Last Saturday the third BlytheCon Europe took place in Amsterdam. The attendee ticket was €17,50 ~ including 1 drink, 1 raffle ticket and a linen bag with booklet about the exhibition. The European BlytheCon isn’t very large with 50 vendors and about 250 visitors, but it is well worth visiting if you’re a doll enthusiastic (like me). I arrived a little late -thanks to a train detour- and heard that some people had rushed in at the opening to grab all the best stuff. But luckily most vendors are willing to recreate a piece of clothing if you contact them afterwards.

Vendors

Sellers from various European countries will attend the con, with a little more Dutch vendors than usual this year. One vendor (Momolita) even flew all the way from Japan! There were 50 stalls with items such as clothes, jewelry, eyechips and even full custom Blythes. I’ve also attended the convention in Berlin (2012) and saw some of the same vendors, such as Moshi Moshi, Dutch Blythe Fashion and Erica Fusto. You can see the complete list of sellers on the BlytheCon website, I’ve photographed a couple of the best decorated stalls (^_^):

Stellina creates clothes that are inspired by the late 60’s/70’s folklore style and the mysterious charms of the forest. The clothes looked very well made and I really liked her forest scenery with Kenner Blythes.

This Blythe was part of the stall from Karolin Felix, she sold skirts, dresses and pull charms. Some of her dolls were also up for adoption.

I was happily surprised to see that Momoki Komori (better known as Momolita) also joined the con. On her table there was a list of clothes that you could order. I’m not sure if she also sold separate pieces, maybe they were already gone by the time I arrived. On Sunday there was a special workshop from Momolita in Amsterdam where you could learn how to sew a balloon dress.

Akadoud makes Blythe related stationary and jewelry, her friend Mercredy Lunaris is responsible for the cute illustrations. They also created a Dutch scenery with tulips and a bicycle.

Dollymix had a sweet stand with dresses, helmets and jumpers.
The table next to Dollymix was occupied by Mimsybear, who sold her much-coveted bear hats (actually I didn’t buy one myself, but they were quite reasonably priced at about €45,-/€50,-).
I would also like to mention her other neighbour: Manon from De Belles Poupees

MforMonkey and Erica Fustero from Spain both had a great looking table. Erica sold items with her illustrations, such as charms and little paintings.

Neo helmets, retro themed clothes and an alpaca (would have picked this one if it was for sale :)) from Dollenthousiast.

Circus tent diorama from Chubby Whale, she also sold clothes.

Creepy cute items and custom dolls from Cocomicchi, notice the hands hairband?

Exhibition

At the exhibition custom dolls, paintings and framed photo’s were displayed. I liked how it was set up in a separate room, it felt a bit like visiting a museum.

This is Fallon, a gorgeous custom from Joelle, also known as Jodiedolls and JodieFilippa. I spoke her briefly and it was evident that she (and her husband Jeroen) had put a lot of effort in the Blythecon, but their hard work really showed. Jeroen has made the diorama that Fallon is standing on/in.

Nanuka painstakingly created this huge work with hot air balloon and light tower. Everything looked very detailed and I can’t start to imagine how much time it must have taken her. You can see the ‘making of’ on Nanuka’s Flickr.

Custom Blythes from Karolin Felix on display.

Workshops & Talks

During the day you could listen to talks from various Blythe artists and/or participate in one of the workshops, which included:
– How to make a miniature leather bag
– How to needle felt
– How to crochet a hat

I was planning on taking part in the needle felt workshop. But I also had the opportunity to meet a “pen friend” for the first time, so I chatted for hours with him on the terrace. Which was very nice and eventually we went back inside for the exhibition and raffle. We had to restrain ourselves from dollnapping dr. Blythestein’s awesome yellow Yarn Head.

Raffle & Haul

A raffle/tombola was being held at the end of the BlytheCon. Each years several artists will kindly donate Blythe related items, such as clothes, a painting and custom Blythes(!). I only had the one ticket from the entrance (no. 1 haha) and noticed people holding several tickets with numbers going up to 1200 (O_o) So needless to say I didn’t get lucky.
During the tombola next year’s BCEU was announced, it will be held in…
…Paris during the summer. I can really advice you to go if you’re interested in dolls and live in France or happen to plan a city trip to Paris during that time.

Personally I didn’t buy a lot because I always get a little overwhelmed with all the available items. And honestly some clothes are a little expensive IMHO, although I know a lot of time went into creating them. Still I’d rather buy myself a new dress 😉

I ended up buying a kitten dress and panda jacket/hoodie, the lip balm was a gift from Valeri from Dutch Blythe Fashion (*^▽^*)