Designing Insanity by Boneflower

Winter Snowflake Sweaters for Christmas!

2011-12-20T21:59:00.000Z

NEW RELEASE @ < boneflower > at Temenos ! :: December 20th, 2011

SNOWFLAKES!

Boneflower :: Unisex Snowflake Sweaters -

Comfy, warm turtleneck sweaters are a staple of anyone's wardrobe, especially at this time of year. The new snowflake sweater come in a 4 colour variations: Blackest Night, Grey Clouds, Midnight Blue, and Blue Skies. They are totally unisex, so is quite suitable for guys or girls. The sweaters have sculpted sleeves and collar.

Get them at the floaty store in Temenos by the Christmas display in the New Releases area...

boneflower @ temenos place

boneflower is on teh intarwebs

2011-12-14T02:07:00.000Z

Yes, I finally broke down and created official Facebook and Twitter accounts for Zoe and Boneflower, so you can now find us on teh intarwebs! So, if you ever wanted to know what I am up to, what new things I might be making, or when something is released at Temenos, you can easily find the answers to these and other burning questions of monumental importance online. Here are the links:

Facebook Fan Page for Boneflower
Please like me (I am needy that way)

Twitter account for Boneflower
Follow us (but not in a stalkerish way, please)

And, for those who remember who I am and the even fewer who care:

Facebook Page for Zoe Llewelyn - Will you be my friend? @___@

halloween releases from boneflower

2011-10-27T04:01:00.001Z

NEW RELEASES @ < boneflower > at Temenos Place! :: October 26th, 2011

HALLOWEEN IS HERE!

boneflower :: halloween leggings

Leggings are a staple of anyone's wardrobe, so this week we offer a collection of halloween themed tights in six designs. Pants and underpants layers. Cute, and just in time for the holiday...

Oh, and did I mention they are only 25L each? :D

boneflower :: halloween tee shirts (unisex)

The second offering is designed to work nicely with the leggings, above, or as seperates. Basic, unisex tee shirts, in Orange and Black, jacket and shirt layers. Eight fun halloween themed designs for men or women!

Tee sets are only 50L each and includes both Black and Orange versions.

This is just one of many new releases I plan in coming months. I am shooting for a couple new offerings per month now that I am finally getting back into SL. Hope you enjoy. :3

Available now in the New Stuff area of Temenos Place. Use the enclosed landmark to hop straight in!

boneflower @ temenos place

- Zoe

Candy-Striped Leggings from Tweet!

2010-12-09T01:43:00.003Z

Hello again! :3

I just put out 13 new pairs of leggings that I made. (Maybe I went overboard?) They are available on all layers and are mostly sold in sets of two. That is, except the licorice inspired pack that has 3 pairs of leggings (just because!).

These and the rest can be purchased at Temenos.

New from Tweet

2010-11-17T01:44:00.002Z

Hello! :3

Two new sets of leggings are available from Tweet. Each set has 3 different pairs of leggings, all of them available on both the pants and the underpants layers.

These can be purchased in Temenos by the telehub. Also, there's a retirement sale going on for all the old items (in the white boxes). Get them before they disappear on Jan. 1^st.

Working Again...

2010-05-13T23:43:00.002Z

Yus, I am actually trying to work in Photoshop some again. I have zero energy most nights after work, but I am gonna give this a shot anyhow.

Sumire Mochi of Tweet, my Second Life and Real Life love, is also working to jumpstart her own brand, so we are integrating our efforts by doing small, simple themed ideas to start out. We will decide on something we both have an interest in making - this first effort is leggings - and then challenge each other to do our own takes on the theme.

First new releases in ages will be coming soon, and will likely coincide with a complete re-design of Temenos that we have in mind to start first of June.

=^_^=

40 Days in the Desert

2010-01-20T20:22:00.003Z

So...yeah. I am still alive. Mostly. Haven't had much time or motivation to be here in the last 6 months, and I haven't touched photoshop in so long I don't remember where the icon is anymore. But, I am alive.

I am sure no one reads this anymore, or remembers who I was even if they do. My old business has died down to a trickle, and I have faded into the flood of newer designers who actually...you know...release stuff. But, I kinda needed to start posting here again for myself if for nothing else. So here I be.

Despite my lack of time to be online, I am hanging around Second Life again a few nights a week once more. Boneflower, Temenos, and my other businesses and brands are all pretty much dead, and my hopes and dreams of ever again making my living from SL as I did for so many years is buried now in the grave it belongs in. But, I have been thinking at times that I may someday still get back to designing a few things just for the fun of it. My life is so different now. But I still love the sheer creative impulse of design. So, maybe it will yet happen.

As for Temenos...I am barely keeping up with the payments of the island and have considered what might happen within the next six months if my sales continue to decline to the point I can't afford the sim any longer. But for now, I am limping along. Though Sumire and I have considered totally rebuilding the island at some point, I just don't see when we will ever have time. At least in the coming year.

Well, that is enough rambling for one stormy morning. *Hugs to all from Zoe the Crazy Cat Lady*

True Courage

2009-06-20T21:23:00.001Z

“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…” - an Iranian blogger, with more courage than most of us will ever know.

[Re-posted for obvious reasons.]

Link Arms With the Citizens of Iran

2009-06-17T21:32:00.003Z

Go Green in Support!

In most of the world we take our votes and our freedoms for granted. So much so that most people rarely bother or care to exercise their right to be heard in elections these days. Yet, right this very minute hundreds of thousands of people are standing up and speaking out; risking their very lives demanding that simple set of rights we all seem to take so casually.

The Iranian election was stolen from its citizens this week, and the government has responded to demands for new elections by throwing foreign news agencies out of Iran, blocking all television and internet news in and out of the country, and beating and killing those protesting for their votes to be heard. Our only sources of what is happening inside Iran come from people just like you and me, who have braved the police and government's threats and violence to come out and protest and send us images by cellphone and twitter of what is happening to them in that now-isolated country.

Please, please look at the link below and see what is going on in a part of the world you may have no knowledge of or link to. Open your eyes and see what is often demanded of those who seek freedom. If you are as moved and staggered by these events and images as I am, I ask you to stand in solidarity with the citizens of Iran and display green on your blogs, websites, and clothing. Show the world, and the government of Iran, and most importantly those fighting and losing their lives for what we so often claim to hold so dear, that we support free and fair elections in Iran and stand with our sisters and brothers there...regardless of nationality, religion, or ethnic background.

Flicker Photos from #iranelection by .faramarz

Argyle Basics

2009-04-17T17:56:00.000Z

NEW RELEASE @ ~Boneflower ~ at Temenos ! ::April 17th, 2009

ARGYLE!

Boneflower :: Argyle Sweater Sets -

A staple of anyone's wardrobe, this week we offer a collection of Argyle sweaters. The sets come in a berry pink sweater, a baby blue, a light brown and a grey version. Each is unisex, so is quite suitable for guys or girls, and comes with 9 colours of argyle pattern each. I have created brand new sculpted sleeves just for these sweaters, and included a plain white v-neck tee shirt with them if you want that layered look.

The sweaters themselves are on jacket layers, while the tee is available on all 3 layer types. The sculpted prim sleeves are modify and copy for freedom to adjust it to your size and shape, though I did include small and large pre-sets in the folder.

The 4 sets available:

This is just one of many new releases I plan in coming months. I am shooting for 2-4 new offerings per month now that I am settling into my new home. Hope you enjoy. :3

Available now on the 4th floor of the Boneflower Building at the new Temenos Place. From the Telehub you can use the "Clothes" teleport option under the Boneflower name to jump straight to the area. :3 Or use the SLURL below to hop straight in!

TELEPORT NOW!

- Zoe

Have Laptop, Will Travel...

2009-03-05T04:00:00.003Z

Los Angeles Awaits

As indicated on my other blog (see The Broken Doll in the sidebar) I am preparing to make one of the biggest moves of my life. I leave for Los Angeles in 2 days to try to locate a place to live and a temporary job until Second Life can once again support me. Within a few short weeks I will be completely transplanted to the other side of the country. Seems more like an alien world at this point.

This means I will be slowed a bit in my attempt to re-invigorate the business here in SL. However, nothing has changed you can be sure. My plans remain the same, and as soon as I am settled back into a halfway decent routine, i will be picking up where I left off, designing lots of new scuplted outfits. I am very hyped for it. But the move must come first. :3

At some point after the move I also plan to redesign Temenos once again. So, feel free to start letting me know any complaints, praises or ideas concerning the old build and the current one to help me better know how to re-design the sim. All feedback is welcome.

In the meantime, as things are in flux, you can always follow the progress of my insane life and the move on the other blog. If you were so incline. Which I am sure you are not. :p

Wish me luck. I am gonna need it. @__@

MY FIRST SCULPTED OUTFIT!

2009-02-19T00:41:00.003Z

NEW RELEASE SALE @ ~Boneflower ~ at Temenos ! :: February 17th, 2009

Boneflower :: Summer Ruffle Dress -

After a lot of time relearning Blender (It has changed a fair bit since I learned it originally in 1998), I have finally released my first sculpted outfit...a cute as pie little ruffled top and skirt set available in 6 fabrics. Just in time for spring, this adorable number is the ticket for anyone tired of winter and ready to strut about on some warmer nights out.

The clothing aspects are available on all 3 layers, while the prims are modify and copy for freedom to adjust it to your size and shape.

The 6 fabrics available now:

This is just the first of many new sculpted designs that will be arriving in coming months. Hope you enjoy. :3

Available now on the 4th floor of the Boneflower Building at the new Temenos Place. From the Telehub you can use the "Clothes" teleport option under the Boneflower name to jump straight to the area. :3 Or use SLURL to hop straight in!

TELEPORT NOW!

- Zoe

NEKO BOIS! NEKO BOIS! NEKO BOIS!

2009-02-09T23:57:00.002Z

NEW RELEASE SALE @ ~ Voodoo ~ at Temenos ! :: February 8th, 2009

Voodoo Male Neko Skins :: Version II -

Yes, the long-promised Version II release of my totally redesigned neko skins for the men is here! Eight skin tones available, including a new darker black, and a lighter grey. Each skin tone has been reworked to make each more unique than before. Each skin tone has three versions available for the release: Leopard, Tabby, and Tiger. Yes, the Tiger striped skins I promised ages ago are finally out. Now for you guys too! :3

These Version II :: Voodoo :: Neko Boi skins are designed specifically to compliment and serve as counterpart to the female Version II skins released in November of last year.

I have started with 3 eye makeup styles similar to the girls versions, and a basic selection of both clean-shaven and bearded combinations per skin style. (I plan to later add some actual lipstick and makeup choices beyond the lipgloss version I have now for the guys once I decide exact looks.) In addition, each skin purchased comes with both natural and shaved pubic choices this time around, as requested by some of my femme guy friends.

I have, as well, reworked the old neko ears and tails with new textures to match these Version II skins, and included a basic set with each skin free of charge.

Just a few samples of the men's skin options up:

Available now on the 3rd floor of the Boneflower Building at the new Temenos Place. From the Telehub you can use the "Nekos" teleport option under the Jungle Voodoo name to jump straight to the area. :3 Or use the SLURL below to hop straight in!

TELEPORT NOW!

- Zoe

Summer Has Come to Second Life!

2009-01-01T17:50:00.004Z

Sundresses for New Years!!

They say misery can inspire the artist. In my cause, I think it's more the attempt to avoid thinking about my misery that has inspired these new dresses. Normally I love winter. Snuggling tight under blankets in the cold, the snow; they all have fond memories for me normally. But this year, with no one to snuggle with any longer, I feel perhaps this season has worn out it's welcome with me. These sundresses are the result of my thinking forward to warmer times, literally and figuratively.

There are six patterns, all rather retro, so hopefully there will be something that will appeal to everyone. The clothing layer is available on both jacket and shirt and pants for some options in dressing up. So, if you are like me right now, and ready for summer, come by and grab one of these cute numbers!

Available now on the 4th floor of the Boneflower Building at the new Temenos Place. From the Telehub you can use the "Clothes" teleport option under the Boneflower store name to jump straight to the area. :3 Or use the SURL below to hop straight in!

Teleport Now!

Sale Extended - One More Day

2008-11-17T14:26:00.004Z

Like it says, I have decided to extend the New Release Sale on the Version II redesigned Voodoo Neko skins another day! The response to the newest skins has been amazing, and I wanted to allow everyone an extra day to grab up their favorites before the regular prices arrive now that I have all the fatpacks and bundles priced and up as well.

So, tell your friends and get them out there to take advantage of the current 25% off sale before it's gone!

Teleport Now!

P.S. -

Guys...I haven't forgotten you, so fear not! The girls may have gotten theirs a bit earlier, but I would never leave my furry male friends out in the cold. I started on the redesign of the male version today, and will have your skins up as soon as I can manage. Just hang tight a bit longer! :3

NEKOS! NEKOS! NEKOS!

2008-11-14T16:45:00.003Z

NEW RELEASE SALE @ ~ Voodoo ~ at Temenos ! :: November 14th, 2008

Voodoo Neko Skins :: Version II -

Yes, the long-promised Version II release of my totally redesigned neko skins are here! Eight skin tones available, including a new darker black, and a lighter grey. Each skin tone has been reworked to make each more unique than before. Each skin tone has three versions available for the release: Leopard, Tabby, and Tiger. Yes, the Tiger striped skins I promised ages ago are finally out. :3

I have greatly expanded the makeup options, with over 30 available makeup combinations per skin style. In addition, each skin purchased comes with a second eyebrow option for free, as well as having both natural and shaved pubic choices this time around.

I have, as well, reworked the old neko ears and tails with new textures to match these Version II skins, and included a basic set with each skin free of charge.

One Weekend Only! 25% off! -

To celebrate finally finishing these skins , I am releasing them for the first weekend at 25% off the regular planned price. But, only for the initial Fri, Sat, and Sun. That's Nov. 14th thru 16th only...then the normal prices will arrive. So drop in and grab up your favorites now while they are on sale!

Just a few samples of the dozens of makeup designs up:

Available now on the 3rd floor of the Boneflower Building at the new Temenos Place. From the Telehub you can use the "Nekos" teleport option under the Jungle Voodoo name to jump straight to the area. :3 Or use the SLURL link below to hop straight in!

Teleport Now!

- Zoe

The Great Wall of Pants

2008-08-09T21:14:00.004Z

Seems I have been in a totally pants mood lately...

The result has been maybe a bit extreme, but then I am known for my extremes if nothing else I suppose. After the brocade pants I did last week, I decided to give some jeans a go once more. I had been wanting to do some more jeans for some time, and why not now while pants were in my head anyway? However, it didn't stop with a pair or two of new jeans. Oh, no, it didn't stop until there were dozens and dozens of designs up and I had created The Great Wall of Pants:

Here you will now find pants of many designs, and of every country I could force my small mind to recall (please...if your country's flag is not on a pair of my pants, do not feel it is an intentional slight. I am old and forgetful, nothing more.), as well as messy pants, splattered pants, bleached pants, Tinkerbell pants (I am a Tink fan) and flaming pants.

These jeans are low-rise, but very few of them are overly "girlie", so the guys can wear em despite the images being of a female model. Later I will make a few standard waist pairs of the more popular styles, for those who dislike low-rise pants. As always, No transfer, so I can replace them. For now they are each sold separately. Later I will offer some sets at vastly reduced price once I get around to packaging them up. But at 75L$ I don't think they are overly expensive even for newbies.

Just a few examples:

As always, feedback is not only welcome, but greatly appreciated.

These new jeans are on the 4th floor of the new Boneflower building at Temenos Place. The "Clothes"option beneath the Boneflower Name on the teleporter will take you on up for those in a hurry.

-Zoe

I Need Opinions - Shite or Not Shite?

2008-08-02T19:10:00.004Z

I started work over a year and a half ago (maybe 2 years now, not sure) on a version 2 of all my Neko products. The original skins were some of the first products I released way way back at the end of 2005 or so I think and I have always felt they needed updating even though they used to sell well. Used to being the important part of that sentiment. Nothing of mine sells well now...but that tends to happen when you go crazy, disappear and don't release anything new for over a year or more - People forget you exist. And of course, I am no longer the only person in SL selling neko skins the way I used to be. That probably doesn't help. So...what the fuck was I writing about anyway/ oh...right...the version 2 shite.

Well, I started on updating those old neko skins a long time ago. I redid the tabby housecat stripes from scratch, added a lightened belly fur to the skin, and made adjustments to the face, eyebrows, makeup, etc to be more in line with my newer skins. I also tried a quick test for some tiger stripes, since people have always seemed to confuse the tabby striped skins for tiger skins and complained the stripes weren't prominent enough. The idea was to update the whole line. Add more options to the ears and scripting, throw in lots of interactive stuff and new features and release the whole new line when I designed a new store for more space.

Well, I did eventually have Teiko make me a new store...which is open now over 2 years after starting that idea. I also did prototypes of the new neko skin idea back then and then I didn't follow up. Like so much junk half-finished in my inventory. the prototypes are still sitting in a folder, but I spiraled out of control, went crazy again, and lost all motivation and ability to work or think straight for a year or more and here I am now looking at these old prototype version 2 skins and asking myself...are they shite or not? Should I continue with em or start over yet again?

Now...I am making a massive assumption here. Namely that even if i do decide to do anything with these or start over, that I will indeed complete something this time. That is a huge if for me right now at this stage of my recovery. Huge if. But...assuming i may be able to pull that off and I might actually work on a new set of neko skins...should I use these prototypes? Are they good enough, different enough, updated enough and simply not shite enough to be worth it?

I have a hard time answering that myself. I am my own worst critic, and I always hate my own art, my own work. That's hate. As in it fuckin' is trash. So it's hard for me to look at any of my stuff objectively. So, I decided...hey, while I have enough guts to post a blog today, let's just ask anybody out there still reading this what they feel. Shite? or Not Shite?

To that end...here are some images of the prototypes:

The Leopard Version 2 Prototype -

The Tabby Version 2 Prototype -

The Tiger Version 2 Prototype -

No, not the best pictures, but the ads are the same style as the old skins, so you could compare against the old look if you wanted to. They still need work even if they aren't shite, but the question is...do I bother with em at all? Hell...while you are at it and taking the time to comment (assuming anyone does), let me know if I should just scrap the neko stuff completely from my list of future works. I mean, honestly...when i did the original neko skins it was because no one was making any that I could find. they were rare, unique and new back then. But now nekos are so common you can't avoid stepping on a tail anywhere there are more than two people together, and seems every store out there has and makes neko parts and skins now. Is it time to move on to other stuff? If not, do I use these and continue with version 2? or scrap them and work on version 3 all anew?

Anyway. just some rambling, musing, and a cheap way to make all of you answer my questions and make up my fucked up mind for me. Yeah, I am lazy. Wanna do the actual work too? >_>

P.S. - Please, please, please don't ask me when these will be released. I get enough of that already, and seeing as I don't even know if I will do anything with them at all, I sure don't have any timetable. Hell, I don't have timetables for anything in my life just now, let alone new releases and stuff.

Anyone Want in My Pants?

2008-08-02T18:47:00.003Z

After over a year of struggling and pushing myself to find some last remaining shred of motivation and creativity at the bottom of this evil fuckin' pit I have been in, i finally have something to show for it. Something small, and I am sure insignificant really, but something that nevertheless is of massive importance to me: Pants.

Okay, so pants aren't generally sen as anything special or monumental, I'll give you that. But in the scheme of my current life, depression, and issues, having been able to fight my way up enough the last few days to finally make something - anything - is a major fuckin' victory for me. Yes, it remains just some pants...but it hopefully says to my ever spiraling an doubting self that I can indeed pull myself out of this tailspin and get back to work someday soon. Maybe.

Anyway, enough of that shite...here are the pants...

They are women's low-rise slacks and come in 8 colours on both pants and underpants layers. No transfer, as usual for my clothes, so I can replace stuff SL's asshat servers eat. I was told a few times to make more pants because I seem to rarely make them...well, here they are. >_>

Currently only available at the main Temenos Place store on the 4th floor of the Boneflower building. The Teleporter at the hub will take you there if you right click and port from the "Clothes" option under the Boneflower sign.

Now...let's see if this new me is a one trick pony or if I can manage to force myself to make something else... @__@

Temenos Place - New Store Kinda Open

2008-07-25T06:27:00.005Z

Yeah, I am back from the dead...or maybe the undead. Sorta anyway. After a bit of a stay in the padded room, I have crawled back to SL in the last few weeks and tried to get a few minor things done. Admittedly, it's not much yet, but something is still a huge deal to me considering.

Anyway, Teiko managed to set up the new store build she had begun last year after a lot of changes and moving stuff. I had to sell off all my other islands and just held onto the original Temenos, so the new build had to go up in place of the old one instead of on it's own island. Still, after a series of messes and lots of fucking up on my end, things are finally set up and all the products are moved from the old location on top the volcano down to the new blue glass store on the beach.

There is a lot of work still to do on the build to make it how I want, and to finish filling it up, but its a start.

As part of trying to jump start the neglected and failing business that supports my sorry ass and that of my kids, I have marked down most of my older stuff...meaning most everything I make anywhere from 20-40%. Not much new up yet, but that is the next hurdle to get myself over.

Raven Pennyfeather's Rfyre store is expanded and displayed more prominently in the main tower now, and I have begged and whined to other merchants whose work I like and who I consider friends to set up in some of the additional store space the new build offers, including soon, the Loony Bin by Malady Loon, and perhaps Pain Toys. :3

New teleporter system is up and working. Hopefully it isn't too confusing.

Now to try to beat some creativity and motivation into my thick head and get some long overdue new products out... *sigh*

- Zoe

Blogging about blogging...

2007-08-15T13:10:00.000Z

I have never been the most consistent blogger around. Some of my personae are writers and love to chat, keep journals, use instant messengers, and otherwise socialize and spew their thoughts across the universe for all to see. Some of my personae would rather have their toenails removed with pliers than socialize or talk about much of anything, but especially themselves, erm...us...ya know...me. That is kind of the basics of why I seem to blog for spurts and then have huge dry spells. Personae shifts and the whims of who is running the show at the time in my head.

One of the coping and survival mechanisms I have used for decades to ensure I continued functioning at least reliably enough to not starve in a corner has been to train myself into habits. The joy of having moderate OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is that I can use my compulsions as a way to force most of my selves to stay in line, at least on certain important matters. Once I ingrain a routine, I am very very uncomfortable with ever deviating from it, regardless of which of us is at the helm. Mostly, I have used this for the big stuff, as training these habits isn't easy and takes a hell of a lot of serious energy and concentration from me over a good amount of time. I am obsessive about patterns, among other things, but getting a pattern established that my OCD will then latch onto is work.

So, what does my odd compulsiveness have to do with blogging? Umm...I am not even sure any more. Oh! Wait, I recall...I am going to try to train myself to blog more constantly by building a daily pattern that my OCD will help ensure I stay with. This hasn't been something I felt like trying before, nor wa sit something I could have managed on this blog alone, since in order to make this work, I would have to blog every single day, likely at the same time of day without fail to get a habit built up, and I just don't have enough business releases or SL business information to really justify blogging on here every day.

That is why you will now see a new link over on the sidebar under the temporary heading of "Odd Zoe Links" called "The Broken Doll". This is a personal blog, unrelated to Second Life, fashion design, any of my businesses, or other things of interest to those people who read -this- blog...all three of them. The Broken Doll is basically an online diary, a jumble of my thoughts, and the weird goings on in my head. I will be making posts in that journal every morning and every evening to train myself to be more reliable at this stuff, and hopefully that will also help me blog more consistently here as well.

Please do not feel any compulsion to actually read The Broken Doll. It has no relation to this blog other than the authour, and won't directly be referencing SL much. I put the link there for anyone who is curious, or who has those crazy voices that force them to watch train wrecks without looking away so that they can get a small peek into the insanity I live with. You are welcome there, but certainly not gonna hurt my feelings if no one ever clicks it either. It's a personal project for sorting my thoughts, charting my illnesses, educating the curious about DID, Depression and other such diseases and disorders, and a tool to an end as stated above. Be warned however if you do read it, it may contain triggers and disturbing thoughts and imagery at times. Mostly it will just be insanely boring I expect.

However, of more interest may be that I plan to do some revamping of the SL Fashion links on the sidebar over the next few days as well. I myself have long used Fashion World of SL as my daily dose of fashion information, relying on most of the big fashion designers and stores in SL to be syndicated there. However, I am increasingly finding so many neat labels and blogs that are NOT on that site that I feel I need to start hunting down some of the ones I really like and linking them on the side. A lot of people may even not have ever heard of or use Fashion World of SL the way I do...hard as that is to believe! So, look for more cool picks for designers and blogs over there soon.

Today I added Illusions, the blog of the cool mask lady Siyu Suen to the list. I was dumb-founded to realize I had not seen her amazing stuff before a few items got blogged recently on some other sites that do syndicate to Fashion World of SL. Her work is truly amazing, and her style and ads, her whole brand is just so well done. Definately check out her blog and her store! It has threatened to relive my childhood fascination (read morbid obsession) with carnivales and sideshows in a serious way...damn you Siyu!

There will be more links added as I track them down and edit them in. Likely I may reorganize the sidebar some too, maybe break the links into more categories...

So...that is this blog on blogging. Hopefully you will see more of me blogging here and updating stuff more often as I get this new habit up and going, so you have been warned and given time to hide. O.O

The shape of things to come...

2007-08-14T12:14:00.000Z

Yes, after three years of refusing to bother with making and selling shapes, I finally caved in. The main pressure came from customers asking for the male shape used in most of my ads, from Neko Skins to the Gothic skins and clothes in ~ broken ~, which I had originally made just as a stopgap shape until I could find something better. Oddly, people seem to actually like it, and I got IMs almost daily asking if it was for sale. Of course I have been getting requests for Zoe's shape too based on my ads for ages, but I refuse to sell my own shape, and will always stay firm on that. Mine! All mine! *mad look in eyes*

*cough* Sorry...

I have now released 6 new shapes at the ~ broken ~ store...3 male and 3 female. These shapes are only being offered as NO MODIFY / COPY / NO TRANSFER and can be found in a new side room at the store under the lava in the volcano. I am not taking any requests for custom shapes. Each shape does come with a notecard that details the skins, hair, and clothes worn in the advertising images so the "look" can be reproduced if you so wish, not just the shape. See Information and FAQ from the in world notecard tagged at the end of this post below for more info on my shapes and policies.

The shapes available so far include ::

Jiang Li - 5'5" tall Asian Girl -

Jiang Li is very loosely based on my own shape. She is however much taller, thinner, and has a newly redone face from scratch. The effect is nice I hope. Average height, and an A cup bust. She is the first of the "Kawaii" shapes. :3

Sasha - 5'6" tall European Girl -

Sasha is kinda your normal college girl. Average height at 5'6", cute round face that gives her a youthful look, medium build with a B cup bust.

Kimberly - 5'0" tall European Girl -

Kimberly is a little different than most of the shapes you see in SL. She is short for one at 5'0" tall, and in a sea of 7 foot amazons that is rare enough. But, I wanted a cute, but realistic look for Kimberly that was not model perfect. The girl next door sort. She has an adorable, innocent face and a slightly pudgy frame with wide hips and a bit of junk in her trunk. She has some belly to her and barely a B cup bust, but is not really overweight. Hopefully she will appeal to those who want something a bit different than the glut of supermodels.

Kiyoshi - 6'0" tall Asian Boi -

Kiyoshi was the second of the Bishonen shapes I have done. he is a bit taller than Masakazu with a somewhat rounder face and longer legs. He has a very thin frame, willowy and youthful. I used the female model to achieve a prettier face and thinner build than you can get with the male base, and I am very pleased with it. This is the shape I sometimes wear myself when I go slumming it as a bishie boi with friends. >.>

Masakazu - 5'8" tall Asian Boi -

Masakazu was my first Bishonen boi shape I made some time back. Based on the female model, he is a smaller version of Kiyoshi with average height and a slightly thinner and wider mouth and nose and somewhat shorter legs.

Jaquin - 6'2" tall European Boi -

Jaquin is the male model based shape you see in many of my advertisements at Temenos. I have used him for the Neko Boi skins, the Whispers of Night male skins, and most all of the ~ broken ~ ads. he is the most requested shape other than Zoe's shape, and releasing him was kinda the catalyst for this whole shapes thing. At 6'2" he is tall...but not monster tall like the 7 foot insanity you see in SL so much. he has an average build, with none of that bulked up hulk craziness.

More shapes will surely follow, though I do not plan to mass produce shapes. I want these shapes to be unique and a little different from the stuff you see most places, so I plan to take my time with them and craft shapes that have personalities that say something to me. I hope you will find them interesting.

That's all for the moment, but more will be arriving soonish as I have a list to work through of stuff to get out for all my brands and labels over the next few weeks as I also work on the new store build on the Temenos sister sim. So, drop into the ~ broken ~ store under the lava at the bottom of the volcano @ Temenos and check these new items out!

- Broken :: Shapes Information and F.A.Q. -

- Permissions -

1. What are the Permissions? - All ~ broken ~ shapes are sold ONLY as NO MODIFY / COPY / NO TRANSFER.

2. Why No Transfer? - I personally feel that offering copyable as opposed to transferable items, including shapes, is a preferable business model. By offering my works as copyable but without transfer, I can replace lost, corrupted and deleted items without question...something that simply can not be done with Transfer items.

3. Why No Modify? - With shapes, this is a simple answer unfortunately, and the same one as offered by any scripter as well...if the shape were modifiable it would be easy for an unscrupulous person to copy the settings to a new shape and sell it as their own, undermining the hard work I put into creating these shapes for you and stealing business and money from my pocket in the process. As this is my living which supports my children, that would be an unwise risk.

- Custom Shapes -

1. Do you accept custom orders? - No, I do not and never have accepted custom orders for any of my work, brands, or products. I simply do not have the time to devote to custom work, as I am kept far more than busy with 5 brands to design for as is. If cloning ever becomes a viable option, I may reconsider this stance. Until then, please, no custom requests.

2. Will you just tweak this shape some for me? - No, I am sorry, but I do not have the time available for tweaking or changes to the shapes. these shapes are offered as you see them. If you like the shape, I would be delighted to have you purchase...but if you only maybe like the shape, or like part of it, or almost like it...it would honestly be best if you think a bit more before you buy. Shapes are a major purchase since along with skins they make up the foundation of how you present yourself in Second Life. I want you to be happy with any purchase you make and not later regret it. please be sure of your purchase before hand, as the shapes can not be altered afterwards.

- Other Shapes -

1. Are you planning to make X shape? - I honestly can not say what sorts of shapes I may or may not offer in the future. I try to put a lot of thought and effort into my shapes...most of which started as shapes done for myself or my models. But that also means I won't be cranking out masses of shapes. I do not do custom requests, but I am happy to hear of suggestions for future works...though making a suggestion is by no means a guarantee that idea will be made.

2. Will you sell me Zoe's Shape? - No, my own shape is not for sale now or ever. I crafted this shape on my first day in Second Life and it has changed very little in the past 3 years. It is unique to me and has never been shared, and never will be. I like it that way, and hope you can appreciate my attachment to my own shape. :3

3. Will you reproduce X's shape? - No. I will not even attempt to copy the shape of another Second Life avatar. I will, as mentioned above, happily accept suggestions from real life images as possible future shapes. But no requests or suggestions based on SL avatars or the works of other designers would ever even be looked at. Sorry, but I will not undermine anyone else's hard work.

- Miscellaneous -

1. Why are these shapes so expensive? - Honestly, I have two reasons for the prices I put on these shapes. The first and simplest reason is the amount of time and effort I put into crafting them. I don't want to churn out masses of shapes every other day. I would far rather spend more time on each shape and make shapes that have some real character than something done quickly that looks like everything else out there. The prices reflect that to a degree. The main reason however is rarity. I want the shapes I offer you to be something you enjoy and won't see every person you run into wearing. A 200L shape is cheap and anyone can have it. That makes it less distinct, less unique to you, and less special. I want to offer shapes that you can be proud to wear and that can help you define what is unique and special about you. To that end, keeping the price higher than most I hope to keep the shapes more rare and more special.

2. Hey! This guy shape looks kinda girlish! - Some shapes I offer are designed to be rather androgynous in look. The bishonen shapes in particular are supposed to reproduce a certain feminine style of male body and face as popularized in Japanese animation and pop culture and as such often use the female base model to design the shape...even though it is a male shape. This is a stylistic choice I make for some shapes as often the male sliders and base model are not capable of achieving the correct look. When worn with a male skin however, the effect can be very pleasing and while "pretty' remains very masculine. If you do not care for this sort of shape or do not want to use a shape that starts from a female base model, avoid the shapes labeled as "Bishonen" or "Androgynous" and you should be safe.

3. How come my skin looks bad on this shape? - It's just a fact that not all skins will look good on all shapes. A skin is simply a texture map laid over top of the 3D model that is the shape...if the skin you have was designed and painted to look best on a drastically different type of shape than you are wearing, then there is always a chance the skin won't look as good as it should. Different skins and shapes work well together or clash together and there is not real way to say which will be the case unless you try on a demo of the skin with that shape. The shapes I offer all come with a notecard of information that includes a listing of the skins, hair, clothes and other items shown in the shape advertisement so you can reproduce that exact or a similar look if you wish. But there is no way I can guarantee that any given skin will look its best with any specific one of my shapes.

4. Whoa! My eyebrows look funky! - The eyebrows on most Second Life avatars have two aspects. Neither actually is based on the shape, oddly enough. The skin you wear has eyebrows painted on it, and how they will appear on any given shape is hard to predict without trying on a demo first. This aspect is only controllable by the skin maker when they make the skin, and not adjustable in world. The second aspect that you CAN adjust is actually part of the hair base. I have included a bald basic hair base that is designed to work best with the shape and skin pictured to achieve nice eyebrows. However, a different skin may change how the eyebrows appear, and thus you may need to adjust the hair base included in the eyebrows section of the appearance tools to achieve the best look. The bald hair base offered in my shapes notecards is thus modifiable so you may change the shape and looks of the eyebrows as you wish.

5. I have a question not addressed here. - Any additional questions should be directed to Zoe Llewelyn in IM or notecard. My IMs may be capped most days, so if you do not receive a reply, please true again, I may not have received your IM at all. Notecards are more reliable, but please, if you send a notecard, put your name and something about the purpose of the card in the title. I get a lot of notecards in a day, please help me find yours quickly and easily. :3

Thank you so much for your consideration of one of my ~ broken ~ shapes. I hope you will be pleased with any purchase you decide to make.

- Zoe Lleweyn

More Broken Stuff...

2007-08-09T15:13:00.000Z

As I mentioned a few days ago, I released some new stuff a little while back and failed to blog it here, so I am now remedying that situation. This batch of stuff is a mash up of items with assorted sorted histories.

Harlequin -

Firstly, the newest of many makeups already designed and awaiting my patience to upload and fool with...the Harlequin. This was actually one of the first makeups I did for the Whispers of Night skin line, way back in January, but I didn't think it would be that popular, so it wasn't among the first bunch of options I put out. But, after one of my skin beta testers, Raven Pennyfeather used the beta version of the Harlequin skin in her ads at RFyre, I started getting a lot of requests for this makeup, so here it is...

It is available for males as well as females, in both tones, Spectral and Deathly, and I have expanded the lip colour palette to include three new colours, the deeper red of Crimson Kiss, the silvery Moon Glow, and the pale blue of Steel Blade, for a total of 6 lip colours in three lip styles.

Zombie Skins -

Secondly is the long delayed release of my first set of Zombie skins. These skins have a long and sorted, but otherwise boring history that I shall now relate much to your dismay. I started these skins waaay back, almost 2 years ago now. I got the idea to do limited edition zombie avatars because many friends at the time had taken to referring to me as "Zoembie", and of course I love zombies anyway. I had been toying with the concept of limited edition sales, and the zombies kinda fell in with that at the time. This idea was one I would later use in my Heart of a Doll store...that of releasing a complete, limited edition avatar that came with everything from shape, skin, hair to shoes, clothes and accessories for a complete look...each with a story associated who the avatar was, where they came from, etc. I had a whole background story written for my Zombies of the Apocalypse line, and had completed the first zombie, the one I had worn myself for months and thus named "Zoe", and was writing her personal story when I kinda gave up and ran outta steam on this idea. Zombies of the Apocalypse just sorta faded away from my randomly insane and rambling mind and none of the work was ever released.

Fast forward to the present and I found myself digging through my folders of old half-finished material and i stumble onto the Zombies again. No longer so fond of the "Limited Edition Complete Avatar" concept, I decided to drop the stories (as much as I loved writing them), and just release the avatars as parts. Thus the first of what may be several zombie offerings in the future...the old Zoe and Rob Zombie skins from long ago have been resurrected at long last and are now available to you of the more morbid mentality...

P.S. I also have released about a dozen Zombie eyes as well. You will find samples nailed to a board above the zombie skins...

Old Fishnets -

The torn fishnet clothing was a random thing I designed for myself one day outta the blue...like so many of the stuff I do. I wanted some torn up and ratty old punky fishnets to wear and couldn't find any for sale (I am sure they exist, just that I couldn't find them), so I made these. I have been wearing em myself on and off for a few months and finally got off my lazy ass to offer them up to you. So, here they are. The tops are mostly unisex, though the tights less so, thus I packaged em separately.

Coffin Jewelry -

The cute little wooden coffins for jewelry was another idea I made for myself back when I first started the ~ broken ~ line as an offshoot, but as I often do, I let it sit and languish a while before I have decided to sell it. The set comes with necklace and collar, bracelet and earrings. unisex if ya ask me, but make your own decision.

All the new stuff is available at the main ~ broken ~ store, underneath the lava in the bottom of the volcano at Temenos. Just jump in and I am sure you will find it. It's also available at the new Sleepy Hollow sim by Grim Misfit when it opens soon.

Where is Zoe? Update for August...

2007-08-04T16:17:00.001Z

Yes, it's been since May that I last posted on the blog, but no, I am not dead or anything...though some may wish I was. I have never been much of a blogger even at the best of times, and recent months haven't been that great, so I usually stop and say..."I should post X or Y on the blog," then sigh and ignore the thought.

Even when my more energetic and aggressive peronas tend to be in charge of things I rarely remember to update the blog as much as I should, but when the lazier, more fucked up personas are running the show even that rare desire to post goes out the window. Just no energy for it at all. I will of course keep trying my best, but if i seem to fade away at times and not say much, just know it's likely cause I just don't have the motivation to sit down and say anything much. Not because I am dead, left SL or aren't releasing stuff. Though sometimes releases suffer too when I get far down in the cycle of my depression.

I have been working a fair bit, even if releases have been rarer than they should be. I am juggle a few dozen projects at once and at the same time taking a step back to ponder how to simplify the processes, brands, and stores my DID messiness has gotten me into to something a bit more manageable. So, lot of higher level management idea pondering going on for possible restructuring.

At the same time I have also started construction finally on the new store design where Boneflower, Jungle Voodoo, and most my other stuff will move too soon. the sim is open (Temenos Island...right next door to Temenos), so feel free to take a look and offer suggestions and ideas. It's a departure for me, but one I settled on and like...very modern, very artsy sorta build with blue glass and large open spaces, a skyscraper, and more. The design will offer about 16 times the space as my current store area above the volcano at Temenos, and hopefully be much easier to use and locate products in.

One thing I am doing with this build is to try to design it to look it's best with Renderglow turned on...since the Lindens have mentioned that eventually, after Windlight goes live, renderglow will be added to the main viewer rather than being an option in debug. For those who have never used the renderglow option (it is basically a Bloom effect you see in many other games), you can test drive it now from the debug client menu: Client -> Debug Settings -> Renderglow -> True. (You can also change the look of the renderglow effect using the Renderglow strength, resolution, etc settings.) You will need a video card that supports it, and not all do, so if you try it and crash, just leave it be or upgrade your video card! the effect in world is tunning, but will require some changes to how many people build and display merchandise as Renderglow turns any texture set to "Full Bright" into a glowing, shimmering light source. The images below are just samples of the early phase construction of the new store...still a long way to go.

Temenos Place -

At Midnight...

At Noon...

Distant view at Sunrise...

Main Entrance between Building One and the Tower...

View from inside the Central Plaza...

Looking down on the Central Plaza at Midnight...

The view from the Volcano top at the current store...

Once the new store is finished and everything is moved, I will concentrate the majority of my efforts on version 2 of my neko skins, ears, etc. But I will continue to release small batches of stuff along the way as I work on the bigger and longer projects.

I actually have put out a couple new things since I last blogged but failed to have the energy to mention them here...so I will do so later just so people know what went up at the store in recent weeks. More info on the new build and eventual store move will also be forthcoming as we near that time...my personal insanity allowing...

R.I.P. Dolltopia

2007-05-12T22:43:00.000Z

This is a hard announcement for me to make, because I put so much effort and several months into the Dolltopia sim and had a lot of hopes for it being a cool, safe and innocent place for people in Second Life like me who needed a better view of childhood to experience the wonder and joys we should have had in this imaginary world. Unfortunately, under the current climate of sexual ageplay witchhunts that seem to run the risk of inadvertantly targeting innocent child avie users or sim owners, I don't feel I can afford to risk the ever-changing policies and currents of Linden lab's whims on undefined rules and standards by operating any sim catering to adults playing child avatars, no matter how innocent the idea or how strickly enforced my rules. So, as of this time, Dolltopia is dead even before it opens.

I think it's very sad really, after reading so many comments from people on the official blog post about the German news expose, and Linden lab's resulting policy changes and actions. I myself, am a child abuse survivour as I have mentioned here before. Though Zoe is short compared to the 8 foot amazons running about SL, she is not a child avatar...but I do have a child avie alt. Like many grown adults who choose to play a child avie at times, SL allowed me to try to experience an innocent, carefree renewal of a childhood that for me was very violent and horrific at times. playing my child alt was liberating, safe, comfortable and very therapeutic. It allowed me to create a new childhood for myself that replaced the one I never had.

The vast majority of adults who play children in Second Life do so for I think similar reasons. Just based on my talking to those I know personally. yet, in the comments to the LL Blog post, I saw so many people asking LL to ban child avies altogether, and questioning the reasons why we as adults might want to play one...with the assumption being we are all perverts and take part in sexual activities, which is simply as far from the truth as you could get. I feel victimized all over again now by these witchhunters and by Linden lab and their media-craze induced ever-shifting policies that they will not even define for us. It's sad that in the name of supposedly protecting abused children, they re-abuse many of us that were abused children by taking away a very helpful means of healing after our destroyed childhoods. I will no longer feel safe even logging into my child avie alt now.

With no clear written legal policy on what is acceptable conduct for innocent roleplay of innocent child avatars and what is not going to be acceptable, i just can not feel safe running a sim like Dolltopia, even though it was designed to offer the sort of safe haven, therapeutic place for people like me to heal that is the very opposite of what LL and the ageplay witchhunters claim to be aiming for. If someone comes into my sim and propositions someone, will I be held responsible for running the sim, even though it's PG and has a strict covenant against any sexual behaviour by anyone, period? I can't say I have any faith in LL to fairly decide my fate in such cases, so I will avoid the situation by keeping the sim closed and killing the idea entirely.

I am not sure if I will continue making doll avatars either. I saw far too many people use the term "doll" in the same context as child avatar recently as they expressed opinions that LL ban them entirely. I may have to err on the side of caution there as well, and drop The Heart of a Doll brand for good.

While I am 100% for stronger laws in life to prevent child abuse like happened to me, and happens daily to millions of children around the world, and while I feel its a good idea for LL to be strict on anything from casinos to sexual ageplay inside SL that could compromise the platform legally...I feel the current method of handling the issue...namely a total lack of written legal policy and guidelines for legitimate businesses to follow and feel safe that they are acting within...only feeds hysteria and witchhunts, and causes people like me trying to offer positive views and options for child avies in SL to run like hell to avoid the loss of our businesses and income if LL decides to shift their unwritten policy in the wind of media attention as it has shown it is want to do.

If Linden lab ever wakes up and decides to start operating like a legitimate business platform developer, and starts stating ALL policies in clear legal language for business investors here to follow, i may reconsider Dolltopia. But for now I can't risk being involved with anything oriented towards children in Second Life, no matter how positive it was going to be. My apologies to anyone who may have been looking forward to the Dolltopia sim.

Three Years in Second Life Just Ceased to Exist...My Creations are Gone - RESOLVED

2007-05-12T13:52:00.000Z

Yes, we have all heard of this happening to other people before, and we always just hoped it didn't happen to us. Well, clearly I didn't hope hard enough, or no one gave a flying fuck either way...because one of my worst fears in SL just happened: My entire 30K+ inventory is just gone.

Yes, three years in Second Life, two years of running a business, everything just wiped out in a blink of a virtual eye. It's all gone. SL's database says I only have 2,150 inventory items, most of that is random animations, a few notecards and snapshots...but not a single piece of my own work.

Yes, everything that is placed in world still exists. The stores are still there, and the items for sale can still be sold. But even those are a fraction of what I have made. There are hundreds of projects and half finished creations, alternate versions no one has seen or that haven't been made available yet...and its all gone. I built a complete reproduction of a famous New England mental asylum a year ago, but had no time to finish the last bits then so took it back into inventory...now gone. Tonnes of cyberpunk items and products that I hadn't gotten around to packaging up yet. Boots, shoes, new versions of some of my stuff that just needed tweaking...all gone. The new neko parts for version 2...gone.

So i am setting here this morning, do what i normally do first thing...answering the avalanche of IMs from customers from during the night while I slept, and I go to pass a copy of a skin that didn't get delivered to someone...and it just isn't there anymore. None of it is. I am panicking, I am shocked into almost catatonia, i am crying, and yet the one thing I don't know how to do is fix it. because Linden Lab in their joyous attempts to prevent anyone of their users, investors, or businesses using their platform from complaining, pointing out issues, or otherwise bothering them with little useless facts like the loss of their -entire- livelihood has removed nearly any help function or avenue from Second Life.

I file a bug report...once I find the option hidden somewhere other than Help. But we all know how useless bug reports have been, right? I will never hear from them on that I am quite sure.

Who do I talk to about this? Who can fix it? I have no clue, and there is no longer a Live Help to ask, no longer any way for me to find out from a real human being what to do next. This is not a minor issue...this is the loss of 3 years of content creation for my business. And yet it's a Saturday for the Lindens, they don't care. Sure, they advertise Second Life as the future of the 3D Web...a business platform for the next generation...and yet they treat it like a game. Yes, Mr. Rosedale...like a game. the very thing you have often angrily complained to reporters for years SL is not is exactly how you treat it on your end. You do not act and your business policies or development priorities do not reflect what you preach...that SL is not a game at all, but a serious business platform. I have been here almost from the start. I have invested tens of thousands of dollars into this business that supports my family like any other business. Yet when my business critical data ceases to exist...where is my support? At home watching television or playing WoW. I am treated not as a business platform user with a 6 figure income riding on Linden lab's performance, but as a simple game player. Wake up Lindens...you can not have it both ways!

What do I do from here? I have zero clue. Right now I am alternating between being angry, and crying. I am petrified. I quit my job and have gambled my family's entire future on a business opportunity that until now was paying off very well. But when things go wrong...will and can Linden lab step up and behave like a -Real- business platform creator? can they live up to their own claims and promises? Will they act like a Google, a Sun, a Microsoft? I admit to having little faith in them after the past few years experience.

For now I guess I start emailing every address at Linden lab until I get someone to reply and hope against hope that I didn't just permanently lose thousands in development time and costs, and hundreds of thousands in potential income.

UPDATE::

Huge huge thanks to Cherry Tokyo for her kind help in solving this. She sent me a couple notecards that had a list of steps to perform to -usually- successfully return your inventory after something like this happens. Most of the steps were things I had already done, from relogging, going to empty sims, using serch and recent items searches, and clearing cache. They didn't work when I did them before...but for some reason when done in the order the notecard lists, it eventually worked for me.

Thank you so very very much Cherry, and also huge thanks to those that commented here or in world with support and kind words.

Text of the notecard that worked for me is here below...

How to find "Lost Inventories" due to the new Coalesce feature

In a feature release a couple of weeks ago, we incorporated a new feature to help with load on our databases when Residents return objects from parcels. As before, lost objects can be found in the Lost & Found folder, but there is a change in how they are displayed. When objects are returned to this folder, they will be coalesced into one or more of the returned objects.

The way it works is that the system randomly selects one of your returning objects as the item to be bundled with, hence the word "coalesce". This one object is actually a combination of all of the other returned objects from the same area. When you rez that object inworld from your L&F folder, it will rez all of your coalesced items in the same formation it was last placed inworld before having been returned to you. If your items are being returned from various areas in a sim, you may receive several of your returned objects in your L&F folder. Again, each these will be bundled with rest of your returned items. This will only happen when multiple objects are returned at the same time from the same parcel or region.

Here's a good way to find your returned items, utilizing the inventory tools:
" Open your Inventory
" Select the Recent Items tab
" In your Inventory toolbar, left-click on FILTERS, select MODIFY CURRENT
" When the Recent Items window opens, go to the bottom of that window and adjust the Hours Ago or Days Ago back to the approximate time your Inventory should have been returned from the parcel
" Untick all categories except OBJECTS
" In your Inventory toolbar, left-click on SORT, select DATE
" Go to a parcel where you have enough prim usage to rez all your coalesced objects (do it in a sim where it's not laggy or you could risk losing all your items if the sim should crash due to a sim rollback. If you go to a sandbox, select one that's not busy or laggy!)
" Rez objects inworld from your Lost & Found folder, starting from the top, one at a timeIf after following the above instructions, your returned items have still not rezzed, please be sure to check the land parcel it was returned from and determine whether it was truly returned. If the items being returned were DEEDED to a group, they will be returned to the Resident who originally deeded the objects to the group ONLY IF the objects were not copyable. If the deeded returned objects were copyable, then the objects will not be returned and merely be deleted.

If you've done all of this and you believe you are still missing returned objects, please file a bug report inworld. Once youve submitted your bug, send an IM to Kona Linden inworld and provide him with your RT# from the email confirmation.

Big note on who to contact if you also ever suffer this issue: Kona Linden.

Excellent info to have when it seems no one is there to help. Too bad the help had to come from another resident and business owner who had suffered this same problem in the past rather than from Linden lab itself. I think that says a lot. Thank you again Cherry.

Whispers of Night

2007-05-10T12:10:00.000Z

Working on this skin line the last few months has really taken a lot out of me, and stressed me like no project has in some time. For that reason, I sit here now and stare at the blog and I really don't know what to say about the skins. I am so drained by them I really don't want to talk about the process of making them, or any of that stuff, honestly. But regardless I do feel I need to announce them since they actually went up in the ~broken~ store at Temenos a few days ago now.

I tried my best to make a lot of changes that friends, customers and users of my old skin line, Divine Mystery had suggested...I made major changes to the eyebrows and added eyelid shading, changed the breast shading, and lots of small tweaks beyond that. The makeup options you see as part of this set is only a fraction of what is ready and waiting for me to get in world...but its gonna take me some time as the tedious work of saving, naming and uploading textures, followed by photoshoots and making ads and getting the skins all into the vendor display leaves me wanting to scream. But the rest of the options will be coming, along with the Zombie skins and more...and much much later, the demon skins I been working on for over a year.

Right now, there are two skin tones to this line...Spectral and Deathly, both available in male and female versions. There are currently five different eye makeup styles, each available in three different lipshades each of which has three styles. That makes a total of 45 different makeup combinations per skin tone per gender at the moment. There is more on the way including at least 3 more lipcolours, several new lip styles, and some more eyeshadow and eyeliner styles. What is up today is just the bare bones basics of this line. Down the road I will also be offerring multiple hair colours, multiple facial hair and pubic hair styles, etc. This line, Whispers of Night is just the first of a series of skin lines I planned and started way back over a year ago. These are the Vampire skins, but there will also be a series of Zombie skins (which have been finished for more than a year but I was too lazy to deal with em), a whole series of Demon skins, Infernal Seduction, as well as a possible Angelic line and maybe some drow/elves too. All as part of the Isle of Damnation ~broken~ stuff.

Okay, the blog is supposed to be about announcing stuff, sure, but before I forget in my lack of coffee induced stupour, I also want to say thank you to all those friends who stood by me, supported me and urged me to keep working on these and to see it all through despite my frustration and stress. Without you guys, these skins would still be sitting as betas in my inventory. To the folks who beta tested the early versions and offered suggestions or just wore the beta skins about for me...Raven Pennyfeather, Furiae Blackthorne, QuietlyCharmes Vega, Nigel Riel, and Grim Misfit...thank you. And to those close friends that offered support and kept me sane-ish during the last few months and who forced me to keep going on these...Quietly, Gabee, Sumire, Furiae, Raven, and all the rest of my dear, dear friends...thank you so very much. But the biggest thanks goes to my real life love, Raivyn. She is a saint for even putting up with me at all. Thank you hon.

So, the skins are now available in the ~broken~ store underneath the lava at Temenos, and will soon be up at Rfyre by Raven Pennyfeather as well. I placed a few teleport signs that will take you down there from above. Someday, ~broken~ and all my vampire, gothic and demon stuff will move to its own sim, Isle of Damnation behind Temenos...but it could be a while before I have time to finish that island. So for now get em at the ugly lil' store in the volcano or at Rfyre. :p

Stifling Creativity Out of Fear?

2007-04-11T16:20:00.000Z

This is going to be a bit of a weird post for me. I kinda started this blog with the initial intentions that I would mostly be writing about my experiences and thought processes as I designed my stuff and tried to create a viable business here in Second Life. It was kinda meant to be more a rambling place to put my thoughts along this journey than as an advertising tool. Yet, as I got deeper into running the business itself and I slipped farther and farther into "Businesswoman" mode I saw it more and more as just a tool to promote the products. The original idea kinda dropped away.

A few times since I realized this had happened I had been tempted to re-insert some of the original flavour...write about some ideas, thoughts or experiences that were important to me or I felt deserved being addressed, but I resisted, for fear that customers didn't really want to hear me ramble. "Show us the new products and shut up" was I figured the consensus. And perhaps it really is. But I have seen some other designers use their blogs in a similar fashion, sometimes writing their personal adventures and exploits or discussing ideas or issues that have arisen in their business or in SL that others may need or want to hear and think about as well. So, I have been divided on this for some time.

But, after an experience recently that has shaken me, and waking up this morning and looking over the blogs as I often do to start the day, I noticed something that made me pause and think. It fell into line with other things that had been happening and I caught myself doing something that no artist wants or likes to do...stifling my own creativity.

Before I go much further, I want to do something I rarely ever do...talk a bit about myself.

I am a shy and very private person. I have little confidence or faith in myself and a self esteem that borders on the negative. I grew up in an abusive family, and I am a survivor of not only physical, but emotional and psychological abuse as a child...abuse I allowed to continue through my husband for many years as well. I am deaf, and I suffer from Post traumatic Stress Disorder induced by my childhood abuse, as well as severe Chronic Depression, and Dissociative Identity Disorder...what they used to call Multiple Personality Disorder. I grew up being told I was a freak, was worthless, was broken, was crazy...and all that from my own father. The worst part is I have let him convince me it’s all true.

I don't tell you this for sympathy, however...I despise pity from anyone for any reason, which is the main reason I normally refuse to talk much about myself. I don't want people to look at me as I look at myself...weak, broken, afraid and a freak. I tell you this to let you know how rarely I talk about myself, my life, or my background. I tell you this because I think many of you...and I am talking to the other designers in SL...may understand and have been there yourselves perhaps. I tell you this about myself because I want you to understand the person writing this blog and know where she comes from, and thus maybe how she thinks. I tell you this most personal of stuff, secrets I usually hide even from friends, because I think the things I have lived through are more common than most people want to admit, and affect more of us as artists and designers than anyone knows. Our backgrounds help to create us, create how we think, what we dream, and how we see the world. It affects our creativity and why and what we create. It affects every aspect of who we are and how we handle life. It's a filter through which we see ourselves and each other. And for once, I do want people to see me clearly.

In the childhood I lived, my art and writing were my escape. It was all I had to express myself, all I had to communicate with in a world where so few people knew my language or could understand me. It allowed me to create worlds into which I could run away and forget my life. My art and writing, my business and SL as well is still that for me, and I suspect for many of you as well. It's our dreams, our coping mechanism, our escape, our hope.

In the years after I left home and my family and their abuse behind, I struggled to stay focused on any one goal or dream in life. As a dissociative, each of my personas has not only a role they play in helping me cope with the traumas that created them, but their own thoughts, feelings, world views, religious beliefs, and dreams. As they shifted in and out of control of my life I flitted from goal to goal, job to job, new promised land to newer promised land. I ran my own business making jewelry and reproductions in college, worked as a graphic artist for a tee-shirt company, studied and taught ancient history, and worked as a sculptor for a mold company. I got into computers and worked for several online companies, did corporate management, and even spent a year in advertising and marketing. I tried a lot of things, became good at some of them, but mastered none. Nothing lasted more than a year or two at most.

Throughout all these years, the only thread of any consistency for me had been my art and writing. Even when it wasn't my job, even when I was doing things worlds away from art...my art was always there for me. It remained my hope and my freedom. It was the only shred of stability for me.

It was about that time I determined to try yet again to make my art my career to support my girls and myself. I started doing free game modifications in my spare time for games like the single player RPG Morrowind to build my skills as a texture artist and 3D modeler. After building a portfolio, I lucked into a chance to start at a small, but known game company on a new MMORPG they were developing. I was finally getting paid to create again. However, corporate game work is indeed work, and combined with the stress, my life and issues, and my diseases, it was only a matter of time before the same forces that had made holding down any previous job difficult began to spring up again.

It was around that time I started in SL, just as my creative career in the corporate game industry was in danger because of my depression and dissatisfaction with not having the freedom I desired. I struggled through another year before I finally decided to take a enormous leap in faith and quit my job and started a business here in SL fulltime. Which is where you find me now...

Now, you may be asking...if you are still awake...what any of this drivel has to do with anything, yes? Well, hopefully it does two things, the first of which is give you a better idea of who I am, and the second of which is for you to understand exactly what a lifeline my art and creative work is and always has been for me. And...maybe, just maybe, some of you have lived similar lives, experienced similar things, and also understand the desperate desire to create something and have someone look at it and say, "Hey, that's nice." That desire to validate yourself through your art, through your creations and show those who told you you were broken and worthless that you are indeed worth something.

This is me, and this is the background from which all my work springs. My work can be in turns, silly and cute, dark and somber, morbid and creepy, disturbing, or fantastical. As many of you know, I run half a dozen branded stores in SL, each with a different theme and style, expressions of my different personas I suppose. But in the end it is all my way of coping, communicating and expressing myself and who I am to a world that I usually hide in fear of, yet desperately seek some validation from.

So, when I say that I caught myself recently stifling my own creativity out of fear, hopefully you can now understand how major a shock that would be to me. My art has always been the only place that I -was- free. The only place I could express myself to my depths and not fear retribution or abuse for it. My art is personal, and healing for me...it has saved my life, and helped me keep going when I didn't have anything else. And yet now, here I am censoring it.

When I started my businesses in SL, I did so with a fairly simple philosophy...if I made what I liked and what interested me, it would hopefully also interest others, and the business side would handle itself. I still mostly feel that way, and I have also made only stuff I myself wanted to wear or liked or was inspired to design and build. I spent years as a sculptor for a mold company making things I had no personal interest in...there was no creativity involved for me, no expression of who I am or why I am an artist. The MMORPGs I worked on for several years were better than that, but still even though there was more freedom for expressing my own creativity and finding my voice again in art, it was limited because the work had to fit the theme, genre, story and style set by the head game devs whose game I was working on. But...here in SL...I could do anything I wanted. I could free up completely the part of me that needed to create, needed to escape from my own head and my own "fuckedupedness" as I have called it and just lose myself in creating.

I have largely refused to give in to the whisperings of my businesswoman aspects that say I should do more of this or more of that because its popular or might make me more money. I need to be inspired and excited to truly enjoy creating, and churning out stuff you don't like or enjoy isn't inspiring or exciting...so I have tried to avoid that here.

For most of the time I have been creating in SL, I have let my own inspirations dictate what I created and sold. If I got inspired to do something that didn't fit with my current branding ideas of a particular store, I just branched off and created a new brand and store. It's not new to me, but is rather how my life has always worked with my DID...each persona does its own thing and I blissfully follow wherever their desires lead me at the time. it's a curse to live with from a lifestyle perspective...but can be wonderfully freeing as an artist.

My products, as you will know if you have visited my stores, are kinda all over the board. Neko skins and accessories, traditional clothing, j-pop inspired cutesy clothes, childlike dolls, leather and spikes, science fiction, you name it, it’s either a genre I have played with at random or am currently pondering playing with. I have blissfully puttered about doing whatever came to mind at the time.

Now, I rarely get out and about in SL. I mostly work and hide on my own cluster of islands. If I see something on the blogs I just have to have I run out and get it and rush home. I am painfully shy to the point of trembling at my keyboard if anyone I don't know well talks to me. it's better in SL than in the real world, where I almost never ever leave my house at all, but still I tend to be a hermit even in SL. It's not that I think anyone will attack me here...it's that I worry so much about what people think of me...mainly due to my childhood abuse and the horrendously low self esteem it has left me with. I am terrified that at any moment, someone will look at me and say, "Wow, you are really a worthless freak. Damn, you had me fooled, but I see you for what you are now." I try to put on a brave face, let "the professor" or "the businesswoman", two of my many personas created to cope as a child, handle most customers or people I have to talk to daily, but otherwise I cower in my islands and try not to be noticed. yet all the while a part of me desperately does want to be noticed. Does want to be approached, does want to be praised or told I did something good. I am 40 years old, a grown woman with children, and yet I still am also a beaten child waiting for daddy to tell me he loves me anyway despite me being broken and worthless. A sad, but harsh truth.

Now, because I rarely get out much in SL, most of my acquaintance with new products, stores and cool stuff made by the rest of you is either through these blogs and Fashion World of SL or from seeing customers in my store wearing something new and cool. There are a few designers that I will actually go to their stores on occasion and check up to see what's new I need to toss money at, such as ::FORM::, Gritty Kitty, etc. but mostly I sit and watch the blogs for neat stuff I want, and of course to follow general fashion trends in SL. but, my own work has normally been limited only by my inspiration, skills, and time...and of course by the swings and shifts of my mental illnesses.

Because I have always approached my art as something deeply personal, as a form of inner expression and escape...as a defining of myself to the world...I have never even considered much before recently if my work might be mistaken for a rip-off of someone else's work or ideas. It's not once up until a few days ago crossed my mind.

Indeed, I have seen other people's stuff that I suspected had been inspired by some of my designs. usually they did their own thing with it, and it was quite new and different despite also sharing some similarities that made me feel it might be derived from something I had done already in SL. Only once have I seen anyone completely and totally copy one of works prim per prim. I recall well how that made me feel too. I was hurt, angry, and wanted to scream and cry both at once. Yes, I have had someone rip some of my skin textures before and even put them up on a website for download. Most of us, have experienced these things at least a few times I expect here. I am far from naive. I know people steal, cheat, and copy for profit or any number of other reasons. It's life, I've seen it all in my 40 years, and am overall pretty numb and jaded to the nasty aspects of life.

However, despite having seen a few derived works, and seen at least one complete rip-off of one of my designs, as well as dealt with texture theft, I never for one second thought of my own work in that way. It just was a foreign concept. I don't steal ideas, I don't copy anyone with any known intent, I just work from my inspiration, following my creative ideas wherever they wander. Since, I -know- I don't rip other people's stuff, it's not anything I would ever even think about, right?

But, this was brought home to me a few days ago when someone approached me with the belief some of my products were rip offs of theirs. I was shocked, stunned, angry, afraid...I knew it wasn't true myself...but it didn't change the fact staring me in the face that this other person thought it was true. I tried to talk to them, explain where my ideas came from, and how this piece was designed...but they were only able to see it through that same veil of anger, outrage and sadness I myself had experienced a few times before when I suspected someone of copying me. It shook me very deeply. And days later I am still struggling with this in the forefront of my mind. I know I hadn't seen their store before, I know I didn't copy their work, because I remember exactly where my inspirations for those pieces came from. Most of it is based on real life items, so some similarities are gonna happen, and the prims we used and how we did the products was totally different really in every way. It was the overall effect...the "look" if you will that shared some similarities, and after going to their store and seeing their works, I suddenly was hit with how they must be feeling, cause there were some vague sameness to a few pieces. yet, I knew without doubt I didn't copy this designer’s work. but how could I ever convince them of that? Likely...I couldn't. no more than one of the people I had talked to about supposedly copying one of my works was able to convince me otherwise. It was a sobering realization, and it has thrown me into a major tailspin.

Admittedly, I know my reaction is complicated too by my background and my own views and personalities. I have no self confidence or esteem, and think myself worthless most the time, so I desperately want other people to like me, think good of me, validate me. Most of my personas are pretty submissive and some even downright needy in that way. It tears me up for anyone to think bad of me or dislike me, and so I usually bend over backwards and let people take advantage of me to get their validation, respect or love. And here I was crying in my closet like I had as a child, because I couldn't bear that this person thought that badly of me and thought me so low as to knowingly copy her work. it is still ripping me up inside, and yet I don't know what to do about it.

This morning I woke, up, still struggling as I had over the past few days with how to handle the issue with these few products. I mean...removing them either out of fear that she would publicly accuse me of copying her or just to make her feel better and think better of me amounts to admitting I did something I didn't do, right? But doing nothing somehow seemed wrong too. How could I just go on knowing this person thought I had done such a terrible thing?

With all that churning in my head, I look over the blogs and see a new release from one of my favorite designers in all SL...Zabitan of ::FORM::...and I am floored. His new chain gauntlet is the spitting image of one I had on my list of projects to do for ~ broken ~. I have a huge list of stuff I always wanna do...and the list gets longer by the day. Some of it I will get to, some maybe not. The chain accessories I had planned were mainly inspired by my characters from playing City of Villains a few years ago. My character had chains wrapped around her fists and arms, boots and chest and her waist. I wanted to do my own version of that concept...kinda a ghost in chains idea here in SL. but when I saw Zabitan's new gauntlet, I froze. On one hand it was spookily similar to what I had worn in CoV, and what I had planned to make myself...but on the other hand it's just chains wrapped around a hand. It's not like anyone can realistically lay claim to such a simple concept, right? So, with all the self doubt and emotions of the recent days and issues in my head, I decided I shouldn't try to make the chain outfit I had planned to make, because people -might- think I had copied Zabitan, and I couldn't bear to risk that. Where before I had blissfully made whatever I was inspired to from my own ideas...now I was terrified that anything I might make could be too close to some other designers work I may not ever have even seen, and I may be accused of idea theft. I was contemplating not following through on a design I had done just because someone might wrongly think I copied it from someone else. I was ready to censor myself and start the process of cutting off my own creative drive I need so much.

It stopped me cold in my thoughts. And then it made me start thinking again...

As a painter, I can paint anything I want, and even if I decide to paint a subject someone else has painted...say, the Last Supper...no one assumes I am "stealing" Leonardo DiVinci's ideas. They look at it for exactly what it is...a new work perhaps inspired by the same event that inspired DiVinci, or even inspired by DiVinci's work, but my own vision of that scene. My painting is my own inner vision of the subject matter, and it isn't lessened in any way by the subject having been painted, sculpted or envisioned many times before. Yet, somehow that doesn't seem to hold true in a small enclosed social environment like Second Life.

Even in business in the wide world, and even considering the constraints of trademarks, copyrights, and patents, products once created are re-visioned later by other companies without complaint by either the first visionary company or the public. No one looks down upon the second company to create the car, or the third business to start offering "value meals". Once a vague and general concept is born, and especially after it catches on, the business world runs with it across the board. A new idea soon becomes the accepted standard.

Yet in Second Life I have seen forum threads saying things like "Bob Bobson was the first in SL to make a working car, everyone else is just ripping him." or, "My friend George started this whole trend of doing X. The rest of these fuckers are just coastin' on what he did." I have been here a while, since early 2004. I recall the arrival of the first really nice custom skins, prim hair, prim skirts, and so much more. In every case...someone was hit with these brilliant and inspired ideas first. Yet, does that mean they someone now 'own" the concept of making hair from prims? Does that make every other prim hair maker lesser because they weren't first? Does it lessen each artists own personal vision of that idea? From some of what I have seen over the years and still see in SL, many would say yes to that...even while they wouldn't blink to work for Pepsi even if under that same mentality, Pepsi is just a cheap knock off thief stealing Coca-Cola's idea. It's an odd phenomenon that may be made worse by the still small, insular nature of Second Life's designer community, and community in general.

You can get into advanced discussion on the very nature of what inspires someone. Did my seeing someone else's hat on a customer one day unknowingly inspire my own hat design? It can be hard to answer that, even when we are being our most honest. But...if the end result is different...new...a totally different take on the original concept...is it still valid art as it is in the real world? Or is there a different set of rules in Second Life and communities like it? Do, we, as designers, need to start stifling and holding back our ideas and creative inspirations for fear they may be too close to someone else's? Where is the line? How do remain true to our artistic desires and yet also navigate this invisible minefield of "Whose idea was that first?".

Some things seem simple at first glance. I mean, as long as the prims used, and how they were used and built are different, why would anyone think it wouldn't be okay for me and ten other people to all create our own versions of the same airplane in SL? But I have indeed heard such comments from people before. I have heard people and their work slandered for no other reason than the person talking believed someone else had a right to claim ownership of a vague and basic concept just because they did it first here. If two works are both based on real life objects, surely that's safe, yes? So long as they use different prims and their versions are their own vision of the object, yes? But, what about layout? What about the first designer who started doing an outfit that has a mini pleated skirt paired with an tee-shirt and a shrug sweater? Even if the details are different, if I do that combo, am I copying the earlier designer? I was gonna update my neko skins, and the neko ears with lots more functionality, including HUD controls...but wait, ***Hybrid*** did a HUD control for its neko accessories first instead of the voice commands or touch menus others of us had used before. Would I be copying them if I now use a HUD system for my version 2 neko products? Originally I didn't think anything about it...but now I am worried someone will think I am doing a bad thing because I used a HUD for my ears and tails too. It's a great idea. It overcomes problems I had with the touch menu system in version 1, and it lets me do more that I wanted to do from the start. But Hybrid did it first with neko ears, so does that mean I am somehow invalidated from using a basic tool of SL for my neko ears? Does that make me a copycat? An idea thief?

On one hand, fashion is all about copying general ideas and doing different takes on it. One person in the fashion world creates a "look" that then other designers simply must do their own version of, and thus a fashion trend is born. Fashion is all about taking bits and pieces of inspiration from wherever you find it and trying to revision something new from it. Or is it the same in the real world fashion circles? Does Giorgio Armani talk bad about Liz Claiborne for using the same fabrics in her line this year he is using?

Where is the line for Second Life? At what point do we have to start censoring ourselves for fear we will be taken as less inspired, less creative than others, or worse yet as thieves? I once thought I knew where that line was, but I am not so sure now.

Have any of the rest of you struggled with this, or have you blissfully done your own thing like I was doing, oblivious to anything but your creative drive itself? Do you worry about your work being too close to someone else’s, or see an idea done and think, "Now I can't do that"?

Postscript:

I wrote this in a whirlwind of rambling this morning, and I held off posting it. Instead I went into SL and asked a few close friends I trusted to read it for me. Both of them have been in SL for some time, one even longer than me. One is also a designer herself, the other barely knows one end of a prim from the other as she claims, but is well acquainted with the designer circles here. I listened to both their suggestions and edited out some details too personal to include in such a format, and yet still, despite both urging me to post it...I have struggled all day on the merits of doing so. I don't want to come across as whining or as one of those women who mention her abuse and issues for sympathy votes. That's not me at all. I am the sort to hide it most the time, deal and soldier on quietly. I am shy, private, and mostly keep to myself. At times I have been told that makes me seem distant and even arrogant, when in truth I am really trembling for fear someone might dislike me or my work. I take every positive comment I have ever received and place it on a pedestal to cherish forever, and I take every rude, mean, or negative aside to heart and chastise myself over I endlessly. I do not expose myself to possible hatred, ridicule, or derision often or easily. It has taken a massive amount of willpower and effort to push the button that says, "publish". I just hope that the original spirit of the post and the ideas behind it find some resonance with others, and may serve some purpose, even if just to let someone else know they aren't alone in such thoughts or concerns.

Thank you for your patience at this post's length, and for your understanding of its difficulty to write for me.

- Zoe Llewelyn

Neko Update for the Guys...

2007-04-10T14:39:00.000Z

I have been promising the neko bois for many many months that I would release new matching skins for them in the same 5 new colours the girls got last year, but so many things kept getting in the way..or at least that was what I kept telling myself. In truth, the real reason I was always postponing doing these colours for the guys is...I was an idiot when I made the female versions and didn't write down the steps i used to create those colours. Which meant that I was gonna have to try to recreate the same look and match up these colours again from scratch, and the very idea of that made me keep putting it off.

But, at long last...and likely now that everyone who asked for these skins has forgotten about them anyway...I present to you the 5 new colours for Neko Bois.

At the moment, they are only available at the main Temenos Jungle Voodoo store. At least until I go update the vendors at other locations. Thanks for your patience guys, hope you enjoy em. :3

Temenos Island is Dead! Long Live Temenos Island!

2007-03-23T13:37:00.000Z

Fine. Sue me for the silly title. But, it's true...the old Temenos shopping area, with all it's stores is going away. because...everything is moving soonish to the new and improved Temenos Island.

Temenos is a year old or so now, and I have watched and learned, listening in carefully to all the customers over the last year as they shopped and complained about things at Temenos. There have been numerous issues and things needing improvement I have learned in this time. I created what I thought was a very simple and intuitive teleporter system...but sadly most people were confused by it, and it rarely was used, and often bitched about. So...that will be totally revamped. When I designed the temple shopping area, it seemed I had soooo much room to expand. But a year later I am so cramped and out of room I have curtailed many new releases just for lack of a place to put them. So...obviously the new store needs to be hugerish than this one. people complained often...usually by shouting while standing in the central lobby...that they couldn't find whatever they came to buy. I will try to make the layout far more user friendly and also add more ways to find information on where things are located. Temenos has always had 5 floors, 4 of them housing shoppes...however, I have found that most people rarely find the stores on the upper floors, which is clearly a problem of both design and information. The new store will be mostly on a single level, so as to eliminate that issue. And those are just a few of the major issues I have noted with the old build.

So...after deciding I surely needed to have a bigger, better designed and simpler store, I decided I just couldn't part with the current build on Temenos. Which meant, I had to buy a 5th island and build the new store there and move everything. This approach has advantages and disadvantages. the big disadvantage...not including costs...is that when moving any store there is a small percentage of customers who may not find you again. In this case, since the new island will be right next door, and share the same keyword in it's name (the old island is simply "Temenos", and the new will be "Temenos Island"), and since the old build will remain with a landmark pointer to the new store...I think this is a minimal concern. hell...you should be able to see the new store from the old...unless your draw distance is set at like 10 or something. The big advantages are...i get to keep the cool old build with Mount Sy'kirra...one of the few volcanos in all Second Life, and not have to disturb the roleplay areas I created around the island, from the pirate cove and neko tree village to the Japanese temple sanctuary. I am too attached to these builds to want to let them go just to expand the store. So they get to stay this way.

Temenos Island will sit right next door to Temenos, and the two landmasses will be connected to form a single island that continues to share the jungle ruins theme. The new store complex will cover much of the new sim and should leave me and the other stores I have invited to have lots of room for future expansion. The overall style of the stores will remain based on the "jungle ruins" look from Temenos, but will be revisioned to be more simplified and easier to navigate.

I have ambitious plans for a detailed scripted directory system that shows where everything is, and can even teleport you to it...assuming I can make my poor scripting skill manage it. LL recently broke my old teleport system that used warpPos anyway...so definately time for a new one.

If you have ever visited or shopped at Temenos, and you have ideas or suggestions, gripes or bitching about what was wrong with the build or what could be improved...I would greatly appreciate your imput, either here at the blog or in SL. I ordered the island last week, and I was shocked to see they delivered it already...but put it in the wrong place. So...as soon as I can get them to move it where it belongs...I shall begin work on the new store complex.

Following the opening of the new Temenos Island stores, I have a whole slew of stuff I plan to release, including the newly revisioned and repainted Neko Skins version 2, and lots lots more.

The old temple store build atop the volcano in Temenos will be converted into a combination roleplay area, and live music club most likely. Yes, I am deaf, but live music seems to be a big thing in SL, and I always wanted to try making a small club that is not a glitz-filled, flashing lagfest of lightshows and scripted 'sploder balls. I have hired a club manager for it, and we are brainstorming ways to make it more of a true social gathering spot without the gimics. If it goes over great...if not, then who knows. But, any ideas or suggestions in that area are also welcome.

So...look soon for more announcements about the coming opening of the all new and improved Temenos Island!

~ broken ~ products

2007-03-14T12:48:00.000Z

I wanted to toss some images up this morning of just a few of the new products now available at the ~ broken ~ store. Hopefully I will get even more done in the next few days. I plan to use today's downtime to work some new textures up, so we will see. For now, the items below are already up and available, among others...

Lucifer - This is a complete outfit, rather anime inspired, which includes my new ~ broken ~ strapped boots, pants, vest, shrug shirt, overcoat and gloves. The jacket, shirt and vest all come on seperate layers, or merged together on various layer versions for maximum flexibility.

Sheer Shirts - This is but one version of these silky semi-sheer shirts. There are eight different shirts available with various designs, each comes with a high collar and scooped collar version and they are completely unisex ad look so hot on the guys too. They include all layer options.

Body Belts - these ~ broken ~ strapped body belts are designed to match the boots, gauntlets, and waist belts all in the same style. This set comes with both upper arm bands, thigh bands, and a neck collar band. Unisex, and pre-sized for small and large avies.

Gauntlets - The strapped gauntlets match the rest of the options, including the boots, and come with fingerless under glove and prim parts for arm and hand. Pre-sized for men and women, as with the other items.

Strapped Belt - Belts have always been a bitch for me in SL. No one ever makes em small enough to fit my avatar, so I always look like I have a fuckin' truck tire around my waist. So, here is a new belt set that was designed for someone small like me and then sized up for the big people. It will fit most smaller avies (I am 4'9" in SL) though may still be a bit big on some children avatars. Totally kickin' on men or women.

Cross Corsets - Okies, these corsets aren't very unisex, but hey...gotta have a few kick-ass girlie things in there ya know? I have a corset fetish in SL and RL, and just can't resist making em. So, this is but one colour of 8. Yeah, they have a religious theme...sue me. I am a former catholic girl gone bad who spent years rebelling among the pagan withes. I got religious fixation issues, deal with it. Lots of the ~ broken ~ items will have religious themes, though not all will be Catholic oriented.

Not pictured, but also available are two styles of men's prim soul patches, some ribbon corset piercings, and whatever else I can't recall now. I plan a whole line of men's prim facial hair. I made myself a really hawt and drool-worthy bishie boi avatar to use in ads , and got obsessed with making him a soul patch. The idea grew outta that, and now I plan everything from demonic goatees to handlebar mustaches.

Coming up soon...plans for prim thigh high boots, stillettos, more kick-ass overcoats and trenchers, and lotsa stuff with spikes. Just to mention a few. Oh...and the vampire and gothic skins are still being tweaked and will arrive shortly. Male and female, yes.

Zoe Llewelyn is ~ broken ~

2007-03-13T12:20:00.000Z

It's been quite a while since I posted anything, or even since I released or worked on anything new in Second Life. So long...over three long, long months...that some people seem to have thought maybe I died. Well, sadly for them, no, Zoe is not dead, nor even horribly maimed. I am, however, quite ~ broken ~ in more ways than one.

Now, I know that no one comes to a fashion blog to hear the designers whine about their problems as if we are different in some way from the rest of the fucked up people out there...so I will spare you any rambling on the exact nature of my issues, and just say that I have a lot of them. So many that over the years, I have taken to considering myself one of the most fucked up, insane, and broken people I have known.

Why do I mention this now, in this blog, and after 3 months of silence? Well, the reason is two-fold. Firstly, it is why I have been away, hiding, and not working, releasing new stuffs, blogging here, or even logging into SL for weeks at a time. Holidays are not fun for lots of people, and I am among them. But as bad as the "holiday season" is for me, the first few months of the year are worse for me and usually result in me going into a deep, uncontrollable tailspin for a while. All due to my issues and fuckedupedness. Secondly, because when I finally did come back from my period of insanity, and started working again, I decided to finally design some of the dark, gothic, industrial, punk influenced fucked-up type clothes and accessories that I like most at my heart but have sorta avoided making yet in SL. Since this new style didn't really seem to fit with any of my current brands...guess what nutty Zoe did? Yes, she created yet another new brand name and clothing line...

The new store, ~ broken ~ is thus named after me. It represents me better in some ways than any of my previous work, and to be honest it just speaks to where I am in life at the moment: fucked up, angry at life, struggling, and quite broken inside.

So...here is the post to officially announce the newest store, brand and line of clothing, skins and accessories:

So, what does ~ broken ~ offer that my beelion previous brand names didn't? Something angrier. if you like your clothes made of leather, metal, spikes, broken glass, sheer materials, torn and dirty, edgy, shocking, and with a bit of a bite...~ broken ~ may be for you. It's highly inspired by my many real life interests and influences in style and clothing over the years, from Punk to Gothic, Industrial, Grunge, Vampires, and just about anything else fucked up enough to catch my dark, scary little mind's eye. yes, there is even some anime influence in it...but not the cutesy anime stuff.

The new ~ broken ~ line carries both male and female outfits and accessories, and will soon also sport gothic skins for both sex. Yes, indeed, you heard me...stuff for guys too. I have made a point, after a year of comments and suggestions from male customers and friends, to start designing more of my outfits to either be unisex, or have a male counterpart. There are plans down the road for hair, AOs, and anything else I feel is fucked-up enough to place in this brand.

The ~ broken ~ store is located temporarily in the volcano, under the lava at Temenos Island. There are a few signs with teleporters around to find your way there...or if you feel crazy enough, just jump into the lava. You will find it. Eventually, ~ broken ~ will move to its permenant home on the Isle of Damnation, just north of Temenos...but that is a ways off.

Mishka & Elizabeth Released @ Temenos!

2006-12-15T18:11:00.000Z

Yes, I have finally released the first two dolls in the collection for sale...just in time for Christmas. It's been a long time coming since I first announced the new doll store, Heart of a Doll, Dolltopia, and set Mishka and Elizabeth up as advertisement. No, Dolltopia isn't open yet, but I felt the first two dolls should definately be released before Christmas...so here we are...finally! Both Mishka and Elizabeth can be found in the central lobby of the Temenos Island Temple.
Just right click on the displayed doll box you wish to purchase and select "Buy".

Gift Certficates are also available for both dolls if you wish to give as a gift!

Each doll includes: Shape, 2 Skins, Hair, Eyes, Full Clothing Outfit, Shoes, Unique Accessories, Retail Display Box, Biography and Birth Certificate!

Happy Holidays!

Victorian Ankle Boots

2006-12-10T16:22:00.000Z

Yeah, these are a little different from my normal style, I know. But I got inspired while making a variation of them for the doll Elizabeth and decided I needed a different version to release generally as well. So, here they are, available with the brocade spats in 7 different colours sold seperately, or as a complete set at almost half off.

I am always the harshest critic of my own work you could imagine, hating most of it completely and often wondering why anyone would buy it...but I was kinda happy with how these turned out. They matched the antique pair I was working from a picture of pretty well once I figured a way to do the spats that looked nice. Took me weeks to get it all down and tweaked, but it's not too bad now I guess.

So, if you tend towards the Victorian periods, visit Caledon a lot, or just like a bit of formal antique look to your wardrobe, you can check these out at the New Releases area for Boneflower Designs....first floor, back wall of the main Temple store above the volcano.

Hope you enjoy em. :3

Sneak Peek - What to Wear While Waiting for Santa

2006-12-08T14:15:00.000Z

Nope. These are not up yet. But I decided to post em here so folks who are not part of the Boneflower Designs Update Group can see what they missed!

That's right, last night I sent these adorable kittie jammies out to everyone in my update group totally free, and a week before anyone else will be able to buy em. This is something I plan to do more often. So, if you wanna get in on the goodies, gossip, and free stuffs, next time, better get into that update group. :3

These Jammies will be up for sale next friday at the main Boneflower Designs New Releases area on the first floor of the Temenos Island temple. For now...no touchy!

P.S. - Group Notices were not working for me yesterday, so I had to manually drop these into everyone's inventory. If you missed the announcement in group, look through your inventory for "Retro Kittie" and you will find em!

Peasant Blouses Released

2006-12-08T13:58:00.000Z

I know, I know. While I have been playing with my dolls, I have rather ignored and neglected my other brands and product lines here recently. I know, and I do feel terrible about it. Honest. That's why I now make you all a peace offering in the form of Peasant Blouses.

Bohemian seems to be in this season, so these will fit right in. Cute, casual, they go great with jeans or that long skirt. Funky and ecclectic, which is just my thing. They come in an Autumn colour set of 7 and a Spring set of 7 colours...and as a complete set of all colours for a discount of course!

So, drop into the New Releases area of the main temenos Island temple store...first floor, along the back wall...they are up top. Hope you enjoy.

Dolltopia Update

2006-12-08T13:22:00.000Z

I know it's been far longer since my last blog update than I had intended, but I have been working on the sim of Dolltopia the last month or so, and I am rather the obsessive type. =P

No, unfortunately, Dolltopia is not finished or ready to open yet, and isn't likely to open before Christmas as I had originally hoped. =( It's been a LOT of work, and I have been at it feverishly, but there is still a lot to do. Not to mention, the deciding factor in my difficult choice to delay open of the sim itself...most the other stores and store owners I have offered space for in Dolltopia aren't ready either. So, we will keep at it and open when it's actually done.

I do plan however to open a temporary store for The Heart of a Doll before Christmas to allow people to get the dolls I have made so far if they wish. That much I can definately do.

So, although Dolltopia is not open yet and still under construction, I thought I would give a small peek at things as they are so far. The pictures below are some of the attractions in Dolltopia as I have them built now, all made from scratch just for this sim, using a lot of custom painted textures (part of what is taking so long on this place...so many seperate builds and so many textures for them).

For those of you who may not have heard about Dolltopia before, the sim is designed as a child, toy and doll friendly and oriented space where the joys and wonders of childhood can be relived, roleplayed, and the wounds that many of us experienced as real children can maybe be healed just a little. It's a PG sim, and designed as a safe and positive space for all...but I do plan to keep it that way and have a theme and rules in mind to facilitate that.

I have a roleplay background story written up for Dolltopia and the Queen of Dolls which I have also begun writing as an actual children's book I hope to publish, and I will be posting more on the story before the sim opens. The castle is the home of the Queen of Dolls and the Great Child, the village below it is the main store and shopping area. There is a doll school where dolls learn how to play with children, and a doll hospital for dolls that got played with a bit too roughly. There is a dock and a boat that brings dolls and children to and from the island, and a train that runs around most of the island. We have a doll adoption center where child avatars can be matched to dolls, and a lighthouse, and even the Isle of Misfit Toys of the west coast of Dolltopia where dolls and toys that are a bit...different...live and can be found.

Once the sim opens, and the businesses are running well, I hope to start holding or organizing a number of events and roleplay opportunities centered on children and dolls and toys as well. So many ideas, so much excitement...so little time in a day.

Meet Elizabeth...She's a Real Doll

2006-10-25T16:05:00.000Z

Well, as I wrote about last week, I have a new store on the way that focuses on doll avatars and accessories. The Heart of a Doll will cater to people of all ages, styles, and tastes, offering over time dolls of many different varieties. The first doll I previewed was Mishka, a 16 year old Russian Gothic Lolita doll avatar in a cute little babydoll dress and pigtails. After much inner debate, stress on my poor brain, and a good deal of stomping about and throwing of many prims in frustration...I have finally completed the second in the forthcoming doll series.

Meet, Elizabeth, a 24 year old Victorian period porcelain doll from London.

With Elizabeth I went back to the basic skin and tried to make a paler, more porcelain look, changing some of the joints and removing the back battery panel. I made her dress, boots, hair and hat all from scratch and was rather pleased in the end with the look.

Like Mishka, she is currently on display in the lobby at Temenos Island as a sneak preview before The Heart of a Doll opens...hopefully in a week or two.

Now I start on the third doll, a cloth ragdoll type with a gothic horror bent hopefully still in time for halloween. I am finding it so hard to settle on which dolls to work on next as I have so, so many ideas fighting for dominance. In time they will all come into being, but for now they are each scrambling to be the next one I make, and that keps me in a constant state of confusion...well...more confusion.

In additional Doll-related news...

I placed an order for Dolltopia last week. Dolltopia will be a new sim entirely devoted to my dolls and the fun ideas they inspire. I have some special people in mind to help me with Dolltopia, and hope that once the sim opens and The Heart of a Doll and our other doll stores move in people will enjoy the fun, off-beat, and child-like atmosphere that we hope to give it. The entire Dolltopia team is very excited and eagerly awaiting delivery of the island so we can start playing...erm...building.

I will keep those interested in The Heart of a Doll and Dolltopia updated with sneak peaks and information here as things develop.

A New Song from Tweet

2006-10-25T15:35:00.001Z

Sumire Mochi is probably the freshest, most unique new designer in all of Second Life. I have watched her work on her outfits since the start and I have never seen anyone so meticulous about every detail. Her imagination is truly a marvel and I envy her her vision.

So, it's always a huge treat to see her release something new, even if I have seen it slowly taking shape over weeks before. To see the finally product up and for sale gives me a nice jump start and inspires me.

So, it was nice when I woke up a week or so ago and found she had finished not only the next two outfits, but also had made a set of gorgeous prim umbrellas and scarves that are just delicious. Candy colours and off-beat prints like all her designs, these new looks are as fresh and different as it gets folks, and the umbrellas and scarves are just in time for late fall.

So, if you love originality and funkiness with a J-pop flavour as much as I do...drop in and check out Tweet. These newest songs from this songbird are music to my ears...and coming from a deaf woman, you know that means they are special.

Going Wild at Paperdoll Designs!

2006-10-25T15:07:00.000Z

Okay, as I mentioned in my previous post, I like to encourage and offer help and sometimes store space to new designers that need a hand up and some morale boosting. Most of them are new to Second Life when I meet them, but usually they are not new to art in general. Gabee Story of Paperdoll Designs is one of those amazing exceptions that I can't help being amzed at...a true natural with no previous background.

Before someone says it, as they did with Sumire Mochi when Tweet first opened, Gabee is absolutely not an alt of an older player or another designer. Gabee is the real life girlfriend of my friend QuietlyCharmes Vega of Playful Kitten. Gabee and Quietly live in an area hit bad by hurricane Katrina last year, and Gabee had to take her son and leave for most of the past year until things got better. But recently she came home and joined Quietly in SL when she did.

Gabee is no stranger to online worlds. She has years of time in Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies and the like. But, she had no previous background in art or running the type of virtual-based business she decided to start when she came into SL and started hanging around Quietly and myself just two short months ago.

Within days of being here, Gabee was trying to learn to use Quietly's copy of photoshop and had uploaded her first outfit. Since then she has made a mind-boggling amount of offerings, and with each new one I see her skill growing exponetially. I am truly and totally amazed.

She has gone in a few short months from total novice in art and prim work to making prim clothing that is totally astounding. She has mostly gone in a tribal direction with her prim outfits...but wow...you have to see em to understand how far this lady has come.

Moving from a small corner space downstairs I have since given her the 4th floor store space in the temple at Temenos because her volume of work was growing so rapidly. I can't keep up with all she is making anymore. And I know for a fact she has a lot of unreleased work sitting up in her skycave too.

Gabee is one of those rare stories that inspires me. A struggling mother who has weathered so many trials and problems, disasters, and heart-break...but can still have the drive and energy to start her life again in a totally new direction and not only do well with it...but excel. She is friendly, positive and helpful, and I have never seen anyone more happy to talk with customers. I am so proud to call her a friend and to have her at Temenos Island.

With how far Gabee has come in these few months she has been home and in SL, I can't wait to see where she will be in 6 months, or this time next year.

Frosty Treats for Kids

2006-10-25T14:00:00.000Z

Over the past few months I have offered store space at Temenos Island to several new, up-and-coming designers in Second Life. Sumire Mochi's Tweet being the first, and now the widest known and talked about. But other new and aspiring designers are always out there, and I like to encourage them as much as possible. Yes, I know that seems odd maybe. They are competition, aren't they? Well, I don't look at stuff that way.

Making a living from art is tough in a society that no longer values art as it did in ages past. I have lived that struggle for decades myself, and I know how hard and how discouraging it can be. In my mind, new artists are my brothers and sisters in a cultural struggle for the value of art and imagination, and they need all the boost and help I can give them. So, when I see a new talent whose work I like...someone I see potential in, or something fresh and different, I like to encourage them. Obviously I can't offer store space to everyone. But, those that I do invite to Temenos, I see something special in. Snowy Cone's Frosty Treats is a good example.

Snowy focuses primarily on making children's clothes, though most of her outfits work as well for the older gals too. bright colours, simple patterns, but cute and perfect for that young...or young at heart...look.

Snowy hasn't been here for long, and yet she already has quite a few outfits up and available, and I see her skills growing and maturing with each one. I greatly look forward to what she comes up with in the next few months in Second Life...Keep up the great work, Snowy!

For Those With "The Heart of a Doll"...

2006-10-20T00:52:00.000Z

We all grew up playing with dolls to some extent. Baby dolls are one of the first toys given many girls, and even stuffed animals are dolls really. Barbies, Dollfies, collectable dolls, fashion dolls...we know em and most of us loved them. Even the guys had their dolls, though they will usually insist on calling them "action figures". *grins* Dolls are everywhere in our society...and it's only natural they end up in our Second Lives as well...

The idea for doll avatars first developed for me out of an idea I had while working on a steam-powered Victorian period suit of mech armour. The steampunk genre is a neat one and I love the Victorian period. I was planning on, and even started, a brass and copper, steam-powered victorian automoton avatar. basically an old fashioned robot with gears and tesla coils and steam valves instead of computer chips and fiber optics. I started the skin for it, and planned to make an AO as well...but I got side tracked and never finished that project.

But the idea for robots, androids, and dolls stewed in the back of my head for over six months while I was busy working on opening Temenos Island, getting neko skins and ears done and finally finishing my human skin line. It was an idea whose time was about to come...

Okay...that sounded silly and overly dramatic. Sue me.

Still, it was true the idea was about to resurface for me, and it seems not just for me either.

I was rather at a low place, both emotionally and creatively. My entire life I have stuggled with severe chronic depression and at times when it gets at it's worst my creative abilities vanish under the hopelessness and lack of motivation that ensues. The past month has been like that for me. So low I didn't want to do much except lay in bed and just disappear. I had done most of my main ideas for Nekos, and had finished some of the exciting clothes ideas I had for Boneflower Designs. I have a list of projects 9 pages long, but none of them motivated me at all, and the idea of starting any of them seemed daunting. I needed something new to stir things up...a electrical jolt to get me going again. That was when the dolls came in.

After a small, innocent few remarks by my friend about dolls, boom, I was inspired. The idea took off in my head like a brushfire in Texas and within a few hours I had hatched plans for a whole new store brand, a line of doll avatars, AOs, accessories and more.

Over the next two days I worked feverishly on a jointed doll skin that I could use as a basis for many of the dolls. I looked at some of the more popular doll lines in real life and finally settled on the joint style from a popular Japanese doll that I liked. The pictures here show the basic joints I ended up with...though not every doll will have the same exact joint configuration...

Each doll will come with two skin versions. One that is purely doll-like, and one that is anatomically correct, such as the one below. Best to appease everyone...I know some people get upset if they are deprived of their bits and parts...

After I had the skin template finished, I started one doll shapes, hair and clothes.

The idea is to have each doll be special...but not one of a kind. Obviously while having and owning a one off doll avatar would be cool...I make no money that way and it isn't a very viable business model. So, what I wanted was to make each doll special, but not limit sales of it. The plan I decided on was to make the shape, skin/makeup/joints, hair and clothing for each doll unique to that doll only. If I make hair for a doll, that hair can only be bought with that doll. It will never be reused for other dolls or sold in any other way. That way every doll is unique and special, but I don't limit potential revenue.

That decided, I started on the first doll in the series...a 16 year old Russian Gothic Lolita doll named Mishka. It took me only two days to complete her hair, shape, clothes and shoes. In the end I was very happy and very optimistic about it all. Mishka was everything I had wanted her to be.

In order to draw attention and start advertising the store (which I hoped to open before end of month with at least 3 dolls), I set Mishka up in the lobby at Temenos in her box with accessories and an information sign.

She had only been out for all to see for one night when I got up and found a whole group of "dolls" already waiting for me near her box. Seems I was not the only person who believed the time of dolls was upon us. hehe. They were all very nice people, and it gave me even more hope that the idea might really take off in Second Life.

So...that is where we stand at the moment...Mishka is finished and the second doll, Naomi is started. I want to finish at least three dolls before I open the store, as well as the Doll AOs and Doll Control panel I have pondered. I am hoping that once word gets around and people see the doll avatars in action, they too will let out their Inner Doll and join us in the ranks of those who have "The Heart of a Doll"...which is the store name BTW.

Feedback and ideas are of course wlecome. I am very interested to know what others think of the doll idea.

And the Mice Will Play...

2006-09-23T19:05:00.000Z

Most the time the items, skins, clothes and projects I work on are things I have had on my BLOTTD for months or more. Things I have wanted in Second Life myself but haven't found or haven't found versions of that quite fit what I was wanting...so I make em. But, on rare occassion, I get an idea on the spur of the moment and run with it. Inspiration from the muses, lightning flash of insight...whatever ya wanna call it. When it happens, it's usually one of the faster and more fun projects, and I tend to enjoy it more even if it isn't a big popular seller.

Well, these Mouse Girl Avatars from the Jungle Voodoo line are such a project.

Thursday night as I laid in bed, waiting to fall asleep, I pondered the next days work, as I usually do. But this time, something someone had said lingered in my mind, stewed and became something. I lay there and turned over this idea in my head. If wild nekos ran a society...like at Temenos Island...who would be the natural submissives, slaves and workers for such a cat society? Well...the mice, clearly! *giggles*

So, with the idea of submissive mice scurrying about the neko temple and village, I woke and set to work.

In short order I had a black and a white mouse skin roughed out. I reworked em a few times to get the pink subtle but noticeable on the nose and belly, and decided against doing more detailed fur on thses skins after trying it out. Next I converted my Neko ears and tail to work for mice. It was surprisingly simple, and in the end I had a cute mouse tail that flicked back and forth and adorable mousy ears that used the same script as my neko ears. Some pink mouse eyes, a set of little whiskers and all I needed was clothes.

I adapted my Cute Kitty Bell Collar for a mouse girl, and added the "Cat Toy" labelas a cute extra touch. Since the collar is modifiable, a user could change the label to something else...but I thought Cat Toy was a nice generic and appropriate Mouse Girl title. *grins*

Lastly I made the flexi silk top and skirt, different colours for each avatar and it was done. Half a day in total work from start to finish and yet it was still so adorable and I was so pleased with it I haven't been able to make myself not wear it since.

So...if you are a Neko Mistress or Master, or if you just like cute avatars or mice...this new complete set may be just right for you or your subbies. Could be a cute Halloween costume too, for a change of pace. *smiles*

Each Avatar is sold seperately. You get:

Mouse Girl Skin
Mouse Girl Hair
Mouse Girl Eyes
Mouse Girl Whiskers
Scripted Flexi Mouse Ears
Scripted Flexi Mouse Tail
Mouse Girl "Cat Toy" Collar w/Bell
Flexi Silks (Top and Bottom)

They are available in the Jungle Voodoo New Releases area on the first floor of the main Temenos Island Temple.

I adored making it and had such fun with it...I hope other people will find it as fun.

=^.^= Squeek!

Sheer Naughtiness!

2006-09-20T18:09:00.000Z

Yeah, I am kinda cheating this week, I know. Two new releases in one day and both are just revisions of previous work. Lame-o, huh?

Well, this set was actually created many many months ago and I kinda sat on it until now. Partly because I was too laxy to put it all together, do photo shoots and make ads...and partly because I figured I already had the original lace camisole, panties, bra, and stockings out there. Yeah, these are different, and sexy too. But, I still kinda thought maybe I should knock off the 9 bajillion versions I tend to do of stuff and just leave this one out for once. Well...willpower isn't my thing really. =P

So, I finally decided to do an ad for these collection and let people have it if they want it. More choices is good, yes? I hope so anyway, since I tend to offer lots of choices on most stuff I make. In this case, the camis, bras, panties and stocking are identical to the previous set, in all the same colours...but very sheer. this is the set for those who like to hint at a little something...or more than a little.

Unlike the previous sets I decided to bundle these up all together (mainly as I am outta room at the store...one box = less room than 4 boxes) and offer them for a 25% discount.

So, you get:

Sheer Lace Camisoles
Sheer Lace Bras
Sheer Lace Panties
Sheer Lace Stockings

All in 8 colours...Black, White, Beige, Grey, Lilac, Rose, Sky, and Mint. The stockings come in Knee Highs and Thigh Highs, and the Camisoles are on both undershirt and shirt layers.

Just a little something extra for those who like some naughtiness. As always...available in the New Releases area of the Temenos Island main temple...

Thrift Store Rummaging Part Deux

2006-09-20T14:18:00.000Z

I happened to mention in passing to a friend that I was gonna make myself some Asian fabric variations of the Thrift Store skirts and blouses...just because I adore Asian fabrics. I was promptly battered with demands for them and threatened with vile and evil things if I didn't hand them over post haste.

So, due to popular demand...and threats upon my Second Life...I am releasing a second set of Thrift Store Skirts and Thrift Store Blouses, this time in 10 different Asian fabrics. As with the first set, the skirts match the blouses, and they are even more mix and matchable than the original sets were!

They can be found in the New Releases area for Boneflower Designs on the first floor of the main Temenos Island store as always. Hope you enjoy em.

Tweet @ Temenos Releases New Outfits!

2006-09-19T19:15:00.000Z

The adorable and shy Sumire Mochi of Tweet has finally released two new outfits at the store in Temenos Island...after much needling, pressuring and tickling. Woot for new Tweet goodies!

I have been poking and prodding Sumire for her new stuff since the day after she released her first few outfits months ago, but she is a perfectionist and tends to rework every outfit 5000 times before she is willing to let it go. Well, last night I poked and prodded even harder and told her I expected to see some of em up today. No more hiding em, no more excuses! They are gorgeous, unique and totally fresh, and it was time the SL world saw em.

So, I was happy to log in today and see two of em at least waiting and ready. Dressy, springy Emiko, and the more casual, sunny Fukiko. If you are a fan of cute, anime, original designs, retro fabrics and looks, or just plain love unigueness and originality...Tweet is for you and these two new outfits won't disappoint.

Check em out at Temenos Island now...oh...and Sumire...I know you have others hidden. I will tickle em out of you, girl.

Hoodies from Hell!

2006-09-18T14:46:00.000Z

Can I scream now?

Okay, so hoodies don't seem that scary on first glance I don't suppose. Still, by the time these creatures were released yesterday afternoon, I was pulling my hair and biting my lip in frustration and insanity. Sometimes, a simple idea can become just plain horrific and a bad day can only make it worse.

I had hoodies on my BLOTTD for many months now, and kept putting them off time and again. I am an expert at procrastination, and my big list grows daily, becoming an ever more daunting monster to slay it seems. But, finally, the day of the hoodie came, the muse whispered, and I was inspired.

Sitting down and painting the textures was the easy part. When I have the muse to guide me, such things go fast and simply and the textures are ready before you can blink. When the muse is absent...as she is far to often these days...doing any painting is torture, takes forever, and the result is way below par. But, I caught a break this time, and she was ready to help. I had waited until Friday to even start on a release for this last week, but despite my procrastination, these textures were ready in short order. That left the harder part...building the hoods in world.

Saturday went something like this: Zoe logs into SL. Zoe is attacked by IMs. Zoe fends off IMs and tries to build hoods. Zoe crashes or SL falls down and breaks a leg. Zoe logs back in in frustration to find rollback of her work. Zoe redoes work on hoods. Zoe is attacked by IMs. Zoe fends off IMs. Zoe looks at hoods and hates em. Zoe starts over. Zoe crashes or SL falls down. Zoe screams.

By Saturday night I was tired, driven to total insanity, and frustrated as all fuck. I had decided to not rework the hoods for the millionth time and finally added hair to the up hood. Next came the task of texturing all the variations of hair possible on the hood. 14 hair colours were choosen from my standard hair textures and in a while, I had a passable grey hoodie with down hood and 14 hair colours of up hood.

This was where I did the stupid thing I always do. Yeah, that thing. I decided to do "variations" of the hoodie. A single, simple grey jersey hoodie wsn't good enough for me...no...I had to do like I always do and get carried away and make 9 colours of the bloody arsed thing instead. Nine colours of hoodie doesn't sound bad at first. Until you realize you have 14 different hair versions of the up hood to do in 9 colours. 9 X 14 = insane Zoe.

So, I work on this tedious, mind-numbing prceedure well into the night and get 4 of 14 versions done. >.< Time to sleep. I get up and finish the rest on Sunday morning. Yay. They are done. Now I can package em and sell em, right?

*sigh*

No, next comes the part I hate most...the photo shoot. This excrustiating hell is made worse recently by the wonderful "crash everytime you take a screenshot if using scripted objects" bug. But, I want this done. I am nothing if not totally obsessive about finishing a project once I finally get one started, so I press on. The shoot doesn't go well. But finally it's over. I move to making the ads.

Since I use a template for my ads, plug in text and pictures is fairly simple...assuming I took the needed screenshots. Which I discover I didn't. Some colours are missing...back to SL to take them. Back to Photoshoppe to finish ads.

Finally, I am standing in the store, staring at a blank vendor, ad textures in hand. Should be down hill from here, yes? Well...no...not if you are Zoe.

I get attacked by Ims, customers, friends, and griefers all during this process of loading and texturing and naming the vendor...it akes me almost 2 hours to do. As if that isn't bad enough...the current copy bugs make loading the vendor an exercise in self torture.

So you say, "You are done now and can rest, right, Zoe?"

No.

I decided I wasn't offering enough options, and needed to give the customers some more for their buck. So, the one tee shirt I had turns into 5 tee shirts...wait...add a few more. Then I decide to add a pair of basic low-rise jeans just to boot...and wait...need to make a plain version of the hoodie with no Mew Uni logo...some may not like logos...and wait... *sigh*

So, I stand here, bombarded by Ims and attacked and mauled by customers and friends as I try to photoshoppe up some more stuff to include.

Finally, it's all in the vendors, it's all set up, named, priced, and for sale. Can I die now?

No. Gotta blog it. Fuck. That can wait until Monday.

Neko Madness!

2006-09-12T12:10:00.000Z

After months working on getting Temenos Island built and open, and even more time working on new releases of clothing and accessories to expand Boneflower's offerings, and the even longer working on my skin line, I recently had a chance to sit back and work on some new items for the Jungle Voodoo line that I had been promising for some time.

It was a nice change of pace, hectic as it was, to work on the new Neko stuff for a while, and we have released a lot of new content for that brand in a very short time...but, for the most part, I failed to advertise it, post about it or blog it. So, now that I have a moment, I wanted to take a bit of space to mention some of the new goodies for cat girls and bois we have put up at Jungle Voodoo in the last month.

Male Neko Skins -

Okay, these were rather long in the coming I will admit. The initial female skins were released many, many months back and almost from day one I had cat bois showing up, IMing and mewing for a male version. I was at first very surprised at the number of requests from guys for these skins, but soon opened my eyes to just how many cat bois SL really does have. So, obediently...and in fear of being eaten alive if I didn't follow through...I started work on a male counterpart. Well, it wasn't as fast or as easy as I had hoped.

Many things tried to conspire against me and make me set aside these skins, including the purchase of my first island and the time involved to build and open it and move all my stores. But, as often as I thought of giving up on this project, I always had the thought of sexy cat bois running around in them to cheer me on, and the horror of what they would all do to me if I didn't deliver to light a fire under my lazy ass.

So, literally the moment I finished Temenos Island and had the grand opening out of the way, I turned my full attention to these skins. With the female skins I had used the early draft of my Divine Mystery human skin line as the base, but with the cat bois, I had no male skin in the works to use, so I first had to create the underlayer. That required a male model to test it on, and as much as I would have enjoyed taking screenies of some other sexy cat boi naked in my clutches for this, I work weird hours and on a whim, and it's best I do all my own modeling, etc. So...I made a male shape, hair (I am neurotic about being seen without hair) and turned myself into a cat boi.

Ebony Leopard
Golden Striped

Yes, that is me in the pictures on the ad, and yes it was hard getting the pictures taken with me drooling over myself so much...but I finally managed.

So, in a whirlwind week of flying fur and overloaded photoshoppe sessions, I finally got these skins where I was mostly happy with em. Enough anyway I felt I should release em and offer em up as a sacrifice to the restless and impatient neko guys pounding on my door.

All I can hope is that they like em, enjoy making mischief and catterwalling about in them...and that they don't decide to eat me anyway for being so late with em. =/

Neko Ears and Tails -

These are another project I put off forever and finally have completed. For the longest time I had no plan to make ears and tails to match my neko skins. Anisa Naumova of Outland Tech and Curious Relics had already made what are undoubtably the most comprehensively done, amazingly scripted neko ears anyone could do...so why should I try when I will just be second best at the highest?

But, over time, the requests for ears and tails that specifically matched my skins got to me, and I decided...second best or not, I should make em anyway. But, then I had the next problem...how to design them and make a cute set of scripted neko ears and tail that didn't just look like a clone of Anisa's. Anisa is a friend of mine and someone I highly respect creatively. The last thing I wanted to do was copy her design, even unintentionally. I needed to make something cute, neko appropriate, realistic and matching my skins, but that was unique and not just my own interpretation on Anisa's work. That plagued me for months. Nothing would come to mind. I had no ideas on how to 'improve' upon her ears since they were already so damned, bloody perfect.

So...I kept putting them off. Time and again. People kept asking, but I would send em to Anisa for ears and ignore the project. A few times I started a set of ears and scrapped em...too much like Anisa's, despite using totally different shapes and prims. Why did she have to make such a perfect look? Pfft.

Then, while working on a script for a flexi tail for my friend and business partner, QuietlyCharmes Vega of Playful Kitten, I was struck by an idea. My ears needed to be flexi.

Once I had that revelations, it took me all of one day to make them, script them, and get them up for sale. It was like I became possessed. A twistie flexi shape here, a few tufts of flexi fur there, and a script to pose and move em in a few simple animations, and poof...ears!

I textured em in all the colours and designs of my skins, finished the flexi tail I was making and got em up.

In the end, I am very happy with my ears and tail. They are less detailed than Anisa's, use far less prims, and are really kinda simplistic in a way. The scripting is very basic compared to hers and doesn't offer any of the cool advanced features hers do...but they were what I had wanted...cute, unique, different, and they matched my skins to a tee.

I just hope other people like em as much as I do. *bounces around so her floppy ears floop and droop and bounce*

New Female Neko Colours -

I pondered the idea of adding some new...more unnatural...colours of neko skins when I was working on the leopard version, months back. I even made a pink Leopard at the time and offered it for sale then. But then I kinda forgot the idea in all the madness. Until I started getting requests for purple nekos, blue nekos, etc.

So, with the neko ears and tail finished and the long delayed male neko skins done, and Temenos doing well after the grand opening...just for the total "why the fuck not" of it, I went back and made 5 new colours of both the striped and leopard neko skins.

Berry Striped
Blood Striped
Blueberry Striped
Lavender Striped
Mint Striped

Which, immediately required me to go and make ears and tails to match and update the just released Ears and tail sets. =P But, in yet another whirlwind of activity (see a pattern here? Months of laziness followed by a few days of work...catlike, eh?) I messed in PS until I liked the colours and got it all out and photographed (my work part...someone slit my wrists so I don't have to do any more photoshoots please!), boxed and in the vendors.

Yay for colourful nekos!

P.S. - Yes...the new colours will be coming for the cat bois too...don't eat me please! <---is now nerotic about cat bois eating her.

Neko Clawed Feet -

This was a totally unplanned for and unexpected surprise, but one I can't rave about enough.

QuietlyCharmes Vega, my adorable kitten partner at Temenos Island, and owner of Playful Kitten is best known for her amazing hair. She was the first person to have flexi hair for sale when the servers came up after the great flexi update, and she developed a almost cult like following among those who were exposed to her tresses. But...I log in one day and here she was making neko stuff that wasn't hair! I was floored.

These Neko feet are just amazing. They aren't your mom's cutesey neko cat feet that people are used to either. These aren't anime or cartoony...these are wild, feral and oh so dangerous looking! Long, feral claws and toes and feet that use my textures from the neko skins, these feet fit so perfectly with my skins and with the wildness of Jungle Voodoo...I begged, annoyed and pressured her to release em under the Jungle Voodoo name.

You got to see em on...see how they match the skins, see the feralness of them to appreciate these wonderful works. I have never been prouder to beg someone to sell something in one of my shoppes as this.

Wonderful work, kitten, I adore em!

More Neko Ears -

Yesh, it's true...there are more than one brand and style of Neko ears and tails available at Temenos Island. Quietly started her ears before I started mine...same time she was making her amazing neko feet. She went a totally different route than me, but her results are just as wonderful and cute...totally adorable even.

Her ears are smaller, cuter, perkier, and more understated than mine or Anisa's, and they use her hair textures to make the fur...but the result is still kawaii! *purrs*

You gotta check these ears out. She offers em in all the same colours as her hair, so they match it perfectly in texture and hue. She recently changed from offering em in seperate packs to offering em in a single big bundle of neko cuteness, so for one low price (yes, cheaper than mine), you get em all, ears and tails.

The ears aren't scripted, but the tail is...same script as mine uses, though different textures. But when ya see em on someone, especially Quietly...OMG, the cuteness level is like total overload! So, be sure to check out her ears over in Playful Kitten too if you are a neko or cat girl fan, they are must haves.

Thrift Store Goodness!

2006-09-10T18:26:00.000Z

This weeks new releases were inspired by one of my favorite places to shoppe in real life...the thrift stores. My daughter and I both adore thrift stores as you can find the bestest, freakiest forgotten and once-loved-but-now-disgarded treaures imaginable. Retro is always in for me, as is bohemian and funky clunky looks, and where better to find them than a thrift store, right?

So, I wanted to offer a nice bohemian long skirt...the type of I wear a lot of in real life and find very comfy...and a matching top or two. I started looking for fabric ideas and ended up finding so many cool, retro, and contemporary fabrics I adored, I just had to use em all...er...or at least some of em. My one skirt and blouse became over 11 different fabric, counting the freebie plain black I tossed in at the last minute. I ended up breaking the skirts and tops up seperately in case people just wanted one or the other as they are very mix and matchable with other looks and styles, and added the Thrift Store label to the old, clunky combat boots I was making too while I was at it, ending up with what we are offering this week at Boneflower Designs in Temenos...the Thrift Store Collection...

Excuse the First...

2006-09-10T18:18:00.000Z

Umm...yeah, I haven't been very good at updating this thing yet have I? I suppose I could give you some good excuses, like being too busy making new content to blog, or real life craziness, or something, but instead I will just give you the truth...purple alien kittens of Doom kidnapped me and wouldn't let me blog. Really. I mean it.

Either that or I have been lazy and not sure what to say, like usual.

But! I plan to make blogging my work here a new part of my daily life and activity! No...I mean it this time. Wait! Come back, I promise! I am serious even...please?

Really. I plan to be offerring up blog posts at least once a week or more when I release new stuff. I will force myself to do it the same as I now force myself to walk in the park every day. Well...most every day. It will become a part of my new releases habit. Honestly. It will.

So, watch here for new releases, and other general insanity, thoughts and excuses in the furture. They will arrive. Yes, really.

Welcome to my Insanity...

2006-07-31T20:14:00.000Z

Welcome to the first episode of my adventures as a fashion designer in Second Life...

I have been meaning to do this...start a blog that is, not design in SL...for some time, but always seemed to get side tracked. Other things came up and there was just never the time I felt I needed to devote to it. What has changed now? Nothing really. I still feel I don't have enough time in a day and my mind is as scattered and insane as always; but I finally realized that there just simply would not be any better time waiting down the road. So...here I am.

What will I write about in this blog, you might ask? Well, I know blogs are pretty well over-done and the idea is old hat. Sure, other people will have better, smarter, flashier blogs about Second Life and SL fashion. And perhaps I will offer very little here that is of real worth. But...I do offer one thing that no one else will be able to give you: the world of Second Life designing as seen through these two eyes. Okay...so maybe that isn't worth 2 tarnished pennies, but hey, it's all I got!

Truly, this blog is as much for me as it is for anyone else. Yes, I want people to read it...else I would write it on tissues and shove it in my shoebox with the rest of my scraps of ideas and thoughts jotted on weird things...but in point of fact, I start this blog because I need to write again. I need to get my thoughts out of my head and on paper...err...screen...pixel...whatever. I live too much in my head and always have. My thoughts can become a toxic waste poisoning my mind if I don't get 'em out from time to time, and a blog is a great format for that. Now my thoughts can be toxic waste that poisons YOUR mind too. Great isn't it? =D

In addition to random musings, rants, and utterly off the wall weirdness, you can also expect to find lots of mispellings, bad grammer, naughty words, and other oddities. Umm...I mean that you can expect to also find various announcements about my Second Life businesses, Boneflower Designs, Jungle Voodoo and Temenos Island here, along with posts on new releases and rambling excuses about why something people asked for isn't done yet. But in reality the advertising of my stuff and the advertising of stuff from other designers I like isn't the focus. Nice, yes, but not the focus. I am writing about my adventures...and as such you might well expect excitement, cliff-hangers, and lots of adrenalin. Not sayin' you will get those things, just sayin' you might expect 'em. =P

So, welcome once again to the adventures of this humble Second Life designer, and I hope you like what you read and enjoy coming back here often to soak up some new bits of insanity from my twisted little mind...