Indulge your Inner Princess

It's a tough gig, princessing it over your own mainland realm...banishing treacherous e-peened pantless invaders, maintaining international relations, enduring the adoration of the great unwashed meeroo population during the daily Royal Tour...being a living symbol of something-or-other and the backbone of civilisation...ho hum (yawns)...After a while, one asks oneself "This is all very nice but where is all the swanning about that is my due?"




This is where you must assert your right to the upper class bone idleness and sloth that is your birthright. Be the princess that you were meant to be. Don a tiara and spend the day languorously doing sweet F.A. Maybe do your nails, and hand out a few orders to minions, but thats it.

And I just so happen to have tiaras for proper swanning in. (Cushions, strawberries and manicure sets sold seperately.)

The "Eclectica Regency Tiara" is very comfortable (satin lined), deceptively light in weight despite it's sturdy structure and has been artistically designed to elicit admiration for it's wearer. Even when purchased new it carries the romantic aura of a historic artifact. It can be set proudly amongst any crown jewels, and will last through many generations of princesses-to-come.

There are three; Dawn (palest), Noon (brightest) and Twilight (darkest). Each has removable low lag scripted texture-change options for gems and pearls, so each is very flexible in appearance. Plus of course, they are copiable and modifiable, so you can always use the edit menu to make the colourings perfect for you. And we know how Princesses like things to be Perfect...(grins)

Here's Dawn... (click all for a decent sized view)



and Noon....



and Twilight...



You can find these at the Eclectica Mainstore as of today, here. Or on the Marketplace, here. Drop by the store, and pick up a demo pack :)

Swans are not included (for swanning about alongside), I hate to say, no matter how nice they are. But these lovely swans you can pick up at Jon Haskell's shop, Sculpty Creations. They are the nicest I've ever ever met ( and that's saying something as I once ran into a horrible hissy one as a child). And made by a nice person. These are going swimmingly in the store, and will not molest you for bread. Promise.

A Vintage Fair is Upon Us

We have a Vintage Fair...the first ever, and I'm very happy to have the chance to participate. A squillion and a half (almost) creators over two sims have joined forces to give every vintage lover a taste of what they can do, as well as an exclusive view of their latest scrummy releases.
I have had fun making something for the event...the booths are small but we can squeeze in...just...



Here's the Eclectica presence at the Fair.

I've decided to make that eternal slacker and bubblehead Eccy earn her wages (finally) and help with PR. A big poke with a stick, and threat to rope in the shoe benefits and here she is...modelling some of the feathers we offer. She has to stand there until...well...when you throw her enough pennies.


We have some exclusive new releases for the Fair.

"Enchant" is a 1930's inspired jewellery set. It has pearls, nicely held with delicate metalwork, and gem details add interest in the right places. Triple strands of detailed pearls at the front are balanced by perfectly sculpted fine metal bands at the back. Each set includes two sets of earrings. One is gorgeously long and dangly. One is more sedate, still gorgeous but not quite as dangly.

Everything is moddable, and copiable, so you can adjust all colours to suit yourself. And the colours are very subtle, and very 1930's.


Silver


Lilac


Gold


Fern


Moccha


Amethyst

Plus...we have new hats, with gloves thrown in for fun. (It seemed wrong not to). Introducing The Little Black Pillbox Hat (and gloves) sets. These are tidy little pillboxes, with very well sculpted embroidered net veils. There are three, and all sit prettily about any shortish hairstyle (they are moddable so you can make final adjustments if you need to). Each hat and glove set is copy/mod, plus has a removable low-lag script which allows you to change the texture of the details, and toggle them on and off. (Oh, and resize if you really can't be fagged getting your head round the edit menu, smile) So you can have a plain look, or detailed look, and also many texture options, plus of course be able to modify them via the edit menu. You get to choose just how enticing you are...grin...


Roses. You can have big ones, little ones, or all, or none. And have them in lots of colours.


Pearls, stitched into the net. On or off, or in lots of colours. And there are matching colours for all Ecletica Pearl Mixables jewellery sets.


Feathers, on or off. Plus metalwork details. Match them to existing Eclectica feathers and gloves.

Come and visit anytime up until the 3rd of December. Lag has been awful at the start (I hate that sooo much as it wastes all of our time), but I have been turning up everyday to test it, and am happy to say that things are only getting better there. It's now completely do-able ...(big smiles, as I'm going shopping tomorrow)

A fresh face

After a good three years, I've had a makeover. Well, at least the store did, as it was overdue a good bit of dermabrasion and freshening up. The layout seems to work well, the size is as big as I'd ever want it to be, but it began to look a bit tired, so my fingers got itchy.

The old logo and signage has served customers well, but what was once a rich dark gold began to look at little...."70's brown". No longer subtle and elegantly understated like I've been trying to convince everyone, but dull. Like nasty beer-smelling pub carpet. So it all got ripped out last week (finally!) and we had a great big bonfire down in the garden. Cockroaches either popped in the heat, or had to outrun a family of hungry meeroos. (He's not called "Snappy" for nothing, that little fawn teacup down there.)



Now, after a few evenings with the paintbrush, it's all lighter and prettier, in line with the signage I started preferring for fairs and satellite stores a while back. I should have bitten the bullet ages ago, as this is so much nicer. It makes me want to break into song...



But of course, once the signs were replaced, the rest started to look a bit sad. Chuh! Isn't that typical of any DIY project! So those great big tortured megaprims underneath which were always meant to represent chunks of magically floating islands (stop laughing) needed to be swapped with actual floating islands (my shop was very square looking, made pre-sculpty technology). I'd tried sculpting my own, but it just never happened for me, so had to go on a shopping expedition. I found these made by Chiki Vita at ridi-ludi-fool. They are perfect! Moddable/copiable so I could scale them (any size up to 64m cubed these days so goodbye to all the awkward inflexible megaprims) and copy/drag them to wherever I needed. They need collision prims on top to make a good walkable surface, but thats no matter as it only makes the texturing easier, I say.

Then, of course, the old megaprim hedges suddenly looked too square and formal, so I sculpted some new rounded ones to smarten things up. Saved more prims too, which is always welcome. And then the ponds became sculpted in the same way, with more prim savings.



See, it's been one big domino effect. Even the blog header got the same treatment.

The stairs are next. They are now the primmiest thing in the store, and their days are numbered. (rubbing hands together gleefully)

Jewellery Fair 2011

It's the annual Jewellery Fair, the biggest event on the virtual jewellery calendar, and something that I've taken part in for the last three years. This year, the theme is "Elementals", and I snuck in yesterday to have a peep at the sims.
As customary, there are four themed builds over four sims (Water, Air,Earth and Fire). Each are looking spectacular. Something that's a departure from the norm is that you will not need to stagger drunkishly across sim borders to walk from area to area. Instead, you will arrive at a central port, and need to merely touch each portal to teleport gently to each landing place. Fingers crossed. This is because the builds are at different heights, and this does wonders for not only creating the (very) unique atmospheres in each, but also assists with lag issues.

As has been the custom since I've known, the elected charity is Oxfam. The jewellers voted several years ago on this, the choice was easy to make, and nobody has seen a need to change it. We respect Oxfam utterly, and I believe that we also recognise that our efforts need to be on a world scale. Nothing makes me happier.

Plus their shops are full of really cool stuff, and they make me drool.

The Eclectica display is on Water sim, chosen as I see the clarity of water as reflecting the brilliance of gems. It feels like it suits me best, and I like to go with the flow (bad pun intended).

A new jewellery design, "Opulence" will be available exclusively at the Fair.



It has four versions, but I've had fun with colouring and tucked an extra version in each box, as I really couldn't make up my mind. This might inspire you to do your own tinting (just remember to zoom in and "edit linked" and only ever do this to a copy in case something unintended happens, hee hee)

"Pewter"


"Gold"


"Black"


"Silver"


When designing these, I went for a very swirly Victorian feel, but a bit of Bollywood may have crept in somewhere. They are lovely as they are, but you certainly could vamp up the hues a bit, and for that reason the texturing has been kept simple and contrasty.

Each set has a basic necklace and earrings, plus a recoloured version of each. All are copiable and modifiable, but not transferable. They contain no scripts. A demo pack will be available at the Eclectica display at the Fair (by the door as you come in).



The Opulence set above has been made for the Charity Auction. If you want a unique set, based on Lovely Bluey-ey Wateriness, come have a bid for it, and help raise some money for Oxfam.

Check out the Official Blog for more information.

Feral Furs

This is one of those visions that was never going to let me go until I'd purged it from my brain by doing something about it. I suspect the fox I'd caught in the act of dragging off my darling chickens has somehow contributed to this. I swore I'd make him pay somehow, and since I'm not particularly bloodthirsty in rl, this is my way.

So I'm going to hell in one fell swoop with this photoshoot. For the combined faux-pas of fur-wearing and smoking.



At least I'll look good while doing it. *Cough..hack*





My little friend is based very loosely on a vintage stole I've had tucked away in a safe drawer. It fastens traditionally, by holding a decorative chain in it's mouth, except my version has rather more teeth.



There are four moddable sets with two versions per pack (one has the extra tails at the back and tongue, and one is plainer). You can find them (and demos) at the Eclectica Mainstore here.






Have fun!

A Foray into Footwear- Garden Party Shoes

I've been wanting to add more diversity to what is on offer at the store, especially since I have a little more space, and have been agonising for weeks over just how to go about embiggening the Sinaburoe shop. (I'm still agonising, but perhaps more about that later, and it's more the "oh-dear-I-have-too-much-space-now-what-shaaaaall-I-dooo " pleasant kind of agony.)

(A candid snap of my shopgirl, Eccy, who despite being given minimal responsibility demands the earth when it comes to bonuses and freebies...Here she is being generously plied with shoes before she left an unruly mess all over my boudoir rug *tsssk today's youth*)

Anyway.

I'm a shoe girl from way back.

Shoes then. Grin.

I love them, always have, in every universe. There's something about a certain height of heel that I can't resist- I love a good high no-half-measures heel, as to me it's most flattering. The problem is that I'm often looking to wear a vintage style, circa 20's/30's shoe, and back then shoes had gorgeous trimmings, but horrible heels. It's why Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse look the way they do in shoes, I suspect (shudder). I have no desire to emulate them. So I can never claim that Garden Party shoes are authentic historic footwear, however to me they are a good marriage between vintage styling with a sexier modern shaping.

Most of my personal-use shoes end up being black. It's because I love the colours, but can never decide, so invariably lump with the sensible choice. That's why each Garden Party pack has a floral-and-black and plainer-black-with-trim pair. Also if the colour isn't quite right for your outfit, you can use the edit menu to add a slight tint to the prims. So the trims are quite brightly coloured- it gives you room to dull them back with another hue if you need without losing too much contrast.

Anyway, we all understand each other perfectly here, being shoe-girls, I'm sure, unless one of us stumbled in from some weirdie googling of Daisy Duck and sexy high heels. Let's ignore that person, and enjoy the yummy gardenny colours below :)


tangerine

lilac

fuschia

bluebell

ash

apple

Each shoe is copiable, modifiable and script free. No huds. Two versions of each style are included- one with invisiprims for older viewers, and one that uses alpha layers for newer viewers, so pick your poison.

Make sure you try a demo first if in doubt (The helper sign over the vendors will give you a demo pack to help you check quality and colours. Just remember that of course these can't demonstrate the modify qualities of the full version.)

Swoon

Taking a break from all the sneezing, I'm pleased to be feather free for a little while."Swoon" is a very romantic take on gloves, and something simpler for those who like things a bit less fluffy.



These sets each include long and short gloves for day or evening wear (you can adapt them to any length you need), with unique sculpted flared tops. Ribbons and bows tie about the arms very prettily, and these are augmented with a simple gem to add a little shiny contrast. Matching sculpted collars are included.

As these are completely modifiable, the ribbon and lining colours can be made to whatever you desire using the edit menu. I have included suggestions only.


Ivory


Gold


Ebony


Crimson


Cornflower


Cappuccino

Please click for the full picture!

March into Spring

Ahh! Spring is springing (so I heard) and new growth bursting forth all over the place, apparently sending everybody into paroxysms of creative and fertile stirrings. Well, this may be true for half the planet, that other half vaguely over there where I don't live, but never mind as I get to naturally feel like that most of the year round in my sunny home. So even if the days are shortening over here, I can still get into the spirit, and share the joy with the best of you.

What nicer way to completely ignore any Autumn Blues than to be involved with a Spring Fair!

Embody Poses and Shapes is holding a "March into Spring" Market up on it's sunny rooftop, and Eclectica is joining the happy bunch.

As well as this being a chance for a group of original designers to display their wares, a hunt has been arranged (not a ginormous 500-sim event, just a nice smattering of businesses on the one sim for a bit of fun). Many of the designers have generously provided $L10 items as well so that you can get a taste of what's on offer.


"Flounce" earrings in Dark Pink can be picked up for $L10 at my display.....


.....and this "Flounce" brooch in Dark Pink is a hunt gift.

Come pop by, pick up some good bargains, grab an Eclectica Demo Pack if you like, do a little hunting if that's your poison, and celebrate the change of seasons with us.
When: March 5th to 20th.
Where: Embody Rooftop.
For extra information: visit the Embody blog here.