„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).
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.
