Apsara Wings

When Deoridhe Quandry approached me with her commission, it was one that I took a special delight in.  I've been looking forward to doing it since she first suggested it and it was a lot of fun to do.  You see, Deoridhe is a fairy, and she wanted a pair of mesh fairy wings.  My first thought was "really?", but then I realized it made perfect sense.  While flexi wings might have great movement, they don't have the same customization or opportunity for detail.  Mesh wings would actually be really fun to do...

She gave me creative control, and I'm just such a sucker for curlicues and flourishes.

Deoridhe suggested the name "Apsara", inspired by the Hindu divine spirits of air and dance.  The membrane I painted in Zbrush, just putting some light and shadow and a bit of shine on there, and then I overlaid a scaley texture to hopefully evoke that delicate insect feel. I love the living, silky feel it evokes, with just the right amount of shimmer.  I also took care to do a little trick that lets the mesh shrink down to tiny or petite size, so since they're modifiable you can easily fit these to your petite avatar.

There are twelve colors for the wing membrane, and my usual six metal colors for the curls.  They're unrigged and modifiable, so you can make the membrane somewhat transparent or glow or tint them.  The curls are separate, so you can even set the membrane entirely transparent and just wear the curls!

My friends Surreal and Chandra roped me into the Taste the Rainbow Hunt , so I made a special color of the wings with it in mind.  It's a rainbow themed hunt (obviously), so this color of the wings will be out in the hunt gift.  Since it turned out so well, I couldn't resist putting it in the sale version as well.

This is, of course, before I saw that Surreal had made rainbow wings her gift as well.  It's funny how sometimes things synchronize like that.  Not sure who came up with the idea first, so I guess you'll just have options!

Out now at the store

On the marketplace: 275L

Illusions @ Fantasy Faire 2011

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 :)

With Love Hunt

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!

Corvus

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 :)

Wingy Flingy Thingy

Wow, I just realized my last wing fling post was my 200th post on this blog! Nifty!

Well as promised, I released some new wingy thingies only available currently at my stall in Platinum. After the week is over they will be moved to the store, but until then you'll have to get there first. Lag has been really good though recently, so don't worry about having to swim!

If you're in a cuter mood and don't want to really express your angelic self through the big wings... how about cute little ones?

These attach to each shoulder, and each is individually texture changeable so that you can do alternating wings. My favorite is to do one in black and one in silver, it's always fun to show you're a little demon inside. Or maybe make it more obvious...
AAAAH CUTE LITTLE DEMON WINGS! You know you want some, for those wicked little days you feel like running around being mischievous but still fashionably adorable. People will get the idea that you're wicked, but without having to resort to enormous goth horns or huge torn wings. Personally, I love these and I have been flitting around all day with them. These can switch individually too, for folks who believe one color simply isn't enough.

"Chibi" is an Anime term, which very very briefly translated means cute, cartoony and small. And something else you'll find in anime culture or manga are... head wings!

These look awfully cute when matched with the wings, or maybe if you're feeling a bit of both you can wear the head wings with the shoulder wings! These, however, attach to only one point (rather than hogging those valuable head attachments) so the textures will change together. They look absolutely wonderful poking out from hats!

Another fun thing to do, is if you buy both the angel wings and the demon wings, attach one of each to your shoulders. They're both about the same size, and they look awfully cute together!

The shoulder wings are 115L, and the little head wings are just 95L, only at the stall in Platinum!

They... have arrived.

The infamous they.

What have you seen and been tantalized with on Flickr, what have I teased and dangled before you and said "oh, I'm working on that" and then continued on silently, without update and with your chewing off your fingers hoping against hope that maybe today, maybe this would be the day they could be yours!!

Save those fingers dear, no more waiting... for they are here.

The beautiful, the tantalizing, the absolutely grueling to make and yet absolutely stunning fully prim, sculpted angel wings. At 80 prims each (160 together), any poorer computer system might wince at all of the sculpties, yet slog though the spheres dutifully to get to the beauty underneath.

As I've mentioned so many times, not too long ago I commissioned feathers from Jen Shikami. I wanted beautiful alpha feathers, and maybe a couple of textures for random sculpt feathers that would be thrown in as backing, not really that important... She IM'd me after she had been working on them and said "you know, I think I like these better than the alphas". Not being able to believe her, I tried them myself and sure enough... they were beautiful. Making alpha flicker a thing of the past, these beautiful sculpted feathers could be worn with alpha heavy hair, layered together endlessly and most of all... form beautiful wings. These have been a long time coming, I've loved wings and tried making wings for a long time, and after I got the feather textures I had to make it real. Thanks to Miriel Enfield, these are available much sooner, as she gave me the use of a mirroring script. I've never before used any building aids, yet the rotations were so irregular I was desperate for help. Modifying Jen's beautiful textures brought forth dazzling colors (10 in all), and encouraging words from the people who saw them and wore them kept me going. And so here they are, finally, available to you. They're sold in color packs, starting at 450 for the black and white pairs (2 positions, 2 sizes), 550 for the three Phoenix colors, 850 for the five color pack, and 1500 for all of them. As the picture says, they aren't scripted, but they are incredibly unique, beautiful, and most of all, attention getting. I couldn't go anywhere in these wings without being asked about them, and after giving them to a friend or two, I started having to request that they not wear them, as I was starting to feel very pressured by all of the IM's by folks who had inspected the wings, come to my store, and found them not for sale.

These might not flap as you soar around, or fold in when you land, or flutter gently... but they will look close enough to real that you want to bury your face in them, pet the feathers, and feel soft tickles when your lover embraces you in them. Feathered wings should have weight, depth, and heft, and should look like they could carry you across the heavens. By that definition, they are everything they should be.

Go forth and be beautiful, angelic, fiery, dark, or however you wish to fly.