"Miriel" Granny Boots

As I've been working on my sim, I've been commissioning sculpts from my good friend Miriel Enfield. I'm very good with organic shapes, but when it comes to the hard rigid lines required by architecture (or at least the architecture I have in mind) I needed to outsource. She has been far too much of a sweetie with me, and has refused to allow me to compensate her monetarily. So I was stuck for a way to show my immense gratitude for the large variety and number of sculpts I was asking from her. But I caught her longing for a good pair of practical and traditional granny boots on SL, and I realized I'd love a pair too.


So thank you Miriel.

This is truly the first proof I can show you guys how much that breakthrough did for me (agh don't remind me what an idiot I was). Each piece was made together in Zbrush3, without any photosourcing at all! Even the stitches you see delicately applied were all made on the high resolution model, and then grabbed in the texture. I'm incredibly proud of that aspect, considering I wanted to photosource and then couldn't find a good enough reference. I dug in myself, thinking I'd have to settle for something not as crisp or not as detailed, and was very pleasantly surprised. I even was able to add a pretty swirly detail, muahaha. Hurray for stitching alphas! (Zbrush reference, don't mind me).

The reason behind the "version 1.21+" note is because the laces utilize oblong sculpts. They're not supported on all viewers, so for some people they might seem incredibly rough or look like they're not rezzed all the way. In that case, you need to upgrade your viewer in order to see the laces as you do in the picture.

I'm dying for a good, solid pair of real life granny boots too, so if anyone knows any place for me to acquire a similar pair, I'd be delighted. But hopefully this might satisfy my longing for a bit!

Piratey Goodness Part II

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!

Part two of Piratey Goodness is finally out, me scallywags. Here be the boots I labored long and hard over, enjoy 'em ye lime suckin' brigands!

Avast, check these out! These are simple, calf high yummy turned down cuff boots that look comfortable and stylish. They come with or without bootstraps, which were actually invented to help hold down the area around the top of the ankle, which had to be sewn loose in order to let the foot slide in and accommodate it. So instead of being all loose about the ankle, you could strap 'em in to make sure they wouldn't slide off lest ye find yourself overboard. These actually weren't that troublesome. A couple of tweaks for fit and to get the right look and I was set and happy. It was these that drove me madder than a hatter.

I won't ever belittle a perfect knee joint seam. Aiyeeeeeee!! Texture after texture, try after try, I simply couldn't get where the two sculpts at thigh and lower leg met up to look like a solid piece. Finally, after sculpt after sculpt and hundreds of lindens in upload fees, I managed it. Every now and then as you move it can still be seen, but from most stationary poses that don't twist the legs horribly they're fine. And dayem, they're sexy, and much more shape hugging than the old boots. Yes, despite how smoking hot they look on a woman they look fine on men, haha. Both of these boot sets are available in four different cuff styles, and three different heel heights, so you definitely have your options! You're pretty much building your own pair of boots to your own specifications.

In the original Piratey Goodness line I had a pair of matching gloves, and with this remake I took that a bit farther, and made gloves that matched the different cuff styles!

Plus, an added bonus or maybe just trivia, I actually made the glove texture for this this time and I'm proud, because of how difficult clothing textures are for me.


Wait a second... Wow, what's that hat in that picture? That looks really good...


MUAHAHA!!! Cap'n Jack is back. The wonderfully weather worn, beat up, eaten by a leviathan and spit back up again, lost at the bottom of the sea and resurfaced hat that can go through anything went through a remake as well. I even made the sculpt especially thin and crinkly and asymmetrical to portray the beat-up and utterly miserable feel of a hat that's been through it all. This time, it's texture changing to a dark weather worn leather (shown), a warmer brown tone, white/silvery gray and a nice roughed up black.

If you weren't so distracted by the hat in the gloves picture, you might have noticed a belt as well

Yes! A new arrival that wasn't in the original collection! It was requested quite a bit though, and before I had made an extremely simple belt that I couldn't bear to sell. This one, however, I pulled out all of the stops with. It includes a detailed flintlock pistol, a pair of dueling daggers, and a frog. No, not the amphibian, it's a leather belt doohicky used to hold one's rapier. I didn't include a rapier as I figured people would want to use their own, and it certainly doesn't appear lacking without it. Personally, I've been using Laces and Steel's "Saviolo" rapier, and it looks perfect. But for those who'd rather have the simpler things in life, I made a version of this belt without so many doohickies, that simply has the frog and a ring and is without the daggers and pistol. But for those who think that more is more, I made an "add-on" pack that includes the pouch, compass, and spyglass that you see pictured. It also has a copy of the pistol in brass and in silver so you can carry it without having to pull it off of the belt!

Yes, I'm a wicked, wicked woman who's after your lindens. I offer you this last parting shot.


If you feel yourself getting a stomach cramp, pop this on your head and strut about. On second thought, maybe not, you don't want to be sent to Elba! This has the same color change cockade as the Chapeau de Bras, and comes from an earlier period. This one is based off of a bicorn that Napoleon himself wore, hence the name.

This was obviously the bulk of my work, but depending on how my whim moves me, there might be a Piratey Goodness part trois, which will/would include even more hats.

Because I really love hats ♥

Historical Harlequin Happy

Oh it's the theme that never ends... it just goes on and on my friend... I think I'm finished building stuff and set it out for sale, but people keep suggesting things and I can't help myself oh it's the theme that...

Fooolish fooolish me. *giggles* I thought for a moment that I might set all of my finished harlequin stuff out and be done with it. And then folks started mentioning things, and it all sounded so good, ooo yes I do want to make that... and it's just been building up and building up. My amount of posts is definitely not proportionate to the work that I've been doing. I've been laying low, release wise, while some of the transaction issues get worked out, and it's been a good day and a half since my last failed delivery. So I've decided that despite the fact I have a couple more things in the works, I'm just going to set out some pieces now.

There is a veritable slew of yummy things to share, and the first... are these yummy gloves.

These look great on both men and women, with lots of room to spare in the same tradition as the Cavalier gloves. You can still thank Krimson Gray for that original glove texture, but whaddya know, I managed to match the seams myself this time! I was able to bleach out the glove texture and do a half and half that cups around the thumb in a most delicious way, and lengthen it as well as you can see in these:

I really liked the texture alone too much to not make it an option, I know some people aren't into the enormous and scunchy (hard to believe, right?). Both of these gloves have the same cuff though, just different sizes, and the cuff is split in the center for a nice little detail. Naturally it's flexi, and definitely goes with the set.

But with these, there's still something missing. I mean, wearing these things together makes a fabulous outfit, but there's a spot missing... like... lower down...

ZOMG BOOTS! With a delicately upturned toe, sculpted body and a modest heel, you can wear them without the body of them for a neato pair of shoes. These are naturally unisex, and have that wonderful scunchy look I know you love so much. But I thought I would also try something new. I've never, ever made a pair of women's heels before. It was time to change this!
The thing I love most about these is that sleek smooth fit, and that delicious line down the calf to the sculpted heel. I know that it could be much higher, much crazier... but I'm a tall lady IRL and I'm not a big fan of falling over. These look especially good in just the shoe alone, which is sleek and feminine and great to wear with flared cuff pants.

If anyone is wondering, the little "elf toe" comes from a fashion that started in the latter half of the 14th century. Back then, wealth was all about excess... extra food, extra servants, and especially, extra fabric. This extra fabric was most often seen in huge flowing sleeves, ridiculously long hats (called liripipes), and... in shoes. If you can have a ridiculous amount of material in your shoes, and make it rather obvious that you don't have to walk around in them much, you most definitely must be rich! This ridiculous amount of fabric was very often shown in the form of an absurdly elongated toe:

Haha, you thought I was done ;) These are fabulously unpractical shoes, inspired and demanded by and from Selos Dae, who did a drawing of my harlequin outfit and wanted ridiculous shoes to match. I did my best to realize them for her :) These are available in black, the natural leather color shown, and the harlequin texture so you can match if you like. These are incredibly oversized, and are guaranteed to get you some attention.

So where did the little version come from, from these enormous points? Well, some of the shoes got so amazingly long, (sometimes reaching as far as 4 ft), that they started stringing chains from the tip of the shoe to bands around their knees so they could actually walk. This created a curled tip at the end, that poorer folks tried to emulate. As the fad died down to more reasonable levels in the 15th century, the curl remained while the length did not, and so that vision of a curled toe is immortalized in our visions of historical jesters.


Speaking of jesters in court... there is one more thing I would like to release today. It's obviously been quite a busy period for me and now you can see that I haven't just been diddling!

This is, of course, a jester's staple. A jester's wand always had a carved head on it, or some sort of effigy of the jester himself. It would be "dressed" similarly, and he would use it to speak for him if he wanted to say something controversial. He would say that it might be his "stupid side" or his "foolish side", or the puppet that didn't know any better. Sometimes he would be so skilled with ventriloquism, it could almost be believable! This wand/puppet/lifesaver was called a "marotte". Honoring this tradition and origin of this, I've had it scripted by the incredibly useful and kind Ethan Schuman to be able to speak for you! As the picture says, anything you type after "/5" will speak from the marotte, and so you don't have to worry about having your head cut off. It will also jingle with a much lighter version of the Harlequin Cap's jingle if you tap its head.

Isn't that exactly what you needed?

Piratey Proliferance

Wow... I've just been having so much fun with the Pirate goodies, I've decided to make more... and *coughtheysellreallydamnwellCOUGH* I just started making and making, things that were a variation on the pirate theme, and well, out came... the Cavalier

It all started with the boots...

They had to be made thigh high. Yes, I will shamelessly say that I cheated and used the same base for the foot. I thought of slipping these in discreetly with the normal Pirate Boots, and I realized people wouldn't know that they were part of it. They really do deserve some light shed on them. They come in the same size dealy, two sizes with the normal size fit to the average SL woman (long legs), and the larger size is to give that extra slouchy yummy leather boot look to women, or obviously, to fit men normally.

I also made... *gasp* GAUNTLETS. Yes, honest to god yummy chunky slouchy wrinkly leather gauntlets, but being who I am, couldn't do the clothing texture up to my standards. Now, I was patronized not too long ago by Raven Pennyfeather... does that name ring any bells? It certainly should!! She owns RFyre designs, which is an enormously popular and extensive line of gothic and fantasy clothing. We were brought together by our mutual love of masks, (like so many of my friends on SL <3 2d="" 3d="" a="" adore="" adores="" against="" amusing="" and="" be="" body="" borrowed="" br="" but="" by="" can="" clothing="" collaboration...="" coming="" couldn="" currently="" d="" decided="" do="" don="" exact="" exactly="" expect...="" fact="" gauntlets.="" hands="" happy="" have="" i="" if="" it="" know="" my="" not="" of="" one="" opposite="" out="" prim="" really="" she="" so="" start="" stuck="" t="" talents.="" texture="" that="" the="" to="" together="" used="" ve="" we="" well="" what="" will.="" will="" with.="">

Also, watching the newer Peter Pan movie made me realize there was a Piratey Chapeau that had never been brought to life (well) on SL. So I bring you a very flouncy and semi-Napoleonic Bicorner

Another thing I was working extensively on, was following a longing and a desire of mine to bring a truly Fabulous hat into this world. Now, when I say Fabulous, I mean larger than life... I mean eye-catching, I mean exquisitely tasteful and yet walking the line between excess and excellence. The true meaning of Fabulous being awe inspiring, and absolutely requiring a personality, otherwise the overwhelming energy of the Fabulous will overpower you and leave you looking completely ridiculous.


To those who know how to wear it, I humbly give you the Captain's Hat


Jason Isaacs would be proud. It has a veritable waterfall of wild white feathers, cascading down the back, and framed by a super wide brim. It's over a 190 prims, and I did my best to back the alphas with a couple of solid blank white textures in order to reduce alpha flicker. This hat is actually ridiculously easy to tint! You can't see the crown even if you try, even if you camera inside the feathers it isn't easy to find. So when tinting the feathers or retexturing it, you only have to worry about the main prim of the curve of the hat. Cool, huh?


If you're wondering about the hair, I actually have a small confession to make. I made it. And it's made out of scunchy cunchy sculpties! I haven't put it out yet, because at the moment I'm just not sure if I should. I would only offer it in black and brunette, and it would very clearly be defined as a Captain Hook wig, and I guess I'd just like to hear a few folks tell me to put it out. Maybe I'll include it in the Pirate Pack I'm putting together ^.^

More Piratey Goodness

I thought to myself... what's something I've always wanted to make, but didnt want to deal with rigid prims and fitting it exactly to the avatar mesh? What would be the polar opposite to what I normally do, and yet still works with prims?

Footwear.


I bring you piratey goodness for 175L. Are these awesome or what?? I feel like clomping around and waving a cutlass in people's faces! YAHAR, matey, ye be enjoyin me wares lately, aye?

Arrrr >);)=

Isis: The Egyptian Collection

Please say hello to my first themed release. So far, it only has one thing in it, but my my... what an item:





I almost don't think I need to say anything, do I? Aside from this lucious set containing ten seperate pieces, and three different unique fits to try to cater to all shapes, this picture speaks for itself. Truly worthy of a goddess, it's simple and classic design is deceptive, because it contains over 700 prims. No matter if you like the picture, it doesn't change the fact that it has to be SEEN, so my good friend Mourna will be a beautiful sculpted model for all to see from about 10pm SLT to 4pm SLT. All together it's been more hours than I actually know, and this labor of love, my very first set of silks, is being sold in the Egyptian pavilion for 1200.

Why did I call this release a collection then? Well, aside from the various pieces of jewelry included with the set (and possibly sold seperately as well), I am working in my little corner on quite the Egyptian set, which will be Stargatalicious. I see in the future a Tutenkhamen headdress, and Anubis, Horus and Bastet masks. Time to start saving up lindens now ;)