Golden Autumn

Not too long ago a very close friend of mine, Seaside, was IMing me, asking if I would be ok. First I was wondering why she would ask me that, but then she told me she was following my flickr and the latest, and very dark pictures did concern her. I thought that was very sweet and I tried to explain to her why I do have this super dark and destructive side as well. I was suffering of depressions a very long time of my life and I sometimes still do, but I learning to live and work with them. So if I do those very dark and morbid pictures, to me it is like checking up on an old friend, deep inside of me. This friend will never leave me, but we both learned how to co-exist. I just have to go there sometimes, to check on him and if he still is there in place, where I put him a long time ago. I do not know if that makes sense, but for me it is kinda like therapy and it does work out 90% of the time. The hard times, where I often was close to the moment of giving up, or even tried to give up are gone and that is what counts for me.

For quite some time, I did not want to see that. I thought with medicine, pills and therapy I can make it go away – I just wanted to ‘heal’. After many different attempts to do that, I met a wonderful person, that to me was more valuable than every therapist I ever met before. He was a therapist too, but I did not met him as a patient, I met him at one of my concerts and we became friends over the time. After we met several times we had a discussion about depressions and he gave me a completely new view on it. He told me, depressions would be kinda the same thing as being alcohol addicted, you can fight the symptoms, but not the facts, case or reasons. He stated, that I can decide, if I let the depressions take over my life or if I take control over the depressions. That sounds very easy , but it is not and I probably would not have been able to do that without any help. I was very lucky to have real friends and family, who helped me over the time of the learning process and it was not done in just a few weeks – it took years.

I decided to take control – even if I maybe never will have 100% of control, it made my life way easier that to just give up and live for the depressions. I wanted more from my life that what my depressions would have allowed me to do. But like I said before, sometimes that ‘old friend’ knocks at my door and I have to decide if I let him in, or if I just go out with him for a while or even go visit him at his place, where I can leave him when ever I want.

I know, depressions can be very different and there is no general solution for that, but you always have decision to fight against or to give up – I never won’t judge over someones decision, as either of both is an option to choose and while one can be good for someone, it can be bad for another person.

I hope, I could make sense with my words – English is not my first language 😉

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: Enfant Terrible – “Kimi” (Maitreya)

Boots: Blueberry – “Celia Boots – High Heels” (Maitreya)

Rings: Elle Boutique – “Bloom” (Maitreya, Bento)

Collar: Salt & Pepper – “Slumber Party” (Gacha, Rare)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Role”

Makeup: Zibska – “Mina Liner” (LeLutka Applier, Ltd. Gift)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLeutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Tattoo: [White~Widow] – “Anon” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props

Prop: R.O.T. – “End Nature”

Poses: Foxcity – “Stairs (Sitting)” (Bento)

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Through the Eyes of a Child

July 27, 2018 by Wicca Merlin

TUNES

Sweet innocent child with your open eyes.
You’ve seen us for who we really are.
And I know that there’ll be tomorrow.
So that hope can have it’s glory day.
And I wish that this world would embrace you
from magic stars and mystery.
My open heart …Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.
Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.

I know you, I’ve seen your face before
you brought me to this open door
afraid to walk through.
Please take my hand.I know that there will be tomorrow.
So that hope can have it’s glory day?
And I wish that this world embrace you
from magic stars and mystery.
My open heart …Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.
Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.

I see where we’ll go from here.
‘Cause love doesn’t break
with the right amount of care
in your hands is whom you’ve choosen to be.
Life is a freedom.
Now go out there and be free.

Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.
Why did we make it so hard, this life is so complicated
until we see it through the eyes of a child.

[Reamonn]

Outfit & Accessories

Dress & Headpiece: Fellini Couture – “Farfalla Gown” (Maitreya) – NEW @ SENSE Event

Eyedeco & Necklace: GizzA – “Papillon Set”

Gloves & Bag: Bauhaus Movement – “Audrey Gloves & Purse” (Maitreya, Bento)

Shoes: [Gos] – “Rihanna Boots” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: lock&tuft – “Shane”

Makeup: Zibska – “Noir Pack 06” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: je suis – “lelutka lips no. 005 – [yellows]” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props

Balloons: anxiety – “Sorrowland Balloons” (color modified in PS)

Clouds: +Half-Deer+ – “Simple Cloud Set [Bright White]”

Poses: Poseidon – “Chasing Butterflies” (Bento)

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Creature

July 22, 2018 by Wicca Merlin

We are creatures of light and darkness
Only happy when we love, when we dare
We know nothing of moderation
Only suffer when we love, when we can

A human can only fly for so long
I’m coming in to land
It may seem strange, but I need you to
Help me understand
Who I am

[Information Society]

Outfit & Accessories

Top: A&Y Cybernetics – “Electra Cyber Top” (Maitreya)

Gloves: A&Y Cybernetics – “Electra Cyber Gloves” (Maitreya)

Pants: A&Y Cybernetics – “Electra Cyber Panties” (Maitreya)

Legs: A&Y Cybernetics – “Electra Cyber Legwarmers” (Maitreya)

Horns: E.V.E Studio – “Maleficent GW Horns” – NEW @ SL15B Lucky Chair

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Shield” – NEW @ TRES CHIC

Body & Tattoos

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Teeth: LeLutka – “Beast Teeth 1.1”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Skin: YS&YS – “Ginny Drow” (LeLutka & Maitreya Applier)

Eyes: ANATOMY – “Dragon Eyes”

Poses & Props

Poses: Poseidon – “Horror Set”

Location

District 18

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Into the Underground – Composition can be frustrating sometimes!

July 8, 2018 by Wicca Merlin

Lately I got really frustrated about picture composition and why sometimes things work and if you try to do the same thing exactly as before it won’t work anymore.

Did you ever come across such as well?

You know you have the basic rules for picture composition down, you do as you learned over years how to align things and items and set your avatar in place and still you miss the “wow” on the picture? Then you start playing with lights and shadows, push around prims, add more lights and delete them again, change the angles and anyways what you do always looks ‘ok’ but not that you would like to work on the picture more?

This time I forced myself to work on all of the pictures, anyways if I do like it or not. The purpose was to do a Visionaire homework and I wanted to discover why I feel so different or see different things in pictures. As well to see if all the popular art rules would go over my personal liking in picture composition.

I adore people who know how to place things for sets, it looks so easy and consistent while there is so much thinking behind it. I only can imagine how long you have to play ‘prim nudger’ until you have everything in place for a huge complete scenery. I only do little sets, with a few selected props usually and that already feels like it would take forever. I do not mean to feel like a whiney but I really pulled my hair over that the past weeks and if you have a solution, you are more than welcome to put it in the comments – I would highly appreciate that :).

Now, more about my todays look…

It was time fo contrasts again for me. I went for a black and red look and wanted to combine it with a blue/black background, that I was eying quite a while already and never had any ideas what I could do with it.

When I saw the “Maggie” pants from Salt & Pepper, I immediately fell in love with them. They do have an amazing color HUD as well, but when I saw the black and red I was sold :p

I just had to find a jacket, that goes with the whole idea and that I found in the “Bubble Crop Jacket” made by Sabotage. Since I do have an addiction for tattoos – I always had – The amazing blank belly was able to be tattooed with one of the amazing creations of White Widow.

With that strong styling and as well the contrast I chose by using a blue/black background to my red/black style, I needed a strong makeup, too. And yes – you can make a guess – it comes from Zibska :p It is not a secret how much I do love Zib Sgaggs designs and the more I am happy, that I can showcase another amazing Makeup/Lipstick combo named “Ventura”.

I enjoyed playing with artistic rules in mind like ‘Lines & Diagonals’, ‘Repetition or the ‘Rule of Thirds’. For some I even found the Fibonacci sequence applying – can you guess which ones?

Outfit & Accessories

Jacket: ..S.. – “Bubble Crop Jacket – Red” (Maitreya)
Pants: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Maggie” (Maitreya)
Shoes: PHEDORA – “Abby Heels” (Maitreya)
Face: +XAnSA+ – “JianDi Face Straps”
Piercings: Meva – “Bento Hand Piercings 2” (Maitreya)
Rings: Meva – “Bento Nails 3” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: .shi – “Hearken”
Makeup & Lipstick: Zibska – “Ventura” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”
Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”
Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)
Tattoo: [White~Widow] – “Dead Man” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props

Background: Mesh India – “Bon Voyage Escalator Background”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Black – not a Color but an Addiction ;)

June 30, 2018 by Wicca Merlin

Back in Black 😉 As much as I experiment with colors, I do love black and it feels the most comfortable to me. Today I do have fantastic news from A&Y and no.match. A&Y is THE brand for everything cyber and futuristic looking and my personal favorite, if it comes to that kind of styles. Today I would like to showcase the very first gacha, that Anabel Crystal made for the Lootbox event. The gacha has 24 commons and 2 rares. The “Lorna Cybergothic Leather” gacha is composed of armwarmers, collar, panties, skirt and corset. “Lorna” comes in 6 different colors – Mono, Light, Dark, Red, Hot Red & Dark Red. While the corsets are the rare items all the others are amazing common items. The panties fit perfectly beneath the skirt but as well can be worn without it.

The cool legwarmers are made as well by A&Y and they got released at the Red Light District event. They come with 5 latex textures, unlimited palette of tint and it is materials enabled as well. Shine and glow options can be chosen, too and you have the choice of an linkset and separate objects for each leg.

The amazing hair, comes from no.match and was released for the UBER event. I completely fell in love with the “No.Arrest” hairstyle. I am anyways addicted to short hair and if they have a slight punky style I just cannot resist anyways 😉 No.match is one of my favorite hair store for along time and I do love their textures and as well the different colors of their hair. Since Wicca does have the ‘no eyebrow’ look as one of her trademarks I do have to have a light hair color. That kinda limits me to a range from blond to light red if I do not use any kind of eyebrows – if I use them they are kinda unusual and the most I do love the penciled ones – no.match has the best shades of those colors for me, that as well match my skintone perfectly.

Since I am talking the whole time about favorite stores I cannot miss Zibska, one of my first stores to go if I am looking for extra ordinary and strong character makeups. I am always jumping up and down if I see new releases especially unusual lipsticks like the “Tista” one. It is just amazing what you can do with makeup and lipsticks apart from the norm and Zib Scaggs seems to have an unlimited sky of creativity for exactly those!

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: A&Y Cybernetics – “Lorna Cybergothic Leather” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Lootbox

Legwarmers: A&Y Cybernetics – “Lexa Latex Legwarmers” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Red Light District

Shoes: PFC – “Forced Heels” (Maitreya)

Gloves & Claws: **RE** – “Livia Glove & Claws” (Maitreya, Gacha)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Arrest” – NEW @ ULTRA

Hairbase: Mina – “Myla” (LeLutka Applier)

Makeup: Zibska – “Vargo” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Tista” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props

Background: House Of Shade – “Bright Lights Backdrop (Black)”

Poses: Poseidon, Nanika & Fairey Poses

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Retro Feelings!

June 10, 2018 by Wicca Merlin

It MUST be the Vintage Fair, that always puts me in some weird retro and vintage moods 😉

Vintage Fair is one of my ‘must go’ every year.

First of all the event owners always do an incredible job with their sim building and second… all those creations of all kind of past time epochs! It was a hard choice to decide what to wear for a post first…

When I put on the dress from Kyoto Couture, which I found at the Vintage Fair – choice was made :p I do have an addiction for 70s and 80s things … maybe it is because of my age… and that pattern on the dress sold me. Retro is trendy again anyways!

First I had an Austin Powers moment but I did not really find all the part to do what I had in mind and so I changed my vision more towards a retro moment feeling between records and a real record player. All over 30 years will remember those huge vinyl records, that made that special noise when you listened to the music… sometimes I really miss it and pull out my old record player – yes I still have one out of nostalgic feelings – and listen to some old ABBA songs.

Certainly even a retro style has to have my own twist and so I decided to wear the some legstraps from Sakide and the awesome “Electra Cyber Gloves” from A&Y Cybernetics. I know I already blogged them before, but that even more shows how versatile they are!

Talking about Vintage Fair goodies… as well from the Vintage Fair are the incredible booties, the hairstyle, the glasses, the earrings and the cool makeup from Zibska! It is really fun if you set yourself a challenge and see that you put together a look from a certain event only (more or less) – That brought cool looks out for me actually and even some I maybe would not have done without that 😉

I do not wanna talk to much today, as I do have some more amazing Vintage Fair styles to snap… I hope you enjoyed my retro mood as much as I did 😉

Outfit & Accessories

Dress: Kyoko Couture – “No.38[Abby]Blue” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Gloves: A&Y Cybernetics – “Electra Cyber Gloves” (Maitreya)

Straps: [ Sakide ] – “Yleria Leg Straps” (Maitreya)

Shoes: (*<*) 1313 – “Go Go Boots” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Glasses: Cae – “Catherine” – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Watch: ChiMia:: – “Timemaster 200” – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Earrings: .ZGURSKY . – “Alla” – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Hair & Makeup

Hair: ICONIC – “Betti” – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Makeup & Lipstick: Zibska – “Gina” (LeLutka Applier) – NEW @ Vintage Fair 2018

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props

Background: MINIMAL – “Retro Backdrops *8*” (Gacha)

Records: 22769 – “Records in a Box” & Records for Sale 2″ (The Record Shop Gacha)

Rug: 22769 – “Record Rug” (The Record Shop Gacha)

Table: [ht:home] – “Record Table”

Player: Ariskea – “Record 50”

Model & Photrographer:

Wicca Merlin

Fantasy is Escapist, and that is its Glory

May 24, 2018 by Wicca Merlin

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”
[J.R.R. Tolkien]

Isn’t Second Life a place where we can escape reality? Isn’t Second Life a place to experiment and live visions and dreams? – To me it is!

I am not saying my way is the best or the only one, as Second Life is a platform where everyone can do and life what ever they want. It should be a place where you can do everything that you can imagine and dream of for yourself. As kids we played Barbie or enjoyed various roleplay like Cowboy and Indian, Robin Hood and the Lady Marian or what ever we wanted. To me Second Life is just an extension of that.

I can dress up with everything my mood is leading me to. Mostly it is something I could not wear in RL. Sometimes it can be casual as well but usually it has some twist on it to make it my own. Often I was told, you need to decide to a certain direction to set a trademark or make yourself a brand – I never could decide for one and why should I in a world that gives you like nearly unlimited options? I thought by myself if it could not be my trademark to not have a certain look or style 😉

Since I decided about that, I felt so much more free to experiment and play with all kind of things. There is only a few things, I set as my own limits to myself. I never would do porn, as I personally think there is no need to do that on a virtual fashion blog, as you can do so much more with nudity or semi nudity in an artistic way and it is nothing that I would like to share with a wide range of people anyways. As well i never would touch any illegal things, that go against common sense or the law, I never felt the desire to do such at all. That said, I just have fun playing with several things and lately I do love creating my own sceneries and backgrounds or add something personal to places I do love to snap at.

One of my favorite sim collectives for fantasy themed pictures is the Ippos Collective. A consortium of 4 sims. Sylpha, Nymphai, Ippos and Pegasoi. Each sim has a certain theme to it and all of them are decorated in an amazing way with much love to the details. All of them are changing their seasons, which always gives new things and settings to discover. There are a few parcels that are rented, but as long as you respect their privacy you can even rezz some props and pose stands to make your perfect shot. The owners are extremely sweet and kind and always have an open ear if you need help or advice. Most of them do amazing pictures like for example Duchess Flux. I am very happy to be allowed to call her a friend. She was there, backed me up and trusted me in some of the darkest hours of my SL. I won’t ever forget that – Thank you Duchie ♥

I only can give a rough view of the sims as no words I know would satisfy the beauty of those very special places. You need to wander all across the collective and even then you won’t see everything on your first walk 😉

Ippos is mostly a residential sim. It has a beautiful landscape of a fantasy world, like a hidden treasure in the middle of a forest. No wonder that it is built in such an beautiful way, since well known SL bloggers and photographers call that palce their home and the parcels are really desired and not often open for new rentals.

On Nymphai you will find all the amazing events like the Enchantment or the Secret Affair as well as some main stores of fantastic and creative designers.

Pegasoi to me looks more like the romantic and sweet fantasy part of the group. You will find the Lady Garden Cabaret there, which shows monthly shows of amazing and creative artists.

Last but not least we have Sylpha, the water sim. Any desire you have for water based pictures you will find there. Weather you would like to do some peaceful island pictures or you actually would like to really swim in Linden water together with fishes and dolphins – everything is possible!

If you like more and detailed info about the Ippos Collective just take a look at https://threadsandtuneage.com/ippos/

If you are in such an amazing fantasy environment you have to dress up to fit in there 😉 This time I wanted to showcase one of the amazing hats from Spartin Parx. The “Milli” hat comes with a huge HUD. You can change the base to 6 different colors and the sweet roses on the top have a variety of 9 colors to chose from.

I thought a long time about how I could style it to not loose the focus on the hat but as well have a cute fantasy look. First I thought about something uniform based, I do not know why and I discovered very fast that this was not the way it would work out. The hat had a Victorian touch to me and finally I found a sweet doll looking outfit that just did the trick 😉 For the boots I went with the “Kora” boots form UTOPIA@Design. I do have an addiction to over-knee boots, maybe because I do not often have the opportunity to wear them RL, as they would not fit into my everyday job most of the time ;). With the laces in the front, they totally matched the Victorian look, while the steel caps in the front added some strong, modern feelings to the whole look, which i loved a lot for the whole photo composition.

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: Violent Seduction – “Madame Chevaliere” (Maitreya,Gacha – Bra, Corset, Paudrons & Skirt)

Gloves: Maddict – “Starlet Gloves” (Maitreya)

Shoes: UTOPIA@Design – “Kora” (Maitreya)

Hat: Spartin Parx – “Millie”

Collar: Zombie Suicide – “Willow Collar”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: No.Match – “No.Call”

Makeup: Slackgirl – “Kam” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Chooli” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Face: Izzie’s – Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Props: JIAN – “Wolf Pack & Companion” & Moon_Sha – “Cinderella’s Pumpkins” (Gacha, Ultrarare)

Location

The Ippos Collective

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin