Quick preview

I'll be releasing these Monday or Tuesday, as soon as I've got all the boxes done. Couple more colours of Adele necklace coming too!


xx Cai

Today's Preview

So, while the grid is down, I'm attending to my neglected blog :) I've been working on a new necklace set, carefully storing away 57 backup copies before logging out for the update. Here's a pic in progress:

You can get some idea of the way I work looking at this. I plonk Cai on a posing stand, take off all her attachments (anyone peeking in my workshop while I build will see a bald elf, not a pretty sight) and then I start placing the main stones around her neck. Once I've got them more or less where I want, I'll swivel the camera around and adjust stones for the curve of her neckline. Then I'll start adding in all the teeny tiny chain prims (usually in groups of three or four otherwise I'd go insane). When all the chains are done, I'll take Cai off the stand so I can see the whole necklace, tweak any wobbly bits of chain, then I'll link it all together. After that, I'll drag a copy, turn it silver to see how it looks, adjust the textures if needed... and then I start making different gem versions. I've built up a huge library of different gem textures in various shapes, so I can just drag a few out and see how they look.

It's all very absorbing work, and I really have to be in the right frame of mind to do it. But when it happens, I can work for hours without noticing the time passing. It took maybe two hours from the start to get to the pic above, it would have been longer but I reused shapes from a previous necklace. Why reinvent the wheel? *grins*

Tired and grouchy

I'm tired. I'm grumpy. Six or seven years ago I slipped a disc in my back, ever since then it reoccurs every so often. Yesterday was one of those times. Painkillers dull it to a manageable throb, but they also make me sleepy. And the backache makes me grouchy because I can't get comfortable in any position. Being in SL is pointless right now, I can't concentrate for more than 5 minutes, I have no patience, and my moron-tolerance level is waaaay below zero. Grrr. I need sympathy and chocolate!

Enough moaning... here's another preview. It's a ring, called 'Banded' (I so need to employ someone to come up with names for me). The pic shows it in diamond & onyx, i've also got diamond & ruby, diamond & sapphire etc.

I've also got a tiara sitting 1/4 built - it's not coming out the way I wanted it too, so not sure what will happen with that. I usually just leave the partial build in my workshop until inspiration strike again - walk round my skybox and you'll bump into half-finished earrings, beads, and god knows what else (probably a few long lost rings too, if i drop them they are very hard to find again!)

A work in progress

I mentioned before that I had plans for a wedding line. Well, the first item is 3/4 finished, here's a preview pic:

I've decided to call this one 'Serenity', because every bride should be serene on her wedding day! It's made up of moonstones, diamonds and silver wire, and I'm very pleased with it so far. There will be matching earrings for it too.

Yet more previews...

*grins*

This one is called 'Circles', it should be obvious why :) (yeah, i suck at naming things.) It looks a deceptively simple design, but believe me, it was a pain in the ass getting them all lined up correctly!

I'm starting to plan a big release for all these rings and bits now. An idea for the ads is forming, I just need to see if I can build it in SL.


I've also got a half-finished set that uses coloured moonstones, so far I have a ring, bangle and bracelet done. I'd abandoned these a couple of months ago when I couldn't think of any ideas for a necklace to go with them, but now, (thanks to watching 'Wife Swap' of all things!) I've got an idea to work with. Unusually for me, I've set the stones to shiny. I think it works well on this particular style. (It still looks good without though!)


Lastly, I've done the matching earrings for 'Cubed'. I'm definately only doing these in silver, the gold versions just looked weird. I've got seven different colours - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple (ooh, a rainbow!) and white.

Well, that didn't take long!

Yesterday's apathy becomes today's creativity. Another new ring to preview here! This one I've called 'Cubed', simply because of the square stone in the middle. Amazingly for one of my creations, it's low-prim too! (7, I think, compared to 49 or so for Starburst)

I'm probably only going to make this one in silver, somehow gold just doesn't feel right. I think these simple, chunky designs just suit silver better.

Hmm. I know I said these were going to be individual pieces... but I feel a pair of matching earrings coming on. *grins*

Meet Fleur

She's the latest design I'm working on. (Yes, I talk to my builds. I'm safe most of the time, honestly). For some reason, despite having exactly the same ring base as the Starburst ring, it won't fit on my finger properly. And I'm sure I haven't twiddled my av shape since then. Bah.. etc.

Anyway, Fleur will be available in gold and silver again, and probably less gemstones than Starburst. Firstly, I'm not sure that some of them looked all that good, and secondly, churning out another 20 box pics is gonna kill me. Plus I'm rapidly running out of wall space in the store, and it's only a couple of months since I extended it last time. I'll let you into a secret, I detest building buildings! Anything vaguely store or house related I try to build just turns into an extended box shape :( I guess I'll have to throw a few sets in vendors, but I'll resist that as long as I possibly can.

Back to basics!

I've decided that I don't have enough 'one-off' pieces in my store. By this I mean things that aren't part of a set (y'know, matching necklace, earrings, bracelet, ring, ankle chain, belly ring and god knows what else). So I'm going to make some basic individual bits 'n' pieces, whatever takes my fancy. I'd really like to say I'm doing a Twiddler with his 31 Do's in 31 Days, but there is no way I'd manage an item a day!

So here's the first. I started with a ring, because I loooove rings in RL, a girl can never have enough rings! I've called this one 'Starburst', it will be available in gold & silver, and in er.. (*switches back to SL to count*).. 10 different stones. Pics on the left show Silver/Ruby and Gold/Aquamarine.


I always wonder about adding bling scripts. I hate the uber-in-your-face bling with a passion (oh, my eyeballs!), but a nice little twinkle every now and again is pretty. Even that though, after a while, bugs the hell out of me (what can I say, my novelty threshold is way low!). I'm also adverse to adding 'bling on/off' commands, because they inevitably use llListen calls, which never are never good for lag. So I compromise, and stick two versions in the boxes, one bling, one without. Is that the best option? I dunno. Any thoughts out there?


Anyway... the first rings are done (minus boxes and packaging). I don't know whether to wait and have a massive blow-out of an update in, say a week's time, or just put them out as they get done. I'll think about it.

Sneak peak!

Here's a sneaky look at a new set of jewellery that will be out in a day or so! Inspired by Camie Cooper's Rainbow Tanks (which I just <3!), style="font-style: italic;">In the above pic, Hair - Ginny by ETD, Skin - Vanessa Pale by /artilleri/, Rainbow Tank by Camie Cooper

Here's a close up of the colours on the necklace.
I might add a bracelet too... we'll see how time goes!