MY FIRST SCULPTED OUTFIT!

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

Where is Zoe? Update for August...

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...

Sneak Peek - What to Wear While Waiting for Santa

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!

Meet Elizabeth...She's a Real Doll

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.

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

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.