Gaslight Gathering 2016 con report

Gail Carriger and myself as Alexia Maccon

Last weekend I was lucky enough to attend the Gaslight Gathering, a steampunk convention in San Diego.  I have been to a number of steampunk conventions and this is definitely one of my all time favorites.  The people were wonderfully friendly, the location was beautiful and eclectic, the panelists were entertaining and there were so many make and take workshops that the event was never dull! 

We decided to go because Gail Carriger was the guest of honor! She has long been a favorite author of mine and I was super excited to meet her and to hear her speak about her books and ideas. In honor of her, I made a gown based on the cover of the manga from the Souless Series (I will post more on the making of this dress in future posts). I wore the dress on the first day and got to take my picture with Gail! She is an absolute delight and one of my favorite con guests ever.  Gail took pictures with fans, talked with all of us, was charming at her book signings, attended much of the convention, spoke with anyone who wished to speak with her and was elegant on top of all of this!  She even posted pictures she took with those of us who dressed as characters from her book on her blog.  Gail is amazing as an author and an utter delight as a person!

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Besides the perk of Gail Carriger's presence, the con itself was absolutely amazing.  There were ~30 make and take workshops, some of which were free and all of which seemed amazing.  My husband and I took 3 workshops: Build Your Own 7ft. Wide Retractable Wings!, Copper Charms workshop (with copper clay) and Learn To Solder: Lightup Bug Workshop.  I will grab pictures of these things as we unpack and post pictures of these as well.  The workshops were delightful and I wished we had found time to take more of them. There were also many con panels that were great fun.  Some favorites were Gothic Literature and Its Influence on Steampunk and the Short Steampunk Film Festival.  There was live entertainment, including SPLASH II! Water Ballet Encore, an all male steampunk water ballet by the Steam Punk League for Aquatic Shenanigans (S.P.L.A.S.H.).  There was also a Tea with theatrics in which we flew around San Diego in a dirigible and got lost in time with the crew of the Lupita and a lovely ball with both live music and a DJ.  A whole room full of steampunks did the Time Warp! And of course a wonderful vendor room full of fun things to buy. There was also teapot racing and 2 fashion shows.  If you wanted something more relaxing, the con showed movies in the evening.

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My husband and I purchased the VIP tickets and I can say they were well worth it!  There was a nice selection of cool things in the gift bag including art by Brian Kesinger, a lovely t-shirt and light up icecubes for later prop making.  The VIP lounge was well stocked with good snacks and stuff to drink and staffed by very nice people.  It was also a very cool room for those of us whose costumes were hot!   VIPs also got early access to workshop sign ups, which was a very nice perk. 

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In addition to all this wonderfulness there were many many people in amazing costume.  I took some pictures, but in searching on the web I found so many amazing costumes I missed!  This whole event was a delight and I really hope we are able to attend again!








Here are some more photos from the con.  First some photos of what my husband wore.  He kept things simple on Friday and Sunday with a vest, hat and cane.  On Saturday he wore the Poison Doctor outfit with his new poison finder prop.

 I wore the Alexia Maccon dress on Friday.

The Alexia dress is great fun to wear, but it is a bit limiting!  I tried to take a picture sitting in the replica time machine and the skirts barely fit!  The time machine was amazing however, the lights work, the dish spins and it is all controlled by the dashboard.

And 2 outfits on Saturday, although I only got photos of one.  I wore the Anime inspired outfit in the morning due to needing my fingers free for the Copper Clay workshop and the Dia de Muertos outfit in the afternoon.  On Sunday I wore my vampire gown.

 Here are some photos of some of the other lovely and amazing costumes and props we saw at the con, but as I mentioned before there was so much amazing things to do and people that this is just a small amount of the cool things we saw there!  A note to the subjects of these photos, if you see yourself and would like the photo removed, just let me know and I will remove it! Also, if you would like a link to your own blog here let me know and I will add it!