Recently in Generic Shtick Category
It was sad, but it's also liberating. Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the sale, thank you to everyone who owns a Nora skin. Thank you to those of you who have contacted me personally. Thank you for your support.
Splendor is officially released and available at sezmra.com. They are also available in world for everyone to enjoy! Please visit Crestfallen(in TwentyOne) to grab yours! I wanted to try and make the in-world skins a bit special and have not included THOSE makeups in the actual .PSD release. Really, I'm just providing you with a starting point with those files. Get creative. And PLEASE - I implore you to be considerate with their use. If you have created something cool with them, by all means let me know! Send me pictures! I'd love to feature them on sezmra.com as cool things people have created!
Also, you will want to update your links for my blog - this one is defunct as of now. Sezmra.com will be the new website featuring all things Sezmra Svarog. I am hoping to get my fashionplanet feed changed as well. If you're going to SLCC next week - hopefully I'll see you there!
Thanks!
Four years ago, I joined the world of Second Life and quickly put together a little business to call my own. I became an obsessive "store owner". The truth of the matter is I'm a very bad businesswoman. There's certain things required to run a business. I'm not very good at any of them, really. I enjoyed it for a while, but near the end I had to force myself to upkeep it.
If that wasn't bad enough, I'm pretty frustrated at the stagnation Second Life has continued to experience over the years, under Linden Lab's reign. Hey, I'm not saying we haven't gotten new toys - I am saying that our old ones are still covered in mud. Since most of my SL creation is based around avatar skins, and there have been no real improvements regarding that - I'm just kind of exhausted with hacking and slashing away at it all. Vendor problems, customer service, dealing with broken tools... I just don't feel like doing it anymore.
My faith in Linden Lab has officially run dry. Sorry folks. So with that, Nora will be closing permanently. Please make a note that any new whatever claiming to be "Nora" from one week from now, is not my work. If I ever return to the SL business world, it will be under another business name.
Now that the negative is out of the way, onto the positive....
All skins will be on sale for the next week('til Monday night, 8-18). $100 a pop like my usual sales. When the week is up, the store will go poofies. Some of the accessories will become freebies and be available from a small nook in Miramare. The Entice 3.0 skin is NOT just disappearing into the void. It will morph into something entirely different. Are you ready?
**I will be releasing new skins as .PSDs under a attribution/share-alike license. This is similar to what Eloh Eliot has done. In doing this, I will be able to both enjoy creating, at my own pace, for Second Life no matter what Grid it's being used on.**
In addition I will release new layers that can be added onto the base skin .PSDs. Like, makeups or scars or tattoos. And all you have to do is combine them. I also want to release some tutorials on how to do it all, and how to add your own fun things to them. Approaching skins from this angle will not only remove the cost entirely from my skins, but allow you to customize them however you want.
What I have not decided as of yet is whether or not I want to allow commercial redistribution of these altered skins. It's a very fine line to walk upon in my desires and goals with this new project. I will, of course, entertain any opinions regarding this particular detail. So, share away. This website will be updated in about two weeks, give or take, and it will house these new resources. My blog will remain intact, I'll just be adding onto it.
The previously beta-tested Entice 3.0 will be the first of these skins and will be rebranded. More skin details will be uncovered as I make my decisions regarding them. I'm excited about this and look forward to producing future work for your use in Second Life and its sister Grids.
My personal thank you goes out to everyone who has ever bought a Nora skin, supported Nora in any way, and cheered me on during the last four years. I can only hope my new contributions will be as appreciated as much - you folks make me smile!
To those who might think I'm leaving Second Life: I'm not. I'm just not going to develop content for in-world sale. I'll be taking it easier, enjoying being a PART of Second Life, and will still be DJing on Tuesdays. Hey, maybe I'll see some of you in world instead of being holed up in a studio somewhere cursing vendor scripts. That'd be a nice change of pace, wouldn't it?
See you soon!
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!
Occasionally, like last night, I'll pop over at an event or go tree shopping for my new Rosewood property. This is rare, however, in comparison to how much time I spend "working". It wasn't like this when I was younger to SL™.
Sure, I explored... I went to events... I met people(<3 Artillo)... I went shopping... I played games... but I dunno, I never felt enraptured until I created content. Maybe it's the artist in me; if I'm not creating, am I wasting time/life? I don't know. That's kind of cut and dry for my tastes.
For a while now, I've felt an old itch creeping up on me. It happens every time I listen to music or hear one of my favorite songs playing in an unexpected place. For a bit over 3 years, I was an internet DJ with an amazing, established group of Data Jockeys. I didn't necessarily stop DJing because I wanted to - it was the right decision at the time. I don't ever regret making it. Lately though, I miss it... a lot. It was a ton of fun for me to share my massive love for music with people every week. And especially people who also appreciated music as much as I do. I really loved interacting with listeners over just about anything!
Some have suggested I go back to DJing, but in SL™. Maybe I should, I'm not sure.. it would certainly be one of my top 3 favorite things to do, that I could do on The Grid. I wouldn't know where to start! I'm a personality, and while I know plenty about the technical side, I'm unsure that it would be useful to be a fly by night DJ with no real affiliation. Then, there's the whole legality thing too. The RIAA may suck - but they can shut someone down fast and in an ugly way.
Feh, I'm getting ahead of myself, I think!
Tomorrow - Dark Elf, for sure.
(god there I go working again!)
This year will be Nora's 4th year of operation. I have "Nora
Appreciation Week" coming up on the 14th, so I thought I'd take a bit
to reminisce all the way back to Day One!Nora originally began as a fantasy-goth clothing store. One fateful day while visiting Le Cadre, during an event, yours truly met Kimmera Madison. Kimmera was a designer, herself, and she complimented me on my skin. My skin was my own - I had worked on it shortly after I began using SL. I spent all 250 of my starting Lindens trying to make it. So, you could say that from my first day, I was a skinner.
Anyway - Kimmera showed me some then-popular skins and what she didn't like about them... and then asked me to make her a skin. Thus it began! I made it to her liking and she was the Prototype for the first Nora skin. She did not mind that I would sell it in my own shop, which was kind of her!
This skin was essentially, 1.0 - it came in 7 skin tones, Vanilla, Caramel, Cocoa, Chocolate, Gothic Cream, Gothic Sky, and Gothic Lily. The skin was a bit too harsh all around, and the colors were somewhat too rich. I sure was proud at the time though! The biggest complaint I received about it was the stomach. Of course, I didn't have a lot of experience handpainting stomachs at the time. Heee!
You may actually recognize the makeup here - it was ripped long ago and spread around as "free". It's called Cherry Bomb. Back then I sold basic skins and then sold separate makeup texture files. It really was just a matter of time, as all thefts are in SL.
This was in 2004, sometime in the fall. I wouldn't be until 2005 that I'd redo the skin for a 2.0 release. ... 
As Roslin stated in her post about this issue, I cannot stress enough how wonderfully appreciative skin makers are when nice people like you give us info on skin theft. I know it's par for the course for this to happen in SL, but I still am grateful for your help.
Keep your eyes open and help your designer friends!
Thanks again!
I have a small question here for those who see this post via whatever reader/site they use.
I'm tracking down a skin called "Irina" by "Avalon". The last time I saw this skin was in September, 07... I do not know the name of the creator. If you have any info - would be so kind as to contact me either through email, SL, or simply post a comment here?
Thanks a ton. I really appreciate it!
Where have I been? That seems to be a common question for me, lately. Christmas was pretty hectic on its own, so that wasn't helping me much. Then I found out that my 63 year old mom's been diagnosed with a cancerous tumor near her heart. Wow, what a wallop that was. That descended into a big maelstrom of just about every emotional response there is.
Waaaah, I know... who cares. No one likes a whiner. So, I've been taking a break and trying not to collapse under stress. Then, I got my new rig working.. and finally got all my SL files/images/textures/whatevers backed up and on the new machine. I pulled Samantha out for the first time since September and immediately got lost. I don't remember much about what I was doing with her and lost my notes on it. Either way.
So, yeah, could I be any more useless with this post?
I'll break it down for those who care about Nora or Skins:
- Sonata is still intact and my store is still there. I'm currently going through to make sure all the vendors are working. There's bound to be something broken.
- Today and/or tomorrow I'll be addressing ALL of the remaining customer needs regarding sales/skin problems. I'll probably be throwing around freebies to compensate for the delay. I think that's fair.
This week, the following will occur...
- Samantha will make a preliminary debut to the NORA group. Only those in the group will get this benefit. I'll be dropping a free, limited edition, you-can't-get-it-anywhere-else Samantha skin. Samantha has not been officially released yet!
Now, I know this skin will have to have certain permissions: Copy/Transfer The skin-maker's worst nightmare. However, you know what, this will be a freebie and will feature a small Nora tattoo just to make sure that if it makes its rounds, at least people will know WHO made it. Besides, if you give away something that is considered "limited", you're devaluing your own skin. I'm rambling... - There will be a MASSIVE sale at Nora this weekend. Details are:
- I'm talking L$1 skins. EVERY skin will be L$1.
- This sale will only occur in the sim Sonata.
- The time will not be announced beforehand. Anyone in the NORA group will find out about the sale when it starts, via an announcement.
- The sale will last a matter of hours, not all day. I plan to aim for 5-6 hours.
- IF you find that a skin is NOT L$1 and you've paid the full price for it - I will refund your purchase. Don't get upset, because it's easy for a script to not reset itself correctly and boom, it's still using old parameters/prices.
- The sale will be announced publicly to a wider audience once the half-way mark has occurred. I don't want to leave everyone out, but I do want to give my group members an advantage.
Windlight is causing a ruckus in the skin-world, or so I've heard from one of my SL-photographer friends, Sysperia Poppy. So far, she seems to be really happy with how my skin is still performing under WL. I've checked it out for myself and don't see any real problems, either. Of course, maybe the FL viewer has been adjusted, I don't know. The above sale is a good excuse to check out a new skin if you've never heard of Nora.
A simple apology. That's all I have right now. For being absent and for letting Nora stuff pile up. I don't have a lot to really say, I tend to be a private person and rarely bitch and rant. I'll keep it short and sweet!
I've been having some personal issues, I won't go into details, but let me say that those have made Second Life one of my lesser worries. On that note, don't worry - it's nothing serious, it's just extremely distracting. I've taken some time to try and figure things out on my own. I think I'm slowly coming back to normal operation as myself. Top off my personal issues with a nice big slice of "My Computer's Dying", and you can guess why my mood is less than wonderful. A new rig is on its way thanks to my extremely kind hubby.
Also, I've come to the conclusion that I really rather scale back my second Life. This all means that I really won't have time to dedicate the time it does take, to maintain a SIM. I'll be honest with you, most of anything that I make in Lindens goes toward paying for that SIM. A lot of "retailers" don't like to share their financial information regarding "how they do" in Second Life. I'm just not that much of a businesswoman.
I've determined, among other things, that I really rather go back to being a wild content creator with no pressure. Plus, I really don't need the stress of "Crap, can I make my SIM payment next month?" right now, nor do I need to make SL my job. Besides, it might be nice to go back to doing some traditional art for a while. Texture work is an amazing experience, but sometimes it makes me feel really detached from Art. I tried the SIM thing, and I admit that I pretty much don't have the motivation required to succeed at it. There's someone out there who can do far more with it, than I, I'm sure.
I have no idea when this "closure" will occur. But I do know that it is my current plan. In the meantime I'll be saving up some Lindens and scouting out a nice cozy Commercial rental plot to use for Nora's relocation. Also, Nora will of course, exist in it's present form.. and I'll be trying to handle all the IMs I've had these last, weird couple of months.
So, in short:
- Nora BodySkins & Fashions will be closing in the near future.
- The SIM Sonata will be sold.(to who? dunno, that's another thing I have to worry about)
- I'll be relocating Nora in world some time later.
- Samantha will be released when I return.
- I'll be taking care of IMs - please be patient, things are weird for me right now.
- Nora skin tones will be consolidated somehow from 9 to possibly 5 when I return.
Thanks for understanding. See you soon.
For a month and a half, I've been on a RL journey; of house buying. As you may or may not know, the market began to tank this Summer, and mortgages became very risky for Lenders. Fortunately, my husband and I have succeeded at purchasing a new home and we are about 300 times busier than we were before.
Less stressed maybe, but very busy!
This means that between the new house, moving, and Dragon*Con, I've had several customer issues pile up and I am just now able to get to them. I'll be taking care of those this week, as well as the release for Thursday. There will be one for this week and the next, I'm sure.
I've been SO busy that I haven't even had time to sit down and end the raffle I started on Thursday. Geez. ^_^
My apologies for the interruption, but that's RL, right? Thanks!
I'm back from my latest romp at Dragon*Con! (pictures coming soon for those who care :P)
However, I'm suffering con-bloat and am currently recovering from the 4-5 hour drives, weekend intoxication, and feet murder.
I'll be getting to any IMs, questions, issues as soon as I've got my head on straight again - so don't worry! There won't be a release this week, however, just a raffle. I still have a lot of crap going on in RL and hope to take care of a bulk of that by the end of the month.
Unfortunately, there's no new release at Nora today. I've tried to stick to a Wednesday schedule, but sometimes things get in the way! So, I've been a bit busier than late with RL(zomg maybe awesome good news for us!), add onto that the SL issues we had this week, and I just wasn't able to get in a release.
In any case, this week's raffle IS running, so you can still enter to win! Just a quick primer on the weekly raffle:
- enter by clicking on the spinning ball (at Nora)
- the raffle ends around noon, SL the following day
- if you're a winner, you can choose ANY one skin in the entire store as your prize
It's that easy!
In other news, I've spent some time pondering over goals I want to reach at Nora in the next few months. For those wondering about what's coming up in regards to that...
In the next month or two:
- Release 2 sets of facial hair options for Entice for Men
- Retire Entice Gem and Entice Pinky with a fun sale
- Deploy 2 sets of lip/eyeliner choices for Women's Entice
Further on...
- Apply another update to Women's Entice
- Deploy 2 sets of other makeups for Women's Entice
- Rework my hair line and introduce 3 new styles
Lots to plan! Lots to do. Stay tuned.
Wow, three years! I wanted to go into this last week, but yeah, ya know, the intarnets don't loves me.
Boy has the time flown by, no? I still remember sitting in a Jobe apartment in Anarchy Online, talking to Tarryk about Second Life in tells: how I'd never tried it, had seen it, but wasn't sure if it was really for me. He still kind of liked it back then and I was convinced to try it. 2004 isn't that long ago, but it sure does feel like it! I was still a DJ, had actually finished paintings that year, and was appreciating just how nice 2004 was compared to 2003.
I signed up on July 8th and the rest is history. How cliche! I remember so much from that first day - the newbie with the huge wooden cylinder buried in his skull, the lady with the loud satin prom dress, and the zebra that walked real funny.
My first avatar, human, since I didn't know anything about skinning yet. That same week, I think I blew all L$250 on uploading textures for my skin.
Oh yeah, boy was I ugly! I sure was proud, though.
Here it is, 2007, and I'm still a social hermit in SL. SL has grown exponentially, as well, so that doesn't help. ;) I do like hanging out with my IRC freaks, though. That means it's almost the three year mark for Nora, too! That's coming up in September or so. I honestly don't recall.
Either way, I've had a lot of fun being a content creator of sorts. Making skins is challenging, making good ones is even more so. I'm happy to be a part of that design area, and for every comment I've ever received - be it praise or plain ol' happiness a customer has had with something I've made, I smile a bit bigger.
As an artist, I've learned so much. Thanks SL. \o/
2007, still part Opifex and part vampire, just updated!
Wouldn't it figure! Of all the weekends that my ISP could start choking on itself, it picks THIS weekend! I almost can't believe it.
I've lost quite a bit of time due to the outtages, and I'll now have to reopen Nora sometime late Saturday/early Sunday. Argh. What a SL birthday this is, huh? Hehe, either way, I'm still having a great time getting this stuff ready!
Just, consider yourself informed.
First up, a big congratulations to Maryann Coanda for winning this week's skin raffle at Nora!
Also, a friendly reminder that Nora will be closed until Saturday to make way for both Entice for Men and renovations. See you then!
It's that time of year again; time to thank the digital gods for the Grid.
Just like last year, there are some Birthday goodies available at Nora! Last year, we celebrated SL's 3rd birthday with a skin and tattoo... this year, I did something a bit different...
I was having too much fun with a knit texture, so, I put out a simple knit cap hairstyle featuring the SL logo. It's unisex, and simple, but fun. Mod/Copy/NoTrans
Being Bindi-obsessive, I also put out a fun IBB. This one is created from the SL logo to form "wings", much like my birthday skin last year. NoMod/Copy/NoTrans
Hi! Remember me? I think I do too!
It's been a long week, and I spent almost all of it recovering from the sheer hell that is the O'Hare airport. We literally spent 24 hours trying to get from Sweden to Tennessee. Everything went super smooth until Chicago's connection. Ugh.
In any case, that was last week! This week, I'm rested, my computer's finally working great again, and I'm ready to get back to my projects!
Entice for Men, here we come!
My computer lately has been very bad.
Well, it could be worse! Some overheating issues cropped up, recently, and I'm taking care of those. On one hand, this is delaying me quite a bit on all of my projects, and on the other, I do so love playing with hardware! Heatsinks excite me.
Anyhoo, I'll be in Sweden for 10 days starting Monday, too, so I'll probably put out a couple of releases this weekend to try and make up for the lack of raffles+updates.
See you Saturday, Second Life!
This past week or so has been a bit weird. I ended up spraining my neck again(note to self, stop sleeping on the floor), and have been trying to get that all nice and recovered. It's been over a week, but I'm still having a 'bout or two of plain ol' ugly pain.
Either way, this has thrown off some of my work and availability. I'm behind on a few things, and will get on those as soon as I can! Tomorrow will be a small release, and the raffle will continue as always.
Just a heads up!
The last week or so has been a very busy time for me!
When I've had time to work on things, I've been scattered along, dabbling on this and that a little at a time. I'm slowly eating away at the projects I want to do, so I can finish them. Yes, most important is the new male skin! I'm going to do my best to get it out as soon as possible. I may have to limit some "makeup" releases so I can get the skin out there and in the wild.
I spent this weekend trying my hand at clothing again. It's kind of theraputic, compared to skins, and I'm not sure why... I think I pressure myself much more with skins than I do anything else. Anyway! I've got some new outfits on the way, mostly individuals that can be pieced together(and maybe a couple of special combos in special colors). I also have at least 3 hairstyles to release, hopefully 5 by the time I plop down the new store.
WHAT?
Yes. I am a VERY picky builder. I refuse to use prefabs, because I want to be able to work with prims easily, and I've always built every structure I've ever owned. My current store was kind of poorly put together due to time constraints and my need to reopen Sonata. I've never been happy with it. Over the last month or so, I've done a lot of exploring and have been inspired to recreate Nora. I've almost finished it and plan to have a grand opening of the new store design alongside the new male skin. There'll be more surprises as well... I'm really excited.
But, yeah, gotta finish the new skin.
In any case, forget all of that. I added some freebie skins to my store last week, okay, so I've been itching to add a couple of fun, free accessories in my store in the skin area. I've also included one in each skin demo. They're just fun props, a makeup compact and a mirror. Things like that make me so giddy. Yay, fun, pointless stuff! They're of course scripted, so have fun with them, if you can find them! :P Now, what're the chances someone isn't just going to resell them? >:(
I've also updated my Demonic(female) skins and have added genitals to them. Yes, I know, it took me long enough, right? I'll consider upgrading anyone's skin if I can locate their purchase records.
I need sleep. ,o/
So, over the last few months I've had a several people ask me about my male skin.. that they got for free from some freebie pack somewhere. Since my skins have been ripped on numerous occasions in the past, I wasn't terribly surprised to hear about this particular free skin. I was somewhat annoyed at first, but that has passed and faded into more of an amusement.
Someone informed me that he found it at Sarah Nerd's Freebie Paradise. In fact, I never even bothered to track down this skin, until now! So, I think it's safe to assume I'm not bent out of shape. Part of the reason is that in this case, the skin is still tagged with "Nora", and even suggests visiting "Nora"! Plus, it's free. However, it does state that the creator donated it to the community, when that is not factual. What can I do though? Be upset that I'm getting advertising at a massively busy freebie haven? No, that wouldn't be the right way to handle this. I'm going to continue to be polite to anyone who approaches me about this skin, if at all possible. So, uh thanks whoever stole my skin for the advertisement!
I am mildly irritated about one of the chick skins using one of my very old head textures though. Can't win 'em all, right?
Boo!
"Where has Sezmra been?", you ask? Good question. No doubt my friends and comrades of Second Life wonder where I've disappeared to. Fret not, for it's merely been a temporary but forced hiatus. Due to some back to back health problems, I've been absent for many weeks. Now that I think I'm finally recovereded enough to put my hands back into SL, I'll be returning more thoroughly.
Let's not be naive though. During my off time, I thought a lot about Second Life and where I am "with it". I've tried to keep up on news and information, by glancing at SL headlines to get a feel of what's been going on. I had considered packing up, selling my SIM, and retiring from SL. My health issues were a bit scary and I wasn't sure when or if I could devote enough time to SL.
But, since, hopefully, I won't be screwed over by my SIM purchase throughout this year, I've decided to stay on, stick with it, and get back to that huge list of To-Dos I had before I took my unexpected vacation.
This includes, yes, finishing my male skin, producing more Goth skins, and working on my Sci-Fi collection of makeups/fantasy skins. I will also be completely redesigning Sonata, since my partner hasn't found time for SL, and thus our previous layout is unnecessary.
Hark! For I shall return.... soon.
I've been pretty scarce in Second Life for a while now.
You know how things can get; you just get so busy that some things get neglected in life, virtual or not.
In any case, I've been trying to find a good time to re-inject myself into the Second Life world, make some new products, finish some ongoing projects, and get back to updating more regularly.
However, every time I turn around, there's something turning me off: Database issues, client problems, and tonight, "CobyBot". It's kind of scary knowing that if I logged in and actually went looking for theft of my creations, I'd probably find plenty to DMCA... I'm trying not to think about that.
Honestly though, I knew Second Life issues such as theft would not get better anytime soon. I suppose I should take my own advice and suck it up.
Yeah.
Damn I need to finish those male skins.
I've been a tad scarce lately in our fine virtual world.
Getting ready for Dragon*Con! It'll be quite an adventure. So, if you're reading this and happen to be going this year, maybe we'll run into each other and manage to say hi. :P
This means that anything I was working on will have to wait until next week.
I'll be back!
Well, it seems that while I was on a minor AFK(read: Vacation), the inevitable has been announced.
I'm not surprised at all, really. I'm more surprised that it wasn't done sooner. When productive posts are drowned in negative repitition, it's time to pull the plug. I'll only really miss being able to make products posts, as I'm not sure in-world classifieds are actually worth the enormous amount of L$ one must dole out. Then again, maybe they will be now, eh?
Heh.
I didn't really intend to be away from SL so long. You have to roll with it, though. I'll be finally opening my store by the end of this weekend, because I need to stop procrastinating. I guess I have new-sim-owner worry.
