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 and cosplay. Members are
often seen on stage and behind the scenes at Science
Fiction Convention masquerades, historical
reenactment events, street fairs and theatre. SWCG
is central Arizona's chapter of the International Costume
Guild.
Our Website is now hosted by Costume.org!
Please note that
info@southwestcostumersguild.org and our other
former "southwestcostumersguild.org" e-mail
addresses are not currently active.
Please contact us via our new e-mail: southwestcostumers@gmail.com.
Index
Newsletter
Costumers Calendar
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
Randwulf's
Smartphone Pouch - Free sewing pattern from
SWCG VP Randall
Join the
Southwest Costumers Guild
Recruiting and PR Materials:
"Renaissance Faire"
Foldover Flyer
(Featuring a practical belt pouch pattern)
Quarter-Page Flyer
Bookmark
SWCG
Bylaws
SWCG members receive our
newsletter, "Cactus Needles" by
e-mail.
A few weeks after its initial publication, we
post Cactus Needles to this website for all to
enjoy.
Current Issue -
November 2024
Back
Issues (All the way back to the
Cactus Needles premiere in 1994)
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
e-mail southwestcostumers@gmail.com
for appropriate permission.
The
Southwest Costumers Guild usually meets one
Saturday afternoon per month at members' homes or a
public venue like a restaurant or museum
in the
greater
Here are some upcoming
guild meetings and costume-related public
events. Red Text
and an asterisk* indicate an SWCG
activity. Unless otherwise noted, SWCG Meetings
begin at 1:00 PM.
E-mail the Webmaster
if you know an Arizona costumed event
that should be on the calendar.
December 7, 2024, 12-5 PM - LibCon West at the Glendale Public Library main branch, 5959 West Brown Street, Glendale AZ West side 59th Avenue (halfway between Olive Avenue and Peoria Avenue). It's a lively free pop culture event with merchants, meet & greet booths, food trucks and lots of cosplay. https://www.libconwest.org/
December 7, 2024 - Meet SWCG at Libcon West!*
SWCG will have a meet and greet booth (outdoors
weather permitting) at LibCon West at Glendale Public
Library main branch, 5959 West Brown
Street, Glendale AZ. Stop by and say
hello! Setup begins at 10 AM.
The event opens to the public at noon.
January 24-26, 2025 - Taiyou
Con at Mesa Convention Center, Mesa, AZ. https://taiyoucon.com/
January 25, 2025 - Tempe FanCon at
Tempe Public Library, SWC Rural Road & Southern
Avenue. "Comic and cosplay fans grab
your capes and superpowers and come to the Tempe
Public Library for a celebration of comics and pop
culture. Join us for free family fun including costume
contests, authors and artists, entertainment,
activities for the kids, photo ops with characters,
fandom related items for sale, and food trucks."
https://www.tempepubliclibrary.org/event-calendar/tempe-fancon
January 25, 2025 - Meet
SWCG at Tempe FanCon* We'll
have a meet and greet table at Tempe FanCon. Stop by
and say hello.
February 15, 2025 1PM - Lunch*
Meet us at New Hong Kong restaurant, 2328 East Indian
School Road in Phoenix, for conversation over food.
February
24-March 2, 2025 - End of Trail at
Arizona Game & Fish Ben Avery Shooting
Facility. The Single-Action Shooting Society's
annual tournament of cowboy action shooting.The
event features a sutler's row of merchants for
filling out your wild west/victorian/steampunk
costume. https://endoftrail.org/
March 7-9, 2025 - Kikori Con at Little America
Hotels, 2515 E. Butler Avenue, Flagstaff AZ https://www.kikoricon.com/
March 15-16, 2025 - Tucson Festival of Books
on the University of Arizona Mall. https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/
March 20-23, 2025 - Wild Wild West Steampunk
Convention at Casino del Sol, Tucson,
Arizona. https://www.wildwestcon.com/
March 22, 2025 - Photo
Shoot* and Personal Projects at
Tasha's place. Bring a favorite costume and/or a camera.
Tasha's yard has a variety of interesting backgrounds.
E-mail the Webmaster for directions. southwestcostumers@gmail.com
April 4-5, 2025 - Arizona Fan Fest in
Safford, Arizona. https://gilavalleycentral.net/arizona-fan-fest/
April 19, 2025 - Personal
Projects* at Mahala's place. Bring
something to work on while we converse. Randall may
demonstrate his smartphone pouch pattern. E-mail the Webmaster for
directions. southwestcostumers@gmail.com
May 24, 2024 - Plaster of
Perils* at Tasha's place. We'll
experiment with doing foot and leg casts using plaster
gauze to help design fitted shoes and stockings. E-mail the Webmaster
for directions. southwestcostumers@gmail.com
June 6-8, 2025 - Phoenix
Fan Fusion at the
Phoenix Convention Center.
https://www.phoenixfanfusion.com/
November 19, 2024 Leviathan Wakes by James
SA Corey
December 17, 2024 Unauthorized
Bread by
Corey Doctorow
SWCG hosted Costume-Con
30 on May 11-14, 2012 at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel.
Click the link to see some pictures from the "Sick Pups"
archive.
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.
Updated November 23, 2024 by
Randall Whitlock.
Direct correspondence to:
Randall Whitlock, Webmaster
Southwest Costumers Guild
2320 West Seldon Lane
Phoenix AZ 85021