Practical Alchemy

MoCCA fest in Review

I got back from MoCCA and climbed into bed with the intention of taking a thirty minute nap. I woke up three hours later.

Okay, so it was probably more of the lack of sleep from last night than the intensity of the festival… but there were still plenty of people to walk through, plenty of art to admire, plenty of things to be picked up. First up, this bear. He’s my new friend, and his name is Michael the Bear:

He is made by an artist named Megan Baehr out of wool. She had a lot of other felt dolls for sale, all of which were adorable (catch her on her Etsy here) but my favorite was this guy. Mike was lovely to buy him for me, hence the bear being named after him.

As I was perusing the aisles, I spotted a very young girl at a table by herself. With a neck tag that said she was not just here to have fun. WHAT? So I went to talk to her; her name is Emma Capps, and she writes a comic called Chapel Chronicles. She is super sweet and super driven (…she’s younger than my sister. She’s 14. I feel like an old fart) but the most impressive thing is that she is able to draw a comic at her age and stick to it without giving up or getting bored, and to go as far as to fly out here from Cali to grab a table at MoCCA. Man, there are no more excuses as to why I shouldn’t get a table for next year! I showed her my sketchbook (we bonded over His Dark Materials) and attempted to give life advice that I was not really qualified to give (and would probably make all older folks give me dirty looks). When I was fourteen I was sitting on my fanny eating peanuts and getting salt all over the paper I was drawing on and crying over boys that don’t exist. Emma’s got it together! Ah well, to each her own, and I wish her much luck in her future comic endeavors.

I found some prints and illustrations by another Emma, Emma Sancartier. Her work is lovely and whispery and whimsical, a combination of Western fairytales and Eastern style painting.

I grabbed this awesome robot bag from Jelly Empire:

I also got to meet the lovely Betty Felon of FashionTipsFromComicStrips! Totally made my day.

I AM LADY PUNISHER!! Or toned-down-Gothic-Lolita + Punisher… or something something Punisher.

The rest, in sum: a group of Lolitas in Angelic Pretty; saying hi to Mo Williems who writes and illustrates the Pigeon books (we carry them in our store. I always wondered who was responsible for them as I was digging through inventory bins and would have to rearrange the stuffed pigeon characters on top of the books); creeping out Evan with my Paula Deen impressions; James being an even bigger creeper; losing the Mind… of M Night Shyamalan (just watch this) and diner food.

Then afterwards I went antique shopping before going home and passing out. HARDCORE.

who wants to go to Mocca with me this weekend?