Modeling 102 Homework

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have been obsessed with the works of Mami Jewell for as long as I have been aware of her work in Second Life. For my second homework in modeling school I was given the assignment to create a mix and match look that cost less than 300 Linden. Now there were several challenges here for me. Beyond the challenge of learning to find every prim that cuts into another, my two major issues here were: this was my first mix and match and I have very few outfits that are under 300 linden.

The 300 Linden Look

I overbook myself in Second Life. I have a busy real life and a lot of in world interests, so I don’t generally enjoy the lucky chair scene. If I walk by a lucky chair and happen to get really lucky, then I am going to hop in of course, but the thought of hanging out in a store for as long as it takes in the hopes of a free outfit that I wanted was about as painful as I could imagine. To those of you that I can do this, I admire your patience greatly. Every time I try to play the lucky chair game, I find the price of the item on the chair to become very reasonable by about the second time the letter changes, and generally just fork over the Lindens and move along. Obviously, this was not an option this time.

I finally decided on leveraging all the free group gifts that were open to me. This opened up somethings that is not normally what one might not first think of when limited to 300 Linden: Chop Zuey and Azul. Since the renewal event at Azul, we have had access to gifts from 2014 including a rather lovely and gothic number from Decemeber 2014. That when combined with Exit Wound men’s gift from Chop Zuey gave the basics of the look.

I immediately made the mistake of not doing a mix and match and instead decorating an Azul piece with some items I grabbed on the cheap from Gacha’s. I am not usually a fan of the Gacha direction, but when it came down to it a lucky rare fatpack of Sakide ribbon gloves for 20 lindens gave a good addition to the look without taking too many Linden’s from the reserve. Avi Candy Fishnets (49 Linden) and Coquette Spikes from N-Core (75 Linden) helped round out the look. It was at this point, that I accepted I still hadn’t hit the mark since this was no mix and match.

Looking at the Azul piece, there were two choices, the base dress and the skirt. The skirt had that Azul feel to me, and I knew that a big challenge I am going to face in modeling with Azul materials will be learning to work with the skirts, so I went for the feathered skirt and decided on a corset for the top to round out this goth transformation. With a little over 150 Linden left in the bank, I ended up finding the drbc Secret Garden corset for 150 Lindens.

The final cost: 294 linden.

Blogging Second Life

My look complete, I turned my attention to my other homework: this blog. I realized that there is another component to being a model: I have a good reason to visit places I haven’t before. As I looked at myself transformed into a goth princess, I asked myself: where is the nearest graveyard? Well I asked one of my dear friend Kendra Chemistry, and together we found some pretty interesting sims out in the wilds of SL. Suddenly, I realized that part of the fun of this blog and dressing myself is that I have a reason to go everywhere now. From mermaid grottoes to recreations of Paris, suddenly there is a reason to see all the beauty in Second Life and celebrate the creators who make our world glorious.

Ironwood Hills

This creepy place is reminiscent of a horror video game like Silent Hill or a Japanese horror film. If you look closely in the fog on the left hand side of the photo, you can see one of the more permanent spirit residents of this place. This was a great place to take a goth princess, and a real fun place to visit for Halloween.

Innsmouth

Where else can you find an opera house, a sunken temple and even Cthulhu himself. I met a wonderful avatar out there who has taken it upon himself to preserve this location which features a ton of elder god themed horror locales as well as wonderful opportunities to role play. It even turned out that this is the location for several important icons within the goth community of Second Life.

Concluding Thoughts

This blog has become more than just an assignment for my modeling class. I am so happy that Bonnie and Ponchi have included this in their homework, for I have found a new way to express myself and share with the community all of the wonderful things that I have found both in terms of fashion and sims within the virtual world that we all share. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with all of my readers and hope that you, my readers, find something new or old to revisit within our world through this.

Best Wishes My Treasures.

Amanda