The question came up recently as to why I am not included in the incredibly popular and very time-saving syndicate blog Fashion World of SL. Most bloggers who are members get a lot of traffic, because it gathers up the myriad designer and fashionista blogs all into one convenient location, so there's no need to open up 25 browser tabs, or get yourself an RSS reader just to make it through your blog roll. Well, there's a very simple answer why... Because I can't select which entries go through. For your own fashionable sake I have not unleashed the torrent upon the populous that would be my daily words! I update every day, and it'd practically become My Blog: The Return, with a bigger budget, more interludes and guest stars.

But... what I do say might be nice for you guys to know, because you enjoy my blathering and the little tidbits of news that might spring up and effect you and the speed with which you can get your hot little hands on the Pretties. Since you guys know you like reading my babble, I will keep writing it :)

A couple months back, I divulged in a couple of friends that I had a couple of dreams, a couple of aspirations.. a short list of landmarks that I wanted to reach as a Second Life content creator. These were things that I thought really put you on the map, showed you were a serious professional and put you into the mainstream of the fashion savvy, even if you catered to a niche as I do.

Here are the landmarks I felt at the time I needed to reach for, work towards, and aspire to, in ascending order:

1) Get Blogged - Absolutely number one, because it's the first one I needed to be introduced to the fashion world and get my name out there. I submitted my items tenaciously to Linden Lifestyles. Like most designers, I've come an incredibly long way from the items that were featured in that review, but if it weren't for them, I wouldn't have gotten the sort of encouragement I needed to actually start taking my business seriously. Getting blogged put my store on the map, even if it was only a street name and not a city.

2) Get Interviewed - I told my good friends that this in particular was something that I really wanted... I don't know, maybe it was my chance to pretend I was on The Tonight Show, or maybe fill out a survey that people would actually read the answers to. I just absolutely adore answering questions, doesn't necessarily matter what they're about, but it's just an enormous bonus if they're about something I love, like my work. I talk about my work endlessly to anyone that will listen... as... er... you well know.

The wonderful and ever encouraging Queenie Extraordinaire can say she was the first one to ever interview me; I'll be featured in the next issue of the Metaverse Messenger! Queenie, from way back, has always slipped my items into her blogging in a most flatteringly casual way, so that even when I felt like a very teeny fish in a big pond of publicity she would make me feel a bit more like a salmon.

3) Have a major, Non-Friend Designer Feature your Design in a Product Shot - Ok yes this one sounds a little bit too specific, and maybe something only I would want from all the things I could have. But I would be out shopping, like ya do, and there would be these pieces of jewelry that would just appear again and again in vendor pictures. A certain hat, or a hairstyle, that would circulate around the designers and fashion community. I wanted one of those items to be mine. I think like calls to like, and I have ended up being lucky enough to have a large percentage of my friends be fellow content creators... so having a designer whose work I adore and who isn't a close friend has become a rarity! A lot of these friends and I have a sort of free exchange, where we trade items, bounce ideas off of each other, give critiques and also end up using these items quite a bit in our vendor shots. This is why my dear beloved Munchflower didn't count for this, we're just too cuddly XD

So when Nicky Ree nabbed Gracile, and featured it in her absolutely perfectly synchronized release of her Swan Dream gowns, I had finally reached a goal that I had been quietly dreaming of for months. Nicky Ree is one of my all time favorite clothing designers, and I think she is definitely the designer of formal wear on Second Life... and while we've met we've just never really clicked into the "omg, you're awesome, flisted/IMolested" mindset. Being told that she was using my hat for her pictures was like... "oh gosh it's finally happened".

So you see? Dreams can come true ♥ ☺
4) Get Featured in Second Style - ......>.>

Wonderful News, and a big relief!

Carnivale is safe!

After speaking to the seller, and finding out that he was actually acting on behalf of Vanessa, I told him how important it was to me that Carnivale be the island that remained, and that it greatly effected my personal and financial well being. Today when I checked back on the auction (it's gone up to $202 from $5), a question was asked, and answered:

Q:	Hello, can you tell me the names of the 5 sims, since the list there has more than 5 names? Many thanks (:
A:	All Islands except Carnivale are up for sale and all islands can be moved and renamed (for 100 US with Linden)

I told the seller (the person acting on her behalf) that I wouldn't bother him with emails anymore... but gosh, if he's reading this, I just want to say:

THANK YOU

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. I know that he didn't actually have to, and that the sale could have continued, and I would have done my best to negotiate with the buyer or buy and sell the 4 sims myself. But I am just so grateful that he saw fit to let me keep my home.

This is a very grateful post... There was an absolute outpouring of love and support from you guys. When I logged on and was absolutely freaking out and panicking, you, my friends, were there with IM's offering me help and places to stay. Helyanwe offered me the use of her own home for the Masque, and Munchflower Zaius offered me a place on Nomine, and not to mention the people who were willing and ready to help me raise the money to save Carnivale. I feel incredibly lucky, loved, and humbled that I have such wonderful and generous friends... and I really want to say thank you. Just because I won't have need of your generousity doesn't mean that I don't greatly appreciate your offers of support. I can't believe that some people don't have faith in humanity... they obviously haven't met you.

Witchy Woman

Before I got that disturbing news below, I was about to blog my brand new witch's hats and halloween jewelry! It was about time some really nice quality sculpted witch's hats hit the market. I've named all of my hats after famous witches :)

I've been cackling and wearing this outfit around, and singing my own theme music to myself "dundunnananana, dunananana, duna! duna!" This one is pure fun, a tall, elegant witch's hat for absolutely anyone, and it's utterly timeless. Elphaba was the name that the author Gregory Maguire gave the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz. It has a fun oversized brim and a very tall crown, and it's actually pretty historically accurate. It has a simple buckle that comes in silver or gold, with a hat band that comes in black, or white for tinting. But, for the modern witch who might not be into the deep and dark or cauldrons of newts, you might want to try this one:

Kiki was made in the tradition of adorable gothloli witches and their cute poofy dresses. This hat definitely says "I'm a witch by trade, but who says I can't be friendly?" The character of Kiki in Kiki's delivery service was a sweet, hard working and dedicated young witch, and while she didn't actually wear a witch's hat, I gave her one with a big fabulous bow on the back like the one she always wore on her head.

I also wanted to honor one of my very favorite witches, whom I've been a big fan of ever since I first read the first Harry Potter book: Minerva McGonagall.

Minerva to me, is a traditionalist with a bit of flair, she's conservative yet she's playful. I spruced up this fabulously floppy hat with a fan of cock feathers and a hat pin, which I created just for this hat. As you can see, it's adorable and perfect for halloween, and perfect for Minerva, who can turn into a cat! But.. once I'd made the pin, I realized I loved it too much to just keep it only to a pin on a hat... why don't I make matching jewelry?

I love this set, and I just wish that I could have Halloween jewelry as classy as this in real life, but nooo it's all flashing pumpkin heads and light up ghosts. The brooms especially are absolutely adorable, and make great earrings; they're a lot primmier than they need to be, but hey, I figured I'd splurge. I love the jewelry and the hat together, and you can match them to any outfit since they're both available in 5 metals (gold, copper, sterling, antiqued and tarnished).

It may seem early to some, but Halloween is even more fun in Second Life, since you really can dress up as ANYTHING! And I for one am really excited about it ^_^

A Big Scare

I was going to blog some new hats that I released last night, but I've just received the fright of my Second Life.

Someone was kind enough to send me an IM, asking me if it was true that Carnivale was for sale.


.....

Apparently, right now, Carnivale, and the block of sims its a part of are all listed for sale on Ebay. A scam of course? There's a screenshot from Vanessa Noarlunga's account.

I'm absolutely terrified. I'm not sure if the fact that that I own the parcel will count for anything, but I also know that if I end up homeless, I can get new land, I can move. I love my home, and I love that I've been able to spread out and be a complete prim whore, but I also know that I can very easily do with less and I can rebuild somewhere else. What I'm most afraid of, is that Vanessa's account is being stolen without her even knowing, and at a time when she doesn't need any more stresses in her life. I'm scared that I don't have any way to warn her, that the money that she's invested and the time she's spent in Second Life is about to be completely gone. I'm especially scared that because of this, I might never see my friend again.

EDIT: I've since found out from someone speaking on her behalf that the sale is legitimate. The sims are being sold, and the seller was instructed to sell five of the six sims. My guess is that Vanessa intended for Carnivale to be the one that was left alone, but instead it's included in the block. I've tried letting the seller know, but I'm not sure if he will change the listing.

I'll be working on emergency plans, in case of a sudden change of venue for both Illusions and the Midnight Masquerade.

After having a talk with Munchflower, she's told me that in case I do suddenly end up homeless I have a spot on Nomine with her until I find my own land. She says her prim limits are at my disposal and that I can set up a venue for the Midnight Masque there if I need to. Needless to say, if you find Munch suddenly selling a couple of items that have sculpted prims, you know where they came from.


I realize that sometimes I just assume that everyone knows the wonderful story of how I got an entire sim to my onesies when I cater to a particular niche, and use all of my SL income towards my real life rent. Once upon a time, there was a little mask maker. I had just got my first land, put my store up, and started out seriously making masks and selling for a business sometime in December. I had been making them for about two months, and I had a modest collection that I was extremely proud of. I was used to a purchase here or there, a little ca-ching of lindens from someone who had wandered into my shop to buy for a masquerade, and I made maybe two thousand lindens a day. One day, I suddenly got a ca-ching... and another, and another, and another. I was getting paid over and over again as a lady named Vanessa Noarlunga bought every single thing in my shop. I IM'd her, absolutely delighted, and she told me that she had an extensive collection of masks in real life, and that she was so very happy to find someone taking mask making seriously. Soon after that, we became best friends, and she asked me to do commissions for her and paid me extremely generously. She told me that she was very wealthy in her first life, and worked in Hollywood as a production designer. She said she would love to buy a sim, and rent out half of it to me in exchange for masks and all other inventory that I created. Obviously, that arrangement was just out of this world amazing, and I couldn't believe it, and I was absolutely delighted. For a while I shared the sim with some of her friends who were a part of a Star Trek role playing community, and then she bought them their own. After that, the other half of the sim was abandoned, and she said that the island would be mine but Vanessa never officially gave the parcel to me. She disappeared for a while, and I sent her an email asking where she was, and that people were worried about her. An assistant of hers told me that she was in Europe, and that her daughter had been involved in a fatal accident. Since then, I've only been able to hope that she recovers with the help of her parents, and know that she has more friends than she knows.


So that's the story, I will be bidding on the block of sims if and when I can, and my mother says that she will donate funds to help me if. The auction has five days to go, and I really don't know what sort of numbers I'll be competing with for five sims... I do know that if I end up with the block of them, I actually probably could recover a bit with terraforming them and selling them. I'm also hoping that I might be able to deal with whoever does buy them, if not me, and possibly buy just Carnivale from them.

Wish me luck, or buy me boxes.

Gracile

Not too long ago, I took a quick break from SL to take a trip down to the local Renaissance Faire to have some fun shopping and being all dressed up. I had a plan to ask an artist there whose work I quite admired her permission to render one of her designs in Second Life. It was a design that had captivated me with it's incredible grace, wonderful character, and just pure Fabulousness, and I longed to make my own interpretation of it.

This artist's name is Bonnie Trivizas, of "Fowl Play", a featherworks shop in which she sells beautiful hat pins, fans, and of course, her notorious, and infamous... Swan Hat:


Wearing a hat like this changes the way you walk. It gets you noticed, it makes heads turn, but most of all it makes you into a completely different person. The spirit of the hat takes over, and if you were the sort of person who sits on the curb and eats a cheeseburger, you suddenly become the sort of person who wears white lace gloves and takes tea at Fortnam and Mason's.

When I asked Bonnie, (who is most amiable and wonderfully whimsical), she couldn't believe that I thought that her hat would sell. "God, of course!" I told her, "It's FABULOUS!". I think part of her still didn't believe me, so I especially am asking everyone who wears it to take pictures of yourself, and post it in the *~*Illusions*~* pool on Flickr. I'll be sending the links to Bonnie so she can see people enjoying having a swan on their head! And not only that...

If you love this hat enough in Second Life... you can have it in your first, and for a very modest price at that for the work that goes into it. If you're interested and have a bit of spare cash, you can IM Bonnie yourself at bonnie@fowl-play.biz. She doesn't have her website yet, but she's an absolute peach and a pleasure to talk to!

Now... this hat was full of collaborations, not just with Bonnie but also with Jen Shikami of Seven's Selections, who has the most incredible wings... but she also was able to do commisioned feather textures for me. Not only did she make me a beautiful collection of flawlessly alpha'd feathers... she also did UV wrapped textures for my sculpted feathers, which is what allowed me to layer my feathers without any alpha flicker worries at all. She did incredible work, and now I can finally, truly, use feathers in my work. The entire reason I hadn't touched the wonderful world of plumage was a lack of perfect textures. Now that I have them... it opens so many doors.


Gracile turned out so beautifully, that it was blogged before it was actually released. Celebrity Trollop beat me to the punch when I made the "mistake" of sharing it with her in a fit of happy, giddy excitement when I was taking pictures. Her response was very flattering, and in her wonderful bubbly way she evilly coerced me into giving her everything I'm working on right now XD That witchy woman!! And witchy indeed as you'll see from the post! And you can thank her for the fact that I'm pushing up the release of some Halloween yummies quite radically :)

Three 20L Goodies

Last night I set out that eye patch I gave to group members, and a plain satin blindfold that someone asked about in fashion emergency. I also repackaged Smokey and put it in the pretty vendors with options! All three of them are just 20L each, so they won't exactly put too much of a dent in your pocket.

I love the look of this, it looks so mysterious and it's just so simple! The sculpt is a "cloth wrap" that I did a while back, but it ended up fitting to the face really, really well. I also was playing with turning up the transparency, and you get the same effect with the mask that Kirsten Dunst was wearing in Marie Antoinette. I really like throwing it on at the last minute when I don't want to think about picking out my mask for the day.

Arrr, ye be a right scurvy seadog with that thar patch. Or, just your general rogue... I know technically eyepatches don't really follow that line or go down across the cheek, but let's just face it... it looks totally badass that way.

Here's Smokey again :) My all time top best seller, I cleaned up the rotations a teeny big and fit it to the forehead a bit tighter, but it's still the same product, same price, prettier package ^.^


These are just teasers to tie you over, I'm really excited about some delicious secret projects, but I don't have pictures, so they'll have to stay secret until I do XD

Mezzaluna and Solas

There's a particular design of mask that's always enchanted me, inspired me and mystified me. It's that asymmetrical sweep, coming down around the cheek and sweeping up into the hair, that I tried to convey in my primitive way in the Celestial Mask, way back when. Someone brought that mask back into my mind recently, asking about a "mate" for it... and I realized it was about time I made a pair of masks based loosely on the sun and the moon.

Solas is a glorious spiky sort of sun god mask, but he's a devil to fit with hair. You'll definitely need a hair that doesn't have bangs, let's put it that way. You can see a bit of my trying to play with designs in textures, this one was tricky for me! I even made myself a male shape especially so that I might experience the whole "being a man wearing one of my masks" thing, and I think you'll find this one will fit a lot better than my other ones, unless of course you have a larger than average nose o.o

But Solas is sadly merely a prelude compared to the one I'm really, really proud of... you had a preview of it, and now you can enjoy the finished version in all of it's elegant glory...

Walking into the store and having this staring at you first thing you see is quite an effect. I'm especially happy with the deep sweeping shading in the eyes that give it that smolderingly sexy mystique. The delicate chain just completes this beautiful line that encompasses the face, and I just can't stop wearing Noam Sprocket of Gritty Kitty's beautiful Needles hair style with it. It's far and away my favorite fauxhawk, and it balances out the curves beautifully. I'm very happy, and I think you folks are too, that I didn't stop with mediocrity :)

I've been working on a new way to texture my masks! I found that even though I can't really add detail on the sculpted mask itself, that doesn't mean that I can't add detail onto the model while it's still in Zbrush. I think I still prefer doing prim details; doing the detail work in Zbrush feels a little awkward and a bit more like drawing, which I'd rather do with a tablet.

Oh em gee, the truth comes out, poor Siyu has a MOUSE. Yes. And does everything with it. So stop bugging me to do clothing, it'll simply never happen while I am chained to this digital rodent tool.

However, some nice things have come from my playing with this, one design that I'm extremely happy with, and didn't end up taking pictures of, and another that I did take pictures of, that I'm still playing with ideas for detail work. However, the picture I ended up taking is just so High Fashion I had to share it with the world... it is, in the words of Tyra Banks, fierce.

When I take an awesome, beautiful, amazing and smoldering picture with a mask or an item of mine that just isn't done yet... I get torn in a couple of directions. I'm pretty much embarrassed of the item in question, and yet I can't resist the fact that I made it look so good on "digital film". So the way I'm compromising is by showing this to you, and only you, oh lovely reader of my blog, and not submitting it to Flickr. I will probably attempt to duplicate this picture with whatever the finished product ends up being.

Ok, so sometimes I forget that the problems I see so incredibly plainly and obviously aren't so obvious to many others. The reason that this mask will not be put out the way that it is, is the texture. The shading is beautiful, the part around the eyes is to die for, I love that heavy intense shading and the color is beautiful. Buuuut... the details on the forehead seem silly, and too simple, and seem to ask for more of the same in other parts. I couldn't figure out a way to make more of the same look good, so I'll probably be scrapping that in the end. I love the streak of lilac against the blue, but it blurred unexpectedly up at the top and didn't make the clean line I had hoped for. Ok, you got all that? It's not perfect yet, deal.

But it does sure make a perdy picture. Mmmmm...

Arrr Maties!

So my RL engagement didn't keep me from throwing a Talk Like a Pirate party on my own time, and passing out a fun eye patch to the group and random grabbers from Fashion Consolidated Cafe. There was a friendly, tight turnout of fun folks who appreciated a good jig and a silly way to converse.

Arrr, above be the fair wench Lion Regent about to slaughter the lady Eos. Good thing Eos be lookin' her finest then!
Candy be the most fluent in that thar piratey speak. She proved us all be landlubbers and her the most nautical. Savvy?
Thor be lookin fine and gussied in a peg leg and a fine fezzered hat.
And finally that be me, and me l'il pirate angel Selos, sippin' her grog. Arrr, and ye see the pirate patch!

I did spin the finest piratey tunes I had in me cargo hold, and people did have a fine piratey time!

I did cut the party short though. Nor brought some news to my attention, that the 1-800 Flowers blog had finally been updated, almost a week after their original posted date for the results. I wasn't selected for any of the 5 prizes.

I don't consider myself a sore loser, and normally I can bow gracefully to defeat, a lack of recognition, or a polite dismissal. But I admit I was upset about this, and needed some time to escape and curl up with a pillow. I feel honestly that there wasn't another arrangement as beautiful as mine, and I realized the other pieces I recognized were made with the most love and care weren't selected either. Each piece I would have picked to be a winner was passed by, and the exact opposites were chosen. It might be something about being new to Second Life, particle and script awe does occur when you're new, but all I can say is that obviously the judges had values that just weren't in alignment with mine. I poured my heart into something incredibly beautiful, and I guess the creation will be its reward.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who gave me hugs and loves and happy feelings, and everyone who voted for my entry. I'd like to offer you a copy of the arrangement in thanks for supporting it, I know that to you guys, I won :) IM me in world or leave a comment here and I'll send one your way :)

I've acquired a strange obsession with sculpted ears. Only good things will come of it, and you have every reason to be excited! However it doesn't change that it is a bit odd for me to be working so hard on something thoroughly non-Halloween related when I should be getting ready for my store's equivalent of Christmas.

That being said, these are some really awesome ears. I did a first draft, and passed them around to friends, as well as doing a gorgeous photoshoot on Flickr with them, but there was a glitch in the mesh underneath the hair where the ear met skin that I just couldn't live with. So they went back into the workshop that is Zbrush, got re-tooled, and came out greatly improved. I took some tips from Selos Dae on the texture and tried to add a bit more depth to the shading on the new ones, and matched the tones by eye to popular skin tones ^_^ These... I am happy with!!

MUAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!

Yeah. Yeah I know. I'll put em out when I'm finished with skin tones XD And they'll have some friends. I realized folks who make elfin/fairy/drow ears don't get serious with variety, and just put out their interpretations. Well, you're looking at the smallest size (Pixie) in this picture, but there are Elfin ears and the absolutely enormous Drow ears. I'll be working on jewelry for them too :D Can you tell I'm really excited?

So why aren't I working on cobwebs, spider themed things and pumpkins? I just don't know, but at least you're obsessed with ears now too.