Festive Florissinae

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!

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!

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 :)

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.

♥

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

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

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

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!

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

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 :)