Happy Holidaze!

Kisses and Hugs and all the end-of-the-year usuals to you all :) and a BIG 'get well' to Turi, who has had an accident in RL and is recovering. Getting things ready for the 25th here, and for lots of exciting 2013-type things hehe.. and a BIG shout-out to NicX who shot this video and put it up on YouTube...! a lovely and unexpected Christmas surprise!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz2vfdiozoM&list=UU4JJwkQEAtS1g9hEmzfyozQ&index=1

Have a good one, kisssxx!

Stuff, and more Stuff...

Big day today. I find out sometime in the next few hours how the first part of my University course has gone for me, and to focus on something else while I wait in terror I'm about to start phase 3 of what I've come to call 'Project Shine'. This is my attempt to blend 3D and Photoshop into a style & workflow from which I can quickly make new, shiny, glossy outfit templates for the Latex Web Inc. clothes, and for my own artworks. The new Joiner advert for the Latex web Junkies group is also a preview of what's in the works...

There's a few things that have led to this... first was Mastress Dorry showing me the work of Shiniez, and then Kim Dench giving me a chart of all the main creators' 'shines' in SL to look at. Then I took full advantage of my University course to learn learn learn all about how light bounces off objects, reflections etc, and with Mija's help, learn about Photoshop's Brushes - which are amaazzzzingly useful. The plan is, with Turi and Mandy, to start releasing new outfits in early 2013, and revamp some of our most popular existing adverts, with this new Look. It's taking time, but it's a learning process, and I am loving every minute of it :) ((special thanks to Mija for all her help and technical advice!))

Other things... a few people have been asking about what happened to the role-play at Darkadia; it's officially 'on a break' while we decide what to do with it. The problem we found was that there aren't enough hours in the day, or enough energy, to run something that people expect to revolve exclusively around Them. Plus, we have to pay the rent of the sim itself, so the LWi (Latex Web Inc.) shop is the main focus atm. More than anything, we just needed a rest.. I know I did, lol...

Also, been thinking a lot about the SL/RL divide, and the sometimes lack of it. I have often been asked to 'prove' myself in SL, that is: prove I'm female; the answer is yes, I am, and happily so, but I have learned from bitter experience to keep at least SOME barriers up between SL and real Life. Especially now that I'm back at University. I don't even like talking on a telephone much, never have, so I'm not really up for babbling in SL at my usual top speeds lol... The other, and very vital, reason is safety: I've recently been the subject of several attempted hacks and griefs, and not just on my SL account. 4 years ago I had one idiot stalk me in London's clubs - it is NOT a fun place to be. So, to those who nibble at my heels about this: please respect my wishes to keep at least a bit of me separate from the online world :) Thanks xxxxxx

Lust in the Dust

Zomg... I am sooo looking forward to the holidays now hehe... I'm actually starting to DREAM in Photoshop lol... who knew that nightmares could be in Layers! Anyways, while I get the brand new 'shine' ready for the next wave of releases, we're releasing a few freebies - here's Mandy Galileo in our Western stylee cow grrrl set - and if we get enough requests, we'll look at doing an actual latex cow slave suit too :P

Invasion!!!!

Darkadia gets a LOT of interesting visitors... the planet Skaro sent a delegation of Daleks over today... I think they were scouting for victims eeeeeek... the Dalek Empress herself came too, she used to be the human Kira Saiman before she upgraded to dalek form... they said they would be coming regularly to trap the unwary and take them to their 'research labs', so watch out! hehe xxx

Oh heck..

The IMs in SL got a bit crazy recently - it's hard to get things done when you have someone ranting in the IM box about how coffee is the reason the world is going to hell (kind of thing, lol).. so my Owner decided it was time I was de-stressed from this and, um, has locked me down.. heavily. I can't hear anything now! It's scary... and very exciting too... this is something I think I will have to get used to from now on. She also cut my hair shorter... *grumble*... I think it's ok... but the Owner is always right... yes? :)

Corset is from Tsarina of Rosal, she makes gorgeous corsetry. Skirt is a very special mesh one by Dari, in 'backless' stylee. Kisses and thankyous to both of you :)

More later xxx

Nomnomnom

Breakfast... and photoshop :P it's a fun combination :D

Piccy to go with last night's short story... *grinz*

Short Story :)

Okay, so I haven't really ever written anything before. But this short story has been kind of developing for a little while, and tonight I finally typed it out. Enjoy xx

“Owned”

My Owner comes for me each night after the twin suns have vanished beneath the horizon of gigantic waterfalls. She arrives in various forms; I never know in what shape She will appear in from one night to another. Sometimes She will materialise as something demonic, like a Succubus or a Drider Spider-Goddess. Other times She is as a ghost, ethereal and soft. Occasionally, She is almost human... almost. But always surrounded and clad by darkness. Always with a smile concealing lusts and desires, a smile that grows wider as She moves towards me...

I was taken from my world a few years ago, and trapped on this strange world where realities mix, flow, and combine into new forms and structures like dreams and nightmares.  I had been travelling back home through the January cold and rain of London when... something... appeared out of the fog, like a hole in the air itself, spilling colours and sounds from infinite realities and possibilities out onto the dark, grey street. I think I fell in. Or I may have jumped, I don’t really remember. Whatever I had done, or not done, there was no going Back. It was far too late for that now.

She who now owns me appeared to me first as another human woman, trapped in this ‘new universe’, and showed me how to adjust to the way things worked here. She’d been there a while, and had assumed the mantle of ‘Baroness’ in order to survive. Being of a naturally timid nature, it took me a while to get used to the sensual - and at times, very erotic - customs and manners of the various ‘clans’ and societies here. I made some very good friends too, others who had fallen through the walls between realities, and we helped each other survive and adapt to the weirdness (and that’s the best word to describe it) that we found ourselves surrounded by daily.

And one day, She snapped a collar on my neck, and locked it tight. Very tight. 

Seconds later her form shimmered and altered. As I backed away, her human form twisted and flowed and became black, reflective... arachnid. Her human upper half spat a jet of black liquid at me, which expanded and enveloped my body like a wave of hot water, then tightening and clinging to me like a second skin. As I fell upon the floor of the strange building She had taken me to, squirming and gagging against the film of black material covering my face, I heard her sibilant voice whisper... “Mine...”.

Through a haze of darkness, I could see Her looking down at me as the material twisted and bent my arms back against my shoulders, my legs being drawn together tightly and without mercy. With a deft slash of one of her lower claws, She sliced tiny openings for my mouth to breathe... I sucked in air gratefully, dizzy from terror. The second skin seemed to cling ever tighter, squeezing and caressing me like a living glove. A few more slashes from Her claws, and I realised that She had made openings in my new ‘suit’, and was already caressing the exposed parts of my writhing body with whatever appendages She had deigned to now manifest...

And now, I am lost to Her.

I understand that I didn’t fall into this world back on that London street... I was pulled in, by Her. Now, I exist as a toy, a plaything, left suspended and bound in a tight black cocoon when She is away hunting. I live inside the living latex suit She spun around me, my body twisted and contorted inside to match whatever She desires my appearance to be. She takes me as Her lover, Her slave, Her concubine, She invades my mind as well as my body and whispers... always whispers the word that makes my soul fall further and further into Her pit of dark, sensual silk...

“...Mine”.

****

Okay, so...

... everything's packed and almost ready to hit the shops, vendors and marketplace. Kyaaaa...! I am happy... finally I feel that the quality of our gear is being raised a bit at last. Future plans include some mermaid stuff and some spider-dominant gear hehe... anything to encourage those shy dominants out there to use a bit more imagination :P

Just did a test mesh version of our classic hairpins, the Kanzashi. I'm still working on the textures and extras for this, and there'll be more 'normal' (ie. traditional) versions too. Mesh is sooo much fun to work with, it really lets you get rid of that 'twisted prim' look that makes so much SL stuff.. well, suck. Some of the mesh stuff I've seen recently has been Incredible, and SL is totally better for it. Finally we can really start doing weird, twisted and erotic designs without being held back by prim or sculpty limitations :) *does happy dance*

So creatively: all is good. Next up is an improved 'shine' on our catsuits - being back at University has taught me some new tricks I'm excited about trying on the SL stuff we do. And amazingly I'm so far able to juggle Uni and SL and my Online courses and not fall apart lol ... what's so good is that one bounces off another, and each benefits the other as I learn more and more.

And in SL itself... interesting ^^ ... those who've known me a while will know of my feelings about 'needy' types, less-than-clever dominants, IM-flooders and worst of all, stalkers/ griefers. The last few weeks have seen my account attacked twice - and badly - and a Certain perSon leaving dumbass comments on my friends' blogs. We Know Who You Are, suckah! Big thankyous to BHF and Winter and the LL grid monkeys for rescuing my account in time!!

So, after a LOT of thinking and all that stuff you do over cups of tea... I'm going to let myself get fully, 100% locked down in SL while things calm down, hehe... sending Notecards will prob be the best way to get a message to me for a little while. Seems that there's a 'new wave' of thinking among our dear Owners, who are getting tough on us bratty types and, er... making us behave. By locking us down. And restricting us... a LOT! And yanno... this is what I've been ranting on about for a while now - why don't dominants ACT like dominants more? Not in a bullying way, but in a caring - and TOUGH! - "you are Mine, mwahahahaa!!!" way... a little bit of Evil keeps us subbies in suspense, wondering what dark plans are being formed... and that's what's exciting. Presence, Imagination and a good knowledge of RLV and what SL button does what (so they don't keep having to ask us subbies what does what etc.... gah) is a good mix :D

And anyway, I need a break from working so hard recently... seems my owner Dorry has plans... *gulp* ... I think I may be in trouble for being away working for so long...

More later :) xxxx

Sunday...

Fast apologies to all those awaiting the new releases; we will have them out ASAP, promise. RL and SL are being a little .... odd.... atm.

Late Breaking..

Quick post, as I really should be in bed and asleep right now, here's the 'Butterfly Orange' catsuit design from the very kool webcomic Collar 6, for which the artist himself has given us permission to make in SL :) We'll do a few more if the response to this first one is good. No advert art yet - I only finished this catsuit tonight - but here's a sneaky preview...

Thought i'd try blonde hair with this, as it's closer to the character(s) in the original comic ... hey I needed to cheer myself up a bit, SL was very... odd, tonight. Sometimes, when you find yourself fundamentally disagreeing with something, it's best to just hit 'Quit', and go to bed... which is where i'm heading now :P

Good Night & Good Luck xxx

Oh and..

... happy birthday Arden Hax! who modelled the balloon shortz for us!

Phewwwwwww........

Tuesday the 13th and I am VERY TIRED, lol... I've done all the advert art for the new releases and am now packing it up .. keep an eye out on the Latex Web Junkies notices for release details. Next will be a whole lot of extras, including some mesh kanzashi hairpins and other goodies...  think 'mermaids' hehe...

The shop's 90% done with the refit - soon as I shake off this post-work 'flu (!) I will get going and get it finished - you might even see me actually get to PLAY there again soon :P

Huge and massive hugs and kisses to Itali, Cai, Faith, Arden and Penny for modelling!

More later ;)

Monday Blues

I am sure you will all agree that sometimes SL can be... weird. It's hard sometimes to get across what you're trying to say in just text-speak alone (and I don't voice anymore as a. I had a bad experience a few years back and b. I do think it is important to be able to keep some kind of curtain on SL that YOU have the choice of opening or not... )...

Anyways, veryvery close now to getting the new stuff out, I just need to tweak the Scylla outfit a bit more and get as much of it mesh'd as possible. In the meantime here's a painting I just did of the Cenobyte outfit:

This isn't the art for the final advert - that'll be modelled by someone else, and also this was some good  practice for when I do finally 'shop up the adverts later this week  :P

Finally: massive kisses and hugs go out to Mija for making the new shop logo in 3D for us... she did a lovely job of transforming the logo below into a mesh object, and we will be 'rolling it out' very soon. Thank you, sis :)

Okay, back to work... lol... one day I may actually get to play in SL again, but right now things that need doing: need doing! Kisses

More later :) XxX

Finally.....

... the 'CenoByte' outfit is done, here's a preview, now to grab a model for the advert pics :)

Video Videooooooooo

NicoleX Moonwall is a videomaker in SL and has made some award-winning short films of total OMG-ness... this is her latest, and features a cameo towards the end of one of our new outfits being released very soon (promise :P)... enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqtWcKxXJNY

Happy Hallowe'en 2012 :)

It's been a manic 48 hours! I FINALLY got my head around the Sculptris app and using it with the Wacom Cintiq tablet and... yessssss! I can sculpt in 3D! and export it all to SL in mesh - and low poly too :P And: paint and texture what I make in Sculptris (which is free and very excellent btw) in Photoshop Extended. I iz Happy Kitteh =^*^= :)))

So... new outfits imminent, including the play gags by Turi. SL has suddenly got interesting again for the first time in ages for me, now that I can finally create the stuff I see in my head and share it inworld, and I think the next wave of outfits Latex Web Inc. releases will show this. I feel that my 'creator sabbatical' is almost over and I'm looking forward now to relaxing again hehe...

So: mad rush today to get something ready for the Hallowe'en party at Aval and her owner Virus's place, I think we'll release it soon once a few more tweaks have been made:

The working name for it is 'CenoByte' :)

The party was great... Virus did voice DJ-ing and played a ton of stuff that I love and own myself (german electro-goth-rock),

We even got Cory dancing hehe...

So: hugs and kisses and licks from me here on a cold windy UK night surrounded by cats with Tori Amos playing on my PC :) And grr just found that our sim is offline, off now to chase LL and get it back!

More later :) xxx

Down on the beach

So after not-quite-finishing the new outfits (one has been taken back to the sweatshop :P ) , i took a wee break to make a beach at Darkadia - nothing flash, just somewhere 'normal' for us all to chill out at. As normal as it ever gets at Darkadia anyway, lol..

Mija came to have a peek - and stepped on an electric flower:

... more later :)

Water in the brain

Uff.. trying to do anything work-related in SL on a saturday is NOT easy lol... but! I did get to hang out with Penny (Lorenz) and Kim (Dench) down in Darkadia's underwater-area-in-progress, and chat about mermaid-y ideas (... stay tuned on THAT theme.... *Evil grin!*...) ... here's a piccy of Miss Kim herself :) prolly SL's top photographer, her work is just... wow. And she's good at making sure I keep to some kind of schedule and don't do what I usually do, which is go all ADD-bounce-around-SL :P

Of course, sooner or later I will get netted by La Dorry, hehe... but I am going to totally make sure that She and the rest of my friends have the best place in SL to play and hang out in, hehe.

More later. Off to tease Mija about the empty bottle of wine next to her in RL, lol..

TGIS

...yah, Saturday at last, end of the busiest week I think I have known in a little while. Feels like my brain is exploding right now, lol... sooo many ideas and designs appearing out of nowhere, and the nice thing is that after taking time away in RL to study some photoshop and 3D apps... I can actually create what i'm seeing in my brain at last. And if I can't, I go find out how, lol..

After waking up crazy early and catching up with everyone over tea, while floating on giant latex lily pads at Darkadia (lolz), hanging out with Gaby, Mija and Mistress Kim Dench (and Heretic, briefly - he was at a naked elf sim lol), I'm quietly getting myself organised for the weekend ahead; read: laundry, housecleaning, doing my University course assignment lol...  If we manage to get our new outfits out in time tomorrow, I'll be VERY happy, I have several latex mermaid designs I want to get started on over the next few weeks hehe..

Most of all though, I've been really very, very amazed and touched at how helpful, kind and supportive my friends and virtual family have been recently. I wasn't happy closing down our old Group, but it had become too much of an emotional and financial drain on me and others. Being able to 'think free' again, and knowing I have the support of some very wonderful people... it's made me realise a few (nice) things, eg. there are still some Good people left in this insane society we live in.

Now, if I can only balance 'thinking free' with not BEING free, ie being back in a full-on D/s relationship, that would be perfect ;) Somehow, I will find the right balance, hehe...

More later :)

I haz Art!

Ok this has got to be the BUSIEST day for ages... and even managed to start a page at DeviantArts too, go look and say something nice! Please! :) http://marikodemonia.deviantart.com/

Work work work....

I love Photoshop CS6 and right now i'm finishing up some of the new line of outfits we're about to release in SL under the Latex Web Inc. brand that i run with Tunturia Tolsen :) I'll post some pics very very sooooon...... XxX

*ahem*

Normal service will be resumed here over the next few days, in the middle of a virtual sew-a-thon on Photoshop lol xx