LillyInverse

Phew, our whole group has been working hard to stay on top of the orders, custom requests, and convention stock! As usual, our online presence has suffered because of it. Please forgive us! D; We're trying! We might have to hire someone whose solitary job is to update our online stores and such, but until then, you'll just have to bear with us. Know that you can ALWAYS email us at LillyInverse@gmail.com and ask for a custom request or to purchase something you saw at a convention that hasn't been uploaded to our site yet!

Ohayocon treated us wonderfully this year - not that THAT'S a surprise! We were in the very back of the artist alley on the right side, yet we were STILL up over 50% from last year! We got to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while and, of course, made new friends and tons of art trades. The pic above was the view from our area of the artist alley. The dealer room looked CRAZY all weekend! Maybe we'll try switching to there next year, but we're not really sure. We enjoyed the staff of the artist alley so much, we'd hate to give that up!



Washi Con was wonderful! It was a first year con, which always means that there are some kinks to work out, but they were super receptive to suggestions from everyone and VERY on top of fixing any issues as soon as possible! The con is at Eastern Michigan University, which means it was literally 5 minutes away from us! We even had some fans find us there, like the gentleman pictured above who bought one of our shirts at Ohayocon


As always, it's our goal to add more and more cons to our list each year in order to get our geeky goods into the hands of as many of our fans as possible! Unfortunately, we had to eliminate one this year. Due to management issues, we will not be attending Shutocon again. However, our Lansing fans love us so much that we couldn't just neglect them outright! You can still get our geeky glassware and handmade cosplay products on Shutocon weekend, just over at the Lansing City Market instead! The market has tons of exhibitors and it's only a minute or so's walk from the Lansing Center. It's like having a whole extra dealer room! Here's a map of the easiest way to get to us and all of the other geeky vendors at the Lansing City Market, March 20-22:


But that's not all! We've also been accepted for:
Animinneapolis May 6-8 at Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, MN
Animazement May 27-27 at the Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, NC
Anime Midwest -July 8-10 at Hyatt Regency O'Hare and Stephens Convention Center Rosemont, IL
Otakon - August 12-15 at Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, MD
Ramencon September 23-26 at Radisson Holiday Star Plaza Merillville, IN
Youmacon October 29 - November 1 at Cobo Center & Renaissance Center Detroit, MI
We will update our list on our main DA page as well as our website as more conventions send us their acceptance letters :3


*Finish Several Commissions (look for the list and status in this post!)

*TRY to keep up on inventory/prep for all the upcoming cons (I'm looking at you, Anime Milwaukee & Lansing City Market @ Shutocon Weekend...)

*Bring some wares to a local game shop to see if they'd like to sell them for us

*Get cracking on new product ideas we've been discussing

*Train some of our members to do things they are still shaky on

*Upload more fun stuff to the DA!

*Apply for MORE cons!

For the love of all that is soft and fuzzy we can BREATHE AGAIN! Q.Q We've been sooooo busy up through the holidays that we only just now have a chance to update everyone! Please forgive our negligence on the online front, but we are still alive and kicking, working on customs, and traveling around the Midwest selling our wares! So what are we up to in the new year? Tons of stuff! New products, new conventions, new members of our group, and much more! Since we did about a billion (totally not exaggerating) conventions in the last half of 2015, we'll only be posting reviews for the ones which stood out to us. So on that note, here we go!


Our first pony con went wonderfully! We stayed with friends, made new friends, and of course had a great time showing off our new product line of My Little Pony etched glass! Here's a small view of our MLP FiM work from Trotcon:


We were even lucky enough to have Steffan Andrews (composer, musician, and orchestrator for many of the FiM songs, including the main theme!) purchase one of our Octavia cups. Here's a picture of him holding his purchase:


We hope to do many more pony conventions and are working with the Traveling Pony Museum in order to get our MLP etched glass in the hands of pony fans across the country!


Otakon! Wow! Otakon was a first for us in many ways. Our first Otakon, for one. But on top of that, it was our first visit to Baltimore, our first 13 hour convention day, and our first time setting up our new glass display and lights! What do you guys think?



Out with the old, in with the new! We've gone through and applied to some new cons, some old, and are awaiting responses and for applications to open for many more. As of right now, we are accepted for Anime Zap Embassy Suites, Peoria, IL; Ohayocon - Hyatt Regency Columbus Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, OH; Anime Crossroads - Wyndham Indianapolis West, Indianapolis, IN; Anime Milwaukee - Hyatt Regency Milwaukee / Delta Center, Milwaukee, WI; Animarathon XIII - BGSU, Bowling Green, OH; Indy Pop Con -Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, IN; Glass City Comic Con - SeaGate Convention Centre, Toledo, OH; and Matsuricon - Hyatt Regency Columbus – Columbus, OH. We will update our list on our main DA page as well as our website as more conventions send us their acceptance letters :3


*Finish Several Commissions (look for the list and status in this post!)

*TRY to keep up on inventory/prep for all the upcoming cons.

*Bring some wares to a local game shop to see if they'd like to sell them for us

*Get cracking on new product ideas we've been discussing

*Train some of our members to do things they are still shaky on

*Upload more fun stuff to the DA!

*Apply for MORE cons!

So we're right in the middle of con season guys. How's everyone else doing? I hope you're enjoying it as much as we are, but I also hope you're MUCH less stressed! If we get time during con season, we're going to be training one of our team members to update the website, Lilly Inverse Designs, along with the Deviantart, Facebook, Tumblr, and maybe even adding an instagram or something. This will mean that I can finally realize my personal goal of having all of our hundreds and hundreds of products available to be viewed and ordered online! It's a crazy goal, but I have faith that we can get it done! Our team is full of wonderfully dedicated and hardworking friends and family. There's nothing we can't do if we put our minds to it!


We've been with Indy Pop since their first year and they just keep getting better! This year, we were shocked to see how many people there were! Last year was their first year, but they still surprised us with about 5,000 attendees. Because this was a con on the smaller end, I thought it would be a good 'training con' for our newest helper. However, much to our surprise, this year they blew that number WAY out of the water with 23,000 people! It was absolutely insane! They cut down the size of the dealer room as well, and our profits definitely reflected that. And to our helper's credit, he kept up pretty well! While this is all GREAT NEWS for the con and for us, it was rather unfortunate for the people in charge and the guests as they were completely unprepared for such a turn out! We were hoping to give Markiplier a birthday gift, but we just didn't have enough time to leave our booth to stand in a 4 hour line to see him. Oh well, maybe next year, because we will DEFINITELY be going back if we can!



Oh boy... Just.... Just wow guys @_@ I am still reeling from this con! This year's Anime Midwest was our best con ever! Literally, in the 4 years we've been selling at cons, we have never made more profit than we did at this year's Anime Midwest.  For only having 11,000 people, this con was INSANE! We were in the artist alley at the very back of the room behind all of the dealers, and we STILL destroyed last year's profits on Saturday afternoon, meaning that everything we made Saturday evening and all of Sunday was just overkill. You guys are simply amazing! We also got to talk with the group who wanted to partner up with us and get some of their merch etched by us, so we are super excited to finalize all the details of working with them! When everything is all finalized and official, we'll be sure to make a big announcement here ;3 We also ordered a new camera and cup display as well, and I think it looks great! What do you guys think?



We've added a couple of new cons to our list again! We'll be heading back to Nyancon fort our 4th year in a row. It's one of our favorite one-day cons in Kirkland Ohio, on November 5th. We'll also be going to our first Gilded Gear Festival  in Rochester, Mi, and we've made a couple steampunk-themed items for it that we can't wait to debut! We're still working hard on applying to shows in the Midwest, so keep an eye on our con schedule widget for dates and locations of our latest cons!




*Finish Several Commissions (look for the list and status in this post!)

*TRY to keep up on inventory/prep for all the upcoming cons. We've only got about 2 weeks off at any given time, so it's going to be a challenge!

*Bring some wares to a local game shop to see if they'd like to sell them for us

*Upload more fun stuff to the DA!

*Apply for MORE cons!


1. Etched bottles for partners - 0% (Will need to check in on them after Midwest, just awaiting for the 24 bottles themselves!)
2. White Arm Warmers for Anthony - 10%  (Still waiting on my machine to get fixed, but I found my materials so that's a plus )
3. Red & black arm & leg warmers for Jessica - 10%  (Still waiting on my machine to get fixed, but I found my materials so that's a plus )
4. Fate/0 Cup from Anime Midwest - 50%
5. Vampire Knight cup from Anime Midwest - 0%
6. Vulpix cup from Anime Midwest - 0%

So wow, things have been hectic in early 2015! I want to apologize for not getting around to updating as frequently as I hoped. I've been going through a lot of family stuff which is only just now getting (somewhat/mostly) resolved enough for me to get back to updating. So here's what went on during the first part of the year!


This year marks our first year at the infamous Ohayocon! Partners went, but they informed me that it was super fun. As far as numbers go, we did very well, especially for having a bit of competition there! This was one of our first non-fanart cons, so we were a bit nervous, but I definitely think we'll be going back!


February kicked off with our 3rd year conniversray, Almacon in Alma, Michigan. We were happy to be there again with our new products, which went over splendidly! Unfortunately, the people running the show oversold the artist alley and dealer's room, so we and a few other artists and one dealer were shuffled off into a side room with very little traffic on Friday. Luckily on Saturday, Nina from Animezing Chicago approached me and said that there was a free table in the main dealer room. We had paid for 2 tables, so the con was nice enough to give me a refund for one of them. I made some awesome friends who helped me move all of my stuff into the dealer room, and then even stayed behind to help me sell and gave me a place to crash for the rest of the con. I didn't buy anything, but I did do an awesome trade for some rainbow scaled bracers and wrist cuffs from Damien of Black Ace Productions! Almacon has always been wonderful to us, and we will definitely be going back next year!


Anime Milwaukee was amazing, but it was also very stressful! It was my first con being an on-site artist alley head, or so I thought. Unfortunately, no one had told my department head this, so I was basically just a head helper instead, but next year she wants me to help out as AA head on a more official basis, which should be great! I got to do some fun things, like help Little Kuriboh with his booth and get a hug from Terri Doty. I also go to do some not-so-fun things like check badges and make sure nobody went in through the out doors. All in all, though, it was a great experience, and I very much enjoyed helping out such a wonderful con!

While I was out and doing my work-thing, My partners were manning our booth in artist alley. We did great financially! We got a couple custom orders, but the rest was all from our etched glass and ear cuffs. We will absolutely be trying to head back next year!


Anime Crossroads was next, and it was great! I took a friend and stayed at EllisArts place, which was fabulous since we hadn't seen them since Gencon last year! We did well financially, but that was nothing compared to the amount of fun with friends! I also got to hang out with some of the cute maids and butlers in the Neko Wo Kaburu cafe. Thanks, lovelies, for all your help with carting things to and from my car!


Next on the list was Animarathon. I went again with SquirrelyEvil which was awesome. I miss hanging out with my bestie, so it's awesome when we get to work together! It was Mark's last  year as AA head because he's graduating, and he was just as flustered (but amazingly helpful!) as ever. We donated a couple glasses to them for being so awesome to us, and I hope he got one! Our profits were up 30% from last year, and I can't wait for next year to come!


At Kollision Con earlier this year, we made friends with an amazing guest, Apple Davies. She suggested that we get a table at Chi-Fi con. Unfortunately, that didn't go well... The con chair actually told those who complained about being placed in a small room with no signage that they should 'get a table at Wizard World if they want to make money. This is a non-profit con." There are so many things wrong with that, not the least of which is the lack of professionalism when dealing with clients. Yes, Chi-Fi is a non-profit con. But so are many, and I would hazard to say even MOST cons that we attend, and this is our first time in 3 years where we've not broken even at a convention. We didn't even come close. But to tell someone to go to another convention and to not expect to make any money at your con because it's a non-profit? That's just rude and unprofessional.

Luckily, Apple is awesome. I messaged her on Facebook and told her the situation. Even though she was busy being a guest, she still took time out of her day to come to check on the alley and even got it moved to a more well-trafficked area. It helped a little, but still not enough to make us want to come back. The staff said that they would be contacting us about compensation, but nothing has happened so far, and I'm not hopeful no that front. I think we're just going to call it a learning experience and move on.


A representative from Armageddicon approached us at an earlier con this year and said that, since they are a well-known party con and we make shot glasses as one of our items, we should vend at their con. We graciously accepted. The people who ran the alley were very awesome, even going so far as to come around and ask for constructive criticism, of which we had little beyond suggesting to give flyers to their artists or vendors to advertise a bit more. While not the biggest con, we still made a profit and will definitely be returning next year because of how friendly the staff was.


This was MME's second year, and our second year at MME. It is a local Detroit-area con put on by the same people as Youmacon and it's just as wonderful in my opinion! Our profits were up 16% from last year, and we will definitely return next year as well! We got to see our awesome friends at Legend of Cosplay and shared a table with the awesome Alex from Thundersteel Armory. We also got to see John St. John, who bought a hat from us at Kollision con, harass a couple customers in front of our booth, which was rather amusing.


The final con from the beginning of the year was Anime Park, a small high school con in Canton, MI. This was our 3rd year at Anime Park and it was just as fun, but not quite as profitable as before. Our table was right next to Thundersteel Armory and Black Ace Productions, and I got to see a bunch of friends that I haven't hung out with in forever. This con is so close and so fun that we'll keep going back!


We've added a ton of new con to our list again! Among them are Michigan Pagan Festival, Indy Pop Con,  Trot Con (our first MLP con - wee!), Otakon (our first time at this behemoth ), Matsuricon, Ramencon, Youmacon, and Ponyville Cider Fest. We're still working hard on applying to shows in the Midwest, so keep an eye on our con schedule widget for dates and locations of our latest cons!




*Finish Several Commissions (look for the list and status in this post!)

*Post Anime Park inventory

*Start Prep for the big start to con season!

*Design/create/order a better glass display system

*Bring some wares to a local game shop to see if they'd like to sell them for us

*Upload more fun stuff to the DA!

*Apply for MORE cons!


1. Etched bottles for partners - 0% (Sent out the email today with images of the finished product, just awaiting for the 24 bottles themselves!)
2. White Arm Warmers for Anthony - 10%
3. FF15 Leviathan mug for Keven - 10%
4. Cup with 3 Pokemon for James - 10%
5. Red & black arm & leg warmers for Jessica - 0%
6. Blue Exorcist cup for Heather - 50%

Wow, has it really been 2 months already!? Time flies when you're super busy! First of all, we want to say that we hope your holiday season and new years celebrations have gone just as wonderful as ours! As usual, we were at conventions, and we wouldn't have it any other way :3

As many of you may have noticed, the last software that I tried to use to make the 300 likes giveaway failed miserably :C I've removed the old giveaway tab and this month we're going back to the like/share image system that worked so well last time. If you go to the Lilly Inverse Facebook Page, you will see the image that you need to share on Facebook in order to qualify. It will look like this:


You must also like Lilly Inverse Designs on Facebook. By doing so, you will be put into the drawing for a free custom etched glass! You choose whatever design you want on it, glass size, and color! The contest will run from now through Valentine's Day (Feb 14th), so there will be plenty of time for everyone to join. What are you waiting for?  


The convention immediately before Christmas was Con+Alt+Delete. It's one we've done before, and we were happy to see our numbers jump up from last year! We were up about 300% from last year, which is amazing! Thanks so much to everyone who came to our booth and checked us out! We got 2 custom requests, and one person who bought a gift card for a friend for Christmas. If you are interested in buying a gift card for you or someone you know, send us and email and we'll help you out :3


My only souveniers from CAD (above) are this awesome button (by Gays in Capes and ring engraved with a music note. I ended up art-trading for both of them with the artists behind me. Thanks so much! <3

I also ran 2 panels at CAD, both of which were SUPER fun! When not running panels, I was going to check out panels myself! I learned a bit of swing dance with my table mate, and it was totally fun! ...Until they made us switch partners and I felt super awkward lol. We also did some karaoke together, and made some awesome new connections in the business world. Look for some amazing new products soon!


The weekend of Jan 3rd was our first 'divide and conquer' convention weekend. My partners went to Anime Zap, another con that we'd done last year. Their numbers were up and so were ours! 220% compared to last year! Due to some issues with the convention schedule, they didn't go to any panels or anything, but the money was great, so we will definitely be back next year!



And my boyfriend even got me one of my favorite card games even though the con fell on HIS birthday! I'm so spoiled!


While partners were at Zap, I went to Kollisioncon with a good friend and we had quite a bit of fun! The con itself was, unfortunately, not worth it for everyone... It was our first time there, and we broke even and made a little bit of profit, but not enough to warrent going back. It sounds like many of the other artists and dealers were feeling the same way, and some weren't even able to break even or pay for their table cost. I wish the con all the luck in the world, and I still had a great time at the con, but we won't be returning.

My panel went wonderfully, drawing in about 50 people! It was the biggest my panel's ever been! I also made friends with the guys from Otakutopia. I'd seen them before and been to one of their cons, but they invited me to their other, smaller convention this month as well, so I'll be attending TAG Fest in 2 weeks - time to prepare!

I also had a couple drinks with the people of
Anime Milwaukee and they invited me to be their Artist Alley head. They had already done most of the work for this year, including sending out invoices and such, so I will mostly be an on-site head this year, and then next year I'll get more into the approval process and such. Can't wait to help out with such a great con!

I was also able to chat with Terri Doty about everything from conventions to sexual preferences lol. I didn't even realize who she was until we were halfway through our conversation - she's just such an awesome and down-to-earth person that it never struck me that she'd be a famous voice actress xD

Speaking of awesome people, I got to meet the crazy-talented cosplayer </span></span></span>Apple Davies and her crew too! She gave us candy all weekend, she was really sweet (no pun intended lol) and totally fun to talk to. Wish we had gotten more time to do so, but she was running 8 panels - skeelz!

We were approached by another artist at the con for a potential business relationship as well. They do primarily leatherwork, but they wanted us to etch things on some of their bottles, so they gave us a bottle to test out for them. Hope we can make each other lots of money with this!



To top it all off, I got a ton of souveniers xD 2 video games (one I art-traded for), 3 new pins, and a hair bow :3 When I'm making money, I love to share the wealth! Especially when others at the con are not doing so great.


We've added more new con to our list, one of which (TAG Fest) is this month! We have decided to remove last year's convention schedule - out with the old and in with the new! It will still be available at the Lilly Inverse Designs website, but we're keepin DA more 'current.' To ensure accuracy and avoid confusion, we're also removing the 'maybe' cons from the list. This means that conventions won't actually be added to the list until we receive our 'acceptance' letter and pay for them. We're also adding links to each convention in that widget so that you can easily go to their websites and buy tickets. We're still working hard on applying for some of the bigger shows in the Midwest, so keep an eye on our con schedule widget!



Not 100% convention related, but this project is still going, and we just received a BIG update from our CG artist! has given us our first fully colored CG! I love it so much, and I can't wait for the rest of them to come in! Once I have all the CGs for the first part of the game, I'll release the demo here for everyone to enjoy!


*Finish Several Commissions (look for the list and status in this post!)

*Post Zap & Kollision inventory

*Start Prep for TAG fest (Etch/paint cups, mold & paint ears, and print/cut/punch buttons!)

*Start Prep for Ohayocon (Redo button display to exclude fanart, separate out fanart cups, make TONS of ears, arm warmers, masks, and other accessories)

*Upload more fun stuff to the DA!

*Apply for MORE cons!


1. Etched bottle for partners - 0% (need to look into this strange shape and how best to paint on the design)
2. Custom Clefable Cup from Con + Alt + Del - 40%
3. Custom Space Dandy Shot Glas from an email customer - 50%
4. Custom elf ears from Con + Alt + Delete - 20%
5. Custom arm warmers from Con + Alt + Delete - 0%
6. Custom Dishonored Cup for Katie - 100% (just need to meet up so I can give it to her!)
7. Custom Cup for Peace of Mind: 0% (Waiting on finished artwork still)
8. Custom Rat Ears for Peace of Mind: 0% (Waiting on finishing the cup first ;3)
9. SBJ Logo Embroidered Hat: 0% (Need to get my embroidery machine fixed. As soon as we move in fully that is!)