I’m still out there, still evolving.

Aranel Ah, “Yellow Mermaid”

I’m not sure if you all know, but I make the NiXiE tails.

I’ve been grateful and honored that many SL Photo-artists have chosen to use my tails, or parts of them, in creating mermaid-themed imagery. I wanted to post a few of my favorites. Links to appropriate flickr pages are provided.

Aranel Ah (Model: Claire Dallin), “/me sleeps with the fishes”

Divine Tokyoska (Model: Psy Carnell), “Mermaid Psy^^”

Melodious Source, “Return to Innocence”

Abigail Heron, “To Swim Forever”
 

If you are the photographer and would like your work removed, or a credit is incorrect, please contact me.

If you haven’t been to the 2009 Hair-Fair yet, do go this instant and head for Tekelili Tantalus’ booth. As usual, he has created a dazzling, detailed, and alternative collection of hair styles. What’s better, this year’s collection are all catered towards mer and aquatic humanoids.

If I could complain about anything concerning his work, it is a bit prim heavy, so if you’re into maintaining a low ARC you might have to do some balancing, but you’ll never find better detail. Go shop!

• SLURL: Tekelili’s shop @ Hair Fair 2009 (note, you can’t TP there directly, but this will put a marker on your map to walk to)
• SLURL: Tekelili in the Hollow Earth (main store)

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.

See: http://slmerfolk.ning.com/

In the interest of better-connecting Merfolk around SL, I’ve created a group for us on the social network site NING. Anyone can join. Blog, share photos, events, etc. Whatever you want, really!

I’m hoping this will give us better options to communicate and share outside of the poor SL groups system.

For beginning mers, Helena Stringer has compiled a nice list of free or 1L$ mer items. LMs and pictures included.

Nice place for a dive, no?

Mermaids need open water. While the abundance of smaller mer-friendly venues is appreciated, there’s nothing like stretching your fins in the open sea. Of course, land is precious in Second Life, and mermaiding not popular enough to warrant the dedication of large sims for our aquatic pursuits.

Light cracking through large rocks.

A digital shipwreck left over from a long-passed digital storm.

I had the great fortune to be introduced to the Blake Sea the other day, apparently the product of an agreement between a large in-world sailing group and Linden Lab. As you can see, it’s huge. It’s mostly barren with sparse vegetation and sea-life, but there are a few interesting islands and hidden places about it. Siren’s Isle is probably the most mer-friendly of the bunch.

Thats A LOT of water. Click for large version.

But the best part about this, like the Degrand Channel, is that as it is Linden-backed, it won’t be disappearing any time soon. Not that you should delay your trip—get out there! Maybe we’ll cross paths.

• SLURL: Siren’s Isle

Ely and Vix lionfish, originally uploaded by Elysium Eilde.

Just a quick note that Tekelili Tantalus has released his newest merfolk avatar, the lionfish! It may be my favorite so far. It comes in male and female versions in a few different shades. The avatar, priced at 650L$ includes an AO, jewelry, and spear and net accessories. Basically, everything you see in the picture here (not mine, by the way—it’s Elysium Eilde’s). Extremely high-quality work and well worth the money, lots of parts to use in making other mer avatar as well.

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.

Today, Friday February 06 -

2pm SLT – 3pm SLT – Bluewarren’s weekly mer dance with “Dark Mer” as the theme.
500L$ giftcard to shop at Bluewarren as a prize.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bluewarren%20Paradise/128/212/2
Antiquity Mermaids are really coming alive! Lots to do!
7pm SLT every Friday there’ll be a mer gathering. (They also hold one on Wednesdays at 2pm SLT so everyone can get in on mergoodness)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Antiquity%20Keys/212/196/2
Every Saturday at 10am SLT SWF has it’s weekly meetup: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cocoa%20Beach/175/61/12
Every Monday night at 6pm SLT there’s dancing with mermaids and pirates at The Surly Mermaid Pirate Bar. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bonny%20Cove/156/28/2