I’m sure that most everyone knows about the incredible devastation visited upon Japan by the massive earthquakes. Once again, designers (and I’m sure entertainers, too) are stepping up to the plate in Second Life and doing their bit to raise money to help out where they can. I’m no exception (although thankfully I’m not organizing this event!) – the skin you see in this pic is a special just for the Pacific Crisis Fundraiser event, and 100% of the proceeds will be going into the charity account from this item.
You can pick up the skin at my mainstore, or alternatively, visit the Fundraiser Event location to see both this item and many others from a great range of designers, with full or partial proceeds going towards the cause.
On a slightly different note…
I’m also participating in the Lucky Prims event hosted by Royal Living. Each vendor is to set out an item (or items) for sale for the low price of L$45, with a retail value of at least L$500. You can see the vendors participating, their prizes and their landmarks at the Royal Living website. There’s some great items to be had!
My prize, as you can see from the image above, includes the following:
A special Miro skin – each skin comes with brow and cleavage options
Two mouth leaf sets, for nomming
A twiggy pot-plant, to hold in your hand
Three variations of the twiggy plant to decorate with
Quite a set, huh? I had real fun making it! Pick up yours today over at Sanu.
My husband teases me about this. He really does. Every time I start on something like skins, or hair, or buildings, he’ll go, “Kat, you said that I should beat you if you ever start trying to make <insert item here>.” To which I resoundingly reply, “Shut up. Don’t tell me. I knowwwww!”
Skins are very much one of those things that I said I’d never do.
Luckily though, I often ignore what I’ve said earlier, and do it anyway. So here’s the new release!
There are four tones, to suit a range of avvies, starting with a nice pale shade.
There’s seven make-ups available in each tone – six can be picked up individually, but the seventh can only be obtained by purchasing the fatpack.
Each of the skins have four options to cover some of the basics – light brows for blonde and lighter hairs, dark brows for brunettes and darker, no cleavage for those that prefer a more natural look and cleavage for those who want a bit of lift. By having these options on the skin itself, you have the tattoo layer free for other things.
So yes. I’ve made skins again. Skins inspired by flowers and Spring-time and frolicking and fun. I’ve even released the shape in-store as well, so that you can get the exact look in the signs with the addition of some hair from Fri.day, eyes by Poetic Color, and outfit by Evie’s Closet.
You know, I think a hunt is a great way to kick off the new month. During August I will be participating in the Needle in a Haystack Hunt, hosted by the Happy Hunters group. This will be their first hunt, so hopefully everything will go nice and smoothly for them!
You can find a full list of participating stores on the Happy Hunters website, which will no doubt also have hints and teasers of some of the prizes added soon as well.
The prize at my store is now up and ready to go. It contains two cute skins, in addition to some needles for nomming. (Please don’t try this at home. Like running with scissors, nomming with needles is hardly a great idea.)
You can find these prizes at the Sanu mainstore inside a little haystack, and I haven’t hidden it all that hard. In a big hunt such as this, I just think it is much easier on everyone to have a prize that is easier to find!
In case you do get stuck though, here is a little hint: I’m feeling hungry… do you like cupcakes as much as I do?
Kat Johnston/Sanu in SL: A gorgeous pink skin made with a hint of strawberry inspiration for Second Life.
So, for today’s image, I’ve decided that I’m going to put up another Second Life item. I know it seems as if I am doing that a lot lately, but I swear it isn’t just because my scanner had an unfortunate run-in with some unidentified liquid and isn’t scanning correctly… it is also just because I think that seeing Second Life from an outsider sort of perspective is fun.
Today’s item is a skin I put together – one inspired, in part, by delicious strawberries. Mmm, strawberries… *drools*
Skins are an incredible and popular item in Second Life, as you can well expect. As in real life, they form the whole basis for snap-decisions and first impressions about someone when you meet them in person. They range from the photo-realistic to the hand-drawn and detailed, from the avant-garde to the downright quirky.
Now onto the interesting side of things.
This skin that I’ve made here would probably not have been created if it were not for another content creator on the grid. A content creator who made an absolutely massive impact to Second Life by giving people a number of open-source tools with which to learn, grow and experiment creatively without the added barrier of starting from scratch in skin and avatar mesh texture production. Eloh Eliot released skins she had created full-perm in-world, with detailed Photoshop source files also available for download back in 2008. Since then, an incredible number of people have used those resources to springboard into content creation, from casual creativity to professional, from modding for personal use to setting up businesses to send the final results.
So I guess this is what I’m getting at: creativity begets more creativity.
In a creative economy, knowledge and creativity are not necessarily (or even often) diminished by sharing. There was some measure of outcry when Eloh released her skins and templates for anyone to modify and redistribute. They allowed even the most unskilled to lend their hand to giving skin-making a go. The sky inevitably did not fall, talented artists and designers were still able to design, market and sell their own lines successfully, and the ability for more people to access information and resources surrounding a particular skill-set did not cause the demise of the ‘high priced’ skin industry as we know it. Not only has it opened up the doors to anyone to try skin-making, but it has also given others the opportunity to step up their game and improve their own processes. Competition isn’t always a bad thing!
I’ve found watching the evolution of the Second Life skin industry over the past couple of years to be absolutely fascinating. To me, the way people in Second Life have reacted to the release of those skins has mirrored the reactions I see around me to the creative commons movement – some have thought the sky was falling, and still do… others did, but have slowly changed their opinions… and still others have absolutely welcomed the influx of opportunities provided to both the casual and professional creatives to be inspired by and build upon what others have created. I, for one, am excited by it.
So yes, that is my post for today – long though it may be. I hope I haven’t bored you to death!
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