Waiting sometimes is so worth it…

April 24, 2019 by Wicca Merlin

Today I do have a premiere on my blog… It is the first post as a LeLutka blogger! For years I felt not confident with applying for LeLutka, I always felt like I am not yet there where I would stand behind myself enough to dare to apply for a blogger position for LeLutka. I do not know how to explain, it was just a feeling. Then I saw a picture of Mavi Beck – I know her a long time already… we met at AVENUE years ago – on Flickr. I adore her art work, she has a very special feeling for shadow and lights in my view. When I looked at her stream again, I remembered that she is a LeLutka CSR and again the blogging desire for LeLutka came up to my mind. In her profile she as well stated she is a LeLutka Blogger Manager and so I went to my flickr, looked over my recent pictures, took a deep breath and dared to ask her what the conditions for blogging would be. As always she was super kind and nice – I do not remember that I saw her mad EVER – and told me, that LeLutka does work with Blogotex now too and that I could always fill in an application at the access point at the main store. Driven by my desire to blog for LeLutka, I TPed to their main store and while I was rezzing and looking for the access point sign, my doubts again fell back on me and I became a chicken again and TPed back home. I have no clue, why I feel that way when it comes to LeLutka, but I remember LeLutka always as one of the top stores of SL. Back when I started modeling, we had no mesh heads or bento or all that stuff and LeLutka was one of the most high class fashion brand with the top notch fashion ideas and not only for casual desires. Even back then I loved their creations already and blogged them a few times, when I was able to afford their designs (https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccamerlin/4261277578/in/dateposted-public/ or https://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccamerlin/4449981194/in/dateposted-public/) Back I would not even dared to think about being a blogger for LeLutka, because I just started blogging and they only had super models and awesome graphical artists in their blogger group, but it always was a dream of mine…

Ok… back to the present 😉 So I was at home again thinking about, if I would bee good enough to apply for the blogger position at LeLutka. I guess it is the high respect I do have for the designers skills and the fact that LeLutka plays in the designer circle for so long and all of my old idols and icons of the modeling world back then did blog for them, made me judge about myself so hard. But after a few days of thinking about it, I thought that I would have nothing to loose by trying. Either they like my work or they don’t and so I went back to the LeLutka main store, hit the access button and filled the application. They already asked for a certain time period to allow them to review my application and so I forced myself to not look up Blogotex every 15 minutes, because iI was so nervous *blushes*

Even if they already asked for a certain period of time the longer I had to wait the more my doubts had party in my brain again… so when they pop-up in Second Life went up with a notification and the black letters on the blue background with the “Accepted” sentence, I jumped in my chair and started squealing, my partner asked me “If I would not have all the cups in the cupboard anymore” (a German quote – I don’t know if that would make much sense in English. When I put it into the translator I got “to have lost one’s marbles”). I really was uber happy and it was hard to calm down for me. I have no idea, I am not a child anymore, but in that moment I felt like one again. That again shows me, sometimes it is worth waiting until the time is right 🙂

I guess it is a no brainer to mention I had to start instant to work on the pictures for my first blog post. I chose “Korina” to be my first official LeLutka post. “Korina was the latest release for the Skin Fair this year and so I started to work on a shape first and then the hard choice of a skin came up. First I thought I would use the original skin, but the I thought, the original skin already is shown on the vendor and I have to be a little more creative and make ‘my’ Korina. To me “Korina” did not appear like a princess, more like a strong adult female with attitude and so I tried to bring Wicca to “Korina”, but not making her a sister… if that makes sense.

The head comes with the usual great quality standard HUD that LeLutka always provides, but you get something new with “Korina” as well. The HUD has now 2 different hair bases to chose from, based on the default SL UV maps. I will cross my fingers that maybe the older heads will get updated with that too, because I really love that feature 🙂

I will play now a littlemore with my new “Korina” head and who knows.. maybe we have another side of “Korina” here soon *winks*

Clothing

Top: Meva – “Alexis”

Pants: adorsy – “Rihanna Jeans Shorts” (Maitreya)

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

Accessories

Earrings: Aurealis – “Statement Earrings”

Rings: Meva – “Maitreya Rings Silver” (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No.Commitment”

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

Lipstick: alaskametro<3 – “London Lipstick” (Maitreya Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Korina 3.3.1”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Skin: YS&YS – “Petal Tone 02” (LeLutka & Maitreya Applier)

Tattoo: BODY MOD – “Memories” (OMEGA Applier) Store Closed

Poses & Props

Poses: Foxcity

Backdrop: Pseudo “Paul T Scene Backdrop” (Gacha, Rare)

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Dark Fantasy is just another way of saying Horror ;)

April 23, 2019 by Wicca Merlin

Dark Fantasy is just another way of saying Horror.

[Terry Pratchett]

Cyber & Sci-fi time again!

There is so many exciting events running at the moment, it is really hard to resist to not buy everything you see at those events… Especially if it is events like Black Fair, Epiphany, ACCESS or The Fantasy Faire even.

A few things I got nevertheless and they screamed cyberpunk/sci-fi for me 😉 I am still in my dark period with creating styles and pictures and the more I do, the more I enjoy it 🙂 With the dark and fantasy side of SL, I feel so much inspiration lately that I could post something every day if I would have the time to post process all my pictures. But since I wanted to use my easter holidays for learning new tricks in Photoshop, finishing pictures takes some time – even a little more with try and error these days *winks* The desire was to learn more about shading, lights and shadows and how they can be done realistic in Photoshop. I had some basic knowledge about that with a lot of layers, but I wanted to have a different result, something I saw a lot on flickr lately and that was why I forced myself to watch some tutorials and then try them instantly myself. I am not yet done completely with my research, but for today I was pretty satisfied how those new tips and ticks worked out.

The mega, amazing “Aeon Cyber Corset” is one of the latest releases from A&Y. I love the creations of Anabel Crystal, owner and designer of A&Y. She has a very special way for sci-fi and cyberpunk creations and I do love her skills for vinyl and leather clothing. The corset you can find at the actual round of the ACCESS event, while there is a matching top/jacket at the black fair, which I will have to showcase soon too (I saw that after I finished my styling for this post already).

The incredible “Voodoo” ears are as well a brand new release at the Black Fair. I love the ears of Eclipse Art Studio and Shina Shan never stop to amaze me with every new release. She always has another cool idea for the accessories of her ears. This time it was that little voodoo doll, that she added to the earlobes as an earring. The voodoo doll can be purchased as a single earring as well if you do not want to have the long elf ears ;). I love how easy you can tint the ears to match your skin and the possibility of all the tattoos you can add really make those ears so versatile.

For a strong, powerful outfit you need super cool boots and those I found with the “Roxy” boots from [Gos]. The boots are part of a gacha, which is a collaboration of [Gos ] and Lybra. I will have a post for that gacha and all of it’s beauty soon – the boots just matched so awesome with my look, that I could not resist to already use them *blushes* The thigh high boots are super tight and have an amazing laced back. Certainly there are more colors available than just black in the gacha 😉

For the location I was trying first to set up something by myself, but this time I did not wanna come together as I desired it and so I made may way out to see if I could find a cyberpunk sim for my pictures. First I tried Cocoon, which is amazingly built but for non group members you have no rez rights and I wanted to use my pose stand this time. I need to go back another time as they really do have amazing spots for pictures and the sim rules even allow photographers as long as you wear an OOC titler, which you can find at the landing spot.

I did remember, that Insilico had rezzing open at least for rezzing a pose stand top hop on. The auto-return kicks in after a few minutes, but as long as you sit on your stand, you are safe. Just do not get scared when you are done and stand up as the stand will be returned to your lost and found folder.

After I could not decide about a perfect spot and had shot some random snaps, I did remember a few backdrops, that I got as a present from a friend not too long ago. The whole gacha set is amazing and I hope, I can find/win the ones I still miss in my collection. The “Cyberpunk Capsule *7*” was the perfect background for my look.