Well ladies and gentlemen, apparently I now have TWO blogs! I do! I started this one first, then couldn't access it, and started another at http://gwd-greenwooddesigns.blogspot.com/ So... consider this an archived blog, and go to the other one to catch up on new news if you would! It's all about the RFL Clothing Fair and how exciting it all is.
Last year, I had one vendor in a tiny little corner spot. This year, it's a whole store! Hope to see you at the Fair!!!
Take care,
Kembri
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
January News
Greetings and salutations,
It's been a while since I posted, not because I forgot, but because I've been extremely busy! So here's some catch up.
After finishing my GIMP classes I started working on new designs. Now as fun as it is to create from scratch, something gradually happened to me. I had been surfing the web to look for inspiration when I came across the blue Worth gown below. I was stunned when I saw the original. I've been a fashion fiend for a long time, but not the new designers like Dior or Lagerfield. It's not that I don't admire their work, they paid their dues and make lovely things. But their stuff has no soul. The kind of fashions I admire and am often amazed by come from the 16th to 19th century. Fashions that drip with beads, embroidery, delicate lace and rich, shimmering fabrics. We are in a blessed era, when I can go look through gowns in Russia at the Hermitage, browse the Victoria and Albert collection in London, flip through a Spanish museum, and trot on over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see a past exhibit. All through the internet, and all with pictures that reveal the lovely grandeur of clothing I will never be able to own, let alone make in real life.
In the real world the cost of making a velvet gown with embroidery and gem stones, etc., is cost prohibitive. But in Second Life, ahh, there I can make gowns that I can only dream of. And so that is what I have been doing!
After over a year, I have finally found my mission in Second Life. That is to bring to the digital world recreations of great designers of the past. I cannot always be exactly spot on with a garment. In some ways that's very frustrating, because I could sew or create something in the real world, but cannot do it in Second Life. But within my limit abilities, I can and do reproduce gowns from bygone eras. Right now I have several Worth gowns in the works, along with several other gowns that are seasonal. I do put all gowns up on SLex, and of course there is the Blisswood store which can be found under my profile picks in Second Life or under search.
Below are the gowns I've released recently. It's always hard to pick a favorite, because I love them all as I'm working on them. But if I did have one I'd dib, it'd be 'Evergreen', because I love the sensual warmth of velvet as well as the deep color.
I hope you all have a wonderful day! Right now there's a spectacular gown calling my name.
Cordially yours,
Kembri
It's been a while since I posted, not because I forgot, but because I've been extremely busy! So here's some catch up.
After finishing my GIMP classes I started working on new designs. Now as fun as it is to create from scratch, something gradually happened to me. I had been surfing the web to look for inspiration when I came across the blue Worth gown below. I was stunned when I saw the original. I've been a fashion fiend for a long time, but not the new designers like Dior or Lagerfield. It's not that I don't admire their work, they paid their dues and make lovely things. But their stuff has no soul. The kind of fashions I admire and am often amazed by come from the 16th to 19th century. Fashions that drip with beads, embroidery, delicate lace and rich, shimmering fabrics. We are in a blessed era, when I can go look through gowns in Russia at the Hermitage, browse the Victoria and Albert collection in London, flip through a Spanish museum, and trot on over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see a past exhibit. All through the internet, and all with pictures that reveal the lovely grandeur of clothing I will never be able to own, let alone make in real life.
In the real world the cost of making a velvet gown with embroidery and gem stones, etc., is cost prohibitive. But in Second Life, ahh, there I can make gowns that I can only dream of. And so that is what I have been doing!
After over a year, I have finally found my mission in Second Life. That is to bring to the digital world recreations of great designers of the past. I cannot always be exactly spot on with a garment. In some ways that's very frustrating, because I could sew or create something in the real world, but cannot do it in Second Life. But within my limit abilities, I can and do reproduce gowns from bygone eras. Right now I have several Worth gowns in the works, along with several other gowns that are seasonal. I do put all gowns up on SLex, and of course there is the Blisswood store which can be found under my profile picks in Second Life or under search.
Below are the gowns I've released recently. It's always hard to pick a favorite, because I love them all as I'm working on them. But if I did have one I'd dib, it'd be 'Evergreen', because I love the sensual warmth of velvet as well as the deep color.
I hope you all have a wonderful day! Right now there's a spectacular gown calling my name.
Cordially yours,
Kembri
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Wednesday morning
Greetings!
Well, here we are, the day before Thanksgiving in the USA. It will be a joyful holiday season I hope. My sister-in-law is doing well after her surgery for ovarian cancer. We have been told it looks good so far, and so we all continue to hope and pray for her.
I have a lovely new Victorian ball gown out in the shops. It won for Best Dress at a recent event, and I didn't even know we were entered! I was wearing the gown at the time.
This picture doesn't really do the gown justice. It's one of those things that you need to see!
I have to take a little bit to talk about fashion design and fashion designers. Charles Frederick Worth has had a lot written about him. The first time I ever heard of him was when I was 13 and reading a Barbara Cartland novel. Sweet romance with a kiss at the end, that was my style. But in those books occasionally a heroine would get a Worth gown. That was the first time I heard the name.
Fast forward some 30 years later and the invention of the Internet, and see me surfing through web sites and I come across a picture of a Worth gown recently sold for fifteen thousand dollars. And that's cheap folks. Some have sold for over one hundred thousand dollars. I saw this blue gown, and sat there absolutely stunned by the beauty of it.
I had to bring some version of it to Second Life.
This was not easy. Anyone who has done any building in Second Life knows there are certain constraints with what can be done. There are prim limits, shape and size limits, and movement limits. One can be clever with textures, but even that cannot overcome all the issues. After some experimenting I knew I could not reproduce that gown exactly. The gorgeous flow of the train, the sheer beauty of the piece, could not be an exact copy. So I sat back and thought for a while, staring at the pictures, and finally decided what made the gown so gorgeous, beside the cut of it, was the fabric. From that I made some textures and went to work, fighting alpha flickers and shape issues. Two days later, and some 25 hours of work, and the final product swished joyfully as I walked. I wore it less than an hour later to the New Babbage Autumn Mystery Ball.
The gown, as I mentioned earlier, won for Best Dress, even though I was unaware of it at the time. I adore this gown and made small matching slippers and gloves for it, though they need not be worn. All I could think to call it was 'Elegance' as that is what I thought when I saw the first picture!
Now we move on, I'm doing other gowns for the winter/holiday season. I will have most out by this weekend. Today is one of my work days and so I'll be busy working on gowns.
For anyone who is curious, a really lovely and intricate gown can take some 20-30 hours of work. Yes that's a lot, but then I have found myself more and more making my own textures. That's also why you won't find five or ten colors of the ball gown for example. I don't believe in recoloring the original texture. If the color does not suit you, then wait for another gown that does. :-) I do not believe in one size fits all! I believe you should buy what flatters your avatar and suits your tastes!
Now, I'm stepping off my soap box for this morning. I've half a dozen gowns I wanted to finish today and I know I'll only finish one or two! It does make life interesting and fun though.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and may you find joy in your day no matter where you're from!
Cordially yours,
Kembri
Well, here we are, the day before Thanksgiving in the USA. It will be a joyful holiday season I hope. My sister-in-law is doing well after her surgery for ovarian cancer. We have been told it looks good so far, and so we all continue to hope and pray for her.
I have a lovely new Victorian ball gown out in the shops. It won for Best Dress at a recent event, and I didn't even know we were entered! I was wearing the gown at the time.
This picture doesn't really do the gown justice. It's one of those things that you need to see!
I have to take a little bit to talk about fashion design and fashion designers. Charles Frederick Worth has had a lot written about him. The first time I ever heard of him was when I was 13 and reading a Barbara Cartland novel. Sweet romance with a kiss at the end, that was my style. But in those books occasionally a heroine would get a Worth gown. That was the first time I heard the name.
Fast forward some 30 years later and the invention of the Internet, and see me surfing through web sites and I come across a picture of a Worth gown recently sold for fifteen thousand dollars. And that's cheap folks. Some have sold for over one hundred thousand dollars. I saw this blue gown, and sat there absolutely stunned by the beauty of it.
I had to bring some version of it to Second Life.
This was not easy. Anyone who has done any building in Second Life knows there are certain constraints with what can be done. There are prim limits, shape and size limits, and movement limits. One can be clever with textures, but even that cannot overcome all the issues. After some experimenting I knew I could not reproduce that gown exactly. The gorgeous flow of the train, the sheer beauty of the piece, could not be an exact copy. So I sat back and thought for a while, staring at the pictures, and finally decided what made the gown so gorgeous, beside the cut of it, was the fabric. From that I made some textures and went to work, fighting alpha flickers and shape issues. Two days later, and some 25 hours of work, and the final product swished joyfully as I walked. I wore it less than an hour later to the New Babbage Autumn Mystery Ball.
The gown, as I mentioned earlier, won for Best Dress, even though I was unaware of it at the time. I adore this gown and made small matching slippers and gloves for it, though they need not be worn. All I could think to call it was 'Elegance' as that is what I thought when I saw the first picture!
Now we move on, I'm doing other gowns for the winter/holiday season. I will have most out by this weekend. Today is one of my work days and so I'll be busy working on gowns.
For anyone who is curious, a really lovely and intricate gown can take some 20-30 hours of work. Yes that's a lot, but then I have found myself more and more making my own textures. That's also why you won't find five or ten colors of the ball gown for example. I don't believe in recoloring the original texture. If the color does not suit you, then wait for another gown that does. :-) I do not believe in one size fits all! I believe you should buy what flatters your avatar and suits your tastes!
Now, I'm stepping off my soap box for this morning. I've half a dozen gowns I wanted to finish today and I know I'll only finish one or two! It does make life interesting and fun though.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and may you find joy in your day no matter where you're from!
Cordially yours,
Kembri
Friday, November 21, 2008
New price ranges and gowns
Greetings!
It's a lovely Friday morning in my neighborhood, I hope it is in yours as well. Today I wanted to write about the new price ranges and other things affecting Greenwood Designs as the year comes to a close.
As of today all gowns in the Old World and Medieval Fantasy lines have been permenently slashed to $350 lindens each. It has always been my intent to have a broader price range of gowns, and this is part of my efforts in that direction. These are all good and lovely gowns, but they're also last seasons and pre-GIMP. So they're less detailed than I would have wished them to be at the time. I have improved on my skills and it's reflected in the new ones just released. All newly released gowns in the Victorian collection will be at the standard $695 price, and of course the Boudoir gowns will stay the same price as well.
With my new GIMP skills I've been making more intricate outfits. It's been a lot of fun seeing these new outfits manifest themselves! I have two new Victorian outfits out already and another one coming out this afternoon. I do hope that you all will enjoy the new offerings!
That's it for now. I have only one last thing to say: Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.
Bright blessings,
Kembri
It's a lovely Friday morning in my neighborhood, I hope it is in yours as well. Today I wanted to write about the new price ranges and other things affecting Greenwood Designs as the year comes to a close.
As of today all gowns in the Old World and Medieval Fantasy lines have been permenently slashed to $350 lindens each. It has always been my intent to have a broader price range of gowns, and this is part of my efforts in that direction. These are all good and lovely gowns, but they're also last seasons and pre-GIMP. So they're less detailed than I would have wished them to be at the time. I have improved on my skills and it's reflected in the new ones just released. All newly released gowns in the Victorian collection will be at the standard $695 price, and of course the Boudoir gowns will stay the same price as well.
With my new GIMP skills I've been making more intricate outfits. It's been a lot of fun seeing these new outfits manifest themselves! I have two new Victorian outfits out already and another one coming out this afternoon. I do hope that you all will enjoy the new offerings!
That's it for now. I have only one last thing to say: Life is short, Break the rules, Forgive quickly, Kiss slowly, Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably, And never regret anything that made you smile.
Bright blessings,
Kembri
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Relay for Life and my personal connection
Greetings all,
today has been a difficult day in some ways. I found out a week ago that my real life sister-in-law probably has ovarian cancer. They will know for sure after surgery, which is scheduled for a week from tomorrow.
Yesterday I got the invite for Relay for Life's March Fashion show, having been a designer for them last year. I've accepted, and Greenwood Designs will have a store there.
I have mixed feelings. I love my sister-in-law and I don't want her to have cancer, but as hard as it is for me, it's worse for her. Just the sheer terror of knowing you have something like that isn't easy to deal with. For us, her extended family, it's been a week of disbelief with a lot of tears. I would ask for your prayers for her, her name is Mary Ann, and that today you take an extra moment and tell at least one person you love how much they mean to you.
Bright blessings,
Kembri
today has been a difficult day in some ways. I found out a week ago that my real life sister-in-law probably has ovarian cancer. They will know for sure after surgery, which is scheduled for a week from tomorrow.
Yesterday I got the invite for Relay for Life's March Fashion show, having been a designer for them last year. I've accepted, and Greenwood Designs will have a store there.
I have mixed feelings. I love my sister-in-law and I don't want her to have cancer, but as hard as it is for me, it's worse for her. Just the sheer terror of knowing you have something like that isn't easy to deal with. For us, her extended family, it's been a week of disbelief with a lot of tears. I would ask for your prayers for her, her name is Mary Ann, and that today you take an extra moment and tell at least one person you love how much they mean to you.
Bright blessings,
Kembri
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