

I'm slowly adding raffle items as they come in and all the other little details.

We're going to have some great music by Michael over at Drama Free Productions

Photo by Pat @ GCat Studios

One of our raffle items is going to be a custom piece of art by Cindy over at Original Cin, the very same very talented lady that did the artwork of me for the grand opening flyers. In addition to the raffle item, there will be prints of her work for sale as well.

Another item, which was so kindly donated is from Pat at GCat Studios. It's an amazing photo of the San Diego Trolley as seen below and will be matted and framed.

As I get more raffle items in, I'll post some info and a photo if I have one.

Until then have a great day!


~Colleen

PS: Feel free to pass around our grand opening flyer!

Sometimes you really just need some help

I'll admit it, I'm horrible at asking for help, it's just one of my quirks. I love to help everyone I can, but I very very rarely ask for help.

We'll with my life as nuts as it has been between moving to a new (at least new to me) house, herding two kids, leasing a retail space for my studio and to actually do business out of, plus working full time, things have slipped through the cracks, like this blog.

So I finally made the decision to enlisted some help and without further adieu I'm happy to introduce my friend Tawmis, who is a fabulous guy, a damn good writer and lets me harass him on a regular basis plus he has some pretty fun blogs/webpages like Pirate Booty & Neverending Nights. This also means there should be more regular updates here and everywhere else. Yay!

But for now....I'm back to running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

 ~Col

Giveaway #2 Winner!

Sorry for the delay in posting this everyone, I've been up to my elbows in house paint all weekend.

Our winner is..PuffPastryShop!  Congratulations!!!!!!

Please look for an email with me in regards to your mailing address so we can send you your prints!

Have a wonderful day everyone!


~Colleen

Guest Interview & Giveaway from OriginalCin

Giveaway is now CLOSED!!!

Our second giveaway running until the end of March is from my dear friend (and partner in crime for some of the shows I do), Cindy from OriginalCin. She's a fun loving person and a great artist to boot!

Here's my interview with her:

Colleen: What got you started in your business ?

Cindy: I always was an artist, since I was a kid. I remember being eight years old and selling hand drawn greeting cards in my front yard to my neighbors. Some kids sold lemonade. I sold drawings. I began drawing character sketches for gamer friends when I started on the internet, just for fun.  After a while, when I started to develop a skill, I thought "huh, People are always asking me for art, why not start selling commissions and prints?"  And much to my surprise, people were willing to pay for it.

Colleen: How long have you been in business?

Cindy: I started doing art commission work back in 1998, when I was introduced to the internet. I had so many gamer friends who had other gamer friends that wanted sketches of their RPG characters. I didn't start selling my craft work until 2010 when I wanted to expand what I did. I started making hair clips and other sundries.

Colleen: What are you focused on right now?

Cindy: Right now? My art. I love to draw. Its what I always have done since I was little. I try to improve myself with every sketch I do. For a while there I was falling into some lazy habits with my work. But for the last two years I have been trying to push myself further and further towards improvement. Its an eternal process.

Colleen: Where do you get your inspiration and ideas?

Cindy: My friends. Seriously. I have tons of creative friends who inspire me everyday; crafters, illustrators, writers, and costumers. The list goes on and on. When someone gets bitten by the creative bug its infectious. I need to be a part of that as well and share with them.

Colleen: How would you describe your personal style?

Cindy: Quirky. Definitely quirky. I have a weird sense of humor and I tend to paint the world in broad colorful strokes.

Colleen: What does the handcraft/DIY movement mean to you? Where do you see it going?

Cindy: For me its a sense of community. The DIY crowd have been so warm. Everyone wants to share with everyone else and everyone revels in eachother's work. Its nice. Its like a huge think tank...but with more hot glue.

Colleen:  How do you balance things like family, work and your crafting/art business?

Cindy: Well, I don't have children. I have a husband, two cats, and about 12 fish in a 100 gallon tank. My husband supports my crafting habit. He knows its my way of unwinding and tends to get out of my way when I'm on a roll. Not to mention he is a bit of a DIY guy himself and loves woodworking. Its easy to balance your habit when you live with another "user".

Colleen: Do you have specific things you do to keep yourself motivated or things you do to handle the stress?

Cindy: I make lists. LOTS of lists. I also find other friends to create with. Arting in groups! It keeps you focused, not to mention helps if you need a little girly bitch fest WHILE you are working. Doing art is my stress relief. Sitting and sketching or sewing focuses me and helps me keep my "normal" life under control.

Colleen: Are there any local businesses or artisans that you are exited about right now?

Cindy: Oh GOD I am addicted to etsy. Seriously. How awesome is that place? Its not really a local business but it really excites me to see other people and their work.

An artisan I am particularly inspired by these days is Shing Khor form Sawdust Bear (http://www.sawdustbear.com/). She is amazing with what she does. She has a thriving business but is always 100% true to who she is as an artist. I admire that. I hope someday I can be that.

Colleen: Any tips for setting up a table for vending?

Cindy: Make friends with your neighbors! Seriously. They will help you out. We're all in this together!

Colleen: Do you have any upcoming shows that you are doing?

Cindy: I'll be doing Artists Alley at Anime Conji in San Diego March 16th - 18th. I'll have prints and will be taking commissions! Also, Colleen, from Wyng'd Lyon is kind enough (AGAIN! I owe her a HUGE BEER!) to have some of my clips and prints at Gaslight Gathering May 11th - 13th.

Colleen: Do you have any suggestions for getting your name out to the public?

Cindy: Hell, I'm still working on that myself. Right now what is working for me is always keeping my blog current. Showing people what I do, how I do it, and just talking about what I love keeps an interest and most of all  keeps me motivated.

Colleen: What is one thing you would like people to know about you or your Art?

Cindy: I do what I love. Period. Granted, it might not be a mass market type of deal but dangit I have so much fun!

Colleen: Do you have a website, blog, store front ?

Cindy: You can find my art blog at www.originalcin.net I also have an etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/CinsAngel

Colleen: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Cindy: I...got nothing. CHEERS!

Giveaway is now CLOSED!!!

And now onto the giveaway! Cindy has so graciously offered up two prints for us to giveaway.

We're proud to present Lord & Lady Cthulhu

REQUIREMENTS:

To be entered in the giveaway, leave a comment on what type of costume or character you would like to see Cthulhu in or dressed up as.

Please note that your entry is null and void if I have no way to contact you. If you have your profile set to private or if there is no email or blog connected to your post, you must leave an email address with your entries. If there is no way to contact the winner after they are picked, a new winner will be selected.

Please note that contest is open to US & Canadian residents only. 


Giveaway is now CLOSED!!!

 OPTIONAL ENTRIES:

For extra entries, you many do any or all of the following.  Each requires a separate post in the comments.

*Visit Cindy's  Etsy store, Original Cin, then return here and leave a comment about your favorite item from her shop.(1 entry)
* Blog about this giveaway (1 entry), with link back to this page.  Leave a comment to this post with the URL of your blog post.
* Become a follower of this blog. New followers only.  Leave a comment stating you have done so. (1 entry)
* Become a follower of  Cindy's blog. New followers only.  Leave a comment stating you have done so. (1 entry)
* Tweet about this giveaway, with a link back to this page.  Leave the URL of your tweet in comments.  This entry is available daily (up to 24 entries; leave a comment for each individual tweet).
* Make  Original Cin   a "favorite" on Etsy. Leave a comment here stating that you did so. (1 entry)
* "Like" Original Cin Art on Facebook - New followers only.   Leave a comment here stating that you did so. (1 entry)

PLEASE NOTE: Comment moderation is on.  You will not see your post immediately, but it is there - please do not repost. Duplicate posts will be removed.  =)

Contest ends March 31, 2012 at 9:00 pm  Pacific time, with a winner selected by a random number generator and announced shortly thereafter.

Entries must be in English.  Entries containing URL links not connected to this giveaway will be considered spam and deleted. Please note that contest is open to US & Canadian residents only. 

We have a winner!!!

Congratulations to Shani who is the winner of our Flaming Heart Bunny Giveaway!!!!

She was picked via the random number generator. 

Shani, watch your inbox for an email to get your information so we can send out you bunny, which you said you would name Flaming Fire!

Thank you all for your entries and comments! We'll be hosting another contest soon from a great artist and dear friend of mine.

Check back soon!

Google+ & Us

For those of you using Google+, we've recently set up a page and will be posting show photos and updates there as well as here. Please add us to your circles!