Illusions

Naso Turco

2012-01-21T15:32:00.007-05:00

I've set a goal for myself to make as many masks as I can before Mardi Gras. It's a chance for me to really get more comfortable with mesh and to expand my collection of classic Venetian masks.

The first one that's been completed is one of the most instantly recognizable:

The Naso Turco is a traditional mask from Commedia Dell'Arte. There are a few different types of Naso masks (meaning "nose"), but this is one of the most iconic and popular. The Turco in the name might refer to the noble family of Verona, or perhaps to Cesare Turco, a renaissance artist. The Naso Turco has a very distinctive arching curve to the nose, as opposed to others which are perhaps shorter or more crooked.

I made a mistake in planning with this mask. I had a bit too much fun with drawing details directly onto the model and didn't think that I might want those aforementioned details to be a different color. I was playing around with it just being a solid color at first, but ended up preferring how it looked with contrasting trim.

(Still looks awesome though)

So, rather than my usual 3D trim, I decided to try an alpha overlay with this one. I think you can see in the vendor picture that it hardly suffers for it.

I went a little crazy with color options, which is another reason I had to resort to an alpha overlay for the trim. There are over thirty color options, including my usual 12 solid colors, and half and half "bicolors" of those in different combinations. They come paired with black, white, and a selection of twelve additional pairings I quite liked (such as purple and green for Mardi Gras!).

This mask is a mere 400 vertices! If you think of how sculpts are 1024 points each, it's just amazing how much detail can come out of having every point placed where it will do the most good.

I still have no affinity or skill for rigged meshes, so this is once again unweighted and freely modifiable. I certainly am getting the hang of it though and so far am just loving the freedom.

Expect more soon!

Out now at the store: 275L
Buy it on the Marketplace

2012-01-09T23:45:00.003-05:00

I realize that I haven't released something in a while now. I had a mesh project in the works for all of December, I had hoped to complete it by Christmas and just ran into too many problems. That didn't stop me from sending out a holiday hat though!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, spent with family and friends. I decided at the 11th hour to just let it go, and enjoy the holiday without stressing over releasing it. Unfortunately, that mesh project is not the only one I've run into trouble with since then, and right now I have multiple projects in varying states of completion. That's usually how things are, but even then I usually release something in the meantime.

Since it's now creeping into January, my silent shame of incompletion has come to the point where I feel I have to address it. If you worried that I was sick or at all unwell, I'm alright! I'm just taking to mesh very slowly, and my progress was not at all helped by Skyrim or Assassin's Creed, or the holiday itself.

I have set a goal for myself to get a good selection of mesh masks released in time for Mardi Gras. I'm hoping you'll see a nice steady influx of new things as I get better and adjust to my new workflow. Expect to see some classical Venetian masks coming soon!

Mythic Masks

2011-11-14T23:29:00.005-05:00

They're finally ready! The event masks for the Mythic Masquerade are finally completed. I ran into a lot of problems and hurdles but after a few weeks they're finally ready. I ended up redoing a lot of things several times over but it was well worth it.

If you recall, I gave a preview of the mask a couple weeks ago. So, if you've seen that then you can see what an improvement this is.

The Mythic Masks are regal dragons, with crests of bone and outswept wings. The two versions have distinct personalities, and even though they're labeled as "male" and "female" please don't let that stop you from trying the opposite gender. They're made of mesh, so they're one solid prim. However, they're not weighted, so they can still be moved, stretched and modified just like a sculpt.

With these masks I wanted to really experiment with color. I've been pushing myself to go beyond my normal "hue+20" approach and branch out and explore the depths of gradients and accent colors. There are eighteen colors available for this mask, separated into two sets. The "Dark Dragon" colors are mainly black with colored highlights in my usual red through purple selection. But the "Elementals" are what I'm really proud of:

There are nine different elemental dragons, ranging from Ice and Fire to Gold, Silver and Twilight. I hope that when you look at these you can see what took me so long. A lot of fiddling with layer masks, gradients, brushing and filtering to bring to life such vibrant and varied options. I'm more proud of these than of any other texture or color selection I've done. I can't even pick a favorite! (Twilight might be an obvious choice but the Golden is so captivating...)

Please do come by and try out the demo, and see these colors for yourself.

Out now at the store: 600L

Happy Halloween 2011!

2011-11-02T04:13:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Halloween, and got your haunting on. I don't know about you but today I had a splitting headache.

If you want to share in the misery, this lovely utensil of zombie-dom can be found in the Masqueraderie group notices! It is simply a bloody cleaver, so if you like, reattach it to your hand or hand-like appendage to be the one who's doing the cleaving.

Enjoy!

Mythic Masquerade (Aftermath)

2011-11-02T02:06:00.006-04:00

Myths became real on Saturday! I was delighted to see the folktales out in force, and it seems the theme gave people a lot to work with. There were a few favorites like fauns and fairies, but there were also more exotic beasts who joined us from distant lands: an Annunaki, Hone-Onna, succubi and more. Amazingly, they all got on famously; there must be some camaraderie in being legends.

Ami Tamura as a Hone-onna and Selos Dae being Selos Dae

Freyja Nemeth as a morrigan

Even Horus decided to descend from the sky, I guess it wasn't as fun to watch us dance as it was to join in!

Tauxieros Rainforest as Horus

It's rather cruel of me but I do enjoy celebrating the best costumes, and so I make everyone have to choose and vote for the King and Queen of the Masquerade. This year, two very well deserving people earned the right to those titles!

Kala Lunasea and Ravenna Soothsayer

I was quite pleased and honored to award them with the new mesh Mythic Dragon Mask, which will be coming soon as soon as I finish fiddling with the colors :) Ravenna even matched the decor! Sadly, although I got a picture of them in the event masks, my snapshots were being finicky and a lot of them turned out just black. However, this was my outfit for the masquerade and should do just fine to show their prize.

I had a marvelous time, and want to thank everyone who came. I hope everyone who missed it will be able to make it to the next one!

Bad Kitty

2011-10-05T22:52:00.002-04:00

More mesh! More more more. I'm still learning and so I'm just doing variations on a theme here, but I'm endeavoring to learn something new with each project. This one was a lesson in point placement and edge loop locations. It has better geometry than the Farafallina, but you don't care because you can't see it. Just know that it's surprisingly efficient, so efficient I was able to use the same model for all but the highest resolution.

Playing with point placement and mesh thickness led me to the comic book vixen look, one I used to avoid with sculpts as I was worried about sloppiness. It's about time I had that sort of minimal, sexy mask you see on some characters and it gives a great amount of mystique while letting everyone see those fantastic features. Sultry, powerful and perfect for prowling.

Out now at the store: 125L
Buy it on the marketplace

Mythic Masquerade

2011-10-03T03:41:00.004-04:00

The air is getting cooler, and the nights are getting longer. It's getting to be the time where people would gather near fires and tell stories of incredible creatures, magical beasts and gods of old.

Sometimes it feels as if these creatures come alive, and perhaps one night they might join together in a fantastic dance...

You're invited to a Mythical Masquerade, where the creatures of fairy tale and folklore can arise and gather. What visions from myths and legends have always captivated your mind? What old gods, spirits and stories capture your imagination? Show us, by coming as your favorite fantastic beings.

When you're assembling your costume, please keep in mind a few guidelines which will dramatically help everyone's ability to rez and dance smoothly.

Please keep your prim equivalency in total to less than 250
This limit helps to keep everyone rezzing quickly. Check how many prims you have by going into Edit and holding down shift to click each item you're wearing. The window will display the collected total of those prims.

Streamline your AO, or leave it at home
Nobody likes looking like a noob while being a wallflower. However, if you don't plan to dance, fill a veritably lag free, low prim ZHAOII with your two or three favorite stands. Otherwise, just go without.

Check your script totals
Viewer 2 now has an "Avatar Scripts" total you can view, by going to About Land->Script Info->My Avatar. Try to make new, clean copies of items that have resize scripts and aim for less than 600kb

In past years, the collaborative effort of all of us has greatly improved lag. I know the costume rules are tough to follow, especially when it's so tempting to go for the excess, but I have the utmost faith in your creativity. Hopefully, this year as well!

As with past years, I will crown a male and female winner the King and Queen of the masquerade. Two previously unreleased, themed masks will be awarded as the prizes, along with 1500L Angel Cards to each! I will also be passing out gift cards to honorable mentions and other people whom I find simply fabulous. So make sure to dress your best!

Make sure you join the group, because for the first two hours (4pm-6pm SLT) the sim will be open only for the members of the Illusions Mythic Masquerade 2011 group. You also need to join to be eligible for the costume contest! Masks are required, but the mask shown in the invite will be available for free. Can't wait to see you there!

Illusions Mythic Masquerade
Saturday, October 29th, 4PM SLT
Illusions Event Hall, Carnivale
(Join the "Illusions Mythic Masquerade 2011" Group)
Formal Dress and Mask Required

2011-10-01T12:56:00.006-04:00

I think it's funny that in 2007, when I first did my Egyptian God masks, it was right before sculpted prims hit the main grid. Now, with mesh having finally been implemented, I've completed my Egyptian God masks all over again. At that time I felt they were the best I could possibly do with regular prims, and now the same again with sculpts. I feel like the Gods are some sort of term project, like the test to take at the end of a semester to show what I've learned.

For the past month I've been working on developing a work flow for mesh, as it's not as simple as just making something that's not a sculpt. Since mesh was in beta, I've been learning how to make a clean base mesh, how to texture it, work with new programs and generally get out of my comfort zone. But, I admit, I let it slide for a while. Now that it's on the main grid, I had do to some crunch time to get everything perfect.

I got a bit excited at first, and tried to jump into the deep end (weighted cloth! multiple texture faces!) and got overwhelmed. I didn't make anything worthwhile. So, going back to basics I set simple goals for myself: neat geometry, nice UV's, low polygon count.

I'm starting off simple.

This mask is just one prim. At the level of detail shown, it's only 446 polygons which makes it less than half of the number of a single sculpt! This is just be beginning, too. I'm very excited to start playing with weight painting (items that will move when the avatar does) and with different shapes and forms of masks. I think I'll be a lot more adventurous now that I no longer have to treat a mask like a puzzle where the pieces must fit together perfectly. And, with more available detail in the textures, I might even do more interesting and detailed things with surfaces.

But for now, the Farafallina Puro is available to all with mesh enabled viewers. This includes the main viewer 3 and the latest Firestorm.

Oh! I'd also like to specify that this mask is not weighted to the avatar skeleton. This means that the mask is able to be stretched, moved and deformed just like a sculpt. If you've had a bad experience with not being able to modify a mesh item to fit on your avatar, you won't have it with this one.

You'll need a mesh enabled viewer, such as the most recent official LL release or the most recent Firestorm. Try the demo if you're not sure!

Out now at the store: 125L

Horus

2011-08-23T18:17:00.004-04:00

And finally, the last piece of my trio, Horus:

I'm proud to finally present the sun god who watches over us all, Horus. He is the last in my series of Egyptian gods, and is a special edition as well (though not limited).

Horus is also commonly known as Ra. The two gods were merged in the later dynasties when the upper and lower kingdoms were united. He was a god of the sky, a soaring falcon whose eyes were the sun and the moon. He was a symbol of protection and royal power. He wears a Pschent, the double crown of Egypt worn only by the pharaohs. It was a combination of the crowns of lower and upper Egypt and was a sign of unification.

Some details:

• His symbol, the "eye of ra", (also called the wedjat), was inspired by the markings on the cheek of a falcon.
• He wears a Wadjet serpent on his crown to symbolize the lower kingdom, of which Horus was a patron god.
• The hieroglyphs around his medallion read: Horus, He Who Watches Over Us All.
• The headdress is angled to mimic the markings of a falcon. In illustrations, Ra's pale cheeks are in contrast to a dark headdress or wig which represents the darker feathers around the bird's head

He is scripted to change texture, so that his headdress, the metal trim, and the gem all change. The Pschent is a separate attachment so if you don't feel like ruling Egypt 24/7, you can lay down the heavy crown.

Out now at the store: 950L
Buy it on the marketplace

Bast

2011-07-14T21:52:00.006-04:00

Since the gods are returning, the next mask in my series is Bast:

I'm happy to present the Perfumed One, reincarnated as is only appropriate. Another special edition, this mask will not be limited and it is the same premium rate as Anubis.

The goddess known as Bast evolved over many years and went through different evolutions across the two kingdoms of Egypt. She evolved as a lion headed goddess, separate from Sekhmet, but as cats became increasingly popular in homes she evolved into a cat headed goddess. She was seen as the protector and defender of the pharoah, and guardian of Lower Egypt. With her strong association with the sun and her patronage over the Lower Kingdom, she became more and more tied with Wadjet, the winged serpent goddess.

All of these things I took into consideration when creating her. The sun disc is of course one of the most easily noticed symbols, but here are a few others:

• She bears a Uraeus (snake) on her headpiece, due to her ties to Wadjet. There are serpents framing her sun disc and center medallion as well with the stripes forming Wadjet's wings.
• The hieroglyphs around her medallion read: Bast, Lady of the Flame, the Perfumed One. Lady of the Flame was her title relating to her role as a solar goddess, while Perfumed One was a role she later took up when she became a goddess of ointments and salves.
• Her medallion is an ankh, a solar symbol and one she is often depicted holding
• The flares on her mask are meant to evoke a lion's mane. Sekhmet was often shown with a ruff of fur meant to define her as a lion rather than an ordinary feline.

Like Anubis, she is scripted to change texture. The metal, the stripe accents and the gem all change, even the metal tips on her wig. The sun disc changes as well, so you can coordinate.

Of course, she looks wonderful without it too...

Out now at the store: 950L
Buy it on the marketplace

The Gods Return

2011-06-26T21:23:00.007-04:00

In 2007 I created my first limited edition mask. It was my pride and joy, my best creation. Only ten were sold, leaving many people IM'ing me for as much as a year after hoping to get just one more.

That mask was Anubis:

The god of the dead has returned. And this time, he's ~~mad~~ not limited edition. All of these Egyptian creations have been building up to this: the return of the gods.

It is, however, a special edition. There is a month's worth of work in this mask alone, and that time usually goes into multiple projects or things with many different pieces. It won't be going anywhere, but it has been priced at a more premium rate.

The jackal was a destructive scavenger of the dead, but through Anubis the Egyptians turned him into a more protective force. He would prepare the dead for their journey to the underworld to be judged by Osiris, and is often pictured either embalming or in the hall of judgement.

Some fun details I'd like to point out, since I put them in there:

• The medallion on the side of the head and under the gem reads "Anubis: He who is upon his mountain". This was one of his titles regarding his role as the caretaker of the dead, and his position protecting the tombs.
• The flares on the side of his mask contain excerpts from the Egyptian book of the dead, in which he's often shown in illustrations.
• The scarab wasn't just put in there because it's Egyptian-y, it was a symbol of rebirth and transformation and was often included in tombs as a grave gift.

The mask is scripted of course, and the all of the metal accents change, along with the gem. The headdress corresponds to the six metal colors included, with black or white stripes. The cloth hanging down does not change, as it matches the textures of the Semer and Semeret sets but of course since it's mod, that's easily tinted if you want.

I'm so very proud to finally be able to bring this back. Four years ago, I felt it was my best work, and now I'm upholding its tradition.

As with the first series, there were three. Coming soon, you can expect to see Bast, followed by Horus.

Buy it now from the store: 950L
Buy it on the marketplace

Illusions @ GIA Accessory Fair 2011

2011-06-17T19:53:00.005-04:00

I'm a bit late, but that's what I get for wanting to do things right rather than quickly. Firstly, Accessory Fair is benefiting The American Cancer Society, and so here is my item devoting its profit to RFL

This beautiful Scarab medallion is a way to take a piece of Egypt with you. With detailed hieroglyphs and a beautifully rendered scarab in the center. That was certainly "fun" putting my new tablet to the test! I admit I cheated though, tracing a traditional scarab cabuchon with my own design. There's a male version as well for the gentlemen who are jealous.

The hieroglyphs around it are a font I found (Meroitic - Hieroglyphs) and they actually contain a little clue for something special I'm still working on.

Really what's been hanging me up so much though is finally giving the men a fair share of my attention. With Semeret and Khepra, they must have been feeling left out. So, sorry gentlemen, please consider this my making it up to you!

The Nemes Headdress was the headgear of the noblemen of Egypt. You can wear it without the shoulders for the look of the Khat headdress, a simpler version which was worn more commonly among the upper class. If you're wondering where the snake on the forehead you're so familiar with is, I'm sorry but you're being presumptuous! The Uraeus was the symbol of Wadjet, the patron goddess of Egypt, and if you weren't royalty you didn't have any business wearing it. My aim it not to make everyone a pharoah! Women aren't missing out on this one either, I made sure to include a female version with a special fit for the shoulders.

What's that peeking out beneath the nemes though?

A version for men! If you gentlemen tried to get the Semeret collar working for you, please let me know and I will send you a copy of this one as an upgrade. It's especially made for that quirky male mesh and should fit on your masculine shoulders like a dream. For your noble chin, a plaited beard like those that can be found on so many sarcophagi.

What are you going to wear with all of these manly authentic accessories?

Almost nothing of course! Just kidding... sort of. The Scots weren't the only ones who enjoyed a nice cool breeze up the leg. The Semer loin cloth is an excellent companion to the Semeret silks, featuring the same gathered cloth around the hips with a loose tie in the front. The belt is scripted to offer you those same fun options of changing metals, gems, and stripe colors and also comes with a separate option if you want to wear it with a more ordinary outfit. But why would you?

These amazing items can be found at my booth at the Accessory Fair until June 26th, where they will be moved to the main store. The Scarab Medallion in it's current incarnation is only available until then.

Double Points Weekend! June 18th-20th

2011-06-15T02:52:00.006-04:00

It's my birthday this weekend!

To celebrate, I'm going to be making all of my vendors give back twenty percent of your purchase in points, so the more you buy the more free stuff you'll get! And of course you don't need to limit yourself, you can redeem the points you earn at any time, top them off with a points pack, or give them away as a gift card to a friend. It starts at midnight, SLT on June 18th and goes until the end of the weekend, midnight on June 20th (early Monday morning).

If you don't have an Angel Card and you feel like this doesn't apply to you, you're being a silly billy. They're free and all you have to do is wear it and then buy stuff in order to get points. Then, once they add up pay using your points instead of Lindens. Yeah, it's that easy, don't you feel foolish for not having gotten one earlier?

Oh, one more note, the items in the basement aren't compatible with the cards due to their not being worth the effort to sneeze at them and I'm only permitting you to gaze upon them and god forbid purchase them due to the beggings and pleadings of kind and merciful people who did not want me to dispose of the primordial slime that my older creations represent. MISPLACED MERCY I SAY.

La Volpe

2011-05-16T05:38:00.002-04:00

I have a treat for the roguish at heart. Something inspired by such stylish scoundrels as Zorro and the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Become La Volpe, the cunning fox, and evade the law in daring escapades. Made of sumptuous leather, this mask is sure to protect your real identity when you're up to no good or flirting with noblemen's daughters.

Both the sash and mask change independently, to give you more options to create a color scheme for your heroic rapscallion. Or, you can get rid of the sash entirely, which works well to wear under hair. I've also included an optional alpha for people with sticky-outy ears. It clips the tip of the ears so that they don't poke through, though admittedly since everyone's ears are a different size it might not fit everyone.

I'm very pleased with this mask, it's one of my first where I tried to get the texture seamless across all three of the mask prims. If you've noticed that you can see the nose and eye divisions on my other masks, I'm going to try and move in the direction of not having it be as obvious.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-25T01:52:00.003-04:00

Happy zombie Jesus day everyone! Also, happy spring festival and happy thank-goodness-it's-finally-not-winter-anymore-day.

I have a new release just for this auspicious day, and speaking of auspicious, if you'd like to consider this a several months late Chinese New Year thing that's good too.

The rabbit mask has got to be the most adorable animal mask I've done yet, and I've shown it some love in that it has more colors than the other animal masks. Black, white and tuxedo are of course all necessary, but I also threw in chocolatey brown, silvery gray, ginger and mixtures of white and patterns. I even put in a beautiful tortoiseshell/calico pattern, since my intrepid googling turned up some beautiful tortie bunnies while I was looking for interesting patterns.

That's only the colors though, with the help of Sobriquet Kryakutnoy I finally am able to add a new function to this particular mask. You can select the style of ears that you'd like through the same menu as the texture change! Click it to change to lop-eared, alert ears, or relaxed/back.

I feel it's my best animal mask yet, with much better texturing and fit on the head. It's a full head mask unlike the cat, dragons and deer, which means you no longer have to stress about finding a hair that doesn't look horrible with clipping issues through it.

As it's Easter, I sent out a little gifty to the people in Masqueraderie. I'm thinking that I'll put it for sale, so in that case you guys all get it for free for catching it while it's in the notices :)

Illusions @ Fantasy Faire 2011

2011-04-02T18:28:00.005-04:00

The Fantasy Faire has just kicked off, and after a week of my entire friend's list pulling out their hair with stress (myself included!) we finally get to enjoy the reveal.

Before I got wrapped up in working on my marketplace, I had wanted to continue working on my Egyptian set and make a few more items in that theme. In my original Egyptian Isis set (now almost four years old!) it had a strong scarab theme, and I wanted to revive that in a new jewelry set.

Khepra, (or Khepri, Kheper) was an Egyptian god of transformation and the sun. He was represented by a scarab, and so I've brought the motif of the scarab and the sun into this collar and matching bracelets. The set goes beautifully with the other Semeret pieces that are available, and have the same color and metal options as them.

Another expansion of Semeret I wanted to do was a full gown. Where the silks set is a sexy and eye catching option, the full dress is just as alluring but without showing quite so much skin.

It features a classic Egyptian sheath line, with skirt prims for the legs to avoid "breaking". You can see in this image too that the wings of the scarab nicely mirror the wings of the Semeret belt.

On another note, I've noticed that I sometimes get an IM or two from people who are disappointed that my Silk Blindfold can't be worn with some hair styles or mohawks. At the time, this was because making it go all the way around the head would cause more trouble for hair styles that were close to the head, as well as a shortage of good short styles and hair bases. Now that hair bases are readily available on the new tattoo layer, I've addressed this short coming with a new, full blindfold.
It's not as silky and luxurious, but it's perfect for the bald and mohawked amongst us who would like to sport the prophet Tiresius look.

That's not all that's new though, as part of our effort to help the Friends Fighting Cancer team, who are organizing the whole Fantasy Faire, every merchant participating is donating two items to Relay for Life. My contributions are some fun and colorful new versions of one of my favorite items, my Corvus wings.

After seeing so many people having so much fun with my Macaw Wings, I wanted to show off a few more colors of those beautiful tropical birds. 100% of the proceeds of these items goes to the American Cancer society, so look fabulous for a good cause :)

You can find all of these lovely items at my Fantasy Fair booth. I'm on the Forest of Light sim, right on the north border to the Forest of Shadow. They'll be available only there until the end of the fair :)

Please welcome Cellta Industries to Carnivale

2011-04-01T19:10:00.003-04:00

Joining the prestigious names of Evie's Closet, Gauze, Lassitude & Ennui and others, is a new face. I'm welcoming Cellta Industries to Carnivale today, a service provider aimed at improving connectivity and communication across Second Life.

I admit that they're not on theme, but they didn't require much space and they were very compelling and persuasive in their negotiations. Tax season is coming up and I know I underpaid, so I can't help it. Don't call me a sell out!

Anyway, Cellta Industries is bringing their valuable service to my sim, and so allowing surrounding sims to get improved connectivity, communication and better service via their network. I'm helping others here. DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT.

Now that they're set up on the sim, you can really barely notice their presence. It's like they're not even here.

Barely noticeable, amirite?

Dottore Peste

2011-03-23T01:49:00.003-04:00

It's funny how sometimes a little light bulb will go on for a problem that was long mustering in your head without solution, and suddenly illuminate the obvious and perfect answer. I can't tell you how long I've chewed over how to do this next mask in the best way, but suddenly I knew exactly how to do it.

The Plague Doctor has been one of my longest standing requests, and for such a long time I was sure that it would have to wait until mesh import. However, the lightbulb that went on was that I don't need to have holes through it, or just black on a solid sculpt like Aragane Nishi's version. The original Plague Doctors in the 14th century would completely seal themselves, with oil cloth robes and glass lenses over the eyes of their masks. It was so obvious!

Why a bird mask, you might wonder? In the era of the black death, they thought that disease was caused by "bad air". So, the bird shaped beak acted as a primitive gas mask. They would stuff the tip with herbs, amber and other sweet smelling things to filter the air, and wrap themselves in oil cloth and waxed robes to keep the disease out. They were valued highly, to the point that they were sometimes kidnapped and ransomed. Over time, the mask lost its "practical" use and became more symbolic, and is now a traditional Venetian carnival mask.

Sinister or goofy? How you see it is up to you, and of course how you wear it.

King & Queen of Carnevale

2011-03-09T02:12:00.002-05:00

So you might have taken a peek at the preview from my last post, and I hope I had you intrigued about this year's event masks. Every year I release two new masks (male and female) for my masquerades, and I like to make them something special.

The King of Carnevale is a luxuriously detailed and regal mask. Taking a closer look is rewarded with delicately unfurled wings and a crowning flourish. In the center is a single gem, able to be changed to any of the twelve colors offered in my jewelry.

The Queen of Carnevale offers some subtle differences... fit for a softer face and with a less imposing profile, it's no less grand. The wings at the corners of the brow are spread, and the shape is more tapered and elegant. Together, they make a a pair that is undeniably regal.

I hope you'll come by and try them on, as always scripted demos are available at the store :)

Mardi Gras Masquerade 2011 (Aftermath)

2011-03-07T01:51:00.005-05:00

The music has died down and I've put the dance balls away. I'm exhausted from another wonderful night with marvelous company, and I'm so glad I got to see so many familiar faces as well as some new ones. Well, sort of see them, after all they were wearing masks!

Amyla Wakowski

Jackal Ennui & Achariya Maktoum

Group shot with Katrina Qissentell in forefront

As always everyone was impeccably dressed. It's such a delight to see people coming together, dressed to the nines in their very best, turned out in a way only Second Life could express. Is it cocky of me to think that the people who come to my masquerades have the best taste in fashion? I don't care if it is, I can't help it when everyone shows up looking so amazing!

I didn't envy the people who had to vote to choose a King and Queen of Mardi Gras. But, when the music stopped and people got to really examine each others outfits, they chose their well deserving winners...the King even came prepared with a crown (cocky bugger ;)

Aceius Hax & Ami Tamura

King Aceius Hax and Queen Ami Tamura made a lovely couple, and shared a few dances together, each in their matching masks. Which I'm very proud to present: this year's event masks are the King and Queen of Carnevale. I will be finishing up, scripting, and releasing them in the next day or two. If you can, click the picture to zoom in and see the detail... it's lusciously decorated. I threw everything I had at it!

I greatly enjoyed this year's masquerade... my fifth year in a row that I've hosted a party for Mardi Gras. I love being able to invite you all to dress your best and spend an evening in excellent company, because you guys surely are the classiest and most original people I've found on SL. I hope you'll come to my next masquerade, and maybe see you at next year's too :)

The Carnivale Marketplace

2011-03-01T00:01:00.005-05:00

As I mentioned before, I've been working on a new area of the sim. I'm very happy to say that I am being joined by some wonderfully talented artists and creators.

Joining me on Carnivale are the following stores:

TRAP & Penumbra by Selos Dae and Kriket Pimpernel as always, with their completely hand drawn skins, imaginative and fanciful tattoos, and anime inspired hair.
[Gauze] by Yukio Ida, and her stunning faun legs and shimmeringly beautiful mermaid tails
Evie's Closet by Evangeline Miles, with her elegant and luxurious fantasy outfits
Lassitude & Ennui, by Jackal Ennui, and her selection of meticulously crafted fantasy and steampunk footwear and jewelry
Studio Sidhe, by Faery Sola, offering fantasy pose props for decoration and photography

and most especially Deviance Designs, by Surreal LeShelle, who is officially moving her main store to Carnivale. I'm very proud to have her join me, and I feel that together Illusions and Deviance will make quite a partnership.

I'm incredibly pleased to have such talented people join me on the sim, and I hope that together Carnivale can quickly become the place to go to purchase the very best the fantasy genre has to offer in Second Life. A lot of thought went into my selection, and I offer invitations only to original creative artists, who have a dedication to their work and a pursuit of excellence and uniqueness.

A few others are still trickling in, and there will be other names that you see floating around in the marketplace plaza. I set aside a small square which will serve as a place for vendors who only want or need a small space. For example, !Elate, who normally does modern fashion, has put up the beautiful goddess gown she made for Swansong.
Even if fantasy isn't what fuels your passion for Second Life, I invite you to come by and explore. I've given this build the best I have to offer, and if you're familiar with my work I'd hope that would at least warrant a look ;)

Won't you come visit?

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-15T00:08:00.006-05:00

I know everyone is probably sick of the hearts and the Hallmarky sweetness of it all, but I still wanted to send something to my update group as a token of appreciation for them. I think what grates on people the most about Valentine's Day is the forced romanticism, but if you consider it as a time to appreciate your loved ones it's hard to dislike it.

I really do appreciate my fans and customers, and I want to thank you sincerely for your support. For the IM's you send me saying that you love my work and for sticking in my group when I don't update for months, thank you. It's because of you guys that I get to do something that I love, and create beautiful things for so many people to enjoy. Even if we've never spoken, I still feel a deep appreciation for your contribution to my life.

I brainstormed about possible gifts and I realized if I gave you something with hearts or a strict love theme you'd only ever wear it once or twice. Plus I have to think of the poor neglected men!
So here is a Valentine's gift you can wear any day of the year.

You can fish them out of the Masqueraderie group notices. Enjoy them, and know that you guys are loved.

Mardi Gras Masquerade 2011

2011-02-11T21:18:00.004-05:00

It's official! Everyone is excited with the feeling of a holiday in the air. Folks are picking up goodies for their loved ones and decorating everything with the traditional colors. Baking cakes, eating candies, getting... beads thrown at them?

You thought I was talking about Valentine's Day didn't you? Well, it seems you forgot about Mardi Gras! Obviously the most important day of the year.
I hope you'll join me at Illusions' fifth(!) annual Mardi Gras masquerade, held as always on a Saturday because I know all too well the woes of staying up too late on a weekday. However, that just makes for earlier revelry!

As always, formal dress is strongly encouraged, befitting of a grand and elegant venue. But, I do encourage you to be creative and to seek out colorful and fabulous ways to celebrate. The theme is purple, green and gold but if you have something in mind, go for it!

When you're assembling your costume, please keep in mind a few guidelines which will dramatically help everyone's ability to rez and dance smoothly. There's no point looking fabulous if you're a gray blob to everyone else!

Please keep your prim attachments in total to less than 250
This limit helps to keep everyone rezzing quickly. Check how many prims you have by going into Edit and holding down shift to click each item you're wearing. The window will display the collected total of those prims.

Streamline your AO, or leave it at home
Nobody likes looking like a noob while being a wallflower. However, if you don't plan to dance, fill a veritably lag free, low prim ZHAOII with your two or three favorite stands. Otherwise, just go without.

Check your script totals
Viewer 2 now has an "Avatar Scripts" total you can view, by going to About Land->Script Info->My Avatar. Try to make new, clean copies of items that have resize scripts and aim for less than 600kb

If we all follow these guidelines, I know we can contribute to a more fun and smoother experience.

As always, there will be a costume contest, determined by vote, to vie for the titles of Mardi Gras King and Queen. Two previously unreleased, themed masks will be awarded as the prizes, along with 1500L Angel Cards to each! I will also be passing out gift cards to honorable mentions and other people whom I find simply fabulous. So make sure to dress your best!

Make sure you join the group, spots will go surprisingly fast. After 50 join, I will have a waiting list just in case anyone leaves the group, which has happened before. There will still be hope to get in even if you hear about it too late.

Masks are required, but a freebie mask will be included, which is the mask shown in the invite. I know the costume rules are tough to follow, especially when it's so tempting to go for the excess, but I have the utmost faith in your creativity to be able to work around the limitations, and flourish. I can't wait to see you there.

Illusions Mardi Gras Masquerade
Saturday, March 5th, 4PM SLT
Illusions Event Hall, Carnivale
(Join the "Illusions Mardi Gras Masque 2011" Group)
Formal Dress and Mask Required

2011-02-02T09:55:00.006-05:00

I've been lying low for a while, I always seem to crash around the end of the year in a fiery ball of unproductive sluggishness. But I was trying to get myself to spend more time logged in and was taking care of customer IM's and other sundries when I found myself suddenly struck with fidgetiness. Building fidgetiness. I had left something dreadfully unfinished when I redid my store build, a blank space covered in trees and generally filler while I had this beautifully detailed area around it. It wasn't done, and it was starting to bug me.

So to ease back into working and being productive, I started making the plan I had for that space a reality.

The Arab Market is a place I've been wanting to make for ages, contrasting the perfect, clean, and refined architecture of my store building with a dirtier, grungier and more cluttered feel. While my store is a lofty temple, the market has close quarters, things around corners, and little alleys to get lost down.
I hate closing down the sim for any reason, if you'll recall I didn't even have the sim closed more than a day when I installed the new store build. So if you visit and take a look around, after a day there might be new buildings or some creative shuffling of elements to take a peek at. Of course, there might also just be a mess.

I'll let you guys know when it's officially done though :)

Happy Holidays from Siyu

2010-12-24T22:53:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, happy holidays and all that good stuff :) May the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless you with his noodly appendage and all that good stuff.

I got into the holiday spirit, and put together a companion hat to the Elf slippers I released last year. I sent it out to Masqueraderie, so you can nab it out of the group notices for the next two weeks. I also put out a box of Christmas themed goodies I had out last year out at the store, it's not like they're perishable and I know not everyone might have gotten them last year. Enjoy :)

I hope whether you celebrate Christmas or not, that you're enjoying time with your family and friends. Of course no matter what you believe, companionship, compassion and love are things we can all agree on.

With Love Hunt

2010-12-15T18:44:00.005-05:00

I can't believe I forgot to post this, in fact I was sure I had but it's been a little while since I just viewed the main page of my own blog. I'm in the With Love hunt, a sort of pre-holiday non-denominational tour of stores invited to put out a gift to their customers. I had had something in mind that I wanted to do just for fun, and a hunt gift was the perfect excuse to make it.

If you're already sick of the November/December grays then add a splash of color with glorious macaw wings! You can find these hidden somewhere in my store on Carnivale, the hint is "Watching people come and go, feeling like Michelangelo"

Make sure you swing by before Friday, the 17th, before they're gone!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T05:01:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween everyone! It might be obvious that this is one of my favorite times of the year. I hope all of you are having a marvelous time and enjoying the season, and I hope if you go out partying or out trick or treating that you stay safe and your costumes remain pristine.

I found a seasonally appropriate little "friend" as it dropped in a "friendly" manner onto my shoulder, and I thought I might like to relocate them to perhaps another person's head. Yours in fact.

They're quite cute actually... when they're not moving or trying to bite you. I'd like to get them out of the undercroft, so they're free to a good home. Just please... take them...

You can find your new pet Spidey in the orange box at the store! It's out near the new releases.

The Burning Night (Aftermath)

2010-10-26T07:11:00.005-04:00

Playing hosts to the hosts of hell turned out better than I could have expected... who would have thought they would be so kind, gracious, and considerate? One thing I noticed especially is that they are impeccably well dressed.

The costumes are always so stunning and creative at my parties and I end up a hopeless shutterbug, taking as many pictures as I can to take all of them in. There are a few more pictures on my photostream on Flickr. It's always almost impossible to choose who has the best costumes, however the voting cast Dyisi Oppewall and Ran Garrigus as the Burning King and Queen.

They are now the proud owners of the Burning King and Queen masks, which I will be releasing soon pending a couple of tweaks. I've been busy cleaning up all the ash from the floor and removing the tormented souls that stuck to a few demon's hooves.

Don't worry if you missed it! If you were in the group, I'll be sending the event mask (the one shown in the invitation) through a group notice. I also know that real life gets in the way sometimes, and that I do hold more masquerades >.>

Illusions @ Jewelry Fair: Semeret & Etya

2010-10-09T03:48:00.004-04:00

Once upon a time in 2007, I made a silks set with matching jewelry in an Egyptian theme. It was made completely out of prims, (before sculpts!), but I loved it. I retired it ages ago when I realized it was horribly dated and I vowed I'd make a new version some day.

Well, Jewelry Fair gave me a great excuse to revisit the Egyptian theme, finally. And now that I'm getting more comfortable making clothing, I could do the clothing part right.

Semeret, meaning "noblewoman" in Egyptian (thanks Khamudy!), is an elegant, exotic and sexy outfit perfect for hot desert nights and for reclining while being fanned with peacock feathers. The silks set includes the belt, loin cloth and top, as well as a pair of panties to go underneath to preserve some mystery. But what about the collar and bracelets you ask?

Available separately, since I have plans to expand this set! I was working with a deadline of Jewelry Fair or I would have waited until more was done, but I wanted to get these out in time to make a splash. The Semeret collar is the result of hours of work delicately manipulating oblongs sculpts to allow you to choose your own color patterns, from a pallet of 6 metals and 12 different colors. All of the pieces are scripted to change, and in the case of the belt in the silks set you can even change the jewel. I love the look of the red, gold and white, but you could try silver, white and gray or tarnished black, green and orange if you liked. I was having fun wearing the set in washed out silver and white and it completely changed the feel of the outfit.

I'm still working on new pieces, and so the bangles are available separately as well. More is on the way and will hopefully be done to be released at the fair!

I've also put out a freebie to lure you into my stall, a simple and elegant stacked collar called Etya, inspired by tribal necklaces of Africa.

Here's a SLURL to get you there: TP to Jewelry Fair South

Enjoy, and I hope to see you over there!

The Burning Night

2010-09-22T05:59:00.008-04:00

Things always get a little metaphysical on Carnivale around Halloween. Last year, the veil of life was thin and the dead rose to dance again in the halls. Some of those souls returned to paradise, others to eternal damnation. Well, the ones that returned to damnation apparently spoke of the marvelous time they'd had at the masquerade, and made their captors jealous. Last night I was contacted by an imp, a courier of a demon, who alerted me to the fact that certain creatures of the underworld were going to be inviting themselves to my masquerade this year. Rather than be a poor host, I decided to hold it in their honor.

You are invited, if you dare to come, to dance away the night with imps, devils, demons and seductive succubi. I will be host to the hosts of hell, and open my halls to those that you hopefully will never meet elsewhere. Come, all those that are tired of the same old circles and tortures and have some fun.

As usual I have to ask that when planning your costumes, you adhere to the following guidelines. They've been a policy since 2007 and have allowed my masquerades to be relatively lag free and very enjoyable for even those on older systems. If we all pitch in, we can all enjoy the costumes without gray people.

Please keep your prim attachments in total to 200 or less.
You can double check how close you are to the limit by using build, and holding down shift to click each item you're wearing. The build window will display the collected total of those prims.

Streamline your AO, or leave it at home
Nobody likes looking like a noob while being a wallflower. However, if you don't plan to dance, fill a veritably lag free, low prim ZHAOII with your two or three favorite stands. Otherwise, just go without.

No particles, and no listening scripts
Turn that bling off, and make sure you don't have any items on you that respond to chat commands. Make copies of items that have resize scripts in them and use the remove feature that many have included.

As usual, there will be a costume contest, determined by vote, to vie for the titles of the Burning King and Queen. Two previously unreleased, themed masks will be awarded as the prizes, along with an Angel Card good for 1500L worth of Illusions goodies.

If you are planning on coming, please be sure to join the "Illusions Burning Night Masquerade" group. There is a small fee of 150L as a token of commitment, to make sure that the people who are members seriously intend on coming. Make sure you join the group early, do not put it off because you don't have a group slot. Spots will go surprisingly fast, and I will refuse to add a single soul more than 50. I will, however, have a waiting list just in case anyone leaves the group, which has happened before. There will still be hope to get in even if you hear about it too late.

Masks are required, but a complimentary mask will be offered at the hall, which is the mask shown in the invite. I know the costume rules are tough to follow, especially when it's so tempting to go for excess, but I have the utmost faith in your creativity to be able to work around the limitations, and flourish. I can't wait to see you there.

Illusions Burning Night Masquerade
Saturday, October 23rd, 4PM SLT
Illusions Event Hall, Carnivale
(Join the "Illusions Burning Night Masquerade" Group)
Themed attire and mask required

Marketplace

2010-09-17T22:01:00.003-04:00

Linden Lab is migrating the web-based SL commerce over to a new site, and I have to say it's a relief and a pleasure to see it. For years the majority of users who wanted to shop without going in-world used Second Life Exchange, then XstreetSL, which was eventually bought out by Linden. They also bought out the smaller, yet substantially more pleasant to use Onrez (formerly SLBoutique) and since Xstreet was more popular they kept that one active, and us merchants lost the online service we preferred to use. For a year and a half we've had to live with the ugly, inconvenient to use, cluttered but very popular Xstreet, but now that's finally changing.

LL is finally unveiling their new cohesive marketplace which is a beautiful merging of the two sites. The technology Onrez used to make it more pleasant to merchants and the incredible volume of products and vendors of Xstreet are being merged after all this time to create the new SL Marketplace. It's not perfect, and it's still in beta, but considering Xstreet is closing October 19th if you don't like it, you don't have much of a choice (except maybe go to Apez...?)

I for one welcome our new online commerce overlords. I'm actually really excited about this change and for once I didn't mind going through my listings and making changes using such handy tools as bulk edit and quick fill. The new marketplace has advanced technology like... listing keywords, and choosing related items. Can you believe Xstreet didn't have that? And there are a lot more advances and features on the way.

I've set up my storefront, and I'm actually looking forward to putting more of my store online than has been before. I've had a tendency to get impatient in the past and only put my biggest sellers or whatever I get around to. But they've made it so quick and easy I don't really have an excuse not to.

Quick tip for my fellow merchants, if your Magic Boxes end up getting full and hard to keep track of, rez another! Sort your products and put each group into a different box. And for people with multiple colors, keep in mind that soon colors will be able to be grouped under a single listing for an item, and really focus on updating and polishing up one copy of each item. The other colors can come later.

Hope you're as excited as I am, I have to say this is one of the nicest developments for content creators LL has unveiled since sculpts.

Runes, Chains and Dreamcatchers

2010-09-02T01:33:00.006-04:00

My constant companion, life partner and always encouraging man has had one thing on top of his "things to make Siyu do" list for a while. There are things that he has on there which involve rescuing old projects that are sitting, waiting for attention, and things that he'd personally like to see me do, but there's one he's always bugging me about. "Decorate your horns! People will seriously love them, I'll love them! Make them!". So after Corvus & Columba, he hijacked me and would not let me create anything else at all until I'd worked on embellishing my horns, and had finished them. Since I'd already put it off before, I had no choice!

A couple of my friends suggested I carve runes into my horns, to give it an infernal or mystic look. I actually had a lot of fun going back into Zbrush and doodling on these, all of the little runes and designs were drawn on carefully, and I invented a couple of symbols. Each horn has a different design, symmetry in this case didn't look so good and it gave me a chance to do more doodles! These are available on all of the ram's horn styles. I considered putting them on to the Ibex horns but there wasn't enough surface area to really make them clear.

After an informal survey of customers and Masqueraderie, it seemed that most people had at least one style of my ram's horns on their favorites list. Nivicola in particular seemed to be well loved, and since its one of my favorite shapes as well I made the following specifically for Nivicola, designed and built around its eldritch curve.

I got it into my head that the curve of a ram's horn would be the perfect place to have a dream catcher. After sketches and a few failed attempts, I set about the mangling and abusing of an oblong sculpt. It drove me crazy, I spent hours and hours tweaking and pinching and straightening and then scrapping whole chunks of it, just to start over again. Lots of frustration, lots of sweat, (but that might have been because the AC was on low) and general pain. I dropped it for weeks but my man wouldn't let me forget it entirely. Finally, when all of the cords were satisfactory, textured, and fitting on the horn, I experimented with beads but scrapped them because I was so ready to be done. After a break, and feeling the finish line was finally close, I made some new beads and stones and of course they look wonderful. They're finally just right.

Do I even need to say that these are my favorite? And not just because these were the ones that came most easily once I finally got over not having a design in mind. I should have known that just lining up chains would make my mystic gypsy muse giggle.

I really love these, especially the delicately hanging crystals. The other side is asymmetrical and has its own arrangement of chains, you'll just have to see the demo to see the effect. They use the sumptuous stones that Elessia and Orinthia have, along with the same choices of metals and horns as always.

Seeing the final results, I have to thank him. There was a lot of frustration, long and arduous work and far too many times I just was simply not in the mood to work on these... Things just dragged on and took so much longer than usual. I had a lack of inspiration, a blocked muse, and the fount of my creativity was plugged. However, with the help of him, friends, and even my mother offering me suggestions, concepts, and encouragement I worked through the spoiled brat that is my self discipline to finish these. Hopefully he'll be right in the end that you guys will love them... but I'm not going to let him do it again! I like my creative suffering to be my own damn fault XD

Siyu at SLCC

2010-08-14T00:16:00.003-04:00

If you happen to be in Boston, I will be attending SLCC on both Saturday and Sunday. I will be accompanying my awesome and dangerously punny friend, Jen Shikami of 7Seas fishing who will be showing off her RL version of the game, which allows you to fish for buttons!

Jen has generously/foolishly lent me her button making press and I've been going wild, creating a range of buttons that feature slogans I made up (such as "I think you might need to rebake") as well as others using my items as an illustration (like the Esmerelda witch hat with "Witchy" beneath it). I'll be selling and distributing them, so if you catch me and you have a buck seventy-five on you, you can nab one and show your SL pride. If I have any left over after the con, I'll even consider mailing any to you if you're willing to pay for shipping!

I'll also be selling prints of some of my favorite pictures on Flickr, in case you're interested in owning a physical copy. I got a bit full of myself and signed the backs of them. They come framed, so I think they'll make a nice memento. Again, if I have any left over I'll be happy to sell them to you guys if you're willing to pay shipping.

Wish me luck, and I hope I run into a few of you there!

Corvus & Columba Flickr Contest: Results

2010-08-09T21:47:00.001-04:00

I apologize for the delay on the results, I was traveling and though I hoped to be able to review and write up the results of the contest while I was away, it turned out not to be the case. But I'm back! And happily able to finally see the beautiful interpretations of this set.

With each submission that came in I was excited and happy to see how people used the set in their own way and had made it theirs. I love seeing what sort of avatars are created and how people imbue my items with new personalities. And so the winners of this contest are those that I felt took the pieces I gave them, made them a part of themselves, wore them with great aplomb, and of course created a strikingly artistic and memorable image.

"In the Bleak December", submitted by CorvusPDX Noble

"The Raven", submitted by Carthalis Rossini

My two favorites, and tied as the winners of the contest, they embodied the dark fantasy and fairy tale feel I so love about this set. The images are beautifully eldritch, with tasteful post-processing and good composition. They both have a nobility, a gothic refinement, and they both wear the set beautifully. Both Carthalis and Corvus will be awarded 1000L gift cards with which to buy out whatever they haven't bought already!

In second and third place, I found these images particularly dramatic, and they stood out from the other images submitted.

"Crow Man Falling" by Achariya Maktoum

"Confusion" by Sparkles Wingtips

I really admire that both Achariya and Sparkles brought in new pieces to create an entirely new outfit and look with the crow's head, taking advantage of just how transformed an avatar can look with it. I love the contrast in each of these and I think both images are enticing and beautiful. Congratulations guys :)

To see the gallery of submissions, click here. There is an 18 picture limit, so for people with larger sets, I apologize but I had to pick just my favorites from them. There are some really beautiful uses of the outfits there, with wonderful and fantastic images, but I did have to pick just a few that stood out. Thank you so much to everyone who submitted an image, and I hope you'll try again in my next contest.

Corvus & Columba Flickr Contest

2010-07-14T05:00:00.008-04:00

I've been seeing some really great pictures using pieces of the Corvus and Columba sets popping up in the Illusions Flickr stream. These outfits really are well suited to SL photography and so I think it's time for a Flickr contest!

I want to see what sort of marvels you can create using these two photogenic and versatile sets. The pieces long to tell a story, and I would really love to get an idea of how you envision them. The winners will receive Angel Cards loaded up with points to spend at Illusions, along with glory and bragging rights of course.

The rules are basically this:

Use at least one piece of either Corvus or Columba as an integral piece of your outfit (can't be hidden away and has to obvious you're wearing it)

Don't submit something that requires a Safe Search filter, since winners will be posted on my blog

Your image has to be of an avatar from SL, no body morphs

Submit your image to the Illusions pool on Flickr by July 31st for it to be counted

You can submit as many images as you like, though if too many similar pictures are submitted I will only accept the ones I feel are best. You can mark your pictures with CCC at the beginning of the title if you want, it's not a requirement.

I'll be considering the overall use of the pieces in the outfit, the editing and composition, and the illustrative quality of your image.

The winner will win an Angel Card with 1000 points on it, which can be used to get yourself 1000L worth of merchandise from my store! I'll also display your picture here on my blog and in the store (with a link back to your Flickr stream if you like). There will be more cards passed out to other submissions that I find exceptional, I'm leaving the exact amount open so that you can be confident that if you submit an exceptional entry, you will be rewarded!

The deadline to be July 31st, about two and a half weeks, so that you have some time to think over a concept and to get a chance to really put something special together. I really can't wait to see what you do with these pieces, what I've seen already has surprised and delighted me and that was just you guys playing around. I know what I was imagining when I made these outfits, show me what you see.

Columba

2010-07-10T22:18:00.003-04:00

Even though Corvus was my original vision and the realization of a fantasy I had, I realized it would be a shame to neglect those that are more delicate and pure. Not everyone is as brazen or as dark as a crow, so perhaps they are a dove instead.

Truly the face of sweetness and peace, Columba is the latin word for dove. Another full head mask, it really captures the personality of the gentle and monogamous bird. Either that or the sneaky type of dove that you know are out there, that'll peck your fingers when you're not expecting it.

And with a white dove mask, you need a white dress. Not just a recolor, it's a re-imagining. I don't have a story for it but maybe you do.

They're really the perfect outfits for an angel, or the perfect companions to Corvus. I especially have grown to love the pieces from the suit. They're versatile and the white shirt alone will go beautifully with any historical outfit past the 1700's you can think of. I included every layer for it and it's available on its own without needing to buy the set, as are the wings and wrist cuffs.
These turned out to be the perfect little angel wings, if you're not in the mood to have the full expanse of my older wings. They add a fluffy innocence to your avatar and go with absolutely anything.

I saw a lot of guys wearing these cuffs as bracers, which is something I really didn't think of. So I've included the option to get them in large or small now, so that guys can wear them more easily.

I've sent demos out to my group, Masqueraderie as per usual, so if you want to have them delivered to you directly, make sure to join :)

Corvus II (the details)

2010-06-23T03:16:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago someone asked me if I still sold my raven mask. Of course then the gears start turning. It's been ages since I did an animal mask, and I realized I had solved some of the problems posed by a bird mask that had prevented me from making it sooner.

With alpha feathers to fluff it out, an alpha transition to the neck, and fine rings around the eyes, I had finally figured out how to make it less flat, keep my edges crisp, and how to make it blend into the avatar. I wasn't really happy with just doing a face mask for birds like I used to... the shape of the head is part of what makes birds so distinctive. Plus, hair just doesn't seem to fit once you have feathers.

So now, with essentially a bird's head... what would I possibly wear with this? An image came to me, and I had to sketch it down even though I was trying to fall asleep at the time.

I drew an elegant A-line gown, with an upraised wing sprouting from the shoulder. I imagined feathers climbing the arm and delicately falling from the skirt. I'm quite happy with the results, and though I went through innumerable drafts and versions, the result is truly something I'm proud of.

Yet... Corvus is a unisex mask. And most men will not relish the idea of wearing a gown. And so a looming challenge appeared. The gauntlet had been thrown down before me... I had to make something formal that a man could wear to accompany a woman wearing such a gown. A suit.

Compared to the suit, the dress took an instant and was over in a wink. When working on this, I longed to go back to the simplicity of cursing at skirt prims and getting the feathers crisp on the bodice. Of course I had to do a four piece suit, with formal pants, a vest, a jacket and a silk shirt, each layer posing a bigger challenge than the last. My muse is such a bitch, sometimes.

However, seeing the results, I have to thank her. I love the jacket, the feathered shoulders add some flamboyant whimsy, and the jabot (the tie) blends so well into the bottom of the mask that it almost looks like feathers. The silk shirt alone is one of the most versatile pieces of clothing I have right now. I've been wearing it with vests, corsets, as a man or woman, with skirts, with pants, you name it. I made sure to include as many layer options as possible, since I was going through the trouble of making all this I wanted to be sure people could wear it how they like.

Certain pieces are also available separately, if you would just like to buy the dress alone without the mask or other accessories, same for the suit. I also put the silk shirt out on its own. If you just like the accessories, you can nab those up without having to get the whole look.

The Corvus wrist cuff makes a beautifully gothic accessory on its own, and although I imagined it only on one wrist, I made a pair so that you had your options open.

However, my favorite are the wings. They aren't scripted, but in such a lovely black do they really need to be?

You'll want to try the demo for these, they have an elegant curve that doesn't show well in this picture. They also have just a few touches of flexi to add some movement.

This whole project has been one of those times when my muse just won't let go until she's had her way. A vision just unfolded that just had to be realized. So it was with the dress, then the suit, and finally the story. It's been a crazy series of all-nighters, aching wrists and hundreds in uploads... but worth it. I hope you love it as much as I do... enjoy ♥

Corvus

2010-06-22T17:57:00.010-04:00

There was once a crow, who lived in the woods near a road. She would sometimes follow travelers and see if they dropped food, or perhaps left an unattended piece of sparkly for her to add to her collection. One day, she saw a nobleman in fine clothes lead his horse mistakenly off the path. She followed above in the trees as he quickly became lost. She watched him as he tried to find his way back to the road, and she took pity on him. Alighting in front of him she cawed with her hoarse voice, and started to fly back towards the road.

He followed her as she flew from branch to branch, and before long he was leading his horse back onto packed dirt. He smiled kindly, and thanked her and offered some of the sweet bread he had with him. She took it happily and flew away.

She found herself thinking of the encounter and how kind the man had been to trust her and share his bread. She found herself daydreaming of perhaps meeting him again and taking his hand. She dreamed of him leading her in a graceful dance like flying on the ground.

Her thoughts were interrupted suddenly as she felt a net fall about her, she struggled but found herself trapped. She cried out in distress as she recognized the witch who lived nearby as her captor. The witch leaned in and said "I only need one of your lovely black feathers, dear, no harm will come to you". The crow was relieved, but it hardly seemed fair... she loved her feathers. "You can't just take it," she said, "you should offer me something in return." The witch was taken aback, but asked her what she might want. The crow thought quickly, and realized her chance. "Make me human, so that I may meet the nobleman who was kind to me and dance with him." The witch smiled in a way that made the crow's heart tighten, but she soon said "So be it. You may dance, but only with him, and you must not act like what you truly are or my spell will weaken. Do not take anything that sparkles, and do not eat other's food. If you do these things, my magic will not be able to keep you from returning to your true self".

The crow was delighted, and let the witch take the feather. She felt herself begin to change, her wings becoming smooth arms and her rough black feet becoming long graceful legs. Her beautiful feathers became an elegant gown, her tail its bustle. She reached up to touch her soft face, her hair, and smiled for the first time. Laughing with her now musical voice, she thanked the witch and ran to the road, to follow it to the nobleman's manor.

When she arrived, her fine clothes and dark beauty earned her entrance, for a party was underway. Dancers and colorfully dressed guests swirled about and she was entranced. Such colors, such jewels, and such food! The sights and sounds overwhelmed her, but she had her eye out for her nobleman. Across the room, he had noticed her in her dark dress, and he quickly made his way to her. He introduced himself and offered her wine. Afraid to turn down his kindness, she accepted and took a sip. She felt an itch at her arm, and looked down to find a few black feathers. He did not notice, and he offered her his hand to dance. This is what she had been hoping for, and as she danced it felt like flying. She laughed and grinned and the nobleman was enchanted.

He had been hoping to find a bride this night and he felt he might have found her. He needed his father's approval, and so when the song ended, he took her to introduce them. When he told his father she might be his bride, her heart leaped with joy. His father was happy to meet her, and invited her to dance. So close to what she wanted, she hoped that the magic would hold enough to allow her to perhaps garner his blessing. She took his hand to dance, but felt her shoulders ache as wings unfolded from her back. Fitting so well with her gown, a few guests admired the ingenuity of her costume.

Once their dance was ended, his father gave his blessing. The party came to a slow as the steward called for silence. Excited and nervous, she followed her nobleman to the end of the hall. He turned, knelt, and pulled something sparkly from his pocket. All at once she was elated and jubilant as she looked down at the beautiful, shining ring. She sobered as she realized the choice she had in front of her, she couldn't know how close she was to breaking the spell. She looked into his eyes, saw the sincerity and hope inside them, and felt herself reach out to accept it.

She felt her hair becoming feathers, the dress becoming her skin. She turned away quickly, tears in her eyes as she fled from the grand hall. As she ran she felt her legs growing shorter, her wings returning and so she flew.

The spell had been broken, and she had lost her chance to be with her nobleman. She flew back to the woods in despair.

The nobleman felt that there was something wrong, and went to follow her. A trail of black feathers led out and to the road, and he saddled his horse and rode to follow it. Riding into the night, he hoped to encounter her. As it was getting dark, he slowed his horse, and saw a light in the distance. Hoping to find his love, he rode up to the cottage of the witch.

The witch heard him, and came out to meet him as he approached in his finery, holding black feathers. He asked her if she had seen a beautiful woman pass, and the witch immediately knew what had happened. "Do you love her?" she asked.
"I was going to marry her, we were to spend our lives together." he replied. The witch nodded, and asked him what he would give to be with her, would he give up his fine clothes? His home? "Everything" was his answer. The witch smiled, and took one of the feathers he was holding. He felt himself shrinking, his arms lengthening, his skin prickling as feathers grew. And as he changed, he saw a familiar crow come swooping down to meet him, and he flew for the first time to dance with her in the sky.

Introducing Corvus, a hauntingly beautiful matched set of a mask, wings, gown and suit. More details to follow... but they are out now in the store :)

2010-06-20T02:55:00.002-04:00

I've been quietly working very hard on a complex multi-part project... my first since Hedera. And, like Hedera... I'm venturing into clothing again!!

Yes, yes, I know, dear lord the world is ending, the sky is falling, the seams are making my head hurt. But as I struggle to complete it, the more it comes together the more it reminds me of why I'm doing it.

I was inspired by a mask. An off hand comment made my brain click on and all of a sudden in a flurry I had made this beautiful mask. But, it's that sort of creation that demands to be fully realized in a complete vision, and so I've been working on a dress, accent accessories, and a three piece suit. It's a lot like something out of a fairy tale or a dream, or maybe a bad trip. My guy thought I was a bit nutty.

Now that I've piqued your interest, I'll just say it should be done soon, I'm working on the final accent which might be a bit tricky (hence why I've put it off 'till the end!), but it's worth the wait.

Introducing the Illusions Angel Card!

2010-06-05T18:44:00.004-04:00

I'm very excited to say that today I'm finally introducing a new card system. The new Illusions Angel Card can be used as a gift card, letting you purchase "Angel Points" and give the card to friends, or... and here's the big or... you can earn Angel Points by purchasing things at Illusions.

Each Angel Point is equivalent to $1L that you can spend at the store, and every time you buy something it will give you %10 of the cost back as points! If you buy something for $500L, you'll get 50 Angel Points that you can use on whatever you like. If that's not enough to buy something that you want, you can buy extra points (in packs of 50, 100, 500, or 1000) to top off your card. Or, if you've bought everything you wanted, you can pass it to a friend and let them spend the points! The only items that aren't compatible with the card (won't give points and can't be bought with points) are the older items that have been banished to the back room.

It's incredibly simple to use, all you need to do is wear it, and the card will display how many points you currently have, and tell you how many points you earn from each purchase. And as soon as you want to cash in, just side click on a vendor, select "Use Card" and go through the menu system as normal. It will even refund your points if you cancel out of the menu!

You can get your own Angel Card absolutely free right here.

Unfortunately, since there is no way for me to track transactions made with the card, I can't offer replacements if it fails to deliver. However, I've made some changes to my vendors and it seems that they're much more stable now that they've been upgraded. Since the cards are run on scripts, and this is SL we're talking about here, I think it would be wise to only wear your Angel Card while you are on Carnivale. Take it off before you teleport or go to a laggy sim, because I can't guarantee that the points will not reset, and neither of us want that.

Aside from those caveats, I'm incredibly excited to introduce this system to you. It's my way of saying thank you for coming back, and for every single thing you buy. I hope you guys enjoy, and happy shopping :D

Arnot, Aurelie, and new cheapies!

2010-06-01T19:51:00.005-04:00

With my mind on other things, I forgot to mention that I put out a couple of releases for my opening last week. First up, I keep getting asked about the gift I put out for Jewelry Fair 2009. People who were lucky enough to nab it keep flaunting their luck in photos, in gorgeous outfits, matching it with everything and making people jealous. I also happen to really like it, and so I'm putting out Aurelie officially for just 90L. It has the same beautifully vibrant collection of stones as Orinthia and the Elessia set.

Arnot is a mask for the poor under-represented men. That's not to say that women can't wear it, but just for once it was made on a male base to accentuate male features. There are a lot of dramatic, simple, and elegant male mask designs out there and it was about time that I made one! It has the same color palette as the Adorno masks (Perorno, Mezzadorno etc) and I think you'll be hard pressed to find an outfit that it doesn't match.

With my beautiful new build, my old freebies (the 2007 signature necklace and the Obscurita masks) simply didn't seem to fit. The entire reason I remade the build was that I wanted it to reflect what I'm capable of (plus I was running a leetle low on space), and I feel like a store gift should reflect the sort of quality you can find inside. So I've put together a couple of new gifts
The imp mask is an old design, one of the first I ever made. I made some tweaks and neatened it up a bit to make it something worth wearing. What I'm really happy with is how my new signature necklace turned out. A couple of elegant swirls curl around one of my most elegant mask designs and turned it into something I'm very happy to keep near my virtual heart.

Since these are better than my old gifts, and nicer than any other gift I've had out on my store, I've made them 10L instead of 1 or 0. It also includes a truly beautiful gift box, which I'm happy to make available on its own along with the mask and necklace.
It makes a beautiful trinket to keep in your house, I know that's certainly what I'm doing. Keep an eye out for it on the table to your left when you're at the store, and grab yourself some goodies :)

Welcome to a New Build :)

2010-05-29T22:39:00.005-04:00

Some people have been wondering if the store is open again, and the answer is yes! I've been on a slightly "soft" opening while I work out issues with my vendors. The thing is, there have been some technical difficulties and I was hoping to have them resolved before I posted about the sim, but no such luck.

It's not the grand opening I was hoping for, with a big unveiling of a whole new look with a whole new card system. Of course since the actual building process went so well, fate wanted to make sure I knew I was her bitch and so decided to throw other things at me to show me that no, you can't plan for everything. The card system is still down, but being worked on, and some of my vendors are missing due to a very obscure SL security measure that's made me unable to rez them. I have a ticket open and I'm still waiting for a resolution, I'm really hoping that they'll be able to help but if not, I will have to redo them. Some of the vendors are still a bit screwy, so please bear with me while I iron out the kinks.

Anyway, I'm focusing on the bad things when the truth is I have a beautiful new store that I feel is well designed, will be easily expandable, and reflects what I'm capable of as a builder. It also makes a hell of a picture.

I'm planning on holding a Flickr contest soon, so you guys can enjoy some of the views and details I've pored over for the past months. I'm planning on making the price one of my new gift cards, so when the system is up and running I'll announce it officially. Until then, come visit and see the pretty :)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Carnivale/202/82/45

Sim to be Closed on 5/25

2010-05-23T18:39:00.004-04:00

It's finally ready. I've tweaked my textures, revamped my vendors, primped my products and looked over my layout. The store is almost ready to be put in place, so I'll be closing the sim on Tuesday, the 25th in order to get things into place.

I can't say for sure how long the sim will be closed, but I'll be sure to announce the minute it opens again to Masqueraderie and on my Plurk. I'll try to get an entry out as well to detail what's new :)

One of the new things will be a card system that works with my current menu vendors. Problem is, there's currently a technical glitch which prevents the full amount to be refunded if you cancel the transaction when using your card, so I want to be sure it's fixed before I open. If it isn't, I'll have to leave the card system unavailable until it's fixed. I'm still very excited about it, when it's working I think it's something you guys will really enjoy.

Until then, I'm just incredibly excited about my store becoming this:

Booyah.

2010-05-12T16:03:00.004-04:00

I'm back home and working hard. I'm taking inventory of everything I have out in the store right now, making revisions to the vendors and updating everything that needs it. This is the big clean-up I've been wanting to do for ages. It feels good to take stock of everything, go through older items and revise the prices, or do new pictures for items that aren't well represented. I'm sorting and grouping items in new ways, revising old scripts, and trying out new organizations for the store layout.

The store build itself is, for the most part, done. There are a couple little things that I have in the works for it, but the prims are in place, the layout is solid, and the exterior is set. I'm proud to show you a few more teaser pictures, taken with viewer 2's gorgeous shadows.

It doesn't even look like SL, does it?

I'm excited and proud to have this finally in the works, and progress with the vendors is coming along (despite it being even more tedious than doing ear skin tones, which I didn't think was possible). I think I'm comfortable with saying that I'll be able to finish and make this official sometime in the week of the 16th. I'll be shutting down the sim for a few hours to get everything into position, but I won't require any more than one day. The sim will be completely closed, so I'll try to pick a week day that's not too busy.

Unfortunately, there will be no new releases to unveil (unless I can whip something up), my efforts are completely spent on getting this in place. I am planning on doing something special for the grand opening though, not a party but a sale. I never do sales! So save up your money and start eyeballing items ;)

Fantasy Fair 2010

2010-04-20T21:57:00.003-04:00

This is a day late because I'm currently away from home, so my apologies!

Fantasy Fair has just kicked off, and there are over nine themed sims of amazing awesome stuff. I've been granted a lovely stall on Elvencourt, and so in honor of the elven theme I have something appropriately elegant and regal.

Elessia is a flowing piece you can imagine being made by Elven craftsmen in Lothlorien. It's scripted as most of my jewelry is these days, to change to six different metals and the same selection of twelve stones as the Orinthia set. It includes a circlet and necklace, so your ears are free for certain elfy necessities. Since I'm away from home, there was a problem with the scripts to change metal in these, but I was able to get on for a moment on a borrowed laptop in order to fix it. However, if you bought this set yesterday please contact me for an updated version.

Fantasy Fair is dedicated to raising money for the American Cancer Society, so I've put together a limited edition color of the Dama and Primo di Carnivale masks.

Dama di Cielo Notte means "Lady of the Night Sky". It was painted by yours truly and will only be available for the duration of the the fair. 100% of the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society, and the same goes for her partner, the Primo di Cielo Notte.

These are not scripted, what you see is what you get. They can be yours for a donation of 375L. The skin in these are a couple of (possibly retired) beautiful skins by Munchflower Zaius of Nomine, and are from her Aether collection.

I apologize for any delays in my getting back to you for customer service this week, my only internet access is currently through kind relatives giving me a few moments on their systems.

2010-04-15T02:46:00.003-04:00

For a little while now I've been so quiet because I've been working on a new store build. I finally solidified a plan, and after plenty of "inspiration time" playing Assassin's Creed 2 (the game was frickin' made for me! love love love it) I sat down and carved out what had been forming in my imagination.

I have a big thing for cathedrals, grand open spaces, decadent and detailed architecture and floating high arches. I've been paying a lot of attention to what exactly it is about these things that I admire, picking and choosing my favorite elements and assembling them into a carefully planned pile of loveliness.

I'm still working on some holes, filling in the edges, finalizing and problem solving with some tricky areas but the current store build's days are numbered. It's been around since 2007, and has served me well for almost three years. It actually isn't that badly made, I have to say I've stayed pretty happy with the construction, but it has its issues and it's gotten to the point where I've let the walls get rather crowded. Soo... it's either bring out the scythe again and cull the herd of my creations or make a new, easily expandable and decadent store build. If you've visited the new event hall, you might have an idea of what sort of thing to expect. But it's even prettier than that.

Taken with the new 2.0 viewer with shadows enabled for maximum awesomeness

Several months and over a year of mental planning well spent, right? :D

I'm not sure when I'll be making the switch, I won't be able to get on for a week after this Saturday. I also intend to change to the new branding on all of my vendors for a unified look, as well as finally switch over some of the older scripts and update the pricing on some older items to reflect their age. It's the all around sprucing up and house cleaning I've been putting off for over a year!

I'll keep you guys posted on an actual day and of course a grand unveiling, but for now, just know it's coming... eventually.

Some budget issues

2010-04-01T20:35:00.005-04:00

So it turns out I owe quite a lot on my taxes unfortunately. I wasn't able to pay estimated tax over the year so I even have a withholding fee. It's steep, and so I'll be having to make some changes on the sim.

I have to cut back, so the stone and luxurious tile has to go. I sold it to a nice Pakistani man who told me it would be used to build a library in Tucson. In the meantime, I've replaced the walls and floor of the store with an all natural, bio-degradable material which should be temporary.

I'm also opening up a few stalls right outside my store which will be available for rent. These are luxurious, deluxe stalls, painstakingly made by me and I can customize them for your store. Rent starts at about 10,000L a month, I need the money so I'm hoping you guys will be willing to help out by taking one of these beautiful, detailed and elegant stalls.

I can add crayon and sharpie drawings, or crenelations upon request. If you need more space, I'd be happy to duck tape two or more together to create a MegaStall. I really appreciate you guys being so supportive at this difficult time in my store's history, hopefully this new look won't change my store's image of decadence and luxury.

Let's just hope it doesn't rain.

WILD.Released Stamp Hunt

2010-03-18T03:58:00.005-04:00

Have you heard about WILD.Released yet? If not, allow me to illuminate you. I've just gone through my store and included stamp cards in some of my vendors. If you buy one of the marked items, you'll be able to redeem the card you get for an item only available as a prize for this event. All you need to do is go around to the stores that are participating and collect their store stamps. You can even do a bunch of cards at once! There are twelve of us participating, including my fabulous friends from TRAP, silent sparrow, Evie's Closet, Schadenfreude... the list goes on. Every prize is worth it, and you won't want to miss them. Here's a peek at mine :D

This item won't be available in the store, you can only get it through redeeming a fully stamped WILD.Released card at Moonsong. And if you think your mind is already made up, you haven't seen the other prizes.

The cards are available now, but stamping begins on March 20th. Hold on to them until then! And if you're still a little unclear about how the whole thing works, there's more information on the WILD.Released blog :)

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

2010-03-17T17:47:00.005-04:00

Even if you don't really care or wish to celebrate it, if you're favorite color is green St. Paddy's day rocks for freebies. I don't wish to be an exception, and so I passed out a St. Paddy's Day bowler to the folks who wish to be hatted!

While you're wearing it, you can be the one doing the pinching. *peench peench*

Don't get too wasted, otherwise you'll go to hell and burn for a thousand years, and then they'll take you out and flip you over for another thousand. You'll make the holy mother cry if you sleep with a protestant while you're intoxicated. There, that's some authentic Catholic guilt for you.

Ovis Horns

2010-03-15T17:52:00.004-04:00

My collection of horns has a glaring omission. I've been missing a truly spectacular pair of ram's horns that makes you want to reach out and touch them. I'm lucky enough to have touched a wild mountain goat's horns (they were very comfortable around tourists, no I didn't feed it) and I wasn't willing to release something that didn't remind me of that warm dry roughness under my fingertips. I was finally able to evoke that memory :)

I had a very specific vision in mind for how I wanted the texture to be, the amount of shine, the delicate ripples, the bumps and crags and cracks and roughness while still having a polished health to them. It took me forever, carefully modeling the high definition horn to follow the ripples and growth rings of a real horn, adding bumps and wear and tear on them and then finding the right amount of shine, but I finally did it. And now that I've made the perfect pair of ram's horns, I might as well make a few more!

Ovis Nivicola is the "snow sheep" of Siberia, and theyhave beautifully curved horns that frame their faces. I took some liberties with the shape to evoke the same frame, and these are one of my favorites. Perfect for demons!

Ovis Aries is one of those classic ram's horns that are probably what you first think of, they're lighter and not as thick as the Canadensis and so less likely to result in a headache.
The Dallis sheep has a more open horn, which also looks sharper than other mountain sheep. I love these as faun horns, I shrunk them down and put on my faun hooves and I felt like skipping around through the woods with a pan pipe.

They all have the same collection of horn colors and metals you should be plenty familiar with now, and I would definitely suggest you grab some demos to see how you like them. Currently, they're only available at my booth at the Accessories Fair, and you should swing by anyway and grab the freebie I put out :) It's a simple choker for women with a texture change stone.

Illusions @ Accessory Fair 2010

2010-03-07T05:06:00.004-05:00

I'm in the Accessory Fair which is kicking off this weekend, hosted by Glance. It features other designers like myself who fit into the "other" category of what you can wear on your avatar, and will be going until the 27th of March.

I wanted to have something new released especially for it, but most of my projects weren't anywhere near ready. I found there was something simple I'd been wanting to do and just lacked the timing, so I took the opportunity :)

Sometimes I'm in the mood for the primmy splendor and display of the original Orinthia, but sometimes I want to have a simple pendant that's still romantic and feminine. Orinthia Puro is the reconciliation of those two moods, and if I'd known it looked this good on its own I might not have bothered with the frustration of dealing with all of those chains! In fact, I think it even brings out the lines and delicacy of the pendant better. But after all that work on the original, I'd rather offer this as an option instead of a replacement. Plus, it's significantly cheaper ;) (250L, compared to the original's price of 450L)

The set is only available at my Accessory Fair stall for now, but after a week I'll be adding it to my new releases wall in the main store. My next few releases are going to be the same story, released at the fair first and then added to my main store after a few days :)

STEAM Hunt #110 (Illusions)

2010-03-01T18:19:00.003-05:00

In the interest of keeping you guys updated, I'm sick and down for the count with the nastiest son of a bitch cold I've had in a while. I was awake for all of five hours yesterday, so that's something me and a hibernating bear might have in common. However I did need to log on last night because the STEAM hunt starts today.

STEAM is a completely steampunk themed grid-wide hunt that includes over a hundred stores. It's also probably going to be my last grid-wide hunt. I prefer to let the deadlines I live my life by to be my own, not someone else's. I'd much rather live on my own schedule unless it really pays off, and so far it hasn't. I might be expecting too much from them, but I haven't seen any real increase in traffic or notoriety or e-fame or had someone show up at my door with five million Internetz, so clearly they're not worth my time!

Maybe I'm just sour about giving away something as awesome as this hat.

For free. That's right, you guys are spoiled. Spoiled like the pedigree showdog of a has-been TV sitcom star. And you can nab it for free from a golden gear somewhere in my store. I think I heard something ticking when I was lounging around.

I'm particularly proud of myself for not giving in and buying gear sculpts. I hate doing geometric sculpting but I forced myself to give it a try and success! I'll be using these on something else in the future, you can be sure of that ;)

Dama and Primo di Carnivale

2010-02-25T00:49:00.002-05:00

My event masks are always my chance to do something truly outlandish, and work freely without worrying about going back and doing colors. Usually I'm conservative about the amount of unique textures needed for a mask, since for every one I do it increases the amount of total colored textures exponentially. Event masks like the King and Queen of the Dead are my chance to go all out and create an art piece. Unfortunately, this sacrifices their versatility and sometimes their popularity, as I'm less likely to please everyone if it's not available the way they want it.

With these masks, I couldn't let myself condemn it to only one day a year. I found myself wanting it in my own colors as undoubtedly you will when you try it on.

My first Volto in years, this is probably the best I'm going to be able to do for a full face mask without meshes. The lips are still a separate prim, but now blend better than ever. However, SL's object shading will still make the seam visible, but not if you have a no-shader WL setting (a setting that removes the lines on your face, like a face light did back in the days). If your computer can't handle WL settings, setting the mask full bright can work as well. But honestly, it's not really that bad.

These masks are the first event masks to be scripted, and they include the same palette of colors as my more recent masks. The lips change to complimenting colors, but you can also choose contrasting ones if you like, and play around with different effects. The white base of the mask is the only part that does not change, for the sake of better blending with the lip prim.

I've been wanting to make a lot of little changes everywhere, like my blog header and profile picture etc, and just freshen everything to feel more current. You might notice that I changed my vendor template a little. Nothing drastic, just a little touch up, but I think it seems cleaner and fresher. I eventually want to redo my entire store build, but trying to not do anything extreme yet!

These masks are available now at Carnivale for 375L each :)

Mardi Gras Masquerade 2010

2010-02-21T04:20:00.011-05:00

I completed the new event hall just in time for the Masque! We gave it a hell of a christening.

I tried very hard to make the interior ornate and detailed while still being rez-friendly, and I wanted to have as many picture friendly places as possible. I also wanted it to feel grand, and able to hold a full sim's worth of people yet still able to actually hear chat on the other side of it. I'm so proud to say I succeeded!

The way people work within the rules of the outfits never fails to impress me. I love to see people get creative and the time they spend planning pays off. You guys are always unfailingly and impeccably well dressed!

As always, there was a vote to determine who would be the Mardi Gras King and Queen, and be awarded the two unique masks made especially for the event. Aceius Hax was a clear favorite, looking very dapper with his cane and tailored, colorful suit. Kala Lunasea turned heads with her golden skin and vibrantly colored coat. In the end, they turned out to be a very good match!

The King and Queen masks will be released soon, I have a few tweaks I'd like to make, but I'm very proud to have made an elegant Volto after all this time. Took me long enough, yeesh.

Everyone was very good company, and six hours flew by! Before I knew it, it was just me and few other folks dancing, listening to the music, and quietly being busy at hour eight o.o No matter how long you stayed, your presence was enjoyed. This was my fourth annual Mardi Gras masquerade, and I'm so happy to continue this tradition. It was the best yet, and I want to thank you for being a part of this celebration of masks and fabulousness. I hope to see you at the next one!

Velodorno

2010-02-16T04:06:00.004-05:00

My Columbina Venetzia is still one of my favorite masks, but it's getting on in years and I don't think it really expresses the best that I can do anymore. So I set out to make a new signature mask that is in the same heart but in my new style. Unfortunately, when I know that I'm going to be looking at something for the next year or so as an example of my work, I turn into the Amazing Nitpicking Machine and can not be appeased by anything but a magnitude of effort for every tiny detail. But, it always ends up worth it, and this mask is no exception!

I finally have a new favorite mask. I can't get enough of filigree and delicate curls, and the shape of the eye and the way it flatters the face has a sense of mystique I just adore. It shares the same selection of colors as the Mezzadorno, Perorno, and Delitesco, though I made a small adjustment to the red color in all of them. It seemed a bit washed out, so if that was bothering you I'll be happy to send you an update, just ask :)

I'll be slowly working on new promotional pictures for the store, maybe even setting up a new vendor design. I don't know if I'll be able to get around to redoing every single vendor, but the least I can do is start the newest items off on it. You might have already noticed that my blog header has had an increase in spiffy-ness, and that's foreshadowing for more to come.

It feels good to be getting back to normal, but it also is scary because of all the stuff I need to do. I need to do a lot of catching up and cleaning up, and I never feel like I have enough time. To the people who are waiting on me, hang in there, I'm doing my best!

Year of the Tiger

2010-02-14T03:41:00.004-05:00

Hearts? Pink? Red? Nah, you've had enough of that. How about some frickin' TIGER stuff huh? That's right, it's the year of the tiger, officially the most awesome year of Chinese astrology aside from the dragon, but you can't go and see a dragon at the zoo (oh how we can wish though). So, the year of the tiger is officially the most badass year of the existent animals. And they can eat you, which is bonus awesome.

I wasn't going to waste the opportunity to skip on the hearts, and so my update group gets to have what's no doubt a welcome change of pace from V-day. You can fish this out of the notices of Masqueraderie for the next 14 days, but make sure to get it today so you can wish everyone a happy new year!

I'm proud of myself with this mask, because I took a chance to explore painting directly onto the model rather than relying completely on materials and prims to do my detail work. It took me a long and frustating several hours just struggling with the markings on the forehead (grrrr!) but I'm happy with the results and I do feel I learned something. Unfortunately textures still get too distorted on the sculpt for high detail work, but for this its just fine.

Anyway, tigers are awesome. People born in the year of the tiger are adventurous, dynamic and impulsive. They're affectionate and passionate and love attention, and may have a tendency to get in your face if you haven't fed them and maybe shun you if you come home smelling like another tiger. They're also generous, charismatic, snuggly, and they love sunbeams and young children named Calvin.

Kung hei fa choy!

Delitesco

2010-02-10T19:09:00.004-05:00

I'm feeling better, getting things back to normal, and so I felt up to releasing something I was working on last week before things went the way they did.

Delitesco is full of mystique and sensuousness just in time for Valentine's Day. It's elegant and has a touch of modern timelessness. It changes to the usual selection of twelve colors, and the lace can also change to black, white, or you can hide it completely. It's an alpha texture overlay, so it might have conflicts on certain hair styles. Make sure you try the demo before you buy it :)

It's 125L out at the store: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Carnivale/208/87/33/

2010-02-04T20:20:00.002-05:00

My apologies if you've been trying to contact me online for the past few days, I haven't been myself. My cat of over 15 years, who was very much loved and a cherished part of my life had a rapid decline in health at the beginning of the week, and today we finally had to bid her goodnight. My emotions have been run ragged and I just can't find an appetite to eat, much less work or create. If you're waiting on customer service please be patient with me, if I can attend to your questions or issues offline I'll do my best. But I just can't log in right now, I'm sorry.

Magic and Romance Hunt

2010-02-01T00:45:00.005-05:00

I'm still giving this hunt thing a try, so far I have no idea if anyone has actually made it to my store from the Shoes and Accessories Hunt (good ol' #150), so I'm bringing my experimenting with hunts to a different approach, which is the small and intimate hunt with a very strong theme.

Morgaine Price's modest hunt with around 30 designers is more up my alley, and is heavily fantasy themed. Most of the designers create fantasy clothing for women, and include folks like Deviance and Wishbox. And myself, of course!

In keeping with the theme of fantasy and romance, my offering for the hunt is the Amorno mask:
A sweet, feminine valentines-appropriate visage, this mask can be found inside a red rose hidden somewhere in my store. I apologize to the guys for such a girly offering, but it's an extremely girly hunt! You grabbed the horns from that other hunt, right?

Mezzadorno Mask

2010-01-31T02:19:00.003-05:00

I'm doing a good job with my new year's resolution so far, keeping my projects short and sweet is incredibly refreshing and its wonderful for my morale. I have another beautiful mask done, these are just pouring out of me and I've been able to work on them straight through the day without getting to the point where I want to run off and eat a pint of ice cream! Bliss!

The Mezzadorno is in the same vein as the Perorno, but it has a different character and shape than its sibling. I also simply can't get enough of all of this filigree, I think the next mask I do might have even more. I found it hard to stop myself with this one, but any more and it started to get a bit "busy".

I've also noticed that there seems to be a rise in the incidence of spambots in the comments. Normally when I see the little notice that lets me know I have a comment, my heart jumps, I can barely wait for the page to load, what did that person say about my things!!.... oh, I can save a lot of money on blah blah blah. I can't bear the heartbreak. I might put comments to moderation, and its most certainly not your fault. If you're a real person you are more than welcome to post, unless you're not, in which case bugger off you spambot!

Perorno Mask

2010-01-28T19:36:00.004-05:00

With Mardi Gras on its way, I'm working on a few new masks to help people get in the mood!

Perorno is simple and elegant, in the same vein as the Civetta and Columbina Venetzia masks. I've been working more with torus masks and I just love the crispness of the eyes and how easy it is to fit. It's unisex, though men with larger noses might need to reposition it, so just be sure to try a demo before you buy!

The mask has my usual selection of twelve colors, though I played with the shades a bit to mix it up. You can expect a few more masks similar to this one as I play with shapes!

Mardi Gras Masquerade 2010

2010-01-23T20:31:00.003-05:00

Purple, green and gold aren't just the colors of a Concord grape at sunset, they're also the colors of Mardi Gras. When everyone else is thinking about Valentine's Day, I've got carnivale on the brain!

You're cordially invited to the fourth annual Illusions Mardi Gras Masquerade, held in Carnivale's elegant event hall. Even though Mardi Gras is obviously on a Tuesday, I know there are people who would like to withhold their revelry to a time they don't have to get up early to go to work/classes the next day.

As always, purple, green and gold are apropos but if you have something specific in mind, go for it! But please, keep the showgirl outfits in your closet (you too, men!) and keep in mind this is a formal affair.

When assembling your costume, please keep these rules in mind. These rules have worked exceedingly well for former events, even with the sim at capacity! So please, do respect them. For the sake of all of us, if each party-goer abides by them we should all be able to dance and camera around without molasses.

Please keep your prim attachments in total to 200 or less.
You can double check how close you are to the limit by using build, and holding down shift to click each item you're wearing. The build window will display the collected total of those prims.

Streamline your AO, or leave it at home
Nobody likes looking like a noob while being a wallflower. However, if you don't plan to dance, fill a veritably lag free, low prim ZHAOII with your two or three favorite stands. Otherwise, just go without.

No particles, and no listening scripts
Turn that bling off, and make sure you don't have any items on you that respond to chat commands. Make copies of items that have resize scripts in them and use the remove feature that many have included.

As always, there will be a costume contest, determined by vote, to vie for the titles of Mardi Gras King and Queen. Two previously unreleased, themed masks will be awarded as the prizes, along with 1500L each.

Make sure you join the group early, do not put it off because you don't have a group slot. Spots will go surprisingly fast, and I will refuse to add a single soul more than 50. I will, however, have a waiting list just in case anyone leaves the group, which has happened before. There will still be hope to get in even if you hear about it too late.

Masks are required, but a freebie mask will be included, which is the mask shown in the invite. I know the costume rules are tough to follow, especially when it's so tempting to go for the excess, but I have the utmost faith in your creativity to be able to work around the limitations, and flourish. I can't wait to see you there.

Illusions Mardi Gras Masque
Saturday, February 20th, 4PM SLT
Illusions Event Hall, Carnivale
(Join the "Illusions Mardi Gras Masque 2010" Group)
Formal Dress and Mask Required

Shoes & Accessories Hunt

2010-01-15T03:35:00.004-05:00

I've decided to try out participating in one of those new fangled hunt thingers you young people are always yammering on about. And I'm jumping in with both feet, since the SAH is HYOOOGE! Or at least it is to me, apparently some jaded and delusional folks are saying it's a "modest" hunt with a mere 164 stores participating.

I'm not sure what I can expect from this considering I'm store #150, and I personally can't imagine anyone actually going to every single store and wanting to spend time at them. So I guess I have to set out a particularly appetizing gift to get people in here!

I made some cute little ram's horns, and I've been wearing them around for a week or so now. They didn't fit in with my ridged horn release so I've decided to let you guys have them. Even if you don't feel like doing the hunt, this one is on me guys :)

Now you just have to find them! They'll be hidden inside an alpha picture of a yellow boot. The clue I gave the hunt coordinators was this: "Someone was climbing on the columns". I tried so hard to think of something more clever and romantic (oo a haiku! or maybe a sonnet!) but my hiding spot is so unremarkable the wellspring of my poetic mind ran dry from boredom. So I guess if you're reading this you get an extra clue!

Nature's Headgear

2010-01-11T01:41:00.003-05:00

When I see a nature show and they feature gazelle, impala or ibex, I always appreciate the artistry in the sculpting hands of evolution/god/spaghetti monsters. It's unavoidable though that my thoughts should always wander to "damn, that's some frickin' awesome headgear". Some of them are just equipped with the most exquisite racks of lovely curving horns, the likes of which demons only dream of.

So since making my Christmas antlers got me in the mood to make horns, my days of fruitless envy are done and gone, for I made myself some frickin' awesome headgear :D

The ibex is a type of wild mountain goat, who, as you might have guessed, has awesome horns. The ridges and character and roughness of them is simply inspiring. For these, I did a whole new set of textures (but with the same familiar options as the others) to reflect the unique character of them. I also used oblong sculpts to try to cram as much of the actual shape of the ridges as I could. Thankfully, they were quite versatile and allowed me to honor a few other gloriously ridgey horned animals.

The Capra Sibirica (Siberian Ibex) is another goat with amazing horns, so huge you really have to wonder how they don't fall over when they stand up. These are actually smaller than their horns, you can certainly make them larger if you like but I didn't want to give my avatar a headache.

Aepyceros Melampus is the scientific name of the impala (not the car). These are my favorite, they have a beautiful lyrate curve that's flattering and exotic, and are possibly more aerodynamic for superior highway fuel performance.

At first glance you might not be able to tell the difference between these and the Aepyceros, but if you try the demos you'll see they both have a distinctive character. The Gazella are a bit more aggressive and streamlined, which might reflect well on their namesake. Not sure if gazelles are aggressive, no one ever comes back from safari saying they got attacked by one. Though admittedly that might be because no one wants to come back from a safari and say that out of all of the dangerous animals they saw, they got attacked by a gazelle.

Anyway, these are all out at the main store :) You can nab them for 125L each, and you can grab the demos out of the notices for Masqueraderie or at the store.

A New Year

2010-01-03T05:09:00.002-05:00

I have a pretty simple resolution this year, and that's to release more small projects. I feel like this year I did a tremendous amount of work on complex projects like the roses and the Hedera silks, that took months and months just get added to the wall. I have the potential to produce an enormous amount of awesomeness, butI do feel limited by knowing what a total pain in the ass huge projects are. I have inspiration and visions of gorgeousness that I rein in because I start worrying about how long and how demoralizing the work would be. I don't like that feeling.

Doing things like the elf slippers, holly jewelry and antlers was incredibly refreshing. It was a great reminder of how rewarding and motivating it is to release things regularly. I'm tired of agonizing over myriad pieces of a greater whole, and I'm ready to do more one-offs. I know this doesn't really effect you, but you can be on the look out for more masks, horns and possibly whimsical shoes. I won't be doing any more outfits any time soon, that's for certain. I just don't think I can handle that right now!

Also, I apologize for never getting around to blogging my holiday freebies. I've been sick for the past week and my will to do anything Second Life related went in the trash along with my spent tissues. I feel better now obviously, but that's why this post is conspicuously a few days late >.>

Keep a light with you

2009-12-22T01:05:00.006-05:00

It's not often I can grant a wish, but sometimes I do come through.

Skin by Tuli, Dress by Evie's Closet

Keep a light with you this solstice, but stay far away from the smoke alarm.

Last year I released a pair of antlers so fabulous, they had to be limited so they could be coveted and worshiped as they deserved. Yet all through the year I've been asked about them, and I've been biding my time until the solstice to give them an heir.

These are by no means as epic or awe-inspiring as the Odocoleinae Lumina, I mean for starters you can actually see yourself in frame when you take a picture of them. But they are beautiful, regal, elegant and distinctive, as well as festive in their own right. Drips of wax hang down from the angular reaches of the antlers and get in your hair, and the delicate flickers of glowing flames illuminate your way so you don't need a flashlight. These are scripted to change the antler's texture as always, but they also change the texture of the candles to black, silver, or dark brown wax. You can easily turn the actual candle light off or on through the menu as well.

These are not limited, they're a permanent addition to my antlers collection, so you can breath a sigh of relief that you have time to nab them. If you missed the Odocoleinae Lumina, you can still have these :) And they're 375L, as opposed to the 1750L of the limited edition.

If you're a purist and the candles aren't your thing, or maybe you're a bit short on cash, the plain ones are also available for 250L :)

Men can totally wear girl's hair (hair by Maitreya)

These are available now at Carnivale

Christmas Bell Jewelry

2009-12-20T20:29:00.003-05:00

I have another festive goodie! I'm not actually sure why, but bells are really associated with Christmas. Maybe it's a symbol of churches calling people together or they're the proverbial jingle bells, but here's a pretty bell you can wear on your neck that isn't attached to a neko collar.

Festive holly along with a delicately tied ribbon decorate this lovely golden bell. But the best part about this jewelry set? It's only 50L, so even if you only wear it a few times you can still get your money's worth out of it :)~

I also set out a box of holiday goodies for free, which include a remake of my holly jewelry and some ornaments and mini reindeer antlers. I'll blog the contents tomorrow, but you can still pick it up today!

Festive Florissinae

2009-12-17T16:34:00.006-05:00

Since I released them last year, my antlers have been one of the items I see most often when I'm walking around or browsing fashion blogs. I love the whimsical quality they can add to avatars and they can make a perfectly realistic outfit have a taste of wild fantasy. Antlers are just visually delicious, and I really can't get enough of them.

So I've finally returned to well-trodden ground which I think a lot of people were hoping I would, and created a completely new set utilizing my freshly developed oblong sculpt skillz.

Inspired by Allegory Malaprop (Schadenfreude) and her own curly antlers, I got her blessing to create my own rendition. Taste wise, she and I cover a lot of the same ground. Florissinae isn't an actual genus of deer obviously, if it ever was they would have been hunted down long ago for their awesome headgear. Just like the previous antlers, these are texture change to twelve different lovely options.

The entire reason I made these, though, was that curly antlers are fabulous for decorating with baubles. I've been wanting to make properly decorated holiday antlers for a couple years now and the time was finally right!

These... are so much fun to play with. The antlers themselves are scripted to change, but so are the decorations! I owe a shout out to Sobriquet Kryakutnoy, for without him you would have no Multi option (shown). I would have had to make them a whole separate pair of antlers or something, so major kudos to him. Aside from the festive multi-color version, you can play with having white lights and blue ornaments, red lights and red ornaments, green, white, whatever! There are twelve options to play with to make these antlers incredibly versatile, which makes them awesome to wear through the whole month and not only on those days you feel like wearing the classic red and green.

The gorgeous and talented Evangeline Miles kindly demonstrated this in a few pictures on her plurk ♥

Edited to add: And Ann Launay struts her stuff with her favorite, the cyan ornaments with white tips: http://www.sluniverse.com/snapshots/425392.png

They're available now at the store, and as always you can grab a scripted demo to give them a test drive :)

Festive Elf Shoes!

2009-12-13T20:24:00.004-05:00

I'm trying to hard to get into the spirit of the season, but my muse is like a hyperactive St Bernard and I'm just trying to keep her on a leash, much less going the right direction.

Yesterday I did have success in reeling her in and I worked on some adorable curly toed elf shoes.

These are the perfect things to wear with tights or silly pants. They're unisex so they can be worn by both men and women, and they change texture to five different colors, and twelve different options total. There's a nice minty green, an icey blue, white, black, and the red that's shown. Each of the colors comes with the option for a white cuff or a colored cuff, and it's really fun to alternate them especially if you have parti-colored tights!

I adore curly toed shoes in real life, and making these was so much fun I think I'll be making more in the future (and in more colors).

For more general updates, I've updated the prices on miscellaneous older items throughout the store. I've also added scripts to the old Phoenix and Seraphim masks so there's no more need for fatpacks.

Also, the thing my muse keeps wanting to run off on is the new event hall build. So far its coming along beautifully, and things might be changing around the sim suddenly. The store probably won't be touched but the old event hall might not be here very long >.>

Holiday Items Return!

2009-12-04T03:22:00.003-05:00

Just a quick update to acknowledge that yes, it IS December (as if everyone clambering over each other to put out red and green things and drown you in candy canes wasn't reminder enough), I've put out the Lussinat crown and the reindeer antlers from last year for the holiday season! If you've forgotten what they look like, here's a refresher:

Reindeer Antlers

Lussinat Crown

They're joined by the old old Merry Jingly and Snowflake coats which have held up surprisingly well against the Whim of Retiring Doom. However... the holly jewelry didn't make it. I really haven't been in the mood to work on remaking it but I think I'll wrestle myself into it in the next week.

I've also gotten some questions about whether I'm going to do another limited edition like last year. The Odocoleinae Lumina have become almost legendary and are certainly a tough act to follow. To tell the truth I'm not sure if I have it in me for something else as epicly awesome as those. If I can dream up something awe inspiring, I'll do my best, but no promises! I'm only just getting my creative muse back after the flurry of October and the rigor of the roses and I don't want to chase her off with another enormous project.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

2009-11-26T15:46:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the states! And happy autumn to those who aren't! I hope everyone enjoyed the colors of fall, and before you guys bundle up too much and start putting snowflakes on your sweaters you should pick up some deceased plant matter and wear it on your head.

A piece of autumn color from someone lucky enough to be where leaves turn :) The texture for these leaves was from a particularly stunning leaf I found while walking near where I live, and maples always have better color than those dowdy oaks! If you didn't get the group notice, you can grab it out of the notice history tab in the group info of Masqueraderie.

As thanksgiving is a time to appreciate what you have, but I also have potatoes to peel and a turkey in the oven, I will keep this short. I can't tell you how much you (yes you), contribute to my life just by reading these words, following my new releases and buying things with your hard earned $L. I've said before and I'll say it again that this is my passion, my RL job, and if I wasn't doing this I'd probably be waiting tables or sitting in the pale glow of fluorescent lights while doing something I found horribly boring. So thank you for letting me do something I love, and thank you for appreciating what I bring to SL. If it wasn't for you, I doubt I would be anywhere near as happy as I am. It may be mushier than canned yams, but garsh darn it it's true.

♥

2009-11-05T18:09:00.002-05:00

Today for Bonfire night and the 5th of November, there's a sort of movement going on in the fashion community. There's been a buzz, more than usual, about Creator's Rights and copyright protection. There are a couple of groups that have been created to promote awareness about theft and supporting content creators.

Honestly, I don't think the message is going to reach the people who actually need to hear it. The worst culprits of theft probably aren't even aware of fashion feeds, and Linden Lab couldn't be bothered with whatever action we try to take. Munchflower Zaius and Stroker Serpentine are already taking the best action available as far as LL is concerned: a class action suit.

So what is there left? I know I certainly want to spread awareness of real artists and protect our content from being ripped and redistributed, but really what is there to do?

As a customer and a shopper, the best thing you can do (in my humble opinion) is simply to be aware of who you are buying from. Familiarize yourself with some of the tell-tale signs of resellers and rippers, and with popular prefab sculpt packs. Before you plop down lindens for something you really like ask yourself who you're paying the money to. There aren't surefire ways to tell if a store is legit, but if there are multiple red flags in one place, it might be better to teleport away and find somewhere else to get that tank top.

Real artists have a dedication to their work, a love for what they do, and a passion for their products. And I feel these are the people you should seek out, support, and buy from when you can. And when you find that the insecurity of the grid has been exploited at the detriment of these people, speak up and let the artist know. Even if they've probably heard about it a hundred times, there's always the chance that they haven't.

Really that's all. It's not a grand gesture, it's just a constant effort. As a shopper, even if you never speak to a content creator, wearing their items is a badge of support and an endorsement. So thank you, however you are showing your support today, thank you.

The King and Queen of the Dead

2009-11-01T01:51:00.004-04:00

For the past few weeks, I have poured more time and effort than ever before into an event mask. I had a rough idea what I was in for, but even planning ahead and allowing extra time ended with me finishing them a mere four hours before the masquerade began. For the past week I literally woke up, worked on this, (grabbed a snack), and fell asleep.

I had a vision of not only a skull mask, but an entire skull.. and not just a skull but the neck as well. I wanted its beautifully asymmetrical and jagged vertebrae raw and exposed for all to see. This did mean tackling invisiprims, which are a kludgey, glitchy, and sometimes hideous thing to deal with. People tolerate them on their shoes, but would they tolerate them in a more visible spot, like the face? I'd have to make it worth their time.

I've been learning both new sculpting techniques but most especially texturing, which has allowed me to delicately paint and utilize sources in new ways, which allows me a whole new level of realism. I didn't want a perfectly photosourced look (I don't think it works too well in SL), but I adore the detail it brings to my already smooth and stylized textures.
The differences between the male and female masks might not be immediately evident, it's mostly in the collar, the jaw, and the shape of the invisiprims. I wouldn't suggest trading genders in the case of these; the shapes are quite specifically formed to the respective meshes.

Amusingly, you can wear hair with these, which can sometimes work out wonderfully and sometimes disastrously. I suggest you experiment with different styles, if at all, because obviously it works well on its own.

Another option you can try it with is just with the neck piece, which I've been quite enjoying. Sometimes you want a touch of the macabre, but don't want to hide that gorgeous face you spent so long tweaking and finding the perfect skin for.

If these go well I might consider doing other skeletal pieces like hands or an arm. The issue here is where are people willing to tolerate invisiprims? They're not the best solution, but they're currently the only ones.

I'm also so exhausted from this month I think I'm going to go crawl in a hole for a little while.

The Dead Can Dance

2009-10-31T23:20:00.006-04:00

Last night was the Masque of the Dead, and Carnivale welcomed back some of the most notorious ghosts and departed wraiths this side of the Cornfield. We danced the night away, making sure to not step on each other's feet even though some might have been strewn across the floor.

The costumes were amazing as always, I'm consistently impressed with how well people are able to work around the limits and get creative with concept and execution.

Looking at my own pictures, honestly Carthalis Rossini and Arilynn Karu both out did me, those crafty cadavers.

Arilynn's slideshow
Carthalis' Album on Snapzilla

Some of Carthalis' pictures of the spirits that haunted us last night

Norathiel Silvera

Achariya Maktoum and Mourna Biziou

Mabb Dilwig

Mabb was so well received as a once beheaded and long dead French aristocrat, that she was crowned Queen of the Dead. Carthalis joined her as the King.

The deathly duo of Mourna Biziou and Achariya, the twin dolls were also awarded a pair of Queen of the Dead masks, in honor of them coming in at a very close tie/second. The horns were awarded with the masks, however they won't be available with the actual for-sale version; I needed something to make my own costume grander so I dug in for my personal horns.

Me and Selos before the Masque

Thank you to everyone who came. No matter how long you stayed or how much you spoke, you were most welcome and I hope you enjoyed seeing the dearly departed back in the mortal realm. Even if they smelled a bit funny.

Mort

2009-10-30T07:10:00.005-04:00

Just in time for Halloween! I've been working like a mad woman preparing for the Masque of the Dead, as well as trying to get just one last release out before the big day. I certainly seem to be in a Terry Pratchett mindset, so I figured I'd just embrace it for this mask.

Back when I had my tiny mask store in the sky (in the mainland sim of Plio) I had a big collection of skully things. I had scythes, masks, capes etc, and when I retired them they were missed. I've made a couple of attempts to make skulls since then but now I feel I've learned enough and pushed myself far enough to make something I'm happy with.

It's unisex, so it looks great on both men and women, but it's not very nose friendly. Due to the nature of the nose, I couldn't bring it out much farther without it not looking right. I did the best I could, but ye of the pointy shnozzles might want to try the demo first, and make sure your shape is mod.

It's texture change and changes to nine colors, which are a somewhat different array of colors than my usual jewel tones. They include classic black, white, bone (shown) and red, but also a more adventurous variety of old bronze. My favorite is the black and white:

And did I mention it looks totally kick ass with the Khimar hood? Nah... 'cause it didn't need to be said ;)

See How High She Flies!

2009-10-23T19:28:00.003-04:00

I've just completed some fabulous new witchy hats just in time for Halloween! I released them last night, but some technical issues with blogger had me hung up, posting-wise. They shouldn't have taken me so long, my RL has been so darned eventful (in a good way!) I haven't been able to focus on buckling down and just working on these. This week I forcefully made some time, and finally finished these troublesome chapeaus.

I like the name my witchy hats after famous witches, and in this case I've named them after the infamous trio in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.

Agnes is a rather plain girl, very sensible but she longs for a mystical life with candles and seances and love potions. This hat has an eldrytch sense of age to it, maybe a bit musty, and is certainly perfect for witches and wizards alike. If you're thinking of going for a costume from the Harry Potter-verse, this would be perfect.

Like pretty much everything I make these days, it's scripted to change texture on touch to twelve different colors. Included are black, gray, white, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple and a soft pink.

If it's a little simple for you, this one is my favorite of the three:
Gytha is playful, wise, charming and drunkenly hilarious. The name might not fit so well, considering the Tim Burtonesque curl and the stylized shape, but when I thought about it Gytha would certainly be fabulous enough to wear this hat. She would also be able to fit a good sized kitten under it, as she often does.

Also, I just wanted to mention that I'm well aware that my friend Allegory just released a similar hat, and before anyone tries to call foul I think we'd both just like to say that great minds think alike :) We both worked independently on them and we're quite okay with our respective hats peacefully coexisting. Hers have some very playful colorations too, so if you're in the mood for orange and green stripes or something you're welcome to take a look.

The last hat was named after my favorite witch, Esme Weatherwax.

An utterly practical witch, Granny Weatherwax is a clever and no-nonsense force of nature. She won't give people what they want, she'll give them what they need. She has a commanding presence and seems taller than she actually is... could it be the hat?

I had to stretch the demo frame on this one higher than ever, you'll be tickling the rafters on this one! Like the other hats the band and hat have the same 12 colors, but on this one the buckle changes as well, to your choice of silver, gold, or tarnished black.

Now please excuse me, I must attune my Botanical crystals to the leylines of the sim. The sun is coming into trine with the Star of Neko and the constellation Freenis.

Three Years

2009-10-19T22:13:00.003-04:00

I was sitting on this post for a bit, until I could figure out how to finish it.

October 14th marked my third year in Second Life. So I threw a little shindig on the Indigo Rose the other day, and took a little time to reminisce about how much has changed since then. That's what rezdays are for!

When I first logged on, I was ugly as hell (but enjoyed making outfits out of the freebies I did have), and after some fumbling and camping and other noobie things I found refuge on the Limbo sim and made my first objects. The first rose I made, was a mere ten days after I joined. Varda coming out around the same time is a very happy and appropriate coincidence!

I'm excited for another year. It's hard to imagine what ways I'm going to change and what I'm going to learn and pick up. Evolution is impossible to avoid when you push yourself as hard as you can towards excellence. So here's to the hope of perfection... one of the things that keeps me going :)

Varda

2009-10-07T06:19:00.008-04:00

Do you remember back in mid-June, I posted that I had a lot of big projects in the works and I couldn't really talk about them?

Well, Hedera was one of them, but the other... I have only just finished.

My teaser in August really didn't do them justice. This is a project that has been almost three years in the making, through slow and steady evolution and a fanatical desire to achieve perfection. Cutting to the chase, MY ROSES ARE FRICKIN' DONE!
I wanted them done back during the summer... I wanted them done at least in time for Jewelry Fair... but at least I've got them done in time to honor my rez day. I say three years because first thing I ever made was a rose made out of cylinder slivers, textured with that satin texture from the library! What better way to celebrate my third year in SL.

Each rose is painstakingly sculpted (I do mean pained, this took me ages) out of unique sculpts. Each petal is a different sculpt, each rose is a slightly different rose, each leaf, each stem, each petal, each and every damn thing placed as close to perfect as my sanity would allow. So please, do adorn yourself with them.

There are thirty six different colors for the rose petals, 20 of which were carefully matched to real rose colors that actually exist. Natural roses range from deep reds to brighter vermillions, into soft mauves and pinks and then more vibrant apricots and corals. I did my best to capture every color as faithfully as I could, so that everyone's favorite rose could be represented. I played with the leaves and stem textures too, and came up with six that were both beautiful and fun to combine with the petals. My favorite is the "red branch", I have no idea what it is called but it's very common for roses to have burgundy stems and branches with red tinged leaves, and I tried to capture that. There's also brown dead leaves, two shades of green, and the omnipresent black and white.

The mask has unique colors too, and has a range pretty close to the natural roses. I tried to make sure there was a match for most of the rose colors, and I even included a specific coloring for the red branches, which is shown up in the jewelry picture. The mask is my first attempt at a torus mask with no middle bridge... so please forgive the seam. I did my best to conceal it but sculpts are only so precise.

If having a mask, necklace, and earrings made of roses isn't enough for you, I've made a range of hair accessories so you can really load yourself down. People won't be able to get near you unless they want to be near a perfumerie.

A modest hair clip, and a possible blast from the past for anyone who still has the old hair rose. I wanted to add a bit of something so that the bloom had some context, so I added leaves and sepals (the petals that cup the bud). But the single hair rose is so small and modest, it'd be fun to go a bit bigger.

This is perfect for dressing up an updo a bit, or clipping to the back of a long hair to give a splash of color. I can imagine it being positioned on a bun with the roses set to white for a wedding and being stunning. But even that isn't necessarily big enough to really show up on some long hairs, so I made a larger barrette with stems coming down:
And just so you can have your options, because the cascading blooms is such a lovely effect, if you want them closer to your face there's always this...

Yes, it's a "hair adornment", after using up "clip" and "barrette" my limited lexicon of decorative hair terminology was spent. This is the piece shown up in that first picture though, which makes a beautiful frame for a beautiful face.

Each of these hair ornaments comes with three different attachment points, so you have your choice to work around your lashes, piercings etc. This is only with the copiable choice though, so if you choose transfer you will only end up with one fit.

For the purists, and those who love to tango, you can also have your rose on the side, as god intended (just genetically mutilated all to hell through generations of careful breeding)

Changes texture as well, comes on the hand and mouth, geezus this is a long post... I'll just finish up quick. I'm also making available the long stem roses in red at a discount rate, unscripted and transferable so you can buy a pack to pass flirtatiously to fancy ladies or as part of your roleplay. This is only available in red at the store, but any of the other colors is available at the same prices upon request.

And this post doesn't need any more pictures, but the boutonniere is back. Oh, yes, and "Varda" means rose in hebrew, it was much more creative than just calling them "rose" and much less evocative of skin conditions than "rosacea".

And now to just reiterate... HOMG THEY'RE DONE! THEY'RE DONE! HALLELUJAH

2009-09-25T03:28:00.004-04:00

I went through my store today and did a bit of redecorating! The furniture that was out had to be from two years ago, and I had been playing with my own Rococo inspired furniture for my sim build. For the past few months it's just been sitting in my hobbit house, so I figured what the hell, might as well put it out in the store.

I haven't even touched my sim model in four months or more, I haven't felt that I could devote the time. As a result, it's very likely that the Mardi Gras masque will not have been the last party to be thrown in the current hall, but no promises. I might just tear it down anyway, build the full scale version of the model's event hall and just let it be a stand alone piece for now.

I've added a little bargain wall that has items priced at 50L or lower. I've lowered the price of my Sweetheart Cloche to 50L, and put a few items that have been floating around wherever I could stick them over there. I also pulled out a very old piece from my inventory that I never really formally set out: the Smokey veil.

Actually, I can't remember, did I ever put this out? No idea... but anyway, it's languishing, and its original form in normal prims was incredibly popular. The reason it's been sitting for so long is that there are some minor texture problems that were driving me batty, and what are the chances of no alpha conflict with bangs?

But you know, it's darn pretty, and that's what a bargain wall is for. It might give me a chance to release a few other things that have little bothers like this one. It's 50L tucked around the corner where the moustaches are.

I took down the old pirate head sign, it was cheeky but it didn't say what I wanted to say. I know that the unscrupulous sorts who would steal are going to find a way to anyway... but it's the people who can be led to believe it's alright that worry me. It's a slippery slope and I want to remind folks who've been tempted that the items you clearly love enough to purchase are worth purchasing again. Circumventing permissions in any way is a slap in the face to the original artist. Content creators like myself honestly need every cent. None of us are Anshe Chung, and even the people who are part of the big fashion houses have bills to pay.

As my new sign says, ripping content in SL is like stealing a kid's macaroni picture. It may have no real value to you, and it may be easy for you, but it can break a person's heart. The time and effort and creativity that goes into something we put out for a pittance is all born out of love for what we're doing. And I know that I for one thank the powers that be every day that I can do this for a job, but I wouldn't be able to do it without every person who trades me a few lindens for a piece of my soul. I'd hope that that's a bargain. I'm also quite happy that my soul seems to be big enough to go around :)

Masque of the Dead

2009-09-24T02:56:00.004-04:00

Halloween is coming up once again. And of course, as well all know, the spirit world is closer than ever to meeting with the real world on that night. Does that count for the virtual world as well?

On Friday, October 30th, the barrier between the worlds of life and death will waver, and the spirits of those departed will venture into mortal halls, to caper and dance like they once did.

Come back from the ether of the afterlife to be "lively" again. Be you a ghost or ghast, a wraith or revenant, you will be welcome to dance your feet off!

And then you can pick them up, put them back on and dance some more.

But please, no vampires. Vampires have never shuffled off the mortal coil, and still enjoy the luxury that so many spirits are denied. Do not rub your good fortune in the faces of those who don't get to enjoy the mortal world on a daily basis! Zombies are more than welcome, as long as you promise to pick up your pieces should you shed them.

When assembling your costume, please keep these rules in mind. These rules have worked exceedingly well for former events, even with the sim at capacity! So please, do respect them. For the sake of all of us, if each party-goer abides by them we should all be able to dance and camera around without molasses.

Please keep your prim attachments in total to 200 or less.
You can double check how close you are to the limit by using build, and holding down shift to click each item you're wearing. The build window will display the collected total of those prims.

Streamline your AO, or leave it at home
Nobody likes looking like a noob while being a wallflower. However, if you don't plan to dance, fill a veritably lag free, low prim ZHAOII with your two or three favorite stands. You don't need a walk or any other anim if you're not moving. Otherwise, just go without.

No particles, and no listening scripts
Turn that bling off, and make sure you don't have any items on you that respond to chat commands. Try to avoid scripted items at all if possible.

As always, there will be a costume contest, determined by vote, to vie for the title of King and Queen of the Dead. Two previously unreleased, themed masks will be awarded as the prizes, along with 1500L each.

Make sure you join the group early, do not put it off because you don't have a group slot. Spots will go surprisingly fast, and I will refuse to add a single soul more than 50. I will, however, have a waiting list just in case anyone leaves the group, which has happened before. There will still be hope to get in even if you hear about it too late.

Masks are required, but a freebie mask will be included, which is the mask shown in the invite. I know the costume rules are tough to follow, especially when it's so tempting to go for the excess, but I have the utmost faith in your creativity to be able to work around the limitations, and flourish. I can't wait to see you there.

Illusions Masque of the Dead
Friday, October 30th, 6PM SLT
Illusions Event Hall, Carnivale
(Join the "Illusions Masque of the Dead 2009" Group)
Formal Dress and Mask Required

Jewelry Fair Releases 2009

2009-09-18T06:39:00.008-04:00

Both RL and my obligations to the Jewelry Fair itself have been interfering incredibly with my production, and so I'm very sorry to say I didn't get everything done that I had hoped. I really thought and hoped that I would be able to get my roses done and out and completed but there's just too far to go with them for me to be able to get them out tonight. I'm going away for the weekend, but when I get back I am going to do my best to get them out during the fair.

Despite my delays, I have some other treats I'm incredibly excited to share. Everything is currently only available there, but it will all be out in the main store come the 27th, with the exception of the freebie (which you don't want to miss).

First off: something simple, which Vasean Talamasca suggested to me and I realized was a fantastic idea. He wanted a simple cord, no more than a string, wrapped around his neck. After torturing an oblong sculpt for a few hours, I had the absolute perfect piece of casual jewelry! Just one prim, you can wear it with absolutely any outfit. Grunge, goth, punk, trendy, couture, I couldn't think of a single outfit that it couldn't go with. Which is why, of course, I had to make bracelets and arm cuffs!

At one prim, this is the sort of thing you actually could wear to the fair, if your skin just seems too bare without your baubles. They're not available separately, you get all in one for 175L. They're texture change, even though I love the black, so you can add a bit of color in my usual range of 12. They're unisex too, obviously, since they were made from a guy's suggestion, and come in small and large sizes.

That's relatively simple though... and after everything I've learned in just a year from my middle eastern jewelry I wanted to take another crack at something incredibly delicate and ornate. A year ago, I didn't have oblongs, and most of my metal textures were the same across everything. Well.. I went nuts, and have created something that is both intricately detailed and dramatic.

Orinthia truly needs a closer look to see everything that has gone into it. Delicate leaves encircle a luminous stone, with chains trailing from elegant filigree. In keeping with the Secret Garden theme of the jewelry fair, leaves hang from the center and the sides, framing and accenting the pendant. Instead of simple earrings, which didn't seem quite enough for a pendant like this, I opted for full ear cuffs. Paired with an updo, the effect is unique yet timeless.

I'm not done yet though.

This has to be one of my favorite pieces of jewelry I've ever made, if not the favorite. One of the problems with bracelets in SL is that they can just disappear on the wrist. A simple tennis bracelet can be so perfect while you're setting up an outfit, but as soon as you zoom out, you can forget it's ever there. Well, I dare you to miss this on your wrist! This one really makes a statement. And I think it goes along the lines of "hot damn I love jewelry".

Rings have a similar problem to bracelets, if not much worse, in that the hands are so far from a focus that rings, unless they have sentimental value, are an easy accessory to forget in SL. That's when sometimes bigger really is better. This isn't enormous or unwieldy (why would I do that?) but I have to say it's eye catching, especially when paired with the bracelet.

Lastly, a simple chain arm band, which I think is a nice accent when you have statement pieces everywhere else. Delicate and feminine, it dangles down the arm and adds a sense of unity to the set.

Currently only available at the fair, if you miss out don't worry, it'll be in the store on the 27th. However, this won't.
Available for free at my booth! It's a simple reverse teardrop necklace called Aurelie, and it's scripted with the same stones and metals as Orinthia and should serve as a perfect test drive to my new textures. Plus, its a darn flexible and nifty bit of casual jewelry. I found myself wearing this one around almost as often as the cord necklace (damn it they're both so versatile!). SO HEAD OVER TO MY BOOTH ALREADY!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/JewelryFair%202/211/183/28

Jewelry Fair Opens!

2009-09-18T06:20:00.005-04:00

Jewelry Fair officially opens today! So everyone can see my hard work, on both the build and my jewelry. I'm going to be spammy and do two posts though.

I built the damn thing, so I'm rather proud of how I've managed to keep everything as simple as possible, yet as pretty as I could. No sculpts were used throughout, everything is the most primitive shapes, and the same 10 textures were used absolutely everywhere I could. The design is basically a labyrinth with one contiguous path that will lead you through all of the stalls, as well as event areas such as one of a kind auctions, the dunk tank, and the kissing booth. The auctions, dunk tank, select items, and everything that isn't going to a jeweler is all going to benefit Oxfam International.

To help people get around a bit easier, we divvied the maze into four seasons to help you find your favorite jewelers easier. There's a map and a list of who's where at the Jeweler's of SL blog.

My booth is Winter 15, which is pretty easy to find since I stuck it right by one of the Slurls. Hey, I'm not getting paid for this, so I deserve a perk :)~

So head on over, grab the freebie (which I should have described in the post above this one), and have fun!

2009-09-04T22:47:00.002-04:00

So many busy things that can't be talked about lest I jinx them! If you're wondering when you're going to see the gorgeousness I teased at in my last post, you're going to have to wait until Jewelry Fair :)

As I always do, I'm working on completely new jewelry for the fair, and the roses are part of it. I'm also working on a few other things, all within the theme of the Secret Garden.

But since its been so darn long since I just worked on something and then put it out (curse you, monstrously huge projects!) I wanted to get something relatively simple done. And then of course, the simple things are never that simple. But, I've finished a festive bit of fun, (which I'm very happy with), called the Diamonte.

Omgosh it has proper eye holes! This is a rather evolved experiment (from many other scrapped ones) in creating a mask with two torii for eyes (yeah yeah technical talk blah blah). As a result, it fits many more faces and has crisper edges around the eyes, as well as more flexibility for eye shapes. For the next masks I do, you can sort of expect me playing around with how to make three or more prims all look like one solid mask.

The eyes, forehead and trim are all changeable on touch independantly, so that if you'd like to have a solid red mask you most certainly can, but you can also play with combinations. I've added a nice new metal to the trims as well, a warm bronze texture (from a Zbrush matcap... gawjuss!). That's another thing you might see more of soon :)~

I hope to get a few other, smaller projects out before Jewelry Fair (opening the 18th!) but if not, I'm not dead, I'm just pining for the fjords.

2009-08-17T04:52:00.004-04:00

I've volunteered to do the build for the upcoming jewelry fair, which has me a bit preoccupied and sadly distracted from making a few things I had in the works. If anyone is wondering, I'm doing my best to keep things simple and minimalist while still as pretty as possible with as few textures as possible. It's a challenge but its sort of fun to be working with normal prims again!

I have a few things up in the air, I feel a bit bad about being so vague for so long but when I've been open about what I had in the works I've felt pressured. I still remember my teasing riddles for my antlers ending up being about six months early. That was embarrassing...

But I'd like to think it's pretty safe to offer a teaser when I've reached the point where a release is inevitable, even if it takes some time to get the pieces together. And I think I've just about reached that point with one of my projects that's been a while in the making:

Coming soon, my roses will be back :) Hopefully just barely in time to still be in summer! They're better than ever, and I am very proud of them so far. I just have to figure out creative ways for you to stick them all over your body now.

Another piece of news is that I'll be somewhat kidnapped for about three weeks. I've been called upon for federal jury duty starting later this month and that will definitely curtail my creating time and motivation. It's not like the releases have been pouring out of me lately or anything, but its just a heads up.

Hedera

2009-07-27T00:30:00.007-04:00

Omfg.

Okay, it's finally done.

This project, which started out with something as innocent as a bracelet, has become a voracious vortex of vegetation, demanding I make piece after piece after piece until it has finally had its way with me. I've been working on this pretty much straight through the month, without really being able to focus on anything else until this was done. That's one of the reasons I've been so silent.

You may now adorn yourself with ivy. As my friend Selos joked, I've been out of world so much that my avatar has become overgrown.

This set is a big landmark for me, because it includes something I've never before done in an accessories set.... clothing.

The clothing textures took me more time than the rest of the sculpting and texturing combined. It's a huge jump for me to take, seeing as how textures have never been my strong suit, nor a very enjoyable task for me. My meager skills in that department needed some serious exercise and butt kickery to get them anywhere near the quality I demand from everything in my store. After more lindens spent in upload fees than I can count, as well as draft upon draft that never even were good enough to make it in world, I was finally able to rest and say "those seams are good enough, damnit".

Each prim piece is painstakingly made especially to the avatar mesh, so that they should be super easy to fit. Even the chest vines that curl around the breasts should be able to handle even the biggest girls with only minimal clipping. I also made sure to keep my prim sizes relatively large, so that every piece is able to be modded down to fit even my pixie shapes. The individual pieces vary in price based on complexity from 45L to 175L, with the complete set being a quite reasonable 950L.

The panties that go on under the loin cloth are only available in the complete set. There are other perks exclusive to buying it all in one, like multiple clothing layers for the bra and panties, a "bare foot" size for the foot vines, and multiple attachment points for the ear cuffs (yes there are ear cuffs) so that you can wear them with the earrings and get a multi layered effect :)

If you're more of a minimalist, or on a budget, the necklace and earrings will give you at least the impression of that dryad look without needing to be weeded. The necklace comes with delicately trailing vines which hang off your shoulder, and are completely optional (they have a separate attachment)

(By the way, the stunning black skin in that picture is from Blowpop's new skin series, called Maya. I love it to pieces and you'll probably be seeing a lot more of it from me)

You'll also just have to see the enormous wall of all of your options... happy shopping :)

2009-07-21T00:54:00.003-04:00

My work ethic is like soap. The harder I grab on to it, to try to make things, the faster it goes *squip!* out of my hands. However! I have some good news. As I have relaxed (through copious procrastination) I have made great progress on two projects which have been my sole focus for the past month, one of which is very close to being completed.

I might be too close to it to see it neutrally by now, but as much as I'd like to say it is epic and huge, it is probably not that epic, nor huge. I have managed to accomplish something that a majority of content creators do easily, and quickly, and it took me more time than the rest of my project put together. Hopefully, in the long run it will prove to be a learning experience, and what it adds to the project will be worth the time.

Now, I don't normally post teasers, but I also don't normally go silent for almost a month at a time!
Coming soon to a purple mask store near you...

2009-07-01T18:13:00.002-04:00

Today I received my first notice of copyright infringement from the DMCA department, which is something I was never expecting to see. After I swallowed that "wtf!?" moment, it actually wasn't so bad. Apparently even Frank Sinatra's name is licensed, and so my naming a fedora after him was in violation of Warner Music's copyright. So from now on the "Sinatra" fedora is going to be the "Corleone" fedora, something I'm updating even as I type this.

It's no biggie, so I won't bother making a fuss. What's in a name, after all? But I wanted to make a notice here so that there was no confusion, and also satisfy curiosities (maybe serve as a little warning to anyone else wanting to dedicate anything to the Chairman of the Board).

Also, update on current projects... I'm working on a few things that are ending up bigger than I initially thought, which makes me think I should release another smaller project while I'm working on these. Unfortunately, that's exactly how a few of these started, so I don't want to place myself in the way of temptation and end up with even more enormous projects O.o

Blinders

2009-06-19T05:17:00.004-04:00

I have had some big projects in the works lately, the ears took me forever with so many delays... my sim build has been in the works for six months, and I have a secret project which is taking longer than I was hoping too. So I felt the need to just finish something simple and interesting which I could just release without any complications.

I've been wanting to really make a blindfold for a while now, the one I have for sale for 20L was just something I made very quickly. I think they have a beautiful mystique about them though, and I've always wanted to do it more justice.

With the coaxing of Selos I managed to get the silk texture just perfect. It doesn't go all the way around the head, only to the ears, in order to make sure that its compatible with all hairs. This way it fits a wide variety of heads and is unisex. I'd like to do one that works with hair someday soon, but that certainly doesn't qualify as a quick and simple project!

It's scripted to change texture to twelve different jewel tones, so that you can match whatever outfit you like. It really seems to lend an ethereal and mystical air to your avatar, or maybe just a kinky one.

Along with that one though, I wanted to try a different kind of blindfold.

It could be one of those little masks you wear over your eyes when you go to sleep, or it could be used in the bedroom for "other purposes". Whatever you like you're welcome to try, personally I like this one because I made the trim able to be changed to a different color than the rest of the mask. I know some people have asked that I make a lack of eyes an option with some of my masks, and if you wanted to you could wear this one underneath in order to get that effect.

I won't be retiring my old satin blindfold, I think it still has its place as a bargain piece, but I'm lowering the price now to 10L :) These two new ones are now for sale in the main store for 95L each ^.^

Fantasy Faire! And Long Awaited Ear Updates!

2009-06-15T03:45:00.006-04:00

The first annual Fantasy Faire is starting today, and despite my intense procrastination, some groveling and last minute scrabbling netted me a stall on the Elvencourt sim! I would offer a slurl, but no matter where it's made it always ends up at the landing point. I'm in stall 15 next to Evangeline Miles of Evie's Closet, and I couldn't have asked for a nicer neighbor (her latest dresses have only been getting more beautiful, wonderful job).

As a part of participating in the faire, we were asked to donate the full proceeds of two items to Relay for Life. My contributions are a limited edition recolor of Titania and Oberon.

They're only available at my stall at the expo, for 500L each. They'll be available until the 22nd, when the fair closes. Obviously I did a new color theme for them that's different from the soft blues, but I also changed the greenery around the crowns to new leaves that are a luscious natural green.

Aside from the masks, I also am proud to say I finally have completed my elfin ear update. After more mistakes, remakes, script edits, permission errors, hold ups, hang ups, pitfalls and near misses than I can count, they're out. The actual structure of the ears and earrings hasn't changed at all, but the scripts have. I've consolidated the TRAP, Drow, and Aether skins all into one mega pack of skin tones titled Fantasy, as well as added new tones from some of the more popular skin makers that I received tone requests for. The Naturals received a major, major tune up, and instead of a paltry twelve tones, they now have over seventy skin tones by designers such as Abyss, Nomine, Fleur and Curio.

With the new collections of skin tones, I've excused myself a slight price hike in the cost of a custom tone. I'm going to make it 100L, because when I first set my price I never anticipated it to be as much of a time sink and a chore as it has become. To those that currently have ear tone requests open with me, I will be giving you a new pair of the upgraded ears in hopes that one of the tones will suit your skin. If not, then you will still only be charged the original 50L price, but that's only for ear tone requests received before today.

Please let me know if you do find errors in the ears, or the vendors, despite my testing them as much as I can I still seem to miss things. The sooner I'm made aware of errors in permissions or scripts the faster I can fix them!

The upgraded ears are now out at both the fair and the store, I'll be sending a notice out to the group as well as updating the signage nearby but right now I'm just going to go collapse somewhere :)

Gemini

2009-05-26T04:33:00.004-04:00

For being one of the most ubiquitous masks in Venice, the Volto certainly doesn't make many appearances in my store. This is something I long to change, because I love the mystique and appeal of completely changing your visage just by holding up an object. That must be one of the plethora of reasons I love masks.

The problem with the Volto is that they are very tricky and very technically difficult to craft well, and so I let them slide while I work on other challenges. But with my recent experimentation with torus masks (having a real hole be in them), basically this mask simply had to be made.

As a Gemini myself, I'm quite familiar with being multi-faceted, as is anyone who presents different sides of themselves to different people. But honestly, beyond the symbolic representations of the complexities of personality, a split down the center mask just looks cool. And so you can wear it with one half or the other, and change each side to any combination of the 11 colors included. You can do the same with the lips, and have them the same color on each side, or opposite, or maybe have a black and white mask with red lips or even no lips at all. The options are completely there for you to show whatever side of you your whimsy decides on.

The unfortunate part about my doing masks out of torii is that to do eye holes, there will always have to be two. I can't have the same silky unified look of any of the other masks, there will always be a seam or a seperation or an asymmetry. So though this is a big step forward for me, I don't think I can completely throw my other methods aside. It's good to have choices though :)

2009-05-24T16:40:00.002-04:00

The sale is over now, and now I have to be all explanatory for my absence for the past few weeks. The longer I go without posting the harder it gets to just sit down and write an entry.

I've been feeling very stressed recently, and unfortunately that means that I lost my will to work for a while. I wanted to escape and watch movies and play games and basically goof off and try to get my head back around to a place where I could achieve something. It happens maybe twice a year, it seems.

Now that I'm starting to get my act together again, I do have a few half-finished projects that should be able to be completed without my taxing my creativity much. I've gotten abhorrently behind on my ear skin tone requests (if you have requested one, I'm so sorry!), and I'm planning on updating and clarifying the way my elven ears work. Right now the vendors are so confusing, I get more questions about how those work than anything else store related.

Anyway, sorry to have gone all clammed up on you. Nothing is really wrong, I'm just going through some RL tension which getting back to work and releasing things will fix.

Spring Cleaning 2009!

2009-04-27T15:12:00.003-04:00

It's that time again, when my critical eye turns upon the walls of my store and I begin to feel the urge to cull things from the herd. I feel the need to dispose of things that I was never that proud of in the first place, things that don't sell well, or things that are just plain old.

The rose collection was one of the very first things I made with sculpts, and for two years they were a joy to me. But now I want to move on, I'm going back and scripting older items like my necklaces and I realized... I don't think these are worth scripting. I'd rather have new items to play with! Same for some of my early hats, like the Sabrina and Harajuku top hats. Oddly, even despite my new top hats the Victorian still sells well, and I think I can live with it sticking around, but the other two? No. I will, however, reduce the price on the Victorian to reflect its age and venerable standing.

The sculpted hair styles... well... they were a whim. The mustaches are still too much fun to get rid of and so they're sticking around, but styles like the Sweep and the Bowl are just plain not well made, and I can say that because I made them. They're probably the shoddiest, half-assed stuff I have in my store, made as a joke, and although the joke was funny, the joke is now old. I'd rather clear them out so that any future, serious attempt at hair that I make won't be tainted by those things. They have their place with costumes and they're certainly unique, but hopefully any other hair I make will be unique too.

Anyway, go check them out :) They'll be around until May 20th, at that time they'll be locked up in my inventory forever. Everything is laid out in front of the store, out on the lawn for the pickin's.

Khimar Wrap

2009-04-26T03:25:00.005-04:00

I'm back! My connection is stable once more, and so I was able to finally log in and finish what I had started. I'm very excited to share this, it was a headache inducing experience but very well worth it.

Draping cloth is something that takes only a moment to create out in the real world, but is a challenge to artists who try to render it in any medium. I love covering myself in as much draping, flowing cloth as the temperature allows and I've always wanted my avatar to reflect that more.

"Khimar" means roughly a head scarf or veil in Arabic, and although it's more modernly associated with full body wraps and longer garments I felt I might still be able to get away with calling it this*. I went for a very middle eastern look for it, but that's entirely optional, as the head band/wrap or "agal" is a separate piece from the hood and can be worn with or without it. The mask is separate too, in case you just want a hood with the cowl. In fact, all the pieces can be worn alone or in any combination that you like!

*Anyone who might be better in the know is welcome to correct me, as I'm just a Westerner with access Google and Wikipedia :)~)

Every piece changes independantly, so if you want to experiment with having a black hood and a blue mask, or a black agal with a red hood, go for it! Create any random color scheme you like, but only on the purchased version; the demo combines the three head pieces so that you're not covered in little hovering demo boxes.

The hood is pretty incompatible with hair, but a lot of hair stores (such as ETD) sell just bangs as an add-on to their hair styles, and I think that would work well with this if you simply MUST have a few lingering locks. Speaking of, this is perfect for expositions or sales or fashion shows where you need to keep an eye on your prim limit, but still want to look fashionable. All in all, wearing all the pieces, it only adds up to eight prims! Aaaah the miracle of sculpts!

Here's where it was a pain in the ass though... for eight prims I needed to do seven unique textures, and do those seven unique textures in twelve different unique colors. Whereas normally I can be a bit of a cheapskate and use as few as two or three unique textures on an item, or creatively re-use textures on similar prims (like recently my hat bands) I ended up doing over a hundred uploads for this item's textures alone! And that's not counting troubleshooting sculpts! It was a devil getting all of the textures and colors to look right together, from 2d into 3d. But the good part of this is that everything looks deliciously silky. Looking at the results, I definitely feel like it was all worth it.

I also think I know what you're thinking... CLOAKS! The thought (obviously) occurred to me too, and I'm planning on it. I should even be able to re-use pieces of this wrap, but there's certainly going to be enough original material on any cloaks I make to make it worthwhile to buy both.

The wrap is currently available at the main store for 450L, and with this release, I've lowered the price of the old Assassin's Guise to only 175L as a sort of budget version. :)

2009-04-21T14:23:00.003-04:00

For the past week and a half or so, I've been suffering from random and intermittent internet outages that effectively remove me from being in-world. I'm never sure when the internet is going to cut out, or for how long. The times that I've tried logging in, all I've ended up being able to do is lose IM's from people. More technicians are coming by tomorrow, they've already been around to restore our dial tone and to poke it with sticks, but we keep needing to call. You know that the internet has truly become an addiction and a habit when you lose connection and think "what's the phone number for my ISP? I should google it"

So now I'm on a sort of forced hiatus, and I'm spending it tidying my apartment, playing Sid Meir's Pirates, and watching Pushing Daisies on DVD. As much as I enjoy having a vacation, I don't enjoy the timing, as I was working on something really fabulous that I'm very excited about. Hopefully I'll be able to get back in action, but until then I guess I'll continue being the dashing scourge of the Spanish Main :p

Vendor Updates

2009-04-11T03:50:00.003-04:00

I've been working on updating and scripting older items like a few of my jewelry sets or masks like Le Fleur. I was sitting on them, tucking them away into my inventory so that I could unveil them grandly in my new store on my rebuilt sim, but I realized that wasn't a good enough reason to delay such convenience. I'm also replacing older vendor scripts with a newer update from Miriel which passes folders, and eliminates the need for boxes as well as other handy features.

I've been consolidating fatpacks and deleting old color versions in my inventory, and good grief! Such progress in lowering my count, I must have deleted thousands of versions of my various items. It's also been a great chance to walk down memory lane and review pieces that I still feel good about, or pieces I can't stand looking at and wish to remove from the grid entirely.

I'm trying very hard not to remove or retire anything well-loved that I haven't remade already, which is why everything is still out. I do plan on doing a "Spring Cleaning" sale, which is starting to become an annual thing!

Work on the sim is still going slow but steady, the whole hat spree thing with the top hats and fedoras etc kept me busy and distracted, but it was a welcome break. I'm back to working and fiddling with my model, figuring out the layout for the residential towers and tweaking my textures.

This is a picture looking up at what will be the store, and the entrance to the Arab market. If you want to swing by the SW of Carnivale to check it out, you're welcome to :)

Fedoras!

2009-04-09T01:55:00.003-04:00

The People cry out for fedora-ness, and who am I to argue with you guys? It certainly was a slightly different endeavor, and I had no idea when I started just how much a tiny crimp in a brim could add or subtract so much character. I actually slaved over these, giving them the proper sweep, swagger, fit, character and distinction. My fiance can attest, he says he "now knows the meaning of a perfectionist" because of the way I treated these hats!

So here are the fruits of my labor.

Sinatra was famous for wearing a "stingy brim" straw fedora set slightly back on his head, but I took a bit of liberty because I love felt... and didn't want to do a whole new set of straw textures for this. An honest to goodness Panama hat and a porkpie still might be in the works, but don't hold your breath (or hold me to it...).

One of the most famous and classic images that make me instantly think of a fedora, is Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. I only saw the film once, I'm not a big fan of romantic dramas, but I certainly had the image of him smoking a cigarette in a trenchcoat and a swanky hat full of savoir faire. But the reason for the brain stickiness was mostly the swanky hat... I can't resist a good costume accessory! But even Humphrey Bogart is not as famous or notorious or as well known for fedora-wearing as...

Indiana Jones! Man, this one was a challenge. The problem with having a hat so well known and so iconic is having to get it exactly right. But I feel I finally eliminated just the right kinks and flaws to make it really his. In any other color though? It's a versatile hat for the rough and tumble type in a gritty bar or maybe the erudite fashionista in New York. Speaking of...

From my childhood, not sure I'd even call this a fedora, but I would certainly call it a floppy hat full of win. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? used to be one of my favorite shows as a kid. I would rush home to watch it and then yell at the kids who didn't know where Madagascar was. And I think the real reason everyone wanted to track her down was to ask her about fashion tips, 'cause that lady had style. I don't know how she could hide from people so thoroughly while wearing a bright red fabulous hat and trenchcoat, but I guess that's just how awesome she was. Obviously you're not limited to red, I just couldn't resist it for the picture!

Last but not least, I was running out of fedora icons and I wanted to have the more modern, trendy short brimmed fedora honored in my collection. "Timberlake" didn't seem like a very appetizing option, so after googling a bit I found that Vince Lombardi, the legendary American football coach was never seen without one just like this. Perfect! I hope I'm not tarnishing his memory by making it bright blue and wearing it with a purple mack.

All of these delicious and delightful pieces of millinery are available at my store now for 175L (due to their serious blows to my sanity through not behaving properly when I wanted them to just look done already)

Disaster Relief

2009-04-02T03:21:00.005-04:00

I was able to get in touch with SLEMA (Second Life Emergency Management Agency), and although it took all day, we managed to restore the original sea level and evict the sea born "shoppers" from the store. Now, I need to clean up the kelp and seaweed from the floors and wring out the drapes and sweep up the drift wood. But I have to say I was starting to get really attached to our piscean visitors. But being around them for so long... I feel changed some how. Like I'll never be the same, even though things have gone back to normal. I wonder why that is?....

Ah well, I guess we'll never know.

(the fins are texture change on touch, and available through the Masqueraderie group notices :)

An Inconvenient Truth

2009-04-01T04:34:00.004-04:00

Oh god I can't believe it!

The Linden Sea rose twenty meters in the past couple of days, some sort of heat wave melted almost all of the glaciers on Cloudmont! The Snowland region is now the Mudland region! Mainland Warming is really happening, I didn't believe it for myself but...

Now it's too late!!

My sim is completely flooded, this is not just a spring melt, it's a whole flood. And I don't even have insurance out on it. The raise in the sea level brought with it a whole menagerie of animals to add to the damage, I don't have any idea where to start cleaning up.

I can't believe it... that crazy old notecard really might have been on to something.

The flipsing swish ones fly from below
to rise on the harlequin day
to answer the calls of those who came before
they will have their day in the halls of stone

The flipsing swish ones must be the new denizens of my store.

And the "harlequin day" must be a reference to today, April Fool's day. I bet the penguins from last year would love this place now, but they must be so sad that their arctic home is now a mudpit. It looks like they'll "have their day in the halls of stone" until the water level lowers or I can start draining the place. At least the good news is Gerald the local giant sea turtle is giving free rides at his leisure.

Aschen Memory gets an informal tour of the store

Does anyone know the phone number of FEMA?

Breach the Peace

2009-03-30T18:50:00.003-04:00

On January 15th, 1797, a man named John Hetherington was arrested and brought before the court in London for disturbing the peace. He had constructed and designed something of devious intention, something that caused women to faint, dogs to yelp and a man to be trampled by an awe-struck mob.

This malevolent creation, which was "calculated to frighten timid people" was actually quite benign. And stylish!

This haberdasher had designed the first top hat. Why it caused such a ruckus? I can't imagine, I just blame the lack of TV and very tight corsetry. But, when he wore it out in public, it got him arrested! I have to wonder what they would think of drag queens. Thankfully we live in more jaded times, where the only crowd you're likely to draw wearing this will be folks wondering where you got it.

Although the first top hats were silk and lustrous, I have to say I love the warmth and character of a wool felt hat. It has a certain richness and the possibility for many colors, which is what I've happily obliged with. It has the same variety of hat bands and felt colors as the bowler, and flexibility to be quite modern or traditional depending on your outfit needs of the day.

These are all quite simple because I felt I wanted a variety of shapes, and then move on to more complex and creative millinery using these as a base. This one especially I'd love to make into an English riding hat, with a nice scarf or a veil. Speaking of having fun with the designs, I decided to do a really fun, more modern one...

Named after Lewis Carrol, I almost called this the Mad Hatter but I definitely have bigger and wilder plans for that hat. Besides, it wouldn't be for the Mad Hatter if he didn't have his price tag left on :)~

I have grand plans for these hats, now I just hope I get around to manifesting them!

These lovely scripted hats are now available at the store for 150L each!

2009-03-29T23:40:00.007-04:00

I recently went back to the mainland and found that it was much warmer in the Snowland region of Sansara. Could it be possible that global warming is effecting the virtual world too? What am I saying, it's probably just spring! My island just thawed and I'm probably just feeling the contrast from the cold winter and all my snow covered pines, and the green sprouts of the spring weather.

But I do suggest avoiding going down to the garden walk, and wearing your waders if you plan to go fishing... it seems the bottom area has flooded. It's probably just all that melting snow.