Tag Archives: Di’s Opera

hallucinatory heat

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So it is hot again. One of the joys of living in the Pacific Northwest is avoiding blistering heat, but thanks to global climate change, I am afraid that may become a thing of the past. However, I suppose I should keep it in perspective. It is far hotter elsewhere.

Most of the time, when you read about someplace deathly hot with temperatures in excess of 120° Fahrenheit, you can also add “but at least it is dry heat” which might be small comfort at that temperature, but it still makes a difference.

This was made very clear when I read a news article that left me reeling and think I should be grateful. There is a city in Iran, on the Persian Gulf, that reached a Heat Index of 165° degrees – that is heat of 115° and a dew point of 90. Heat and humidity, that is just not fair. Now my response to heat is to dress lightly, so imagine that heat in a burqa. It makes me very grateful for my much lower intensity heat discomfort.  Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Alice Demonia

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I wore my first Alice Project hair three years ago this month. Alice Project holds a special place in my heart for scaring me the first time I put on an all white hair that I applied a texture to. I am certain there was an involuntary squeak or two before I realized I had not broken it and just had to add the hud and click. We are friends on Plurk and I don’t think I will be telling any deep, dark secrets if I tell you she has a wicked, sardonic sense of humor. And as you can see from her favorite photo, “Nobody parties like Alice Demonia.”

Hair Fair may be closed, but you will be able to find these styles in the stores. I have some remaining profiles to do, so on we go.

Alice Demonia by Vanity Mirror 2013

Nobody Parties Like Alice Demonia by Vanity Mirror – 2013

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Alice Project Strawberry

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Alice Demonia: My Second Life has been pretty boring, I think, hahah. When I first started, I did the standard exploring and trolling and laughing at various sex related sims. That’s probably the most excitement I’ve had. Nowadays, I’m notorious for AFKing at my friends’ platforms or sims for days. I tend to just sort of set up wherever I am, if they’re open to that. The Flickr photo I’ve included is the product of one day where I logged in at a friend’s and everyone just decided to start throwing down things around me, lol. Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Emerrem and Bertha Weiss

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Emerrem and Berthaweiss are two sisters whose bonds in their real life just make their Second Live richer. Their store, .EMBW. was new to me at this year’s Hair Fair and I was excited to see their creations, particularly since I am always complaining there is not enough short hair.

With lovely friends ^-^

EMBW Psi_002

EMBW Psi

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Emerrem and Bertha Weiss: WE LOVE DOING SILLY THINGS! We also photograph every silly moment. Like one time I wanted to see the creator of the little fairies, I tried to select “Edit” but my mouse went wrong to “Sit here,” the next moment I sit on that little fairy’s head with a silly sitting pose, and she carried me up and up and then stuck into the wall. xD Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Annette Voight

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I found Decoy first through my love of shoes seven years ago – not just seven years ago, but seven years ago this month. That means Annette Voight has been around creating through all the changes in design technology, learning new skills and adapting to the trends and revolutions of Second Life with élan. She started making hair just five years ago, but from the outset, her textures were great (redheads have to be picky) and her style casual, but always elegant.

Found

Decoy Jen_002

Decoy Jen

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Annette Voight: The most exciting experience for me was exploring Numbakulla, this awesome puzzle adventure sim that I stumbled upon around 2007/2008 when I was still pretty new to SL. I was bored of only hanging out at typical places like beaches and clubs, so this was one of the best hidden treasures for me. I met a lot of new people there, usually bonding over the amazing scenery or working together to figure out a puzzle before we all went insane. Each zone was a different theme with unique puzzles, so it was always thrilling when you finally solved one that let you into a new area. Numbakulla helped me realize that SL was much, much more than just a “3D chat program”. I really miss it and I’ve been thinking of making something as intricate as that soon. Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Queue Marlowe

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Queue Marlowe self portrait

Queue Marlowe self portrait

Who has not gotten lost in the forests of hair at Analog Dog. From my first visit, I have found the quantity and diversity of hair overwhelming. This comes from a long history of creating hair and from the skill to create hair that stands up to the test of time, changing fads and changing technology.

Any hair lover will be able to recognize Analog Dog hair in an instant. Creator Queue Marlowe’s style is easily recognized in large part because her hair moves. Flexi has gone out of fashion in large part because it cannot be rigged and because people struggle with alpha glitches. Marlowe cannot avoid the rules of alpha layers, but she can stretch those rules and she can outwit them – as anyone who has tried on her hair can see. Analog Dog hair is unique, long may it wave…and bounce.

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Analog Dog Psylocibin with additional curls add on.

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Queue Marlowe: Craziest? let’s see… does making hair count? After I swore I’d never do such a silly thing?  Silliest would have to be thinking that making hair was a silly idea. That and spending a week as a ball with wings. Most exciting still goes to designing avant garde costume for a real life virtual museum exhibit. Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Syndel Daviau & River Eternal

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Asset Rocket_001

Asset Rocket

Syndel Daviau and River Eternal are the design partnership behind the Asset hair salon. River Eternal described their relationship like this. “The shop is ours, but she’s the brain, I’m mostly the hands” When the brain and hands work together, some amazing things can be produced. Sandel Daviau completed the interview.

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?

Sandel Daviau: The craziest, most exciting and probably silliest thing altogether that I’ve been doing in SL since my very arrival is to own roleplay sims. So far they have been about a dozen and I never can stop myself from thinking about the next one. It’s like an addiction to bring amazing playgrounds to the grid, much like making books come alive so people can play in them. I always think about stopping: “this will be my last sim!”, but when I see it I’ve already commissioned a new one. Continue reading →

Hair Fair Designers — Leyla Flux

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the smell of you

Self Portrait of Leyla Flux 2015

KoKoLoReS Skyler_001

KoKoLoReS Skyler for Hair Fair 2015

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience? 

Leyla Flux: Actually, I don’t think I ever did something really crazy in SL. I came here in 2009 for the premiere of my Machinima movie “Saving Grace” at the Machiniplex theatre, which was run by Sol Bartz, better known as Phil Overman Rice in the machinima world. My film was not a Second Life movie but made using the program Moviestorm and footage taken in the game X³ Terran Conflict, and I was asked to do an interview with Overman and the interested viewers at the venue. That was in February 2009. So I stood in front of the audience, knowing next to nothing about SL, in my noobie avatar. It was fun, and frightening at the same time!

Later that year, my film was shown at the Machinima Expo, by then I was already infected with the SL bug and looked much more stylish than in February. If you’re interested, you can watch “Saving Grace” on Vimeo, I’m still very proud of it and sometimes sad about moving away from making machinima, but it just happened. And yes, that time might have been the craziest I had in SL!

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KoKoLoReS Silence with Glam Affair Skin, Adam & Eve Makeup, Zaara Earrings.

IOF: What drew you to designing hair? When did you start? What are some of the changes that were most significant for you?

LF: Once I found my feet in SL (with the help of Riott Viking and Lainy Voom, both machinimators and creators), I knew I wanted to make things. I started out with system layer clothes, built prim houses. Riott (she did skins) and I had a shop together, and it was going nicely. Then mesh came, everything changed, and I realised that if I wanted to create still, I needed to learn mesh. I admit I was pretty daunted by the idea (I never learned making my own sculpties), so Riott and I decided to give up our store. For a time, my blog was my only creative outlet, then I started to itch for doing something creative again and learned making poses, and finally dabbled in blender. I did tons of Youtube tutorials (thank you, Youtube!) and as I’ve always loved hair, I pretty soon was sure that I wanted to make hair. Cyclic Gearz helped me a lot – if you need blender lessons, she’s great! And around April 2014, I released my first hair.

KoKoLoReS Lilibeth_001

KoKoLoReS Lilibeth

IOF: How did you choose your store name? Does it have a special meaning for you?

LF: I’ve always loved the word “Kokolores”. To me, it’s nonsense in a positve sense, fun, light, entertaining, creative, colourful.

IOF: What is the most challenging part of being a creator in Second Life? What is most rewarding? 

LF: I strive to get better with everything I do, and I’m a perfectionist. Sometimes the real challenge is to let something go! And a big challenge also is that you’re not only a creator, but your own marketing force, too. So much depends on how you market your stuff. A picture can make or break an item. Packaging, making colour huds, doing marketplace all takes up so much time, time I’d rather spend making more hair!
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Hair Fair Designers — Anya Ohmai

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Anya Ohmai is one of the most beloved creators in Second Life® for very good reasons. All of her creations are full of joy, her playful wit and quirky humor part of their DNA. Despite her unquestionable talent, she remains humble about her skills, seeing herself as a perpetual learner always striving to do better. She is also a person of character whose kindness goes to the marrow. She does not produce a lot of hair; but every year at Hair Fair, there is a crowd of eager fashionistas waiting to see what flight of fancy she has come up with this time.

Ballerina Solitude

Ballerina Solitude by Anya Ohmai

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Ohmai’s personal style is very soft and feminine, youthful and sweet. The humorous motifs in her creations lead people to adopt a more kawaii sort of style with her hair. I thought it would be a fun challenge to go in the opposite direction, showing that her hair works just as well for high fashion styles. You will have to decide if I succeeded.

It’s Only Fashion: What’s the craziest thing you ever did in Second Life? Most exciting? Silliest? Is there a story you can share that captures your Second Life experience?
Anya Ohmai: The most exciting thing that has happened to me in Second Life was actually one of the first few weeks I joined the grid. I was such an avid explorer back then because I was a blogger, so I made it a point to go to many different sims. I came across this little Japanese cafe owned by Amika Jewell and she was there to greet me as a newbie in Second Life. She asked me what I had wanted to do in Second Life and I told her I wanted to be a creator. Mind you this was an avatar that was a few weeks old, so Amika most likely thought I was completely insane. She did however give me some tips on how to do that and said if I ever made a store, maybe someday we’ll meet again.
Flashback to a year later, I actually met Amika at another Second Life sim and she asked if I had remembered her from back then. She proceeded to tell me how proud she was to see that I finally did make my Second Life wishes come true and that she owned so many of my creations. We proceeded to befriend each other and talk occasionally. I think that was exciting because no one else was too friendly with me when I started out, and for someone to remember me even though its been so long was just a lovely experience!
I think that captures the essence of Second Life’s warmth very well, there is a very human quality to it that you don’t find in many other games. I know that little gesture of kindness she showed me was probably not a big deal, but it did help solidify my love for Second Life.
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!Ohmai Salon Uni. You can change the crown to a band with the accessories HUD.

IOF: What drew you to designing hair? When did you start? What are some of the changes that were most significant for you?
AO: I actually started out thinking I wanted to be a Hair creator. Before Second Life I sold Ball Jointed Doll wigs in real life, so that background actually made me wanna do it in Second Life too. I started with a small store in creators pavilion back in 2009, with 2 hairstyles and a random array of clothes. I stopped doing hair after because I wasn’t very proud of the way I did hair. When I heard about Hair Fair, I thought it’d be awesome if I created hairs once a year for it – just to challenge myself and also try to fulfil the ‘want’ to make hair. Sasy was kind enough to offer me a position in Hair Fair even when i was new and that was an awesome opportunity!
The biggest change from the first time I made hair to the way I do it now would probably be the thought process that goes into it. Hair making works very differently from other creations. You start with a texture that you work around in, whereas other items start with model ling before you bake and texture. Thats a huge struggle in the beginning to switch my brain gears to operate that way. My experience in working with all other types of mesh creation has helped me understand and figure out that process more. I think the work I do for Hair now is more deliberate than it used to be – in the past i’d lay out a bunch of strands and hope it works somehow, now I actually visualize the end product before going into it.
!Ohmai Salon- Tako_001

!Ohmai Salon Tako comes in three pieces, the pony tail, an additional cluster of curls to augment the pony and the tentacles. Each comes with a rigged and unrigged version.

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Sunshine in the Asylum

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Nyunyu Magic of NYU has released an adorable long blouse (or short dress) in several colors with white or beige contrasting stripes. I decided to wear the black and white because I just purchased some new jewelry that I thought would work well with the dress. Black and white also suits the mod aesthetic of its straight-line shape, while in red and white or blue and white, it has a more nautical air.

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In keeping with the mod aesthetic, I decided to wear the great thigh-high suede boots from Baiastice. While boots in the Sixties and Seventies were usually knee-high, I was going for a retro vibe, not a retro costume.

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The Rose Theater

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A trip to Second Life’s® Rose Theater requires a gown worthy of the venue and this recent release from VoguE Fashion is in all ways worthy. It has the regal red, black and gold colors, rich and strong colors that for centuries have signified formal elegance. The gown has a rich brocade band marking the chevroned drop waist and a bodice of red glass beans embellished with gold threads. Even the lush shoulder fur is dusted with gold. My jewelry from Donna Flora for My Second Box is just a regal and rich and the topaz gems are huge.

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