Home gencon

GenCon Wrap Up

Posted in Miscellaneous , on August 28, 2010 ,

I already wrote and posted this up over on G33Kmade.com, but I thought I’d also share the post here as well, as a way to wrap up how Gen Con went for me :)

Wow. Just… wow. Gen Con Indy was amazing! Thank you SO much to all of the fabulous people that stopped by our booth and supported handmade geek at the best four days in gaming!

Firstly, we have SO MUCH LOVE for all of the independent geek artists that made up G33Kmade’s booth. Though Kylee and I were there as the face promoting our cause, G33Kmade was more than just soap; we had amazing prints by GEEKLEETIST, fantastically detailed nerd pillows by Victoria the Germ, and epic dice bags designed by Lyndsay of Dragon Chow.  And not only that, we also represented other featured G33Kmade artists and friends such as GeekyCookies, UberDork Cafe, and Ruth of CthulhuChick, whose plush Cthulhu was our booth mascot. We were givin’ out super sweet geeky buttons made by Wendy of GeekyBoutiquey left and right, and tried to ensure our mission of spreading the love between everyone that made G33Kmade’s booth a success to anyone that would listen. And boy, did we have a lot of listeners!

Wil Wheaton came by the G33Kmade booth on Saturday and picked out a Dragon Chow dice bag as part of his mission to collect as many dice as possible at Gen Con. Getting a Dragon Chow dice bag was part of another spread-the-love geeky mission initiated by @cmdrsue via Twitter. It’s the kind of thing that makes you feel weak in the knees and love what you do that much more: seeing so many people come together under one banner for one awesome purpose… to support each other’s handmade geek. It’s the foundation that G33Kmade was built upon. Share. Support. Promote. Love. Geek. Wil picked up some of our soap sculptures of awesome offerings and chose a dice bag. When he realized what G33Kmade was and what we were all about, he told Kylee and I how PROUD he was of us. Of what we had started with G33Kmade. Of promoting independent geek artists and all of us working together. The fact that so many of you were on board doing this together. He compared it to how he got started and all of the people he’s worked with, and just kept repeating how proud he was. It was surreal. And awesome.

Who would’ve thought? Independent artists working together. G33Kmade is not just two people. It’s one giant geeky dogpile of epic proportions and each and every person supporting us – whether from the sidelines or as a featured artist – is an important part of that pile. It really was amazing to see how well received the whole concept was. People loved hearing stories about the artists of G33Kmade as they browsed geeky wares from all over North America. They were surprised to see Kylee and I selling soap side-by-side and promoting and cheering each other on instead of competing. But that’s what it’s all about, and the warm fuzzy feelings I got from being able to work with so many thoughtful, giving geeks had me glowing all weekend. I am proud to be a crafty geek.

The famously clean superheroine you all know as @DeodorantDame even came by so we could help aid her in her quest for cleanliness at cons everywhere! Equipped with her deodorant spray and a D20 Soap on a Rope, she was unstoppable. United we stand for a meaningful cause!

So enough gushing already, right? BRING ON THE PICTURES! For your viewing pleasure… (There are multiple pages, so don’t forget to click the Next links!)

[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157624575006329″]

THANK YOU to every single person who has supported G33Kmade. Handmade FTW!

As you can imagine, it’s been busy ever since Gen Con around here. On a personal note, I got a job offer for a school district on the north side of town about 10 minutes before our Gen Con booth opened, and started said job at 7:30am the Monday morning after Gen Con. The good news is that the job is amazing; I love it! The bad news is that it’s an hour commute for now, so not only am I juggling a successful small business in what little spare time I have, I also have a new full time job AND we’re planning to move in a few weeks to be closer to work. As if I needed more things on my plate, Lucas and I are going with a bunch of friends down to Atlanta, GA next weekend to attend Dragon Con, too. Should be a really fun time!

In crafting news, expect a few new little things coming to GEEKSOAP soon, and my Cthulhu Toque should be back in stock both on Etsy and over on geeksoap.net in the next few weeks as we get closer to fall and hat season. I’m also planning a slight redesign to my Baththulhu Cthulhu Bath Mitt pattern to create Cthulhu Mittens for this holiday season as well :) Oh, and did I mention that Lucas and I are trying new recipes each week and attempting to stay on top of our family blog, too? Stay tuned! Somehow I’ll accomplish all of this in the midst of a move ;) Take care!


Come get GEEKSOAP in person at Gen Con!

Posted in Shows, Soapmaking , on July 21, 2010 ,

You know you wanna head to Gen Con in Indianapolis from August 5 – 8, 2010… because not only is it “the original, longest running, best attended gaming convention in the world for over 40 years”,  you can come pick up some awesome GEEKSOAP for yourself in person right at the G33Kmade booth; 2732! And then there’s a G33Kmade Tweet Up… so even if you don’t have tickets to get in to Gen Con you can still come hang out in downtown Indianapolis!

–> Grab all of the G33Kmade booth details and Tweet Up information! <–

soapstonesBasically, we’ll be at booth 2732 and you’re gonna find awesome soaps by me, @KyleeLane, and other handmade goodies from @GEEKLEETIST, @VictoriaTheGerm, and @GeekyLyndsay there, too! As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, G33Kmade is a company that Kylee and I started together to help spread the love and support of handmade geekery because that’s the way it should be. Showcasing and celebrating other handmade geek and helping them get their stories and inspiration out there for all the world to see!

Want more excitement? @UberDorkGirlie (of the amazing @UberDorkCafe that I mentioned previously that you NEED to support! Give the gift of geek!) will be in attendance at the Tweet Up, so if you want to meet the dream in person you just have to be there!

Be sure to check out the official post over on G33Kmade for all the Gen Con details. Hope to see you at Gen Con!


In Which We Celebrate 2 Months

Posted in Contests, Shows, Soapmaking , on April 24, 2010 ,

Only two months?! Yesterday, April 23, was the 2-months-in-business anniversary for GEEKSOAP; it’s hard to believe with as much growth and business as we’ve had that it’s only been two short months since the very first bar of GEEKSOAP was sold. (It was one of the Cthulhu soaps, the first design version, by the way, over on Etsy.) GEEKSOAP exploded, thanks to fans like YOU, in such a small amount of time, and we are loving it!

Some of the newer readers may not know it, but The Pink Toque has been around since October 30, 2006 selling hand sewn bags (at first) and knit and crochet items (later), and also giving away freebie digital scrapbooking designs along the way. I’ve come a long way. It was late May/early June 2009 when I made my very first geeky soap – a Batman design to give as a gift to my friend Michelle for her birthday. At the time it was just a one-off and not something I was going to continue with, but about 8 months later I was crocheting yet another of my Cthulhu toques and suddenly had the idea to make Cthulhu soap… and so I put together what I learned about making that Batman soap and started creating Cthulhu soap. And then suddenly the flood gates opened and it seemed like the sky was the limit. The rest is history; in a short month or so there were over a dozen GEEKSOAP designs with more on the horizon, and then I released the biggies: the D20 Soap on a Rope (March 29) which was even mentioned & linked on the Wizards of the Coast website (THE DnD site, for those not in the know) and the Game Cartridge soaps. (April 16). You know the rest!

But seriously, I need to thank the fans and customers; I’d not be here if it weren’t for you! In celebration, please use the discount code 2MONTHS for 10% off of every single item in the store at http://www.geeksoap.net for the next week! Early customers with the original designs in the 3oz bars will be happy to see that in the short 2 months we’ve been around that GEEKSOAP has grown not only as a business, but the soaps have grown, too. New designs, bigger bars (without a bigger price!) and all kinds of upgrades to GEEKSOAP in general because we learned from early business. A very special thank you to the earliest customers who bought the old school designs from what now seems like a tiny brand-spankin’-new, inexperienced business that had a lot to learn. We never dreamed we’d be as big as we are now and the demand helped us grow as a company to better serve YOU. Because at the end of the day, it really is all about the customer. Your happiness is the most important aspect of what I do; I want you to love GEEKSOAP as much as I do!  Thank you all so very much <3

So what’s next? Well GEEKSOAP will be at Gen Con Indy this summer, from August 5 – 8. When we signed up, we were only about two weeks old as a company, and we chose an Art Show booth to be safe, as we had no idea how huge we would get so quickly.  The Art Show booths aren’t very big, but we truly feel like we’ve got something unique that the masses are going to love and we’re going to bring plenty of stock; we don’t need a ton of space to sell it. Had we known how big GEEKSOAP would become in such a short time, perhaps we would’ve gone as exhibitors instead. *shrug* I don’t mind; next year we’ll look into exhibitor booths, but this year with GEEKSOAP being a brand new infant of a company, I’m just excited to be participating at all.  I know our sales will be awesome and I am really looking forward to meeting and chatting with fellow gamer geeks. Please be sure to stop by and say hi in the Art Show Hall! Free hugs and super amazingly geeky soap to be had by all!

I mentioned the Game Cartridge soaps earlier in this post, but I have yet to formally “announce” them here on the blog. In case you missed them, check out my Game Cartridge GEEKSOAPs over on my portfolio; I created molds of classic, retro gaming cartridges that just about anyone can easily recognize. So far, they come in 8-bit, 16-bit, and 64-bit varieties, with other varieties coming soon. As a natural companion to the bigger cartridge bars, I also have created an 8-bit Handheld Game Cartridge Guest Soap variety that looks like little Gameboy cartridges. They’re perfect for travel or sitting on the sink in your guest bathroom. I’m currently working on a large set of the Handhelds as wedding favors for an engaged pair of GEEKSOAP fans out there – so exciting! In the past 24 hours, my Game Cartridge soaps have been featured on over 10 different websites, so welcome to all of the new fans who are dropping in for the first time! <3 Want to win some Game Cartridge soap? Stop by and see my friends at Nerd Approved & enter their contest to win a large cartridge of your choice, which comes with a free Handheld version, too! :D

Oh, and don’t forget to fan us on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @geeksoap, and let me know if you have any questions – I’d love to accommodate geeky special requests for you. <3 Have a great weekend!