Welcome 2012!!

A new year always seems to bring hope and dreams. Besides the usual world peace and stamp out world hunger, I have some wishes for Always Eclectic...

.....Continue expanding the jewelry lines. I'm envisioning 3 lines - Victorian, Renaissance, and anything that doesn't fit into the first two!

.....Take or at least consider custom work requests. I completed one recently for the Dr. Who store in Mieville Wells (Who's Who). The owner seemed quite pleased with the outcome. There is more than one way to increase brand awareness!

.....Create a line of jewelry for Tinies. I'm not sure how I want to take this. I could just make reduced sized versions of my normal lines, or I could create silly stuff that would only make sense on Tinies. I think I may take a tiny, Tiny survey to see.

.....Have a stall or small store in each specialty area - Victorian, Renaissance and Tinies. This is easy enough to do for Victorian (already there!) and Tinies (there's a Victorian Tinies sim (Mieville Shelley) and there's Raglan). Renaissance seems a bit more difficult as most of the sims seem to be roleplay sims. This will probably take some research.

.....Learn about mesh in relation to jewelry making. I keep hearing that mesh is great for jewelry - I'd like to find out why and how mesh is created, etc. This is a stretch goal as I don't anticipate being ready for it for a while. I'm learning enough the way I'm going between Sculpt Studio and Blender and Photoshop and Illustrator.

.....Trust my own instincts. Recently I got myself into a, um, opinion war between a couple of strong willed, well meaning people. It got very uncomfortable for me. If I had stuck with my guns in the first place, I would not have had nearly the problems I ended up with.

I think that's plenty!!! I'll try to readdress these points periodically to see if I'm making progress or if the direction has changed. Makes sense for now though!

Happy New Year everyone!

Riendra

So sorry - there is SL then RL...and sometimes RL rules

So sorry - I've had a lot of 'things' happen in real life lately...

Anyway, I had my first real modeling show on October 2nd at the Second Life Cheerleading Team stadium. It was a blast despite the difficulties: 3 models were scheduled and 1 did not show up, so lots of last minute switcheroos. But we pulled it off! I got paid AND got about 8 outfits of much higher quality than I would buy! Sweet! Also, see my new profile pick on my Picasa album - thanks to Dhyanna Writer, owner of Rodeo Drive Agency and Training School.

I now have a gadget of Wat Dinzel's manufacture up in my shop. It's a Radar HUD that you can track whether specific people are online or not amongst other things. It very nifty and very reasonably priced.

For my own things, I'm still in a texture battle with my creations. I don't want to settle for average - I want my things to be GOOD. Very good if possible. I guess quality takes time....lots of it. I'm working with Photoshop 3D for texturing and am hoping that may help a bit. We shall see!

Always Eclectic is also signed up for a hunt in December - the Renaissance Hunt! Nothing like a deadline! I WILL have something very cool in there - it's in my head all ready to go.....

I also submitted an entry into the VMA Trophy Contest. The idea was to design a trophy that looked art deco. I think I achieved that; winning is another story.... It was fun learning about what art deco really was and all. I had no idea there was so much about town.

Who'd'a thunk it...me paying attention to clothes and hair????

Anyone that knew me in RL would just crack up at how much time I've spent 'reinventing' myself for modeling. I think that's why I am liking it. It's something I would never do in real life (okay, a brief flirt with a finishing school at 18) and something I could never spend that much money on either..

Today, I purchased....

new skin
new shape
new hair

Over the last week or so, I also purchased new, lag free shoes.

I never would have thought about any of this prior to this course. I honestly think many of the things I'm learning in modeling school will apply to my building or to my eventual business. One of my favorites from Dhyana at Rodeo Drive Modeling Agency and Training Center....

"Don't say yes when you are thinking maybe. Say no."

I may not have the quote exactly right, but the idea is there. Don't promise anything you aren't absolutely prepared to deliver. Makes sense in a lot of contexts....

In the meantime, I'm plugging along with Blender and Photoshop. And ran another building contest for Happy Hippo Building School. w00t!!!

Halfway done with modeling school!!!

I've officially attended half the sessions for my modeling class. It's more challenging that I would have thought. Remembering to keep the lag down. Dress well for auditions but not too well. Be on time. Follow directions. Walk, pause, walk. Follow directions. Behave professionally. Follow directions. Do you see a theme here? Not following directions seems to be a big problem.

On the store front (pun intended!), I'm finishing up some things to sell that look pretty good if I do say so myself. I have that minimum of 25 things in mind...

I also have some leads on some good store locations. I'm still debating between hard store and store front....I will probably debate until I hit the button to rent or buy something. The debate now is prims - how many do I need? I really like the idea of temp rezzing products for people to see the merchandise before they buy it. Even if they decide no now, they will know they will be able to see things for themselves. I've gotten a lot of junk that I couldn't see before hand so to me this is a big thing.

Still learning lots about Blender and Photoshop and all the rest as I discover something else I want to do with merchandise or signage. Fun stuff!