I did quite a bit of prep for BRFF before the con but I still sadly wasn't able to get everything made that I wanted to. I knew BRFF would be large this year but boy I was not ready for the turn out we had! As per usual we left at around 12 AM and the drive itself was pretty uneventful. Though when we started getting closer I kept seeing signs for "low visibility" and dang they weren't joking! >->; The road was pitch black in these areas and street lights were far and few in-between. We arrived at the venue around 2 or 3 AM and at first I was a little sketched out because the venue was down a back road beside a sushi place and a Sam's club, and I probably hit a million pot holes coming up the hill but the venue itself was MASSIVE and super pretty! A bit before hand I had one of my table helpers text our roomie Perma and let him know we were on the way. He came down and helped us carry our car jenga mess up to the room. Getting as much stuff as possible onto the little cart thing and then up to the room was hard be we managed. The hardest part was just fitting the cart into the tiny elevator. :/ By the time we finally got everything up to the room it was probably like 4 or 5 AM I believe. I was exhausted so I laid down on the bed watched some Tiktok and chatted for a bit then I conked out. (I unfortunately did not take pictures of the hotel room this time as I was too busy to do so and tired almost every night oof) I woke up later in the day around 2 PM and started getting ready so I could head down, get my badge and set up my table. Before I went down to set up we all chilled on our rooms balcony and I worked on getting pictures of all the badges I had done or the event. (Our Balcony view below lol ) It roughly took 2 hours to do my set up this time around as I ended up changing things a bit before hand. I wasn't sure if my set up was too tall but looking back at it now I can definitely stand to make it taller. Super proud of how my set up turned out though regardless! It as my first time just using the pink grid cubes and for my next con I'll have an even nicer set up. 👀 Once I got my table all set up and ready I headed over to the reg line to pick up my badge. This was probably one of my first and major peeves for the second year of BRFF but the pre-reg line was entirely too long. I found Perma in line and stood with him for probably 45 minutes or more before I was told in the Dealers Telegram chat that a member of Dealers staff like Pinkuh or Fizzle could help me skip the line and get my badge. I was a bit upset finding this out so late but still thankful that I was able to get my badge and go back to the hotel room. I took a quick stop after getting my badge and picked up anything I didn't want left in the Dealers den for the night and brought it back with me to the room. The only good things I got from standing in line was talking to Perma, meeting some new peeps and taking this pretty picture! (As seen below) For pretty much the rest of that day my two table helpers, me and Perma all just chilled in the room, talked and watched some TV. In preparation for my table though I worked for a bit that night to finish up some bappy paws and hand hooves. I brought lots of stuff with me so I could make and work on more paws and things while I was there since I was a bit behind on what I needed. Friday morning came and it was time to sell! I woke up at 8 AM and I was pretty tired. =w= I got ready and got to the Dealers Den a bit early (only by like 20 minutes), got my table ready to sell and sat down. Almost as soon as I had seated myself Dealers Den staff let us know that there was a HUGE line forming outside and people were ready to buy so we needed to be prepared. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated. (My bestie who was in AA let me know before staff as well lmao) Dealers opened and for the rest of the day I was FLOODED. I barely had time to leave my table at all and was mostly stuck there the whole day (not that I minded). I had brought 3 suits with me and on this first day I had someone (Who I later found out was Worm ) come by who wanted to buy Hyperlynx my arcade inspired Lynx. But they had a spending limit and couldn't get the suit until the next day so I agreed to a hold. I never sold Harley the Doberman last year at BWS 2021 so I brought her to BRFF 2022 in the hopes of selling her. I had a lot of people look her this first day and quite a few people were interested! I had told a few people who came by that I had a rabbit fursuit that I was working on and should have for sale at some point during the day and quite a few people seemed interested. 👀 Friday, I sold out of all my worm plushies, all my Roxanne prints and at least 3 or 4 of my fursuit scents! People were literally rushing to my table for fursuit sprays, it was crazy! For the first day in DD sales were really good. I think I made roughly $1.4k just that first day. After DD closed that day I was exhausted. I just went back to the room and did nothing but talk and sew the rabbit suit a bit. Safe to say I didn't do much after that first day, I was just too tired. Bestie was working con ops and left later that night for that. Perma went down at some point as well and when they came back I was literally passing out on the bed while sewing the rabbit suit. So when bestie came in I liteally rolled over he got in bed and we just conked out. Lmao Cut to Saturday, it was calling for snow in Asheville and when I woke up around 9 AM it was doing just that! (I woke up a bit late so I didn't really have much time to enjoy it ;w; ) Apparently while I was asleep the fire alarm went off too (though that happened a few times; It was a hotel malfunction issue). I was running quite late for DD so I quickly put another worm plushie together and headed down to sew the hole up where I had stuffed it. Despite being late everything was good thanks to DD staff, Pinfeathers (my table neighbor) and the other dealers. ^u^ Once I had finished sewing the worm I asked my table helper to put it out on the table and before she even got the worm put out a customer grabbed it from her hands gently and told me they would actually be buying it. (The demand for those worms is crazy scary! >->; ) A bit before that the morning was relatively slow and sales weren't that great but to be fair the fursuit parade was going on at the time so sales dipped a bit for that. Once the parade was over I reminded Worm to drop by and get Hyperlynx and with that the first suit had sold! I was still working on sewing the bunny so I couldn't put it out for sale yet but I was determined to get it done before the end of the con. Two or Corkie's suiters came by and said hi to me! They were super sweet and their suits looked so cute in person!! (Highly recommend her suits!) Later on Uncle Kage set up a table using the empty table in DD for charity stuff, it slowed sales a bit and I believe he was supposed to be out in the hall and not in DD but he was super nice regardless. ^^ I had someone come by later who stood at my booth for a while before deciding they wanted to buy Harley and I was thrilled! They did have a few issues regarding bank stuff but the sale was finalized and they were super happy. it made me happy to see the suit go to someone who loved her so much as I had the suit since BWS 2021 and I just wanted her to go to someone who would appreciate her. 💖 Dealers Den closed for the day and so much more had sold out! It was a really good day and by far my highest grossing day out of all 3 days of the con. When I got back to the hotel room I was starving and ready for the plans me and bestie had made the week prior to the con. It as sushi time! 👀👀👀 Everyone put their orders in and then we headed out to pick it up. The hotel parking lot was packed and people who left their spots rarely got them back so bestie and my table helper stood in our parking spot until we got back while me and Perma headed down to Green Tea Sushi (the little sushi place we passed on the way in!). Because of the snow earlier in the morning it was COLD outside. The snow had already melted but the windchill was insane and literally every car had icicles hanging from them. We could barely even get our car doors open to get in. I swear it was colder in the car than it was outside. Bestie said hoes don't get cold so he and my helper agreed it was best to stand there and wait for us. It took use maybe a minute to get down there and when we walked in it was so refreshing. They had a nice little heater by the door and it was so cozy. We let them know about our order and then waited patiently. It took roughly 5 to 10 minutes and we got the food and left. As you can imagine with a fur con near by there were a LOT of furries in there. When we got back we went inside, up the stairs and to our room. We finally got to sit down, distributed food and watched TV while we ate, talking occasionally. The food was amazing! Highly recommend Green Tea Sushi in Asheville, NC After bestie finished eating he had to zoom to con ops so that just left me, Perma and my table helper. We talked for a bit but Perma had to zoom too and help a friend. I had plans to go down and fursuit that night after my sushi settled but I ended up passing out for a little bit. When I woke up I got in suit and headed down to the con floor. I only suited for about an hour but I had a blast! I got photos with so many suiters and even met Baxter again. ^u^ It's always a joy to meet and chat with Baxter and their partner. :3 Once I got back to the room I was literally so tired. I barely got out of fursuit before I flopped down on the bed. It wasn't long after and Perma came back, bestie following shortly after. We ended up watching King of the Hill for a bit that night and I stayed up till about 5 AM or so working on Vanessa the rabbit suit. The wind that night was super crazy. You could hear it bashing against the sliding glass doors so wildly. If I remember correctly there was a wind advisory that night and winds were reaching around 60 to 80 MPH. Sunday morning came and I was too tired to exist. After staying up so late I was incredibly tired since I had to get up around 10 AM. Dealers Den opened then but I was just too tired to get up any earlier. I grabbed all the things for the rabbit suit and headed down about an hour late or so to work on it and man my table. I ended up finishing the suit with 2 hours of DD left so I headed up to the hotel room to have bestie take a few photos of me wearing the suit. When I got there he was super tired but he got up and took a few photos for me all while giving me a death stare (I know he was tired so I'm not mad I thought it was kind of funny lol). After the rabbit sold things got slow for a bit again so I had my table helper watch my table briefly while I ran back up to the hotel room to use the bathroom and grab a few things. I had to run back down though not longer after as I had someone interested in a pair of hooves so I wanted to get down and make my last few sales before Dealers Den closed. We closed up around 3 or 4 PM I believe and I made record sales! The best of any con I've done so far and triple that of BWS 2021. (I feel it's entirely necessary that I'm honest about my sales so that others know what can be made at events like this!) Final sales count before taxes was $9.1k! I talked to lots of the other dealers and they seemed to have done well too. I was tipped off and noticed that quite a few people were looking for bunny merch/items quite ravenously so I fully intend to make some new merch that is bunny/rabbit related. I had a lot of old merch I need to phase out anyway so it works out! ^w^ Took about an hour to tear my set up down and pack it up into the car. After getting everything packed up and being as sleep deprived as I was I went up to the hotel room order a bit of food, ate, and went to sleep for a bit. I ended up waking up around 10 or 11 PM and started getting everything else packed up and put into the car. We all said our good byes to Perma finished jenga-ing everything into the car and them we got ourselves in the car to leave. bestie sat in the passenger seat this time and gave directions home while my table helper (and now ex) sat in the back behind me and slept. We got back pretty late (Like 2AM ish) and got to see our beautiful little chicken again. Me and bestie were delighted to see him and it was honestly the best part of getting back home. My table helper/ex went back home as well as she had her car at my place and me and bestie went to sleep at my place. I took bestie home the next day, un-jenga-ed my car a few days later and then literally took a break from working for like a month after the con. XnX This con was literally such a blast and I'm super grateful to everyone who stopped by to see me and buy something. Thank you to everyone who came back and gave compliments regarding my fursuit sprays and to those who chatted with me, took photos with me, etc. You all my my con an absolute blast! 💖 Next convention will be Furry Takeover in Fontana Dam, NC! If you wanna take a look at past conventions, my table set ups and upcoming conventions you can check out my Conventions Page! ^u^ A small highlight from the con was seeing my art again for banners and stuff! It's always so cool to see the work I do for NCAS at their events. If you wanna join staff you can always check positions here. If you wanna volunteer for their cons be sure to check the respective con websites for info!
BRFF Website BWS Website Those mentioned: Perma Baxter Bestie (Katsu) Corkie (Artzora Studios)
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AuthorI'm a small full time Fursuit Maker and Artist living in NC Archives
October 2023
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Klovesbunnies Art