Saturday 7 November 2009

A very small artist's voice

Major discovery: if you click on the time on the lower tool bar, it also tells you the DATE! (Due thanks to Mr RL for this amazing find).
See, I get fuzzy about dates sometimes because this year has been a question of 'OMG deadline tonight / Friday / next Tuesday lunchtime'.
PUT IN A PARAGRAPH BREAK HERE PLEASE BLOGGER. Gah.
Have a picture... and why no, the photo is not straight. It attempts to shows the soft lighting effects of this flowerbox, which is of course a total revolution for your walls and solves alpha clashes with windows, and also I think they're pretty. Leather flowerbox, fabulous textures.
Onwards (oh, and lots of colours of leather for this one. Well, three... but more if you like). One of the primmer ones at 12. But details! Pretty!
And yes there is a point to this. November 4 and 5 seemed to be a long way away in late October (month of deadline and air travel hell). Also, I'm just emerging from a phase of SL in which I've been doing more, um, socialising and talking about the Meaning of Life than making stuff. This happens, although partly because even hauling prims after meeting deadlines seems to be like too much hard work. Let alone blogging. (Who said 'phew' over there in the cheap seats?).
Another one below. Looooook no alpha clashes against your windows! 6 prims!
(Yes I am still a crap photographer. I like this silvery one, though. The one below it that I cut off is pretty too. Really. Touch the frame and the candle goes out. Wow! And if you knew the scripting hell I went through to do that... small artist, remember?)


And why yes, all this to say I went and missed the boycott thing, which I wasn't going to do anyway (I'm on the side that says it was counter-productive). Also, the 4th and 5th disappeared somewhere in this week's fog of dates.

What I did want to do was to have a sale to support creators. So I'm having one.
I am horrified by the idea of copying people's stuff, although don't think I'm exactly the Next Big Target.
I do know, though (and respect the fact) that some SL creators need their income.
And they're being ruined by idiots who are basically thieves.
BREAK. PARAGRAPH BREAK. Blogger... why do you hate me so?
(Hits 'enter', looks at 'preview', weeps).

As I said in the title, I'm a very small creator and lucky that SL is a hobby (and even luckier that I don't have to meet many deadlines except paying tier. Which I tend to pay well in advance in case a month slips by without me noticing).
(Look - rustic. Pretty seaglass. Sculpts! 10 prims! Great textures! Bad photograph!)

If I could persuade Mr RL that putting just a little more money into SL (we're talking about, what, a couple of coffees a week, but he's in finance and figures and budgets) I would probably just give stuff away.

But he gets grumpy and does not understand the beauty of a soft leather boot on a virtual foot...

(Imagine a photo of my new SL boots here but you do NOT want to see my attempts at photographing myself...). Believe me on this.

But anyway. I usually price stuff based on the worst case scenario (see how this finance-speak drips off my tongue?), meaning that the average month means - if I keep away from too many soft leather boots and textures - I can hang in there and don't need to resort to bribery (oh, spoil yourself Mr RL and buy that bit of software and by the way I just need to top up my SL rent...).
So yes, I'm fortunate.

So - here's the deal. I've marked my flowerbox-things-for-walls down by about 60%. Until... whenever I remember to put the prices back to their whopping 150L or so. Most are at 50L. A couple are even down to 20L.
Here, an attempt at 'close-up'. And if you look REALLY close you can see that the partition wall I put up to take the photo isn't quite aligned.
PARAGRAPH BREAK DAMMIT
Great wall of greenery though. For 50L. Here (plug plug plug). Low-prim again because of amazing technology (gotta love sculpts). I think it's about 10 prims (or 9, or 11, and I'm not inworld to check, sorry).

Also, if you are an SL creator who wants one or some made for one of your amazing projects / stores, or somebody who wants a special or copiable one, send me an IM. I'm a great fan of barter. And nothing gets the creative juices flowing more than somebody saying 'can you make me something like this but with red...'.

And thus endeth (nearly) a rather (OK very) rambly post.
Please drop in and see our little spot of SL. The sim is easy to negotiate (as in it's half a homestead and Mr RL will get the rabbit-in-headlights look if I mention 'more land and prims' right now).
And I know, I know. Good thing I don't post often these days but I'm not usually quite this rambly.
Anyhow...

The main square is here
And the flowerboxes just over there
And for IMs (they come to my mail): Ariadne Korda
PS. If anybody knows how to make Blogger respect my paragraph breaks, let me know? I hate walls of text and it just won't put the damned things in sometimes and have to run because Mr RL is glaring and making 'fridge is empty' noises...