Don't forget!

All you sales lovers, skin lovers, skin sales lovers... I know you're out there!

Next Monday starts Nora Appreciation Week.  This means there will be skin sales all week long!  Nora group members will receive special freebies as well as future product-freebies.  There's a contest as well!  That is, if I get any entries. :)

If you'd like to find out more, just head to THIS and read over the Nora Appreciation Week details.  The contest doesn't take too much effort either.  All non-winning entrants will receive a gift card too.  All entries are due April 18th.

Thanks!

By this point, late 2005, I was gaining confidence in myself - people would compliment me on my skins, tell me "thank you!".  It was quite a high to know that my art was being appreciated.  I'm an artist after all!  Ever since I was a kid, I've been involved with art.  So, I approached skinning from an artistic viewpoint.  I was determined to offer a skin that was softer than what I'd seen, and less realistic.  I'm not a fan of total realism.  It can look dry and odd in some settings like SL.  I still try to offer something between "soft" and "real" with my skins.

3.0 was my last skin based on the "Kimmera" skin.  It was made even softer and certain things were fixed.  The collarbone was made less like a broomstick shoved underneath the skin.  The face was smoothed out and made a bit younger looking, and the eyebrows were less... troubled looking.  I had fun with this skin, offering some interesting makeups such as masks, sci-fi looks, and spider webs.  I also went on to make a line of very natural looking makeups - which no one really liked.  Heh.  I was one of the few skinners that offered skins without makeup.  It was nice to have a niche!  I had also made some Dark Elf skins that were kind of popular.  There was a Linden that wore it on occasion I think!  Later on I would make a "Stitches" skin which was horridly wonderful, patches of leathery skin sewn together... ew!

I'm not sure if this makeup was ever ripped, but who knows - SL is a vast empire of STUFF.  This was Autumn Romance Nude.  This was also the time that I had the infamous L$1 skin sale in Alpha Centauri.  I honestly didn't know I'd cause such a ruckus!  Whoops!

I think it was in 2006 that I debuted Entice.  Entice was my chance to take all I had learned as a skinner, and make something new and more detailed.  My shop was in Alpha Centauri, still and it wouldn't be too long until I moved to my own SIM, Sonata.  Entice 1.0 was a quiet release, and I wasn't too sure if it would be a success.  Entice was more in your face than my previous skin.  Breasts were bigger, the tummy more defined, the collarbone sexier, and the skin tone made sense.  I took "real" farther by using photos for references(not sourcing!), and it was a long battle.  It was the most difficult skin I'd ever made.  I have at least 10 .PSD files for the torso alone!  I was saving step after step, separately so the files wouldn't be too large.  I'm a layer whore, I admit it.  I can't do anything without using 10 layers.  Being the perfectionist I am makes skinning harder than it could be, really!

Entice was also made, at its base, slightly transparent so that one could change the color of it.  Having one with and without transparency was just too much to keep up with!  With Entice, I moved over to a more traditional sale model.  Separate skins with dfferent makeups.  This was what everyone else was doing - and I could see why.  I got tons of customer service IMs on how to use makeup textures.  It never occurred to me that someone might know how to apply a tattoo to their head.  What was I thinking?!

This skin was also ripped, but I don't remember much about the situation.  My memory is fleeting at best sometimes.  Hee!  Entice came in 9... yes... 9 skin tones.  Also, again, what was I thinking!  Glow(gothic), Cream, Latte, Champagne, Almond, Cinnamon, Mocha, Truffle, and Espresso.  From lightest to darkest.  Each one had its own tone, they weren't just darker or lighter versions of the same color.  Almond was one of my favorites - it was a tanned color with a bit of a dark yellow base.  My biggest problem with this skin was the stomach and face.  The knees were also a tad creepy.  I was still learning!  I went on to update the knee issues as well as the butt.  The butt just weirded me out after a while.  During this time I made my Demonic skins for men and women - red and black.  Those were a lot of fun to do, and I still sell them today!

In any case, I moved to Sonata sometime in '06, and eventually began work on Entice 2.0 ... once my spinal health problems were fixed.  I took a small vacay to recover for a few months.  Life was sucking hard as I was having some of the most awful headaches ever.  They were crippling and I had limited time to sit at the PC before running to the bedroom to try and sleep it off.  I had no idea it was spinal and my amazing Chiro fixed me up.

ANYWAY!  In 2007, approximately April, Entice 2.0 was released!  I was excited!  My baby, Entice, was looking more edgy and mature!  It was a change, for me, to make a skin like that.  Some elements remained, but others were changed... The nose was smaller, the lips shaped more like the avatar mesh's lips, the cheeks were more defined, the breasts were lifted a bit, the hands made more detailed, and most of the original Entice makeups were transferred over to the new face.  I felt like I had finally arrived at a place I could be happy with.  Sonata was great!  My own area that I could call my own and dish out skins to the skin-hungry in a comfortable, low lag setting.  Second Life was grande.

The same skin tones remained, but they were altered slightly.  Entice 1.0 was too dark around the edges, so I lightened things up for 2.0 so the edges of the avatar wouldn't be so stark in contrast to the highlighted ares of the skin.  I am a seam junkie.  From the start, even with the Kimmera skin - if I saw a seam, I'd spend days if I needed to, to get rid of it.  Seams kill immersion.  Period.  My photographer friend, Sysperia Poppy would always tell me how seamless my skins were compared to others!  She takes very high res snapshots for her shoots and could see for herself.  All the thanks and appreciation I received for my skin efforts meant a lot to me(and they STILL do!).  The move to Sonata felt like it paid off and I would remain there for a couple of years.  This makeup, Midnight Diva featured thinner eyebrows than other Entice skins.  It was a favorite among some folks for it's glammy look.



My love affair with SL always waxed and waned.  I knew my skin wasn't one of the most popular ones, and every time I saw a fashion post with a model wearing one, I'd smile real big and was happy that someone liked it enough to use it in a photo.  I bounced between wishing my skin were good enough to be more popular to being less whiny and appreciating all the great feedback I received.  I know that in the end, all the people who like my skins are more important than wishing it were seen more.  I'm a one woman place here, and I don't have 50 locations, I don't make a living with SL, I just have fun.  That's where the real deal is.  I'm terribly flattered that my darker skins were celebrated as some of the best dark skins in SL.  That means a lot to me!

In 2007 I started work on "Samantha".  The face came first and I posted several teaser shots.  Then, I took another unexpected hiatus.  Personal problems as well as my mother's health spurned it.  When I returned later on, I got back to work on Sam.  I wanted something different with her, something glowier, younger, prettier.  After several weeks of constant work, I showed her to the public in 4 skin tones; Vanilla(homage to my first skin), Peachy, Ginger, and Toffee.  Samantha is my favorite of all my skins, to date.  I really do like everything about it and that's rare for me.  My need to make things better is a difficult thing to break, but Sam did it.  I kind of don't care what anyone else thinks with her.  She's beautiful to me and I adore "her". 

I even released a shape to go with her as well!  Sam introduced me to new ideas for my skins.  Like restructuring the eye lids.  A different, pouted mouth, and separate, tintable pubic hair layer instead of hardwiring it into the skin, and the use of mostly highlights instead of shadows.  I also tried the whole scalp hair thing with Sam.  It isn't perfect, but it was nice for my first attempt.  That may be the only thing I'd change or fix.

While Sam wasn't part of Entice, she still counts as I learned a lot from her.  The beauty of having made all these skins is that I'm still learning.  Learning what works for the AV mesh and where, learning the benefit of highlights and shadows when used properly, learning what people do and don't like.  Almost four years later I still enjoy it.  It may be frustrating sometimes, or I may lose sight of things, but I always come away with a grin when I look over my skins.  Because I made that!

That's just cool.

Right now I'm mulling over an Entice 3.0 as I make my unfortunate move from Sonata permanently.  A big thank you to all the fans(is that the right word?) of Nora for making it what it is: still alive and kicking.

(hair: a modded ETD's Graceful shown in all shots, Celestial Studios eyelashes in last image)

Happy Whatever to you!

I don't really celebrate this time of year, honestly.  I just hope everyone's having a nice weekend.

The Vanity Universe skin fair seems to be going okay - I enjoyed setting up the booth there and hope the crowds are having fun with all the great skins to peruse.  Plus that means even more people know about Nora!  Yay!

I've come to a conclusion, though, I think.  No, I'm not planning on closing Nora permanently.  It did cross my mind - because I simply am finding myself elsewhere, more often, trying to get back into my first love: art.  Okay, so, traditional art.  SL is it's own realm of "art".

So, this is how it's going to go down!

Sonata(*sniff*) will be sold within the next couple of months, and in the meantime I'll be passing out a LM to the new store, which I'm setting up now.  There'll be a LM giver at Sonata as well, soon.  I thought about just throwing everything up on SLEX, but I think it's beneficial and easier for customers if there is still an in-world presence for Nora.

This really won't affect Nora too much, it'll just be in a different spot, but it WILL still be around!  I can go back to working on my boots and nail polish at my own pace without fear of "making my SIM payment".  You live, you learn!

Thanks to all you Nora Patrons for your support!

Oh!  And if you haven't already switched over to the Subscribe-O-Matic group from the regular Nora group, please visit Sonata and subscribe if you'd like to keep receiving updates!  I'm closing the group at the end of March, and it'll free up a group slot for you too!


(SIM details if anyone cares:
Sonata
Class 4
Mature
$195 per month
[does not include any objects/prims])