Gamicon Bromine Recap
What a fabulous weekend!! I'm exhausted in the best way possible.
By far my favorite day of Gamicon is Friday- greeting all my Convention friends with joy and hugs and seeing hundreds of other people doing the same with their Convention friends just fills the air with all the good vibes. I can’t think of a better way to start a weekend.
The entire convention center echoed with laughter and cheers from hundreds of people playing games and having fun for 3 days straight. If you’ve never gone, even if you aren’t a gaming enthusiast, I encourage you to put Gamicon Krypton on your calendar- February 26-28, 2027. I promise you’ll have a great time and make new friends.
Gamicon broke its attendance record this year at over 800 attendees! I’m so proud of all the volunteers that work their tails off year-round to make this amazing convention the wholesome, fun-filled weekend it is. Thank you for everything you do. Your efforts make this convention easily my favorite convention in the circuit.
If you’re interested in volunteering to help make Gamicon the best gaming convention in the Midwest, please reach out- they can always use more hands to make the work easier and the convention run more smoothly.
Graeme and I found some time to play a game of SHIVER with some of our Convention friends, and our group happened to go up against a gigantic wendigo. The DM didn’t have an appropriate mini, but I scurried over to our booth, grabbed Wendi off the shelf, and plopped her on the battlefield. She happened to be the appropriate size for the encounter! We won the game and had a great time doing it.
As for Studio Eldeen Handmade Art: I debuted my Rebel Goldfinch merch and my little birds raised $344.75 for Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice. Beer City Board Games stopped by the booth and had me do a little blurb on my Rebel Goldfinch merch for his vlog series about his experience at Gamicon. Check it out!
The Give-A-Fucks and FucKits raised $93.27 for CommUnity Crisis Services, Iowa City Free Medical Clinic, and Clear Creek Amana Food Pantry, which breaks down to $31.09 each.
Raygun sent me some of their Rebel Goldfinch merch as a thank you for letting them use my design. I donated a sweatshirt, a tote bag, a sticker, and a button to the HACAP charity auction. The sweatshirt went for $35 and the tote bag bundle went for $34.
That’s a total of $507.02 that Studio Eldeen raised for charity in just 3 days! I’m so proud, happy, and smooshy about all of this. A huge Thank You to everyone who “gave a fuck” and helped me help my local community. I also greatly appreciate everyone for supporting my small business and my art.
I just finished listing the new merch in the shop so if you weren’t able to attend Gamicon you can still show your solidarity and help folks in need.
So what’s next? I’m responding to messages I received during the convention, and then I’m getting back into the Studio to continue working on commissions. Thank you to those who have been waiting patiently for Gamicon to be over- I’m only one person with two hands and 24 hours in a day, and I appreciate your grace and understanding.
The next event we’ll be attending is Anime Iowa at the Hyatt Regency in Coralville (same place as Gamicon was) from July 31st to August 2nd. We hope to see you there!
If you want to see progress shots and small updates from me, check out my Facebook page.
Again, thank you to everyone for supporting my art. This support is the best inspiration an artist could ever ask for.
Gamicon booth setup
Merch on the Gig Shelf
Unpainted Wendi in action. My character is the cheerleader by Wendi’s left foot, Graeme’s is the one in front of the overturned mini.
