Until recently, I had a lovely little corner of the world to call my own. It was the perfect place to let me explore some of my building ideas for my own vision of  a mermaid’s home. I tended to lean more towards dark fantasy here that the traditional Greco-Roman or, uh, Giant-seashell styles. Instead, placed my grotto in the remains of some large ruins. Whether or not these are the empty halls of a long-dead human or mermaid civilization remains to be seen. They are deep, dark, and littered with decaying magic, and maybe even a few ghosts.

(more…)

I recently took the plunge and got myself a larger piece of land on a nice, private SIM. I’ve been slowly constructing a living space for myself—you can see part of my bedroom here.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not much of a fan of the giant-seashell vein of mermaid furniture that I see decorating mer-homes across SL. I guess I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to this, but I see no logical reason why merfolk furniture would parallel human furniture in any way. Merfolk may be humanoid, but the sea is a completely different place from the air, with different materials and different physics governing the environment. I suppose I’ll investigate this as I build more, as it’s difficult for me to find furniture that suits my vision for my living space.

My interest in SL has been wavering a bit lately, but I’ve been exploring mermaiding in other avenues. If you’re curious, I’ll write more about it later.

This is Tithis, a lovely octopus that I met the other day. I actually noticed her in one of Diver’s photos before I even made her acquaintance. Her form is of her own creation, and as you can see, it’s fantastic. There’s such a deluge of tails and tail-makers now, but so little variety (with a few notable exceptions). Considering how diverse life is within the sea, I hope in time we’ll start to see more creations like this. Rightly so—merfolk are some of the most imaginative I’ve met within Second Life.

Tithis’ cephalopod avatar isn’t yet for sale, but I’ll let you know when she opts to make it available.

What are some of the more interesting aquatic avatars you’ve seen in the digital oceans? What would you like to see that you haven’t seen yet?

I took a few months off from Second Life. I’m back, sort of, but really only logging in once a week a most.

I’ve been really, really glad to see lots of development in the merfolk community. Lots of things I’m curious about investiating more, but haven’t had the time to.

One thing I’ve noticed is that there are flexi tails now popping up in various shops. Erluen Twin’s Merwings has some (I’m always impressed with the technical quality of her products. Not so much the textures, but her tails are some of the best built I’ve ever worn). I’m curous how flexi’s work. I’m guessing that invisiprims are used to hide the legs? And how does that work with an AO? Wouldn’t the tail flop all over the place?

My Japanese friend Kyotta Spittler has also opened the doors to a brand new Mermaid Temple. It’s been under construction for a while, and I’m pleased to see that going!

Anyway, I hope to be back and updating this blog even if it’s on a semi-regular basis. Please send me LM’s of any intersting places to swim and photograph.