Capalini Fine Furnishings: September 2012

"The time has come," Miss Olli said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—

Petite avatars and wings."

Second Life has an odd way of burning a person out.. particularly if you're a creator. And at some point and time, if you're lucky.. something will come along that will spark an interest.

A month ago, I had a customer in Second Life contact me regarding my Butterfly Cog Wind up Key. She actually loved it (I wasn't hanging out in Second Life so much.. too busy working on other projects and watching movies with my friend) but wanted it for her petite avatar from Fallen Gods. It was much too large for it. Now, I'd already made the Butterfly Cog Key with pieces so miniaturized.. I just sat there, looked at it.. and thought, wow.. this will be a challenge!

It caught my interest.

So, I obtained a demo petite avatar.. and over the course of 3 hours, managed to miniaturize that key down. Here's a picture of the original key next to the new key (a little structurally different, not much).

Size comparison.. original size, and new petite size

It was such a success with her, I boxed it up and put it out for sale. Spurred on by the glow of meeting that challenge, I went on and miniaturized several keys.. I just need to package them up and put them out for sale.

Advert for Petite Butterfly Cog Wind up Key

playing with my newly created petite wind up key

Now at this point, I started really liking the petite mesh avatars. It was something different in Second Life. It was something different for me, and fed one of my most happy pasttimes.. making things ridiculously tiny. It's how I got into Music Boxes in the first place. I'm absolutely fascinated with little tiny mechanical and working things.

So, now I have a new petite avatar.. and I wanted wings for her, but all that I could find available were.. butterfly-ish.. wispy, flexi primmed, transparent texture.. things. But I'm steampunk! I'm born and bred in Second Life in New Babbage.. cobblestones, soot, and brick.. My avatars have grease under their fingernails, steam in their hair, and oil for blood! But, my middle name is Whimsy.. and I needed to learn mesh anyway..

So, I made a pair of mesh petite wind up wings. There are no transparent textures.. It is entirely mesh (save for the key..) and the wings flap when your avatar flies. Personally.. I like them much better than wispy fae looking things..