This was one of the smoothest ingress and egress con experience for us. It was quick and stress free. We were one of the early birds during ingress and we took our sweet time setting up. I brought more original paintings this time hoping that they’d find homes. I sold a few and I’m really thankful to the buyers! ♥

I also organized a stamp rally! My idea was to make a palengke-themed stamp rally so I recruited artists who have fish or produce related stickers. Those who completed our stamp will get a crochet bayong made by Inggo with all of our artist’s prizes. We had meat, fresh fish, dried fish, veggies, fruits, and more. It was so cute! I also made giant stickers again and bought fake ice as decor for it. It was a huge hit!

Our friend also made a stick normally seen in markets. I borrowed it to take a photo with my fresh fish stickers. This was also the first time that we used zipties for the acrylic boxes tied to the mesh wires. I wanted to display my postcard prints efficiently, and while it was sort of a success, it wasn’t stable enough and sometimes the prints would fall. 

Aside from the usual tilapia stickers, I made parrotfish ones. They are available in A4 and A5 size at the same price. My thought process was “who would even buy an a4 fish?!” but a lot did. They said it is a future me problem on where to stick it. Thankful as well to officemates, friends, and family who visited our booth. Some were first timers in this kind of convention, I’m glad they had fun! 

Overall it was a convention. I truly felt that we started the year right by participating this event. ♥

POTA organizers promised some features for this event – an art wall showcasing the artist’s works (we got to take home our framed works after), artist lounge on both ends (who knew there were 2 hidden rooms in this venue?!), discord for communication, and I guess a lot more that I cannot remember. Ingress was impressive. The organizers were very accommodating and really nice. You could feel their passion for this event.

We bought a lot of things for the event – an acrylic display rack for me, mesh wires for Inggo, our very own QR code display, and behind-the-scenes things that you need for a convention. I also brought some of my original paintings for sale. Inggo brought everything he has worked on since we registered for this event. We had no idea how to price crochet works, so he kind of adjusted the prices along the way.

Some highlights posted on my social media: some customers wanted me to sign my postcard prints, my original paintings were sold whenever I’m not manning our table, a customer recognized my katmon sticker so I gave her a freebie of my hoya sticker (she even knew the scientific name!), we saw Inggo’s hats worn throughout the event, one girl even commissioned him on the spot for a penguin coaster, and so much more. ♥️

They even had an official photographer, and the two photos above were taken by him. Thank you so much! That’s the artist lounge behind us HAHA.

This was my first event that I wasn’t with my original artist group January Makers. I felt that after StickerCon 2022, I needed to go solo. Thankfully it wasn’t the case here – as I had Inggo as my new permanent tablemate. It was nice to see everyone – most of my convention friends were in PotA. It was like a mini reunion with everyone and all we did was chika all day. ♥️ Our server friends also visited our table! It was chaotic and fun. We could feel the love.

The first Patrons of the Arts was a successful event. We were raving all day to other artists about this organizer. What a game changer. When they announced a 2024 event, we immediately signed up. Look forward to that post in a couple of months HAHA.