“… yet Daylight put an End to all these Evils…”

Originally created for AUDAZ – https://audaz-sl.com/shades-of-bathory/

“ All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely pre-ambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these evils; and he would have passed a pleasent life of it, in despite of the devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was – a woman.”

[- Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow -]
Clothing

Gown: CURELESS[+] – “Bathory’s Gown – BRIDAL” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Collar: Wicca’s Originals – “Lamia Collar [Bloody Edition]” (Maitreya)

Skeletons: CURELESS[+] – “Anatomical Venus /Mors Vincit Skeletons” (Gacha, Reward VIP)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: [KKLRS] – “Sybylla”

Eye Makeup: CURELESS[+] – “Undereye Lines & Liner /RED” (BoM)

Face Art: CURELESS[+] – “Psychopomp / Black / FADED” (BoM)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “Erin 2.5”

Eyes: Madame Noir – “Queen HD Eyes”

Ears: [CX] – “Sceleratis Ears”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3”

Arms & Shoulder Tattoo: Ghoul – “Hannya Demon Arms” (Maitreya)

Skin: 7 Deadly s[K]ins – “Well & Hallow – Hallow Skin Browless” (BoM)

Poses, Props & Tools

Pose: Poseidon

Skulls: BellePoses – “Spookzilla Hunt 2 – Skull”

Weapon: [CX] – “Reforged Reaper”

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Come inside, don’t be afraid, I’ll keep you safe…

TUNES

Hey there, little girl
Come inside I’ve got some sweet things
Put your hair in curls
Paint you up just like a drag queen

I don’t mind decay?
‘Cause you are the night that saves my day

[-Pretty Reckless-]

Today I have a picture for you, which I created for my exhibition at the L’autre Oeil Gallery. They asked me to create 3 pictures for a special exhibition called “Halloween & Goth”. When I saw the Incredible “Plague Skeleton Creature” mask and hands from DRD, released at The Warehouse Sale, it was a must to use them for the picture idea that I had! The hands even come with a BoM layer to make a smooth seam between the hands and arms. While I was styling, I realized that CerberusXing just released new horns at Necrosis another cool event for this season you should not miss out!

The cool tattoo, which perfectly matched the look, I found at Nefekalum Tattoos and the awesome, filigree outfit was made by ERSCH.

This time of the year is like my personal Christmas season. I do love all the dark, mystic and scary things – I know… no news so far – and I can promise, that I already have a few more ideas in mind in that kind of style, for my next few blog posts 😉

Clothing

Outfit: ERSCH – “Vena” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Horns: [CX] – Apis Horns” – NEW @ Necrosis

Mask & Hands: DRD – “Plague Skeleton Creature” (Hands: Maitreya, Bento) – NEW @ The Warehouse Sale

Hair & Makeup

Hair: MINA Hair – “Karen”

Head, Body & Tattoo

Body: Maitreya – “Lara v5.3”

Tattoo: Nefekalum Tattoos – “Icarus Brans” (Maitreya Applier, Materials Enabled)

Poses, Props & Tools

Pose: Poseidon

Lamp: DRD – “Voodoo Shoppe – Spirit Lamp – Long”

Mobile: DRD – “Voodoo Shoppe – Bone Mobile – Long”

Gallery Location

L’autre Oeil Gallery

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Refurbished

https://issuu.com/eclipsemagazinesl/docs/eclipse_magazine_july_2020

 

TUNES

Father did you miss me,
Been locked up a while.
I got caught for what I did but took it all in style.
Laid to rest all my confessions I gave way back when.
Now I’m versed in so much worse,
So I am back again, and he said

For the love that I make, I’m going to hell!

Gettin’ heavy with the devil, you can hear the wedding bells.

[Pretty Reckless]

Accessories

Headpiece: DRD – “Wasteland Helmet – Metal Mohawk”

Rings & Nails: [CX] – “Shredder Claws – Silver” (Maitreya, Bento)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “Lake 2.0”

Ears: [CX] – “Withered Bezerker Ears”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 5.2”

Skin: ~JJ~ – “Specialty Skin (Cracked Porcelain)

Tattoo: Nefekalum Tattoos – “Refurbished” (Maitreya Applier)

Poses & Props

Surrounding: DRD – “San Mora” (various items of the collection)

Pose: Poseidon

Location

Bartertown

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Wicca’s Wardrobe @ ROMP August 2018

Wicca’s Wardrobe @ ROMP (August 11th – 25th)

For this round of ROMP we have the very revealing Layla body.. This unique ensemble puts a whole knew spin on “barely there”. It is striking and provocative and will certainly make those around you sit up and take notice. The Layla body is a one-piece original creation that comes with a HUD that offers you 10 colors and 6 metals. Our Layla body is designed to fit Maitreya only.

Taxi: ROMP – Elegant Kink

Unique? Different? Special? Outstanding? – Human!

Not too long ago I had an interesting discussion with a good friend of mine about modeling and how it changed over the past years. It was interesting and a few things she mentioned really had me think about a lot.

I went back to the basic idea of a model… what is a model? The model usually is a blank vessel, where a designer can project his vision on (quote of Wolfgang Joop). That means it is not about the model at all, it is about the designs. Certainly a designer might have special preferences about certain shapes and faces, but in general they are just a mannequin wearing the designers creations, styled after the designers imagination of how he wants to see the outfits.

So why some models throw a tantrum, when they get told certain styling requirements? Like short hair, a certain makeup and strict regulations about jewelry and accessories?

I was thinking a lot about that and where in Second Life that could have come from…

Maybe it is because people got mixed up by pageants and modeling? Both of them have nothing to do with each other. A pageant is about the person doing it, modeling is about showcasing designers creations!

In the beginning, there were not so many models in all those pageants that were held in the past. All of a sudden everyone had to be the face of whatever and to win the “Miss Whatever” title – I never understood why to be honest, I never had that desire. I was talked into doing this kind of things 2 or 3 times and I regret each time, as it only did cost money and time for nothing. It was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a model, to showcase designers creations and their hard work – not being a beauty pageant participant, being all pretty and smooth and kiss my way up to where ever it was necessary. We all know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and with a good relationship to an event owner, designer or judge, your chances get higher by nature – we are all humans. In the end no one wants to work with a winner, that he/she can’t stand for a certain period of time, again we are all humans after all 😉

But what did that do to SL modeling?

All of a sudden people wanted to be recognized for their avatars when they were walking a runway. One started to pose “fierce”, the next one tried as hard as possible to ‘accessorize’ the shit out of every outfit – anyways if it did fit or not – to be noticed on the runway.

By all means, I do love expressive posing myself on pictures and at themed shows or productions, that request those kind of poses. But for a general casual, formal or regular runway show, to me it makes no sense to spread all limbs out as far as you can, even if for quite some time it was called “fiiiierce” posing.To me fierce or dramatic posing doe snot have to be all spread out and hands up in the air like I would be ready to take off or acting like a GoGo dance animator in a discotheque.

If you ever watched a RL runway show for general fashion – not talking about special shows like Alexander McQueen had – the posing is very clean and simple. Again models showcase a designer, not being actresses on a red carpet – and even those keep it quite simple usually as they represent a designer with their clothing most of the time as well 😉 I am not saying there is no room for anything else, but for ‘usual’ runway shows I can see, why people prefer the more simple way of posing and styling. Simplicity can be the key and it can be so much more modern if you keep your poses updated and re-invent your posing each time and not just use the same 20 poses over and over again.

There is as well 2 kind of shows in Second Life, that require two completely different ways to approach them with posing and stying. We have the ‘usual’ runway shows like fashion weeks or special designer showcases and then we have the theater, show or event like shows which are mostly themed. For example a special Halloween show, where the main focus is on the event itself and in opposite to a fashion week those kind of shows are more to entertain people. Last summer Trouble Dethly and his group did an amazing example how fashion, event and as well a theater fashion show can be combined with their Thereafter event. Designers provided outfits, but as well did know it is not just a runway show but more of a ‘happening’ to entertain the main grid users. There we can go all crazy with posing as long as it follows the story, you even can use little animations to underline your character while on a runway I am all for static poses.

For accessories it was quite the same and all of a sudden avant garde was the way to go on the runway. I love avant garde BUT in Second Life avant garde seemed to mean you put a bunch of metal scraps on your head, go half naked and try to fill as many attachment points that you can and certainly do not forget your wings… If you look for the general idea of avant garde fashion that is so way off… it could not be more away from the subject, but thats a completely different story 😉

But I can understand why modeling is kinda dead in Second Life at the moment, because of all this things besides an economic/business aspect as well which made fashion shows not anymore profitable for most of the designers.

I get that models were taught to be unique and to stand out, but there is so many ways how you can do that without taking all attention off the clothing and onto your avatar… It is so much more important to make a brand out of yourself on your flickr and blog instead of runway shows. When you are making pictures or go out window shopping all prim-perfect styled, it can do a lot. Especially on blogs and pictures you can express your styling abilities, your way of posing and you kinda have no limits if you are not blogging a certain piece for a designer. That is why I love posts and pictures so much where you do not have to showcase any specific item and just can go with the flow of your imagination.

Like the pictures for today’s post. I tried to put the idea of standing out off a crowd with not too much accessories and to underline my statement about being unique. I already posted all the items before when I wanted to showcase them and so I had room and freedom to play with them now and try to create my imagination in Second Life. It was not an easy way though and probably took the longest time I ever needed for a picture to be done. I wa struggling with the idea and the inspiration since March 2018. Now we have July and I am still not 100 % satisfied but this time it felt that was the best I can do with my actual skills – I am learning everyday something new 😉

The face is something that makes every human unique anyways – if they do not have a twin and even those have their unique trademarks if you take a really close look. So if you ever were at a Second Life modeling agency you were told your face is the most important and unique trademark you have. Anyways what it looks like as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, if you push the limits of human face proportions slightly and well thought you really could create a very unique look in the past with system heads. Then for quite some time many models were struggling wit the first wave of mesh heads. The static mesh heads in the beginning were not really as ‘character’ friendly as the system heads were. Only a very few sliders reacted to customizing and the skin more or less was the only way to create a unique look somehow. I hesitated a long time myself until I gave it a try and I felt so relieved, when bento came to live and we were able to customize your faces and heads again more even with a few limits to bento bones. Nowadays I am very happy with the head and the skin and even if we are told constantly to update I am stuck with the head and the skin since I got it.

With the pictures I wanted to try to express a feeling or an emotion that follows me for quite some time in both worlds. I am not yet ready to really tell the whole story behind it, as it is a very vulnerable spot in my soul, but maybe with the ongoing process of playing with that picture idea, it will come out eventually and I am brave enough to tell. But for now it shows how you can have a face, how you can be unique with not much on yourself than just your face. I really hope i did make sense in what I was talking about, even if I tried t not go too deep into it and not let my emotions take over too much.

Big thanks goes out to Hill.S (Hillany Scofield) and her amazing exhibition that let me find those mannequins, which I needed so desperately for my pictures. She is an incredible artist and picture queen and has such an amazing installation going on – I have to go back and take a picture there, as I promised her 😉

Outfit & Accessories

Outfit: .:EC:. (Enelya’s Creations) – “Norena” (Maitreya)

Face Art: Slackgirl – “Circles”

Nails: Slackgirl – “RingQueen Nai” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Makeup & Lipstick: Zibska – “Piper” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Props: Snowpaws – “Static Store Mannequins”

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

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

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Wicca’s Wardrobe – Riona Gacha Set @ Gacha Garden August 2017

This round of the Gacha Garden we have one of our sexiest creations yet, Riona. This naughty number is comprised of a top, corset, panties, skirt, bracers and boots. There are 20 commons and 2 rares. All items come with a texture changing HUD for straps/rim and/or metals, but the rares come with an enhanced HUD offering even more textures and options to choose from.

Our Seed of Inspiration for Riona is a coordinating collar that comes with an enhanced texture changing HUD.

We have a OC SIX scripted version of the Riona collar available.

If you played our machine, won the collar and would like to exchange it to a scripted no trans but copy version, just send us a notecard 🙂

Gacha Garden – How to play? What is a SoI (Seed of Inspiration)?
http://www.thegachagarden.com/?page_id=797

You don’t want to miss out on Riona! (Riona is made to fit only Maitreya’s Lara.)

Location: Gacha Garden

 

Fragilestrong with Salt & Pepper!

Salt & Pepper 02final

Today I have something very special and as well a personal favour for you.

Lately I got an incredible rope harness from Salt & Pepper. I did not know that amazing designer personally before and I was super surprised, that we share the same country in RL*grins*

It is always kinda funny, if you talk to people in English and after a longer while you discover, that you could have spoken your mother tongue :p

Salt & Pepper 10final

When I met that wonderful lady, I immediately had an amazing and comfortable feeling talking to her and the more we talked, the more I felt, I would like to do that sweet lady a favour. Just because she was so nice and kind to me 😉

She released an amazing Rope & Flowers set on a very new event called Objets d’Amour, which was hosted by the owners or the ROMP event. The first round, where this artpiece was released, was going on from the 4th or February until the 15th.

Sadly, RL did not let me do the pictures in time of the event :/

But since I wanted to do something very special, I simply could not rush the pics through.

But I took a peek at the main store of Salt & Pepper and I saw that she has the gacha machine up there now with that amazing items 😉

Salt & Pepper 08final

I know that many people have prejudices about ropes on a nearly nude body and many times it just falls towards porn or gets judged like that. But as in so many cases, it is always in the eye of the beholder or about personal taste I guess.

To me ropes can be very artistic and as well, tasteful and artistic lingerie or nude shots can be very impressing and amazing.

And exactly that, I wanted to transport on my todays pictures 😉

Salt & Pepper 01final

First I put on the harness and all the parts that came with it and looked at it very close. It comes with HUDs for all pieces, where you can change the colors of the ropes, metals and roses. The set contains even more parts than the ones I used but for the purpose and look I was going for they did not wanna really fit in to my view this time 😉

I decided to go with the harness, the gag and cuffs for ankles and wrists. All parts are scripted for roleplay as well.

The more I looked on the different pieces, the more I found all those incredible details like the little chains that lead for the ropes to the metals or the amazing detailed texture of the rope itself. That already proves the high quality of the Salt & Pepper designs. The whole set contains 5 standard sizes for the classic avatars, Slink Physique/Hourglass and a Maitreya Lara fitting version.

Salt & Pepper 03final

When I was staring at my pixels wearing the awesome parts of the “Ropes & Flowers” set, imaginations ran through my head about what to do with it.

First I tried the black ropes and everything I tried to style kinda was sexy and seductive… but I wanted more. The more I tried, the more an idea got stuck in my mind about opposites. I wanted something artistic, something sexy, something classy.. something fragile and something strong and powerful.

First I thought that will be too many in one but the more I played with stuff the more I was confident about it can work.

Salt & Pepper 06final

I got stuck on the white ropes with the rose golden metals and the darker red roses. To give an opposite to the strong and kinky look of the “Ropes & Flowers” set, I wanted some white lingerie – not too playful with lots of ruffles and lace. More something classy, simple but still modern and different looking AND for the Slink Physique mesh body. After spending more than an hour on Marketplace, I made my way into the Starwalkers2010 chat and asked – kinda depressed – about ideas for something like that.

I got some very good advises but one girl hit the nail on the head with her suggestion… Thank you Voshie Paine!!!

She lead my way to Chocolate Atelier (c.A.). I TPed over to the store and already was very impressed about the designs and I was curious what Marketplace would give me for that brand since sometimes gacha items or older products are not available in world anymore but still there.

Salt & Pepper 09final

BINGO!

I found the “Thea Bra & Panties” ensemble. The amazing layer set can be worn on many different mesh bodies and mesh body parts with the provided appliers and it has the layer versions inside as well.

The simple looking light, smooth fabric has some very fascinating cutouts on both parts, that make an amazing front and back view 😉

Salt & Pepper 07final

While I was searching through my inventory for any kind of scenery or decoration ideas, I stumbled over something that I got a long time ago and never really used it. It comes out of a time long before mesh even was talked about :p .

The “Draped” set from Glitterati was released back in 2011 and comes with a sheer satin looking fabric prop and 10 different poses. I did not use all of them but for a few I wanted to give it a try.

With all the new windlight, the old sculpties did not cooperate too well and I had to rework them a little later in PS. Since I am not a trained graphic artist in RL… go figure… that took a while, but it was well worth every minute for me and I learned new things 😉

I had so much fun doing those pictures and post. I met a wonderful and kind person, I learned about 2  – for me new – brands I definitely will put on my “to shop and watch out for” list so overall it was a wonderful experience and try to play with lingerie, ropes and opposites 🙂

Salt & Pepper 05final

Outfit: Salt & Pepper – “Ropes & Flowers” (Gacha)

Lingerie: Chocolate Atelier – “Thea Bra & Panties” (Gacha)

Hair: no.match – “no.perfection”

Poses & Props: Glitterati & Del May

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Salt & Pepper 04final

PurpleMoon meets Finesmith

PurpleMoon & Finesmith

Details

Dress: PurpleMoon – “Sorrow Dress”

Jewelry: Finesmith – “Invert”

Shoes: PurpleMoon – “Aretha Heels”

Hair: LeLutka – “Dolce”

Makeup: White Widow – “Anemone Black”

Tattoo: White Widow – “Lost River”

Poses: PosESioN

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

The Fallen One…

…or Faster Pussycat goes Cabaret Colore 😉

Last sunday we had an amazing show with the Passion Fashion Agency. Leandra Breen did it again and pulled together a real amazing show where we all showcased the new outfits of Faster Pussycat. Honey Bender, designer of Faster Pussycat, always was someone who I felt close to even before her designing days and it was a great pleasure that I was allowed again to wear her designs on the runway. Her designs really touch my soul again and again as they are so innovative and fresh but still fashionable and they allow me to go crazy 😉

My first outfit was called “The Caged Beauty” and usually the birds on the skirt were black. But as they are mod you can change the color to whatever you like 🙂 The Show was called Cabaret Colore so color was the key 😉 The outfit itself contains the top, the skirt, clothing layer and the head-piece. The rest I mixed and matched together. The skin is the “Lea Gothic” skin made by LionSkins, with a green lipstick from Launa Fauna,  the hair comes from 3636 Designs and is called “Tara”. I just colored the platinum one to match the green. The whole jewelry set is the “Ocean Winds” set made by Finesmith Designs. The huge amazing wings are done by Talyia Tarber and as well colored by myself.

The second outfit I was allowed to showcase was the “Hellfire Body Suit”. The outfit itself contains the sexy unsymmetric bodysuit that only hides one chest with an opaque texture while the other side gives a bit more of a view with the sheer part 😉 What totally got me are the huge horns that are as well part of the outfit I am so in love with them. The skin I used for is one of the Miasnow “Beautiful Death Beth” ones in red. The hair and hairbase again are from 3636 Designs. Earings from Ticky Tacky, the collar from Finesmith Designs and the cute wings from Material Squirrel completed my look. The shoes you can see in the very first pic above we got from PoosyKat LittleBoots.

It was a totally amazing show and I want to thank all the amazing fellow models and Leandra Breen for an awesome event as well 🙂

Pose Pic 1: Del May

Pose Pic 2 and 3: Corpus

Kitties Alarm at Ash’s Trash!!!

Yes… it is me… in pink*hides her head* but I could not resist after I saw this outfit that I got for the blog. Ashleey Andrew, designer of Ash’s Trash,  is one of the finalists of the “Claim the Fame” awards of SL Art Couture and she made her way in with exactly this dress. Unbelievable but true, she put all these little Kitties together and managed to create a look that some of us know maybe from Lady Gaga.

Wonderful sculpted prims are arranged around the body and all have the shape of those neat kitties. You will have a hard time to find the sam kitten twice as all are look different what shows the effort that Ashleey made while she created this extraordinary outfit. From big to small the kitties are stacked from the bottom to the top and even the most little one does not miss the amazing details what shows the love of every little thing that Ashley put in that design. The whole outfits is made of 4 prims you attach and one undershirt layer.

To put the dot on the “i” you can find one single kitty as kinda head decoration. I have to admit I am really impressed, even if it is pink… and I really hate pink usually… this outfit kicked me and I had lots of fun doing this post and I am sure this was not the last time that I was wearing this extraordinary dress 😉 I would like to suggest, that you make your way to the Ash’s Trash Mainstore and take a look on her other designs and creations and maybe you find one that you like for yourself 😉

Details

Outfit: Ash’s Trash – “Kitties”

Skin: Glam Affair

Lashes: Redgrave

Earrings & Bangles: Ticky Tacky

Collar: Finesmith

Hair: 3636 Designs

Shoes: BAX

Poses: Body Talking (all from the Gagalishious set)

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin