SWCG Logo

The Southwest Costumers Guild

is a loose and informal educational society of persons interested in all facets of historical, cultural, science fiction, fantasy, and humor costume. Members are often seen on stage and behind the scenes at Science Fiction Convention masquerades, historical reenactment events, and theatre. SWCG is Arizona's chapter of the International Costume Guild.




Index
Newsletter
Upcoming Events
SWCG Activities
Meet the Guildsters - Mail Links and links to Member Web Pages
Links - Web Sites of Interest to the Costumer

Hints and other "How To" Articles

Join the Southwest Costumers Guild - Printable membership form

Recruiting and PR Materials:
"Victorian Ball" Foldover Flyer
"Science Fiction Convention" Foldover Flyer
"Renaissance Faire" Foldover Flyer
Quarter-Page Flyer

Southwest Costumers Guild now has a "Yahoo Groups" e-mail discussion forum. Contact the webmaster for information on how to join.


Click the links below to view sample issues of Cactus Needles, SWCG's monthly newsletter. You'll need the Adobe Acrobat reader, available free from www.adobe.com.

Hint: These are rather large files and may take several minutes to open with a dial-up connection. It may be faster to save a file to your computer and open it later. Click your right mouse button on the logo and choose "save target as" from the floating menu.

Creative Commons License Cactus Needles is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please print the newsletter and give it to your friends, but print the entire newsletter and don't make any changes or charge any money. Go to www.creativecommons.org to view the license. Individual articles and pictures belong to their authors. If you'd like to reprint an individual article or picture, please contact the Editor for appropriate permission.

Current Issue - June 2009

September 2008
October 2008
November 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
March 2009
April  2009
May 2009

Upcoming Activities

Usually, the Southwest Costumers Guild meets on the last Sunday of each month at a different member's home in the greater Phoenix area. This rule of thumb is often changed to avoid schedule conflict with other events. Guild business is followed by a demonstration or workshop by a guild member or an invited guest. Sometimes we cooperate on a costume project. Sometimes we just socialize. Special SWCG gatherings are sometimes held at science fiction conventions, street fairs, and other public events. E-mail the Webmaster for directions to meetings and events.

Here are some upcoming guild meetings and costume-related public events. E-mail the Webmaster if you know an event that should be on the calendar. A more detailed calendar is included in Cactus Needles.

* Red text indicates an SWCG activity. Unless otherwise noted, SWCG Meetings begin at 1:00 PM.

Green Text indicates events hosted by our friends at SunaCosu.


June 28, 2009 – Pool Party* at Chuck & Tasha’s place. Our annual soggy social. In honor of Chuck's birthday, the theme is "Over the Hill."

July 2-6, 2009 - FiestaCon (WesterCon 62) at the Tempe Mission Palms hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Guests so far include author Alan Dean Foster, Analog editor Stanley Schmidt and artist Todd Lockwood. Sponsored by www.fiestacon.org .


July 4-5, 2009 10-6 – Grand Canyon Renaissance Faire and Mountain Music Festival at El Nathan Christian Camp near Flagstaff, Arizona. New renaissance faire features stage shows, music, summer marketplace, Friday night feast and an performance by Vyktoria Pratt Keating of Jethro Tull.


July 26, 2009 – Beaded Crown* at the Glendale Cascade Mobile Home Park community center, 5747 West Missouri Avenue, Glendale. Paula will demonstrate a basic and useful beading project.


August 23, 2009 – Parasol Covering* (tentative). Diane demonstrates how to alter a parasol for Victorian historical costume.

September 4-7, 2009 - North American Discworld Convention in Tempe, Arizona. The first convention in the United States for fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, featuring guest of honor Sir Terry Pratchett himself. www.nadwcon.org Sponsored by www.lepreCon, Inc . Maskerade information at http://members.cox.net/maskerade .


September 27, 2009 – Happy Feet* at the Glendale Cascade Mobile Home Park community center, 5747 West Missouri Avenue, Glendale. What do all of those special feet and attachments that came with your sewing machine REALLY do?


October 24, 2009 – Old Tucson* (tentative) Guild road trip to Old Tucson Studios to see their annual ghost town-themed Halloween event.

October 30-November 1, 2009 – Saboten-Con at the Hilton Phoenix East Mesa Hotel. An anime’ convention for the otaku in you. http://www.sabotencon.com/.

November 13-15, 2009 – TusCon 36 SF Convention at the InnSuites Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. This year’s guest of honor is Stoker Award winning author Weston Ochse. http://home.earthlink.net/~basfa/


November 14, 2009 – Phoenix Faerie Festival at Estrella Mountain Regional Park in Goodyear, Arizona. A celebration of the myth and fantasy of the enchanted realms of Faerie right here in beautiful Arizona. Features art & craft booths. Stay after dark for Queen Mabb’s Dark Courte and the Bad Faerie Masquerade Ball. Tix $10, Kids under 5 free. http://www.westerngatesfaerierealms.com/PhoenixFaerieFestival.htm


November 22, 2009 – The Clown Wars* (tentative). Guild demo on the basics of clown costuming.


December 27, 2009 – Glendale Glitters* (tentative) Guild outing to the annual Glendale Glitters street festival. Time & day may need to be adjusted according to the festival’s schedule.

January 15-17, 2010 – DarkCon at the Grace Inn Phoenix, 10827 South 51st, Phoenix. http://www.darkcon.org/

Return to Index

Recurring Events:

Third Saturday of the Month, 10 AM - Personal Projects Workshops* at the Glendale Cascade Mobile Home Park community center, 5747 West Missouri Avenue, Glendale. Bring along whatever you're working on for a stitch & b---stitch some more social session with the guildsters.



Here is our events information in the form of a Google calendar composed by Margie:



Guild Activities



We had a fine turnout for our Barbecue Mixer in April, 2008, with folks from SWCG, Sunacosu,
CASFS,
Arizona Ghostbusters and The Rebel Legion. Photo by Mike Contos.


At the Arizona Renaissance Festival, February 2008.


Walking about the Glendale Glitters street fair in December, 2007.

A Duct Tape Mannequin is a useful tool for patterning custom-fitted garments.

Mucking about in Victorian attire at CopperCon 25. A little image magic by Mike Cassidy shifts us to a more appropriate setting - a table setting.

Meet the Guildsters - Mail Links and Web Pages

Click on the highlighted text to send an e-mail message or visit a personal web page.

SWCG President Frances Burns.
(president@southwestcostumersguild.org) .

Vice President Nyki Robertson
(vicepresident@southwestcostumersguild.org)

Treasurer Lyn Jeppesen
(Treasurer@southwestcostumersguild.org)

Archivist Jean Palmer
(archivist@southwestcostumersguild.org)

Webmaster and Newsletter Editor Randall Whitlock runs MoiRandall's featuring his "Randwulf's" line of sewing patterns.
webmaster@southwestcostumersguild.org).

Member Anna Caggiano shows how she built her Galadriel gown at www.fivemilecreek.net/anna/anna.htm.

Last updated June 24, 2009 by Randall Whitlock.

Return to Index