Interview: Independant Objects @ Fair Play

„Welcome to my contemporary world!“ acclaims me Susan Independent, the creative mind behind her brand Independent Objects. I am standing in the middle of a modern pavillon, furnished with a modern table and modern chairs, and: with christmas trees. „Christmas trees at the beginning of September?“, I wonder surprised. „I am used to such phenomenom in the superstores where they sell ginger bread and almond bisuits already in autumn. Is this part of your business?“ Susan has a chuckle to herself and enlightens me: „No. These are breedable plant pets. If you water it, every 52 days a descendant will spawn. Sometimes, something else spawns out of the christmas tree. A tulip, for example.“ I find that hilarious, and Susan explains that her friend inspired her. But what you actually find in Susan’s shop are roleplay-inspired clothes and costumes, and everything you need for landscaping a roleplay sim such as plants, houses, furniture and decoration. 

Like for many others designers, Susan started her business for the simple reason that she needed reasonable priced buildings which also suited her setting vision. „At the time, I was not willing to spent thousands of L$ for pixelated objects. That has changed a lot“, she laughs. „So I just tried to stack one prim on another, and looked where it lead me to.“ In 2009, she took her first steps in building but it was already two years later when she finally set her first item on sale. „I have learned most of my building skills by myself but also some of them with the help of a few close friends.“

Today, Susan shares two sims with Sweetgwendoline Bailey, owner of Sweet Revolutions, and four friends who have installed little shops on location. „The sim next to our store sim is a gorean roleplay area which serves also as our showroom.“ Susan tells me that she has been into Gor roleplay for a long time but then gave up. Since a few weeks, she’s finally active in an elven roleplay again after a two-years-hiatus without long-pointed ears. Apart from having her own store and being a roleplayer, she’s also very active in various events. „Isn’t it time-consuming? How do you manage all that?“, I want to know.

„I have no idea how I make it“, she admits laughingly. „But what I can assure you is that a day is too short. For me, every day should have 96 hours at least.“ I have read her store name in events like Fair Play, Fantasy Faire, 30L Saturday, or 35L Sunday. In which events may we expect her next? „I am participating in the Twisted Hunt which starts on September 19th. Another hunt starts on October 1st: the Medieval Fantasy Hunt hosted by Eldowyn Inshan. This hunt and the Medieval Fantasy Fair are one of my favourite events on the grid.“ While we talk about various popular and famous fantasy events in Second Life where we both love to shop regularly, Susan reveals also one of her biggest dreams as an SL merchant to me: to be a participant in the We <3 RP event.

„You are specialised on ancient, medieval and fantasy items so far. Trees, plants and everything for nature is in a certain way timeless. But have you ever made an excursion to modern age, so to speak?“ -- „Oh, sure! There is almost nothing which I wouldn’t give a try. My friends tell me quite often to specialize. But then I have to reply: I can’t! I love to build too much to restrict myself to limits. So far, I have also made steampunk outfits, or a modern hospital, as well as some custom-built outfits for an urban roleplay environment. Mostly, I build everything which my friends and I currently need or want for a roleplay.“

I ask for examples what this could look like, and Susan rezzes a shelf with scrolls: „We were searching desperately a shelf that would allow us to store our healer scrolls. We also wanted that the notecards in the scrolls would be available for everybody with a simple menu. Low on prims, and with an appropriate design to match the furniture in our elven treehouse. But we couldn’t find the right shelf for us. So I built this one, and my friend was totally happy with it.“ She remembers another story: „Years ago, we had a roleplay where we visited a duke. We thought, a little souvenir would be reasonable, and I built some Elven Potions.“ As a farewell gift, she hands over a copy of these Elven Potions to me before I have to leave for now. A big thank you to Susan for the invitation and the nice talk!

All landscape pictures have been taken on Autumn Isle (mainstore sim) and Silken Dreams (roleplay and showroom sim).

LINKS & SURLS
>> Independent Objects @ Second Life <<

>> Independent Objects @ marketplace <<
>> Independent Objects @ Facebook <<

>> Flickr Picture Stream of Independent Objects <<
>> Independent Objects @ Fair Play <<

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Since I have blogged the current exclusive Catherine dress offer from Indepedent Objects already here, I decided to show you another one of her offers: It is the Moroccan House 8 which I have seen at the Fantasy Faire for the first time. It was a perfect match for the other exclusives I wanted to show you from this Fair Play round: Suleika's Room by Tiar, and PoshTale's Deiphe dress.

HOUSE: Independent Objects Moroccan House 8
FURNITURE: Tiar Suleika's Room @ Fair Play: El Mundo tyvm!
PALMS:
1) Botha Palm YS @ marketplace - free
2) Botha Palm YSL @ marketplace - free
3) DaD Design Single Palmetto @ marketplace - dollarbie
4) L&Short 15 Palms Trees Group Curve Mod.2 Light Foliage @ marketplace - dollarbie
5) L&Short Maldives's Island Off Sim @ marketplace - dollarbie

HEAD / HEAD & BODY APPLIER: Genesis Lab Naomi. Cocoa - currently on sale

BODY: Maitreya Lara body + SLink hands
HAIR: CATWA RockStar

EYES: IKON Triumph. Armor - free group gift / no fee

EARS: [MANDALA] Steking Ears Season 5

FACECHAIN: The Forge Singh @ The Fantasy Collective
JEWELRY SET: Secret Love Anne tyvm!
DRESS: PoshTale Deiphe. Aqua @ Fair Play: El Mundo tyvm!

POSES:
1) elephante poses Part of Your World tyvm!
2) Aerial portrait gift pose 2 @ marketplace - dollarbie

Interview: Dead Dollz @ Enchantment

A few days ago, I met Kiddo Oh from Dead Dollz. She has an amazing talent for Mesh gown creations. I am following each of her blog posts to find out what newness she has to offer. Then I saw that she is in the current Enchantment event which made me looking forward to her next release already. But when I also read that she has moved her store to a new sim and saw the pictures of the stunning new location, I had to beg her for an interview! Lucky me, she agreed.

Kiddo Oh wearing her newest release O-Ren which is available at the upcoming round of
We <3 RP! (opens tomorrow on Sep 4), and Rubilyn wearing Dead Dollz' Ursula dress

I was not even really installed on the comfortable seat yet when she already shouted: „What a beautiful headpiece!“ I was wearing the Ursula headdress from The Plastik. Kiddo has been so busy within the last days and weeks with various event deadlines that she was not even able to sneak a peek on all the awesome releases of her fellow creators at Enchantment. Besides Enchantment, Dead Dollz is participating in various well-known and ambitious events, like The Epiphany, Shiny Shabby, Fantasy Gacha Carnival, Tres Chic, Vintage & Cool Fair, Festival Of Sin, The Fantasy Collective and others. It means a lot of work to meet the event requirements such as deadlines and themes. It’s even more work regarding the fact that all of her creations are original Mesh content.

Around April this year, Kiddo decided to take off all non-original Mesh products. These are gone forever. „It was necessarily evil“, she explains. „I said ‚evil‘ because most of those designs are part of myself; I loved creating them and I know people loved them. But I really wanted to get the SLOCCA certificate.“ SLOCCA stands for Original Content Creators Association. In order to apply for this certificate, all Mesh creations need to be 100% original. „So I had to let go the older creations. It was sad but in the end, I’m happy because people know me now for what I am truly capable of.“

For a short moment, we are distracted from our actual topic and discuss the use of templates. We both agree that templates are great, for various reasons, but also see the problem of the oversaturation of the market, and that the templates do put a certain limit to a vision. I go even further and say, that for me as a customer, it sometimes looks like pabulum of offers. Which is, in my opinion, a bummer. I would love to see designers to be more courageous and to create their own original content.

All clothes can now be found in these houses. It's like shopping in a huge walk-in-cupboard!

The store is up on a hill. It invites to shop but also to hang around. Visit the beach, too!

„You made a change regarding your content, and you also changed your store location. It looks totally different now. I know that you’re from Italy. The first thing I thought when I visited was: she brought her real life home to us.“ -- „Oh, yes. You know, I’m easily amused but I get easily bored, too. I do love sunken lands, and for a while it was the only environment I could see my store in. But recently I have felt the need to change. And since I love my country, I went for an italian style. The small town where I was born and raised, looks a lot like the little village on the hills here on the sim.“ She smirks and adds: „Minus the luxury pool. But all credits go to Ibi at 8f8; he’s extremly talented! I only wish it wasn’t from a gacha machine, though. It was tricky to get all the pieces.“

She laughs. Me too. We immediately know what we are talking about, and out of a sudden, we discuss enthusiastically, and with hands and feet one of our biggest weaknesses: the notorious gacha addiction! „One time, I spent way too much on a Zenith gacha machine“, I cry. „Do you know, how many copies of this Genesis Lab head I won prior to get the Emotions HUD?“, she tops it. „We obviously know both the evil side of playing gacha machines“, I whisper.

But Kiddo herself made it hard for me to resist a gacha machine: her current gacha offer is available at The Fantasy Gacha. „This is my first round at The Fantasy Gacha“, she tells me. „I was at the same time incredibly excited and truly terrified. I used to shop there and saw the level of quality of all the items. I was afraid, I could never reach that level!“ Another gacha machine was available at the recent Epiphany round. The Epiphany is a gacha event which uses a reward system where doubles can be turned into points. The points can then be redeemed for an exclusive offer. „I played often enough at The Epiphany to get your exclusive“, I admit. „I am glad to hear someone actually got it!“, Kiddo smiles. „I kept being asked: ‚How do I get the dress with the hanging-out-ass?‘“

The original inspiration for the Ursula dress at Enchantment

I wonder if this hanging-out-ass-exclusive was the pre-stage for the Ursula offer at Enchantment since I saw that hilarious inspiration picture for the dress (see picture above). „No! No!“, she laughs. „I had no idea what to do for Epiphany, so I ended up with a design I was considering for a while. The Ursula dress is actually Duchess‘ fault.“ Of course, I want to know why! „She was the one who told me: ‚Hey, what about Ursula? Everyone will be making mermaids.‘ I did want to add tentacles to the skirt, to be honest. But then I was afraid that you could not actually wear the dress. It would have been good for a picture. But not much more…“ I wonder what her face will look like when she sees what mix & match I have prepared for a picture with her dress.

Good news for those who are not so much into black is, that they will be able to purchase this simple, yet elegant classic tube dress in more colors soon. And also with more options for Mesh bodies. „I still use mostly standard sizes just because most can be combined easier for me so far“, I admit. „I am in an awkward situation“, Kiddo replies. „I know, not everyone has the Maitreya Lara body, for example. But mesh body lovers want mesh body compatible items while standard sizes lovers want me to keep doing sizes. So the process of making a mesh item became longer.“ I am not a builder myself but I heard very often about this struggle from various designers around the grid. Kiddo adds with a big grin: „It’s time consuming and we all want to offer the widest range of options. But I truly wish they will stop releasing new bodies. I guess, shoe creators think the same.“

Again, I want to come back to her various participations in events: „With your style, you are participating in casual and formal events as well as in fantasy events. Do you have any personal preference?“ -- „As already mentioned, I get easily bored. So I prefer fantasy and roleplay events, or events with a theme. Because it forces me out of my safe zone. With gowns, I have a certain expertise which can be not necessarily a good thing. You become too confident, and you tend to create less innovative items. But with a theme that is far from what I usually make I can challenge myself and see what i am truly capable of. This is a process that involves bumping the head against the wall a lot. But in the end is rewarding.“ I decide that this great explanation has to mark the end of my article.

And while I was preparing this article, I noticed what it means: we had a great and funny conversation. We were discussing more than her brand, and it was one very interesting talk. It was not easy for me to bring all that into a nice text. It was ‚a process that involves bumping the head against the wall a lot. But in the end is rewarding.‘ Very true. Thank you, Kiddo, for taking your time, and for letting us know more about you! Now let’s play some gacha… !

LINKS & SURLS
>> Official Homepage of Dead Dollz <<
>> Dead Dollz @ Second Life <<

>> Dead Dollz @ marketplace <<

>> Flickr Picture Stream of Dead Dollz <<

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HEAD: LeLutka Mesh Head Stella

BODY: Maitreya Lara body + SLink hands/feet
HEAD / BODY APPLIER: Lumae Adore - Eione // Anemone - free Enchantment Hunt gift
APPLIER EYE TATTOO: ARISE Mermaid Mask. purple @ Enchantment tyvm!
APPLIER LIPSTICK: SlackGirl Line-Up Lips tyvm!
HAIR: [DUE] Edita - Ombre 9 @ Fantasy Gacha - Gacha

EYES: Clemmm Unkin Mermaid. Unwanted Fog. Regular @ Enchantment tyvm!

EARS: [MANDALA] Steking Ears Season 5

HEADPIECE: aisling Calypso Crown @ Enchantment tyvm!
NECKLACE: The Annex Sea Net
MORAYS: aisling Caly's Babies @ Enchantment tyvm!
BRA: aisling Scales Bra @ Enchantment tyvm!
BANGLES: Dead Dollz Ursula @ Enchantment tyvm!
DAGGER: aisling Pacte - free Enchantment Hunt gift
DRESS: Dead Dollz Ursula @ Enchantment tyvm!
TENTACLES: Stelloane OctoQueen. Violet tyvm! - part of a full outfit

POSE: elephante poses Girl and The Sea @ Enchantment tyvm!

Last few days are running! 

Enchantment is still open until September 5th!

While On The Enchantment Hunt

This is a busy weekend! I really put some effort in a few posts to show you more great things from Enchantment before it would be too late. You have one more week until Sept 5 to check out all the great offers -- and to go hunting!

In the Enchantment Hunt, you will find many gifts which complete sets you can buy, or which match to an offer. So it's really worth it! You will be lead through 23 participating stores where you have to find a blue seashell. A notecard is available in the group notices of the event group. Grab it before you start, or you'll end up like me! I started the hunt way too tired and made a monkey out of myself when I had to ask in the group for help just because my brain was not fully functioning anymore. Don't fall for this trap! *lol*

Even if this is a quite short hunt, and even if the gifts are really easy to find, I recommend to take your time. Some of the shops are totally worth to be explored! One of my favourites was BoOgErS where I had to take snapshots immediately. My main snapshot for this post was made in the garden of Les Encantades where I also grabbed a yellow dress from the current 30 L$ Saturday Sale.

SKIN: Essences Ariel05. medium01. cranberry @ Enchantment tyvm!

BODY: Maitreya Lara body/hands/feet
SHAPE: 7 Deadly s{K}ins Temperance tyvm!

HAIR: Entwined Ariel @ Enchantment tyvm!

EYES: IKON Odyssey. Clarity

EYELASHES: Mon Cheri Falsies

TIARA / NECKLACE: Gaeline Creations Celeste @ Enchantment tyvm!
HEADDRESS: The Plastik The Ursula @ Enchantment tyvm!
EARRINGS: The Plastik The Ursula @ Enchantment tyvm!
BRA: The Plastik The Ursula @ Enchantment tyvm!
DRESS: Sweet Lies Sirenas @ Enchantment - Gacha tyvm!

POSE (first pic): elephante poses Part of Your World @ Enchantment tyvm!