tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-255824312024-03-14T02:23:47.358+14:00MirielMiriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.comBlogger314125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-70446449664316345792009-06-13T01:54:00.001+14:002009-06-13T01:55:13.494+14:00A headss up: <b>Saturday the 20th</b> will be the last open day for the sim.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-44928351152273720062009-05-21T15:57:00.002+14:002009-05-21T15:58:58.979+14:00Some time in the next few weeks, I will be permanently closing the shop and getting rid of the sim.<br /><br />If you want anything -- eyes, jewelry, pictures of the forest -- it's best to do so soon.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-46265267755518459592009-03-05T11:14:00.003+14:002009-03-05T11:16:52.980+14:00*blows dust off everything*<br /><br />Hey, folks. Just a note to let you know that my computer died last week, and it won't be fixed at least until tomorrow -- maybe longer, since something appears to be very wrong with it. So if you send me an IM or a notecard, you won't get a reply for a little while, I'm afraid. The computer I'm using to type this can't run SL.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-43007683093494914302009-01-19T04:46:00.000+14:002009-01-19T04:52:09.948+14:00<center><b>Heart of Love Limited Edition Necklace!</b></center><br /><br />Designer Shir Dryke, of <a href="http://ornamentallifeshop.blogspot.com/">Ornamental Life</a>, needs a heart transplant, without which she will die. Unfortunately, she can't afford it and has only three weeks to raise the necessary funds. So a few of her friends have started the Heart of Love fundraiser, which needs to raise around L$700K. They're trying to do this through donation boxes and charity items.<br /><br />You can read more about this at <a href="http://fluttermemel.blogspot.com">Flutter Memel's blog</a>.<br /><br />I've put up a donation box in my store, and I'm also releasing a charity item. All the money will go to Shir. This is a limited edition: it will only be available as long as the fundraiser is running, and will never be sold or given away after that.<br /><br />Heart is a simple, elegant necklace with a sculpted heart pendant and pearl. It's been made with care, designed to strike a balance between flowing like a real necklace and hugging the contours of the avatar (which is blockier than you might realize!). This is a classic design, perfect for Valentine's Day or year round.<br /><br />It's available in five metal colors: gold, antique gold, black, silver, and a new color, rose gold. It's no copy/modify/transfer, so you can give it as a gift or pass it on if it goes unused. Because it is a limited edition, and because it is for charity, it's L$150 for a single color. <br /><br />Demos are available for all colors. Simply click on the main sign.<br /><br /><a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Miriel/152/66/34">Slurl to the store.</a><br /><br /><center><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/blog_heart.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/blog_hearts.jpg"></center>Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-24883614451881378022008-12-12T10:11:00.004+14:002008-12-12T10:20:08.435+14:00<center><b>New from Miriel: Sculpted Holly Bracelet</b></center><br /><br />Yes, a new release!<br /><br />Holly is a Christmas bracelet featuring, well, holly! These carefully sculpted and textured leaves, accented with jeweled berries, wrap around your wrist elegantly. In addition, like all jewelry from Miriel, these bracelets are scripted: shiny and full bright can be turned on and off, for jewelry that looks good in every situation. <br /><br />This bracelet is available in both gold and silver versions, and the berries come in diamond, jet, emerald, and ruby. (Gold and ruby shown here.) Permissions are your choice: copy/modify/no transfer, or no copy/modify/transfer.<br /><br />Single colors sell for L$50, while a collection of all gold or silver pieces (four colors in all) is L$125. Each copy comes with both a left and right version. Demos available for all colors, so that you can know you're getting the right color.<br /><br />Get it <a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Miriel/135/64/33">here</a>.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/fashcon_holly.jpg"></center>Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-1939205902450768792008-11-29T20:39:00.002+14:002008-11-29T20:44:33.606+14:00I hope all my American readers had a good Thanksgiving!<br /><br />As for me, well, I'm hoping I'll be able to finish in time. I spent a few days trying to perfect the tree branches. The joints of real branches are smooth; the joints of my sculpted branches look like tubes jammed into other tubes. Which is, after all, what they are.<br /><br />I believe I've figured out the problem (roughly), but the explanation is long and boring, so suffice to say I don't think it's fixable. I recreated what was happening in Blender, and only managed to fix it by doing something flat out impossible with sculpties. Insert standard whine about meshes here.<br /><br />So the bad news is that the branches can't be fixed. This is also the good news, because this means that (aside from a bit of tweaking), I don't have to mess with the things anymore.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-6066831484296500482008-11-24T05:02:00.002+14:002008-11-24T05:09:37.929+14:00So, I've had to cut back on projects. I'd hoped that I'd be able to push myself, but it was not to be. I'm only able to work for a few (non consecutive) hours on good days, and there's just not much that I can get done in that time.<br /><br />I'm focusing on my plants in the time I have. Even just doing these, I won't be able to get all that I wanted done, but what can I do about it? <br /><br />For the curious, here are the trees I've got so far:<br /><br /><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/Snapshot_001-2.jpg"><br /><br />There are still things about them that I'm very unhappy with (such as how the branches join the rest of the tree), but most of these can't be avoided. I could do a much nicer -- not to mention faster -- job if we had meshes, but we don't.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-53573240560973335422008-10-29T02:45:00.001+14:002008-10-29T02:48:34.632+14:00So, I suppose I owe you all an update. <br /><br />It's not a really big secret that my business doesn't do fabulously. Some of this is my fault, but some of it is that I'm not terribly lucky. I'm about ready to throw in the towel, but I'm going to try giving things six more months. I'm working on some things now -- landscaping things, jewelry stuff, eye stuff, and possibly another project -- and will shut the sim down for a few days in mid-December; when I reopen, all the new stuff will be out, and I plan to get back on a weekly release schedule after that.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-16518796778784334972008-10-20T03:43:00.002+14:002008-10-20T03:46:30.707+14:00Jewelry Expo raised US$256.81 total for <a href="http://www.heifer.org">Heifer International</a>. (The total is so much lower than last year's mostly because sim rental is expensive. The auctioned jewelry didn't pull in quite as much, either.)<br /><br />When donating, I rounded up to an even US$260. This bought us a water buffalo and a share of a rabbit trio, though I'm not sure that the money isn't just dumped into one big slush fund.<br /><br /><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/donation.jpg">Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-13417855420149015212008-10-15T14:05:00.001+14:002008-10-15T14:10:12.415+14:00Still working on the trees. I don't know if I'll ever finish them. I keep thinking that if I were just <i>more clever</i>, I'd be able to come up with trees that look better than a bunch of flat alpha planes, use fewer prims, and aren't overly full of polygons. There's always something that trips me up, though (right now it's the horrendous alpha sorting of sculpted prims), so I keep floating ideas and shooting them down...<br /><br />I'm also toying with the idea of switching over to a system whereby all my jewelry (and hair, maybe) is color change. You'd buy one piece and get all the colors of it, effectively. I'd have to raise my prices, though. Thoughts?Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-85939015125108649812008-10-05T23:43:00.001+14:002008-10-05T23:46:11.512+14:00<center><b>JEWELRY EXPOSITION IS OPEN!</b><br /><br /><a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jewelry%20Exposition/131/129/26/">TP now!</a></center><br />Come enjoy dozens of jewelers in one of SL's lowest lag fashion expos. We have merchants you've heard of and merchants you haven't, so drop by and discover someone new. You won't even have to move around on a box to do it.<br /><br />When you're done browsing, try your hand at our treasure hunt. We've got a dozen free, aquatic themed items scattered around the sim, some in places that are easy to find, and others that... aren't. Or do some good with our charity auction. Several truly beautiful sets are up for grabs all week, with the proceeds going to <a href="http://www.heifer.org">Heifer International</a>. <br /><br />Visit <a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jewelry%20Exposition/131/129/26/">Jewelry Exposition 131, 129</a>, and come see what made last year's fair such a success.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.sljewelryexpositionc.com"><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/web_promo_1.jpg" border=0></a></center>Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-82742090934875396032008-10-04T03:19:00.001+14:002008-10-04T03:20:36.383+14:00All these product images at Jewelry Expo are making me realize just how blah my own are.<br /><br />Ah, well. Back to checking booths and bitching.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-67660246705466364112008-09-22T13:28:00.002+14:002008-09-22T13:36:17.558+14:00I'm still sort of working on the trees, though I'd let them sit for a few days. They're not going so well. I do one thing, go "no, it could be better," do something else, go "no," do the first thing again, and on and on and on.<br /><br />I've got a question, in case anyone wants to answer. The newest release candidate supports "oblong" sculpted prims. (They're sculpted prims that aren't square, in short.) These would allow me to make trees that looked better and used fewer prims. However, outside of the release candidate, they're a total mess. I'm hoping that LL will do a forced update when oblong sculptie support migrates to the official viewer, but they may not, and there's no guarantee of when that will be.<br /><br />So, here's my question: if you were in the market for trees, would you be interested in buying one with oblong sculpties, even though they may not display correctly for everyone?Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-8787373290030774512008-09-13T04:27:00.002+14:002008-09-13T04:32:11.335+14:00If you haven't been by lately, you might want to check out the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/jewelryexposition2008/">Jewelry Expo Flickr contest</a>. There are some great pictures up. Out of the actual entries, I'm especially fond of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22710140@N04/2849690288/in/pool-jewelryexposition2008">this one</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristimaurer/2834412381/in/pool-jewelryexposition2008">this one</a>, and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/green_dream/2776449281/in/pool-jewelryexposition2008">this one</a>. (The contest was the idea of and is being run by Shelby Ziskey, who's been a wonderful help and deserves much credit.)<br /><br />The contest ends on the 28th, so you've still got time to send an entry in if you're interested!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(To my regular readers: yes, I'm going to be pushing the expo pretty hard for the next few weeks. I know it gets kind of tiresome.)Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-25354053255963513822008-09-11T15:42:00.003+14:002008-09-11T15:49:04.109+14:00It's time for another Jewelry Expo pimping! (This is done to catch the attention of people reading the Fashion Planet feed.)<br /><br /><center><b>Do you like jewelry?</b></center><br /><br />We do! We like jewelry so much that we're having an entire fair dedicated to it. Jewelry Exposition is a week long showcase of 76 jewelry designers, some you've heard of and some you haven't. In addition to that, we're also hosting a free, ongoing treasure hunt (find the pieces at your own pace!) and an auction benefiting <a href="http://heifer.org">Heifer International</a>. So come do some good, find some freebies, and discover a new designer or two.<br /><br />Oh, yes, and we're doing our best to be <b>low lag</b>. Strict rules about merchant content mean that you can spend more time shopping and less time trying to move around. These rules are tested, too: they were used for last year's exposition, which had relatively little lag.<br /><br />Jewelry Exposition runs from <b>Sunday, October 5 through Saturday, October 11</b>. To learn more, click below!<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.sljewelryexposition.com"><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/web_promo_1.jpg" border=0></a></center>Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-12151505064965141082008-09-07T06:09:00.003+14:002008-09-07T06:14:33.586+14:00For those of you that are builders, you may find <a href="http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=712605">this</a> helpful. (Or invaluable.) It's a HUD that allows you to search through a database of over 30,000 megaprims, and sends you the size you ask for. Apparently, if it can't find the size you want, it suggests something close, though I've not encountered that yet. It's very easy to use, too, with no obnoxious dialogue menus or buttons to deal with it.<br /><br />Oh, yes, and it's free. HUDs stress me out, but I swear, I'm never taking this thing off.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-28655209554312604652008-09-04T19:57:00.002+14:002008-09-04T19:57:39.349+14:00You may have noticed that I didn't have a release this week. I likely won't have one next week, either. I'm busy making trees, see.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-42845478919912707952008-09-04T00:32:00.004+14:002008-09-04T01:16:07.045+14:00<center><b>Hey, jewelers!</b></center><br /><br />UPDATE: We're full! To be added to the wait list, contact Miriel Enfield. The wait list doesn't require an entry fee, though you will be asked to pay if a slot opens up.<br /><br />We've only got <s>two slots</s> <s>one slot</s> zero slots left for Jewelry Exposition, a weeklong exhibition of dozens of jewelry designers. Come show off your wares along with 74 other jewelers, and all for a good cause: an auction will be held to benefit Heifer International, and all leftover expo funds will also be contributed to them. It's a great way to spread awareness of your brand, pick up some new customers, and do a little good in the process.<br /><br />And we're aiming to be <b>low lag</b>! A series of strict rules about rezzed content will help keep client side lag low, ensuring that customers don't leave in frustration. And our lag guidelines aren't just guesses about what will work and what won't: we used them for last year's expo, and they were very successful.<br /><br />Want to know more? Click below.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.sljewelryexposition.com"><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/web_promo_1.jpg"></a></center>Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-47008377743279404522008-08-29T15:23:00.002+14:002008-08-29T15:31:16.845+14:00I'm working on putting together some landscaping and foliage to sell. I'm starting with trees, because those are the biggest pain and I'd like to get them out of the way.<br /><br />It's... not going so great so far.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-74758871948612644442008-08-26T03:07:00.000+14:002008-08-26T03:09:26.590+14:00This week's new item from Miriel is actually two items: a pair of anime eyes in new colors. These eyes are stylized and extra large, and are entirely hand drawn. <br /><br /><center><br /><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/blog_animeblack.jpg"><br /><br /><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/blog_animefuchsia.jpg"><br /></center><br /><br />L$50 for a single color. Copy/modify/no transfer or no copy/modify/transfer -- your choice. Eye demos are available, in the form of ten free eyes.<br /><br />Get them at <a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Miriel/135/64/33">Miriel 135, 64</a>.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-70732452241138825232008-08-24T15:25:00.000+14:002008-08-24T23:20:19.584+14:00<b>Some Notes on ARC</b><br /><br />I'm hearing a lot of talk about ARC in regards to Hair Fair, and it's a huge peeve of mine. ARC is not reliable. There are serious problems with the criteria it uses; it gives a ballpark figure only.<br /><br />What's wrong with it? Well, you can read how it works <a href="http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/05/01/who-me-yes-you-couldnt-be-then-who-introducing-avatar-rendering-cost/">here</a>, but I see at least three problems with it:<br /><br />1. It ignores polygon count. For those of you that don't know, more polygons means more for your computer to render, which means more lag. All prim attachments get 10 points, regardless of how many polygons they have. A box (very few polygons) generates the same ARC number as a sculptie or torus (lots and lots of polygons), despite the fact that the actual lag created by these prims is quite different.<br /><br />2. It ignores texture size. The bigger a texture is, the more lag it creates, and big textures are quite a bit bigger than small ones. (A 1024 x 1024 texture, for instance, is as large as <i>16</i> 256 x 256 ones.) Nonetheless, ARC gives 5 points for texture, regardless of size. A 1024 x 1024 image is significantly laggier than a 32 x 32 one, but both will rack up the same ARC number.<br /><br />3. The accounting for size is a bit too crude. Attachments get one point per meter of size, per axis. While bigger prims do lead to more lag, I wish the scale were a bit more refined. A hundred prim hair and a hundred prim necklace are unlikely to generate the same amount of lag: those necklace prims are probably so teeny that they're quickly culled (i.e., not rendered at all) as you zoom out. I know that the jewelry I make tends to lag me less than the hair I make, even though it usually has more prims.<br /><br />ARC is not <i>entirely</i> useless. Someone with a very low number is <i>unlikely</i> to be generating a lot of lag (above and beyond what all avatars generate, that is), and vice versa for someone with a very high number. But the numbers are very, very rough, to the point of -- in my opinion -- being misleading. <br /><br />So stop quoting them, 'kay? It's making me twitch.<br /><br />Oh, and one more note on Hair Fair: people and their attachments are, at this point, not entirely to blame for the lag. Oh, they're lagging you, but Hair Fair would be painfully slow even if they were all bald and naked. The sims themselves are slow right now, as they struggle to handle all the avatars. When I went yesterday, my frame rates were fine, and I still could barely move. That wasn't my computer having trouble rendering Blingy Lady #55 and her hair, it was the sim server faltering.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-16845579466576388662008-08-24T09:11:00.000+14:002008-08-24T09:14:35.705+14:00I'm sure you already know about this:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/RFD_2.jpg"></center><br /><br />(You can read more <a href="http://scarboroughflairbysasyscarborough.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/do-what-you-can/">here</a> if you haven't.)<br /><br />I just now donated something. (I am slow.) This is what I donated:<br /><br /><center><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/blog_evenstar.jpg"></center><br /><br />I don't know when it will be auctioned off (or if it'll get pushed back to another auction), but there you go. I made this item as a freebie for someone and I've given out a few copies, but it won't ever be for sale or widely distributed.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-25372179140414743492008-08-19T21:53:00.000+14:002008-08-19T22:03:49.964+14:00In Blender 2.46, I can't figure out how to get alpha channels to work, something I could do in previous versions. (Obviously: I wouldn't have been able to make my trees if I couldn't.)<br /><br />What is wrong with the people that write this program? <br /><br />(One minute of fiddling later.)<br /><br />Oh my god. Blender has a "use alpha" button in one of the texture menus. I've complained about it before, because it didn't work the way I thought it would. Guess what? It now works the way I originally expected it to, and I had to uncheck it to make things work. Blender is the monkey's paw of software.<br /><br />Seriously, what the hell is wrong with the programmers? The labeling on the button hasn't changed in the slightest. Absent digging through the release notes, there's no indication that it now does something entirely different from what it did before.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-33038864087782390642008-08-19T02:33:00.001+14:002008-08-19T02:33:35.086+14:00This week's new item from Miriel is Classic, a versatile, tasteful sculpted necklace. As part of the Miriel Everyday line, it's priced to be affordable, at only L$60 for a single copy. And like all jewelry from Miriel, it's scripted so that you can turn shiny and full bright on and off.<br /><br /><center><br /><img src="http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/Miriel_Enfield/blog_classic.jpg"><br /></center><br /><br />Available in five metal colors (antique gold, antique silver, black, gold, and silver) and ten stones (amber, coral, jade, lapis lazuli, malachite, onyx, red jasper, sugilite, turquoise, and white jade).<br /><br />L$60 for a single color. L$450 for all ten antique gold, antique silver, black, gold, or silver pieces. Copy/modify/no transfer or no copy/modify/transfer -- your choice. Demos are available for all colors.<br /><br />Get it at <a href="http://slurl.com/secondlife/Miriel/135/64/33">Miriel 135, 64</a>.<br /><br />(This is what happens when I can't think of anything else to make.)Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25582431.post-7055713703855932532008-08-15T16:30:00.000+14:002008-08-15T16:33:05.687+14:00Jewelry Expo Flickr Contest!<br /><br />Shelby Ziskey is helping me with promoting the expo, and she's doing an awesome job. One of the things she's suggested is a Flickr stream, and you can go <a href="http://dirty-ego.blogspot.com/2008/08/jewelry-expostion-2008-official-photo.html">here</a> to read about it.Miriel Enfieldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07705581002557224035noreply@blogger.com0