floating world pillows: pretty up your big or tiny world

Nothing quite says “home” like a bunch of beautiful, fluffy pillows on which to lie back on and luxuriate. On sale Friday, July 4th, these sculpted decorative pillows will sell for $100 per set and include a round pillow with “sit on” pose and a square one with “sit against” pose. Designs will vary. The sit against pose should allow you to sit against a wall, a log, or (for tinies and their short legs) comfortably in a chair. It’s always nice to have variety. Human and tiny versions included in the same set.

The Tiny TAMA newsletter is out. You can pick one up from our main store in Morning Shire or our new one in Raglan Shire. Offworld, you can view it from the web with Acrobat Reader. Remember, if you join the Eggrollment (in front of our main store), members receive a special Floating World pillow made just for them.

~elfa and namaste

ninjas loose on raglan on july 5

Like a dark wave on the land, discernible yet obscure, there and yet not there…the NINJA descend on the shire on July 5th. Armed to the teeth (or would be if they ever showed them) with a katana, tanto, throwing star and nunchucks, the NINJAs are swathed in black bindings to conceal them while they perpetrate their dastardly doings. Get your NINJA on at Tiny TAMA on this Saturday, July 5th!

AND…to celebrate…Tiny TAMA is having a NINJA hunt! Think you’ve got the skills to find the hiding Ninja? One will hide that day at noon SLT and a second at 6 pm SLT. Find them and win a complete NINJA outfit.

‘an a rickshaw to pull ‘er by plus a new tiny tama location

Someone made a suggestion that we should make a rickshaw and night before last, I decided to try to put one together. Then I had to decide how it would be utilized. Could it be worn or should it be a vehicle. It would need a passenger, so as Fox and I discussed it, we both came to the logical conclusion that it would need to be a vehicle. I had gotten Jeffrey Heaton’s book, Scripting Recipes for Second Life (plus his other on LSL Scripting) in my attempt to learn more about how scripting works in SL. I often find that I can come up with some cool products only to come to full stop because I don’t have a script to accomplish what I need. Heaton provided some great examples and, even better, some physical examples at his sim in SL. Such was the case with his car scripts. However, mine wasn’t a car; mine was a rickshaw. The driver would actually be running and pulling the rickshaw. To the rescue, my friend, Pandora Wrigglesworth, gave me the capacity to put in the animations I needed and the llSleep in the right place to assist in making it “just right” for a tiny.

Vehicles must be 30 prims or under (the avatar being the 31st)…so…29 if you want two avatars on it. This is the rule with things that are physical which a vehicle becomes upon your sitting in it. I had to jiggle speed to slow down for an avatar running, who would be slower than a car. Physical things have some interesting things that can happen. At one point, when trying to set the sit target for the driver, I found myself catapulted with the rickshaw right off my work platform. Once it was working, sometimes it is difficult to get the vehicle to go over to high a step, a steep hill and fell over backwards as I learned how the vehicle worked.

Finally it did! I had found a really cute running animation which is a little more crazy hop like run that is hilarious to watch in action. Next, come races! I’m going to check about the possibility of it being utilized for some of the Tiny Olympics coming up. That would be fun! Will let everyone know.

In addition, Fox and I have put a new location for Tiny TAMA in the Raglan Shire Tree City Forest. We’re right on the way down to Extrovirtual.

~elfa and namaste

gardens everyday: kimono teien and hakama mainichi

New at Tiny TAMA!: a kimono and hakama mini wardrobe with just a click on each outfit. These two clothing outfits are scripted to completely retexture into three different designs by clicking and choosing from the blue dialog box which pops up.

Also in the store is our first introduction to our landscaping line. We get many requests for low-prim things which is why we will be, later, be presenting a low-prim line of furniture. First, however, I’ve been playing with creating rock landscaping pieces that are as low prim as possible. One of the first things I tried was to create a walkway that could be done with just one sculpted prim and have any real texture detail. The result is a double row of walkway stones to edge the side of a walkway. The stones come as modify/copy to place anywhere you need them.

During the grand opening of our store, we gave all those who came by a copy of our Opening Day Kimono and Hakama. Both of these outfits will be available for purchase in the next day or so.

For those in our “Eggrollment”, a newsletter is going out and, along with the 4-seat Chinese Junk Sail-er, will come a new gift for our members,a tiny sculpted kimono on its own stand. If you’d like to be eligible for our gifts and receive our newsletter, just drop by Tiny TAMA and click on the small eggroll in the chinese delivery box, or IM Eleanora Newell or Fox Obviate and ask to be added. This group doesn’t require an SL group slot.

~elfa and namaste

Tiny TAMA: What Ele’s been up to!

*crawls out from under the mountain of work*

*dusts off*

*clears throat*

Hello, everyone! I’ve been one busy girl! Fox Obviate and I have opened a store for tiny avatars called Tiny TAMA and we’ve been working day and night to get things ready. I also had the official opening of DAZ Island with the launch of Hexagon 2.5 (which has company implemented SCULPTIE support, yay!) and in RL, am doing a job for Warner Bros. Consumer Products. How many hours in a day did someone say there were?

We are specializing in tinies at these stores because it’s just too cool to be a tiny! They are, as we are learning, a heck of a lot of fun to design for. There is the need to tailor things for the different avatars, much more so than even with humans. The fox and some others are similar, but can vary slightly to a lot through the neck and head.

Tiny TAMA has a great line of asian-styled furniture (currently, the 155 series is in the stores) and a fantastic line of tiny clothing…samurais and hakamas. I am presently in Modo and Hex, modeling sculpted kimonos and several other things. There will be stone pathways, large (by bonsai standards) bonsai trees, meditation platforms and gazebos and many other things as we get them done, textured and make them available to you.

I hate SL groups, don’t you? As an artist, builder and business, my groups racked up early. So I went seeking a better solution and found it in Zanara Zenovka’s Mailbox System with Subscription ability. When you come to the store, you will see what looks like a little chinese take out box with two scultped eggrolls. These are, what else, our EGGROLLMENT. You click on the greenie one to sign up (and there’s a handsome welcome gift). Click the reddish one if you really and truly want to leave us (whimper). Once on the list, I will send out newsletters to update you on what’s new at Tiny TAMA. The newsletter even comes in a beautiful light sculpture.

We do hope you will stop by to see us and make sure you pan out with your camera to see the huge maneki neko atop the store and the chinese takeout box entrance.

~namaste and elfa

ele

kimono in motion: a work in progress

I love Japanese art and many of the artists today do these wonderful floating fabrics which is what inspired me to do this kimono….the collar, butterfly obi, and sleeves are sculpted.  Sometimes the hardest thing to do, in SL, is to blend between avatar clothing and prim clothing as there is a saturation difference that is not always the same.  Also, the ratio for patterns can be maddening.  I am still working out the fabrics on the kimono, itself, and some of the panel work may change, but I am happy with the pattern on the prim clothing.  I had wanted to do a prim skirt as I hate the SL skirt, but may go with the skirt for this. The hair I am wearing is the new Rechereché from It’s a Mab, Mab Universe, a delightful, elegant updo.  

~elfa and namaste

one more done, two to go

I have a little more work to do on the collar….deciding if I will do a two-tone collar as well.  No matter how you work things out in a modeling program, there is no accounting for the ways that things will work till you get them inworld and then it’s touch this up, change that till you get it right.  It’s sweet when things come together easily.  All in all, the ability to model things gets them closer the first time around.

~elfa and namaste

asia minor delay: the show will go on: bamboozled

 

I had to opt for the April Posé show due to a variety of reasons, but now the outfits are getting closer.  This assymetrical variation on the cheongsam is called Bamboozled and will be available in a few colors including this vernal green offering, topped with a sculpted collar.  Form hugging, the SL skirt is thrown off in favor of pants and a close-paneled skirt.

~elfa and namaste 

getting ready for the show: serenity cheongsam

                                  

Boy howdy, I’ve been so busy!  I have a show on Monday at Posé Academy and I’ll be showing my Asian line.  This is the first of the dresses.  It features a sculpted Mandarin collar.  The dress is assymetrical with a soft curve, frog-closure front.  I really hate the SL skirt model and avoid it if I can.  With the sleek line this dress requires, I opted to try a pant with a close-panel skirt.  Due to the bilateral color scheme on the dress, the pant is red in front, black in the back and the skirt panels follow suit.  There is a wonderful keyhole opening on the back. The pattern is handmade and colored in Photoshop.  I’m really pleased with how it came out.  I will preview the other dresses here as I get them done.  There will, as always, be more than one color version and I am also looking to do a short version.  There will be sculpted hair sticks and hopefully some other goodies. 

~elfa and namaste 

Work-in-Progress: New Asian Line

I thought I would post a WIP (work-in-progress) image from my upcoming Asian line of clothing.  I have two fashion shows coming up this month at Posé Academy (with pieces from my existing lines) and in February premiering the Asian Line.  The show pieces will be Neo-Japanese, modern takes on traditional clothing.  The line will grow to include traditional women’s and men’s clothing.  

 

This obi is based on the classic butterfly obi.  Presently, it is three separate sculpts.  I am working on the silk cord ties, known as obi-jime.  these are test textures thrown on in Second Life just to see the obi in other than the oh-so-fashionable plywood.  The textures will be done in Modo, which is also my modeling program, as this will allow more perfect positioning on the prim shapes which are spherical in nature and follow certain lines of distortion I am striving to avoid.

 

I took the day off yesterday to enjoy seeing in the New Year with loved ones.  Happy 2008!  May it bring prosperity as you need it, good health, love and peace.

 

~elfa and namaste