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: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.
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.
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.October 18,
2008
– Guild at the State Fair
SWCG has
been invited to do a demonstration at the Arizona State Fair. Come in
costume
and bring some sewing tools so folks can watch you create. Here are the
contact
details from Nyki
October 19,
2008
– Not All Dummies are Duct Tape*
at Jean’s place in Sun City. We have a video about an alternative
method to
build a personally fitted dresser dummy. Let’s take a look!
October 25,
2008, 10AM to 4PM – Sunacosu Open Workshop at the Pyle Center (near SWC Rural and
Southern) in Tempe.
November 1,
2008
– SunaCosu
Halloween
Party at NyuNyu's home in Tempe sunacosu@gmail.com
November 7-9, 2008 – TusCon 35 at the InnSuites Hotel,
475 North Granada, Tucson, Arizona. The best little SF Con in Arizona.
This
year’s guest of honor is Diana Gabaldon. http://home.earthlink.net/~basfa/
SWCG has
been invited to participate in the TusCon “Meet the Groups” programming
event.
We’ll tend a recruiting table in the dealer room for an hour or so on
Saturday.
If you’re interested, please contact your Editor at editor@southwestcostumersguild.org.
November 8, 2008 10 AM to 4 PM– Sunacosu Resin Casting / Open Workshop at Marian’s home in Peoria. We will be trying various methods of recreating gears in resin for our Steampunk costumes. Bring your own supplies to experiment with. sunacosu@gmail.com
November 15, 2008 - SunaCosu Steampunk Group
Workshop (TBA)
November 15,
2008 – Phoenix Faerie Festival at Estrella Mountain Park
in
Goodyear, Arizona. Look for your editor’s “MoiRandall’s” costume
pavilion
amongst the crafters. According to the festival’s web page at http://www.westerngatesfaerierealms.com/PhoenixFaerieFestival.htm
:
|
|
The Phoenix Faerie Festival, is a celebration of the myth and fantasy of the enchanted realms of Faerie right here in beautiful Arizona. Where all are invited to step merrily into the faerie ring and discover a magical place where legendary creatures of myth and fantasy become flesh and imagination takes flight.
Don your faerie finery and join us for unique crafts, artistry, music, dance, live performance theater and storytelling, in a fancifully themed atmosphere of delightful revels suitable for the entire family. |
November 22,
2008 - Kikikon at Arizona State University West. The
Otaku Club's
experiment in the Anime' convention scene. It's free! Go to http://kikicon.ourotakuclub.com/
for more information.
November 23,
2008, 11AM-6PM – Discover India Festival at Heritage
&
Science Park, 7th Street & Monroe in Phoenix.
November 30,
2008 – Evening in the Garden*
at
the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. Get together in the evening to walk the
annual
“Las Noches de las Luminarias” event. Wintry costume highly encouraged.
December 6,
2008, beginning 7PM – APS Fiesta of Light An electric
light
parade in Phoenix running from Central & Montebello south to
Camelback
Road, east to 7th Street, then south along 7th
Street.
December 13,
2008 – SunaCosu
Renaissance Faire Workshop (TBA)
December 28,
2008 – Holiday Party*
SWCG Social
and annual officer elections. Location to be announced.
January 3, 2009 – Anime’
Festival and Cosplay Contest at the Glendale Public Library.
January 11, 2009 – SunaCosu Steampunk Group
Photoshoot (TBA)
January 18, 2008 – SunaCosu Steampunk Group
Final Workshop (TBA)
January
23-25,
2009 – Phoenix ComiCon at Mesa Convention Center. Media
guests
include Marina Sirtis, Gil Gerard and Erin Gray. http://www.phoenixcomicon.com/
April 9-12, 2009 – AniZona Arizona’s own fan-organized Anime’ convention at the Embassy Suites Paradise Valley, 4415 East Paradise Village Parkway South in Phoenix, Arizona. http://www.anizona.org/
May 1-4, 2009
– Costume-Con
27 at the Crowne Plaza Baltimore North in Timonium, Maryland. A
whole
weekend dedicated to costuming with multiple masquerades. This year’s
theme is
“Vampires, Villains and Vixens.” http://www.costume-con.com/cc27/INDEX.HTM
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.lepreCon, Inc .
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 Terry Pratchett himself. www.nadwcon.org Sponsored by www.lepreCon, Inc .
January 15-17, 2010 – DarkCon at the Grace Inn Phoenix, 10827 South 51st, Phoenix. http://www.darkcon.org/
Return to Index

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.
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 October 12, 2008 by Randall Whitlock.