Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Gods Return

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

Friday, June 17, 2011

Illusions @ GIA Accessory Fair 2011

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.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Double Points Weekend! June 18th-20th

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.

Monday, May 16, 2011

La Volpe

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.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Happy Easter!

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 :)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

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 :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Please welcome Cellta Industries to Carnivale

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?

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Dottore Peste

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.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

King & Queen of Carnevale

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 :)


Monday, March 7, 2011

Mardi Gras Masquerade 2011 (Aftermath)

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 :)