Max – Page 2 – Ask Kaylee Frye

06/15/201610/06/2021

From Thrift Store to Your Door: (Part of) My Etsy Business

I’ve been selling on Etsy since 2012, and have learned a few things over the past several years. Curious about my process? Read on!

ACQUIRING THE CLOTHES
Before I purchase ANYTHING, I go through reference photos I’ve saved in my Google Drive or bookmarked in Chrome. This way, I have access to them on my desktop, laptop, and phone, depending if I’m home or on the go. If I am looking for something specific or looking to modify something for a costume, having these references readily available helps refresh the image in my head so I know what to look for.

When I visit my hometown Chicago, I have 8 or 9 stores that I visit all in one go. It usually takes all day and involves multiple snack breaks! In Rhode Island (where I now live), I have 4 Savers within a 20 minutes drive. The prices at Savers aren’t as good as the Chicago stores, but they are closer to me (one of them is within walking distance) and I check them more frequently. I walk through the aisles of t-shirts and knits, looking for anything that reminds me of Kaylee or features motifs similar to the show. I also keep an eye out for anything especially reminiscent of River, Zoe, and Inara. Once I find and purchase all the clothes, the hard work begins.

PHOTOS
The next step is to take pictures of EVERYTHING. In Chicago, my sister helps me out; in RI, I get assistance from one of my housemates. I do my best to take photos outside in natural light, because these look the best & showcase the colors of the clothing really well. If there’s an item of clothing that is too small for me, I take pictures of it on another model (usually my housemate or my sister). I try to get at least 3 or 4 different poses, and multiple pictures of each pose (because I blink a LOT). I also take close-up detail pictures of shirts so that customers can get an idea of the patterns on them.

Once I’ve gotten pictures of everything, I transfer them to my computer and do a preliminary cull. This is where I delete anything blurry, where I’m blinking, or the clothing doesn’t appear flattering. I pick 3-4 photos that I like the best of each item (plus the detail shot), and then transfer these into Photoshop, where I do a very basic edit to clean up colors, contrast, brightness, etc. Here, I also crop images so that they focus more on the shirts that I am trying to sell than on the background or anything else in the frame.

DESCRIPTIONS

After I am happy with the pictures, I rename everything to describe it (for example, Peacock shirt 1 for the first picture of the peacock shirt). In some cases (like the Zoe belt I am currently offering), I also take a few measurements to accurately describe the products. After that, I start the tedious process of uploading these pieces to Etsy.

In Etsy, I have to specify a ton of information before I can save items as drafts; things like what ‘type’ of item it is, who is going to use it, how big it is to calculate shipping, and more. I take the time to fill this out. My favorite part of the listing process is writing a description; I get to imagine how Kaylee came to own each of the shirts I’ve picked out, or on what she occasions she might wear them.

SHIPPING

Part of adding listings to Etsy includes figuring out how to ship items & how much it will cost. Luckily, Etsy can often provide the shipping information for me when I fill in certain details.

When items are ordered from Etsy, I get 2 emails. One from Paypal (since all my Etsy funds go there), and one from Etsy. The Paypal email goes into a folder labeled ‘receipts’ so that I can track how much I made & relate that to my taxes. The second email stays unread in my inbox until I am ready to ship; once it ships that email gets deleted.

I will almost always use Etsy to purchase shipping labels, since it keeps it all in one nice spot, and I get an email receipt. I can then print the label, and schedule a pick-up through USPS so I don’t have to find a time to get to the post office. And then items are off to their new homes! With almost 80 reviews and 4.5 stars on Etsy, hopefully I am doing something right.

Are there any questions you have about my process? Comment and let me know!

04/19/201610/06/2021

How I Comic Con on a Budget

As many of you know, I have been cosplaying since New York Comic Con 2012. Since then, I’ve gone to more than 20 conventions all over the US. While there are countless articles that acknowledge how expensive cosplay is, and ways you can save money when making your own costumes, there aren’t many that discuss how expensive it is to go to conventions and show said cosplay. It is possible to save money while still going to conventions, so I want to share the ways in which I have been able to afford to go to so many conventions.

When saving up for a convention, it’s important to think about all the costs that go into it. Most money is spent on these three things:

Convention tickets (around $100 or more for Wizard World and larger conventions)
Rooming (usually a couple hundred dollars for a weekend)
Travel (usually at least $200 if you have to fly)

Aside from these, it’s also worth keeping in mind that you’ll likely have to pay for public transportation to/from where you’re staying or parking (unless it is a hotel-based convention, and you are staying in the hotel). If you’re going with friends, it’s worth figuring out if parking ends up being cheaper than all of you taking the train or bus. For example, even with $13 parking at Wizard World Chicago, for my best friend, sister, and I to take the train in and out costs $16.50. This doesn’t account for gas prices, but driving also means we can leave stuff in the car/go get it later, and means we save time on the commute and don’t have to worry about catching the last train.

Eating is another important (and necessary thing) during conventions. It’s important to be aware that, depending on the location of the convention, there may not be a lot of options for food. NYCC is located near a ton of food carts, but most cons only have the food within the convention center, which is usually fried and/or incredibly expensive. I save money and eat better by bringing granola bars, small sandwiches, or trail mix with me and munch on it throughout the day. While a lot of places do check bags at the door, most will let you get away with small snacks, and you’ll feel a lot better eating healthier and saving money.

Not to mention, you’ll probably want to create (and stick to) a budget for things like cosplay or buying things in the exhibit hall.

With that said, I’ve found four ways that really help save money when going to conventions:

Go Local

Not only will you you save on room and travel, you’ll also save on food since you probably have groceries and a way to prepare them at home. That, or you probably know of cheap places to eat! While not every city has a big convention, there are loads of smaller (read: cheaper) conventions to go to all over the place. This website lists cons all over the country, by state, regions, guest, theme and more! Starting with smaller/local conventions also can be a good way to build your way up to bigger cons.

Plan Ahead

Buying convention & travel tickets in advance often makes everything a lot cheaper. Many conventions offer cheaper rates for tickets the earlier you buy. The same applies to travel tickets and hotels. The earlier you can plan for a convention, the more you can save up for it as well.

Make Friends

I have only once paid for a hotel room at a convention, and even that was split among friends. More often, I make friends in various online fan groups & at various conventions I have gone to, and trade housing for their & my local cons. Hotels can be super convenient (especially when the conventions are held in them, like Arisia, Super MegaFest, or Dragon*Con), they feel more like a vacation, and they often save time in terms of getting ready & traveling back and forth to the actual convention. But they can cost a lot, and often mean you’ll have to pay extra for food because you won’t be able to cook your own.

Making friends can help with more than just rooming prices. Making friends with artists & vendors is something I try to do at every convention. Maybe your exhibitor friend will have extra tickets that his booth isn’t using, maybe your artist friend will let you store snacks or your jacket under their table so you don’t have to coat check. If nothing else, it gives you another perspective on the convention & someone to talk to throughout the con. Also people in booths love it when you bring them food because they are often trapped inside FOREVER.

Help Out

Finally, volunteering in some form or another can get you free admission into conventions. Many conventions offer tickets if you help load in or out, and even the bigger cons like Wizard World and NYCC regularly use volunteers for tons of jobs (including sitting with celebs at their booths!) and reward them with admission and even sometimes photo-ops or autographs. If you’d prefer a bit more freedom with your weekend (or you’d really like to cosplay rather than wear a volunteer shirt), submitting panels or programming is an excellent way to get in. A huge percentage of the cons I’ve gone to, I have either performed or presented panels.

Going to a convention will almost always cost some money. But it’s possible to enjoy huge conventions without breaking the bank. Have you used any of these tactics? Do you have other ways you save money? Share them in the comments at the bottom of this post!

04/12/201610/06/2021

Madison Comic Con 2016

After thousands of miles of travel, and almost every single kind of mode of transportation possible, I am finally home from Wizard World Madison Comic Con 2016.

Having never visited Madison, WI before now, the invitation to present my “Expanding Firefly ‘Verse” panel gave me not only the chance to visit my family in Chicago, but also a chance to see a new city! Plus I got to visit cosplay friends I don’t see very often. Oh yeah, and bring my panel to more folks… and see Jewel Staite in person.

The trip began on Wednesday night when I took a train into Boston. I stayed the night with a friend and then took the first Silver Line on Thursday to catch my 7am flight to Chicago. Once in Chicago, I stayed for just one night before getting up early and taking a train to the bus that would eventually take me to Madison. I traveled on the Van Galder bus line, which is $30 no matter what and resembles a double decker Megabus. I got the best seat in the house: the front row on the top deck which means huge windows all around. This bus had great wifi, but also randomly leaked through the ceiling at times. 8/10.

I stayed with my friend SparrowStyle who happens to live right near the bus stop. We ate lunch before heading to the convention. Day one was relatively slow. We walked the entire convention floor (comparable roughly to the size of Wizard World Philly the first year that I went, or the Rhode Island Convention Center), and scoped out the room where I would be presenting my panel on Saturday. After that, we called it a day and headed home for sushi and Netflix.

Saturday, we headed to the convention around 11 in the morning, so I would have time to set up the room for my panel and make sure my laptop hooked up correctly. I met up with my co-panelist, and we went over a few things before the panel started. This panel was a lot more in depth than the last time I presented it. I included information about new graphic novels (the next one comes out in less than a month during Free Comic Book Day) as well as about QMx’s partnership with Loot Crate for the Firefly Loot Crates. I also added information about fan films that exist or are being made, including Browncoat Redemption, The Verse, Browncoats: Independence War, and A Faithful Companion.

You’ll have to catch me at a convention to see the whole panel (and have a chance at some of the shiny things I give away at panels), you can check out future panels and events by clicking here. SparrowStyle and I walked the floor again, stopping here and there to pick up art. SparrowStyle and I also entered the cosplay competition, before I headed over to see Jewel Staite’s panel. I caught the tail end of the Agents of Shield panel and, as that was emptying out, managed to get a seat in the very front row of Jewel’s panel!

We didn’t get much new info from Jewel, but she did talk about being a new mom: her son is now four months old! She did talk about how she almost got a role in Buffy, but scheduling meant she couldn’t. When she was cast in Firefly, she was asked by Joss directly to film a tape for Kaylee, she didn’t even have to put in a general audition. She did mention reading the character descriptions and wanting to read for River. Jewel also mentioned being so grateful for being able to travel all around the world thanks to Firefly, and how she still runs into people who’ve seen it or are just starting to watch it. She’s been working a lot lately, including a recent episode of Legends of Tomorrow and an upcoming episode of Castle, where she loved working with Nathan Fillion again.

After the panel, we spent more time around the convention floor before lining up for the cosplay competition. This year (unlike last year, according to SparrowStyle), the competition was held in the Arena, rather than the main convention center. This is also where all the celebrity panels were held. We lined up in the main convention center before we were escorted us over to the Arena (the area between the two was outdoors and pretty chilly). We waited backstage, and then were announced and had our four seconds to shine! Madison Comic Con had tons of fantastic cosplays this year in the contest. There was a whole group of Doctors (as well as the Doctor’s daughter and Amy Pond), a guy who made the power armor from Fall Out, and even a set of hands of blue. You can see pictures from the whole convention on the Wizard World Flickr page.

Overall, I had a fantastic convention experience. Madison is definitely an up and coming convention that I see getting bigger and bigger every year. I hope to be invited again in the future!

04/02/201610/06/2021

Loot Crate Firefly Kaylee Interview

I was interviewed for the first ever (!!) Firefly Loot Crate, naturally themed after our favorite mechanic. To save $5 on your first Loot Crate, whether it be Firefly or not, click here.

Full Transcript follows:

“If you’ve ever done a double-take at a Kaylee cosplay so perfect you cannot gorram believe it, chances are you’re looking at Ask Kaylee Frye. Wearing what could arguably be considered her cosplay destiny, the voice of askkayleefrye.com conquered social media (and our hearts) as everyone’s favorite space mechanic and fluffy dress enthusiast. We sat down with Ask Kaylee Frye in the engine room to discuss her career in coveralls.

What convinced you to embrace your Kaylee destiny?
I decided to go to NYCC in 2012 with a friend, and I had a pair of green denim coveralls I had found at a thrift store a little while back. I figured, what the heck, why not wear them to the convention? People’s reactions were incredible! I lost count after 50 people asked to take my picture and told me I really looked like her. I feel bad, looking back now, because those coveralls are SO inaccurate (especially compared to the ones I wear now) but so many people told me my cosplay was great when really they just meant my face (thanks mom and dad).

You’ve become the go-to source for cosplayers seeking advice on their own costumes. What questions are you 100% tired of hearing?
People ask me a LOT where I get my stuff, to the point where I made an FAQ about it. I get asked about my coveralls a lot, because they’re very accurate to the show. I found them at a military surplus store that no longer sells them.

You have met many of the Firefly cast members. Any favorite stories about meeting the actual crew?
Oh man. The best I think was at Philadelphia Comic Con. I purchased photo-ops with Gina, Adam and Jewel. When I got my picture with Adam, Jewel happened to also be in the booth, just checking her phone on the sidelines. I got up to him and he looks at me, says “You look familiar!” and then points at Jewel. I also had a wonderful time meeting Morena Baccarin at Chicago Comic Con a couple years back. There was no line at all for her autograph, so a friend and I went up to her and just talked for a little while. We also had made flower crowns for her and Alan and Summer which she wore for the rest of the convention.

What is your favorite costume piece?
I do love my green coveralls. I’m really proud of them, especially because they were one of the first real cosplays I made for myself. Plus I know if I wear them, I’m gonna get recognized. I’ve also made costumes for my best friend and for my sister that I love.

If you had one piece of advice for other Kaylee cosplayers, what would it be?
The most important thing is the smile on your face. Your cosplay can be slap-dashed together, it can be totally inaccurate, but as long as you’re smiling, ain’t a power in the ‘verse that can stop you.

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12/03/201506/23/2020

Jaynestown at Templecon 2015

12/01/201510/06/2021

Rhode Island Comic Con 2015 + Photos of shows!

My journey to Rhode Island Comic Con this year started on Thursday. I woke up at 7:30 in the morning, which was really too early since my class didn’t start til 10 am, but I was way excited to be heading back to the east coast! I had class from 10-2 and boy, that dragged on. After class, I took a quick nap before heading to a training at work, which was supposed to be at 5:30. I worked til 12:30 and then headed home, red bull in hand. My flight was at 7am on Friday, and so I had to get there around 6am, and to do that, I had to take the 5:15 bus to the airport. So I figured I should just stay up all night, and sleep on the 5 hr flight.

MISTAKE. Do they keep making the seats less comfortable and smaller, or am I imagining it? Usually I go for window seats, because they are the best to sleep in, but the window seats on this plane were way in the back, so I opted for a middle seat as close to the front as possible. The guy in the window seat next to me didn’t get the memo that if you have the window you need to not get up (TWICE!) and make the rest of the people in your row get up. Suffice to say, I had next to no sleep on that flight, and my neck and shoulders hate me.

Once in Boston, I headed straight for the commuter rail out to Rhode Island. An hour and change later, I was in Providence! I met up with friends and went straight to the convention center, where they had yet to set up the main exhibitors room. What the heck. We were there from around 7 to at least 8:30, when our set up only took a half hour at most. We finally headed home and I fell asleep so hard.

Saturday, RKO performed The Devil’s Carnival, REPO: The Genetic Opera, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show in room 554b, a room about half the size of the room we had last year-this was frustrating point number 2. Frustrating point number 1 was that RICC would only give RKO Army a total of 20 badges, and wanted us to perform 7 shows over the course of the weekend. While smaller shows, like Rocky and Firefly Out Of Gas can be performed with that limited a number of badges, bigger shows like Repo and Jaynestown are next to impossible. Several people in RKO ended up buying badges for the weekend (even though they wouldn’t get to enjoy the convention at all, since they were performing almost the entire time), and other people had to stress out and switch badges. Especially since RICC this year had done a tap-in-tap-out badge system, you couldn’t get in if your badge wasn’t scanned that you got out. It makes sense for not letting people sneak in, but really screwed us over. We were also supposed to get wristbands, as performers, so we could enter through any entrance. Never happened.

I photographed TDC, which went pretty well, and then headed over to the food court in the adjacent mall, in hopes I could grab food for people. Performers in TDC technically had an hour between that and REPO, but many of them had significant make-up and costume changes, and thus would not have a lot of time to eat, if they went and got food. The food court was busy, which was to be expected, but I didn’t even get back until after REPO started. A friend was in both TDC and REPO, and was one of the people I grabbed food for, and he ended up crouched backstage eating the burger I brought him between scenes.

Between REPO and Rocky, we had a bit more time, and I got to actually walk the show floor. This year, RICC inhabited not only the Rhode Island Convention Center, but the Dunkin Donuts center as well. The main exhibitor’s floor, in the convention center, was about the size of Wizard World Philadelphia (at least the year I went) or the upstairs (horror fest? Bruce Campbell fest? I have no idea) portion of Chicago Comic Con this year. It included many artists and exhibitors, some of the smaller celebrity autograph lines, and Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston. I believe the photo-ops were also on that floor. Upstairs, as usual, a band played for a portion of time, and the panels went on.

Apparently the main entrance was in the Dunkin Donuts center. The first floor was a circle of artists/fan tables/exhibitors? I’m not sure, because I never got a map, and apparently there wasn’t one. Looking at the website, I couldn’t find one at all,the floorplan link doesn’t link anywhere. There were two places on that main floor to go down a floor lower. On the lower floor, the stadium housed a bunch more exhibitors, and in a semi circle outside THAT, there were more exhibitors, as well as rooms with other celebrities, like all the Sons of Anarchy people. The Batmobile was down there, as well, if I remember correctly.

Speaking with other exhibitors, we all didn’t get why it was laid out the way it was. I spent less than a half hour in the Dunkin Donuts center, because it was a pain to get to. It would have worked better if they used that space for autographs and photo-ops, and maybe the vehicles (as Wizard World conventions often do), and kept all the exhibitors/artists/fan tables in the RI Convention Center. People would travel between the two, because most people want to buy things AS WELL AS see celebrities.

Sunday, we had Out of Gas at noon. About 6 people were in the audience, which was unsurprising because there was NO mention of RKO Army ANYWHERE in the program, and only a tiny mention at the bottom of a webpage on the site about it. We still kicked butt, and then headed into Jaynestown about 10 minutes after it ended. It was actually really fun doing both shows, especially because I haven’t done them in such a while. And I totally killed the quick change in Out of Gas that is the bane of my existence.

There was an hour break before Buffy started up, and I wasn’t in Buffy or Dr. Horrible, which was our final show of the con. My friend and I went into the mall and sat down to a slower lunch. We also grabbed food for folks, and dropped it off with them before leaving the con early.

If you know me, you know I have almost never left a con early (unless it’s a Monday con, like Arisia, where there is almost no programming on the last day of the convention). I bought nothing at the convention, and generally spent the whole time exhausted. I ended up sleeping until 2:30pm on Monday. Maybe it was because I had done 2 conventions in 2 weekends, but I think it was more likely that Rhode Island Comic Con was ridiculously busy and spread apart, and it just wasn’t enjoyable to travel between the two sections. From the point of view of a convention-goer, RICC was way better than last year. From the point of view of a guest of the convention, it was way worse. I hope they figure out a happy medium for next year.

11/29/201506/23/2020

Out of Gas at Templecon 2015

11/05/201510/06/2021

Whedonopolis’s 2015 Halloween Event

2021 Update: Given recent allegations against Joss Whedon, Ask Kaylee Frye no longer supports him. This blog post was written prior to allegations going public. Ask Kaylee Frye believes & supports all survivors.

On October 18th, 2015, fans of Joss Whedon’s work gathered together in Los Angeles to see the man himself speak a bit before joining together (and singing along) to watch Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. I was one of those lucky enough to be in attendance. Tickets originally went on sale September 13th, and were sold out by that evening. If you recall, that was the same weekend as Long Beach Comic Con, and so I missed out on picking some up then. Then, the day before the event, some extra tickets went on sale and I was sure to grab them as fast as possible! I chose to wear my most screen accurate cosplay, including the pink shirt I made with custom printed fabric!

The event began outdoors, with vendors offering various Whedon-verse merch, and everyone having an overall good time.

Once we checked in, we were got fancy swag bags that had loads of cool things that would let us interact with the movie! They included Captain Hammer’s hair and dry cleaning receipt (4 sweater vests), your very own bad horse puppet, bubbles for doing laundry, lacy gently wafting curtains, a penny, and a little confetti popper for when the Death Ray explodes.

My favorite thing, however, was the glowstick, which we were all instructed to use during the song ‘Everyone’s a Hero’

After that, there was a costume contest, and [spoiler alert] I won! It was judged by Shawna Trpcic, the woman who costumed designed Firefly, Dr. Horrible and many other shows!

My prize was the awesome SDCC exclusive Buffy funko pop!

It was an amazing time, and I am so thankful that I got a chance to experience it with other fans all around me. To be in a room where everyone is singing this hilarious musical was incredible, and I hope to get the chance to do it again someday!

11/03/201510/06/2021

Comikaze 2015

This past weekend was my very first Comikaze in Los Angeles, California. Comikaze started in 2010 and has been getting ever bigger since. I got the opportunity to attend through the company Emet Comics, for whom I run social media. The convention ran Friday, October 30th to Sunday November 1st.

Friday, we arrived early to set up. Because it is finally getting chillier in LA, I decided to wear a shirt that I hadn’t yet worn at a convention! Once the con floor opened, I walked around a little bit. The main hall (“West Hall”) was a bit smaller than one of the show floors at Chicago Comic Con. There was a museum of Stan Lee in the back of the hall, lots of vendors and a really unique artists alley. Since it was Halloween weekend, a lot of people had fantastic spooky stuff they were selling. Loot Crate was also there, with QMX’s gorgeous Serenity model. I couldn’t help but take a few pictures later on Sunday.

Saturday, I headed over to the South Hall (which I didn’t know about at all) to see Summer Glau’s panel. This panel (and all the special guest panels at Comikaze) was held at the Hot Topic Main Stage. Unlike any other convention I have ever been to, this stage was actually in an exhibitor’s hall, which also housed cosplayers who had tables (#goals), fan tables, and the wonderful Gudetama booth.

Since the stage is not in it’s own room, there is actually no seating (except those reserved for folks with disabilities on either side of the stage). Since many of the panels were shorter than those at other conventions (ranging usually 15-30 minutes), it wasn’t difficult for me to stand the whole time. Plus you never had to worry about getting a seat. However, I wasn’t a fan of all the press photographers at the front, who blocked the actual conventioners trying to watch the panels.

Summer’s panel was wonderful, and she talked a lot about how dancing has influenced how she performs as her characters. She also spoke about how everything in Serenity was choreographed for her, so she could do as much of it as possible… and experience very different from LARPing in Knights of Badassdom.

Sunday I spent more time walking around, got a poster signed by Tommy Wiseau, and spent a bit more time in the South Hall.

Overall, it was a really great convention! Besides the weird structure of panels, and the way the main stage was set up, it felt very much like a smaller Wizard World Con.