Saboten Con in 1 Week: Find Me in Artist Alley at A13!

Hey there, lovelies! I can't believe it is already here, I don't feel nearly ready for it, but Saboten Con is just one week away from today. Taking place at the Sheraton and Renaissance hotels in downtown Phoenix, this fan-filled event is dedicated to all things anime and Japanese pop culture! Of course plenty of other media are welcome too, like comic books, movies, cartoons, and video games. It's also their 15 year anniversary, how exciting! Visit their website here to read up on all the guests, events, and programming that they'll have this year. As for me, I'll be vending in Artist Alley at table A13, so I'll be there most of the time if you feel like stopping by to say hello!

Sooo, I didn't really have a whole lot of time between Game On Expo and Saboten to be able to add new merchandise, but I will have at least one new sticker design, the Spotted Kougra! I'll also have a new line of products which include some mousepads with a cute paw print motif. The mouspades are done up in various color palettes that pay homage to a few types of popular Pride flags. Or as I like to call em', Pride Paw Pads, haha! Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lot of time to make a whole lot of flags, so I tried to pick the most commonly requested ones, but that certainly can change to include more in the future. ^_^

Something else I keep forgetting to promote that I hope to be more vocal about sharing is the Southwest Artist Alley and Vendors Discord! SWAAV for short, this Discord is meant as a resource for artists in the Southwest US to be able to network, give each other heads up about openings for various events and cons that are looking for artists and vendors, and to be able to give feedback to each other on cons, products, display tips, etc. etc. You can also use it to look for people to table share with (at cons that allow table sharing), splitting hotel rooms, finding a carpool, and so on and so forth. We even use it to plan community table games, such as stamp card games!

There is no expectation to participate in the SWAAV Discord, it is just there for everyone's convenience so that we can have a more centralized location to talk about these Southwest-focused events. If you would like an invite to the Discord group, feel free to message me on my art Instagram @momokarinyoart and also don't be afraid to leave a comment too letting me know that you've reached out, since a lot of new messages automatically get sorted into a hidden request folder.

I've also got a growing catalog of dress designs on my website here as well as my Etsy, but not many people that I see in person know about it, just on account of I don't have physical product of it at my table. The apparel designs are all made to order. So I thought about making a physical catalog of sorts, most likely in a binder format, so that I can feature my new designs as I continue to create more and more.

After SabotenCon is over, I'll have another show hosted by Monkeypaw Entertainment, which is Arizona Fur Con in Mesa, AZ on October 13-15. I'm very much looking forward to that, since it'll be my first time at a furry convention EVER, and it'll be neat to see what it's like! Towards the end of October I'll also have a cosplay table at UwU Con, also in Mesa, AZ. That event runs from October 27-29 and is at the Legacy Sports Complex.

Anyways, those are all the updates I have for now. Hopefully I'll have time to prepare a blog for next weekend before Saboten actually starts, since I know I'll be super busy during the holiday weekend! I hope I'll get to see some of y'all there, and also I look forward to meeting a bunch of new faces. I am so fortunate and thankful to live in such a vibrant community of cosplay and anime fans! ^_^

~Momo Kariño