One of my weaknesses in SL is definitely jewellery. Actually, its a weakness of mine in RL too, though it is ten times worse in SL due to the sort of jewellery that is available. Diamond rings just don’t do it for me. I love fanciful, fantastical jewellery, with unusual stones and metals like copper and bronze. And I just adore headpieces. Not precisely something one can wear with most clothes in RL, but in SL I have plenty of outfits where a fanciful headpiece is just right.
My two most recent jewellery acquisitions both feature a stunning headpiece, as well as several other gorgeous pieces. The first set is a new release from master maskmaker Siyu Suen of Illusions, currently only available at the Jewelry Exposition (arranged—and that very well—by Miriel Enfield) which anyone with any interest in jewellery absolutely has to visit. The second is the latest release from Tekeli-li. This is not an Expo piece, so when you feel like shopping for jewellery in less lag (but really, the Expo is low lag for an event of its size), you can head over to Tekeli-li’s store to check out this and the many other fantastical sets available there.
When I reached Illusion’s booth at the Jewelry Exposition, I was pretty much reduced to blabbering and drooling for a few minutes. Siyu has released not one but four sets of Middle Eastern-inspired jewellery. Each features a veil, a headpiece, a necklace, a pair of earrings and a pair of arm cuffs. You can buy the pieces individually or as a fatpack. The fatpack is $L 800, which considering that all the pieces are scripted to change the colour of the metals, the veil and any stones that may be include is an incredible price. I knew right off I had to get one of the sets, but it did take me a good while to decide on which one. Eventually, I selected the Madiyah set (it narrowly edged out the Bahiya set, but all four were close contenders), where a coin-like element is the main motif. Some of the other sets feature impossibly tiny chains and fantastical, swirling shapes.
I rushed home from the Expo, and immediately set about fitting the pieces onto my avatar. On an avatar with a more typical shape than my own, I expect the set will fit with little to no tweaking needed, because its really well fitted. I did need to do some adjusting, but much less than I had expected. The main issue was my nose, which at size 50 isn’t precisely a standard SL nose. However, either reducing the nose a bit (if we can have skirt shapes, we can have mask/veil shapes, because some things just can’t be made to fit every possible shape equally well) or just pulling the veil forward worked very well.
The craftsmanship and detailing of each of the pieces in the set is superb, and the array of available metals, stones and fabrics quite stunning. You can create quite a variety of setups, to match just about any outfit you might want to wear it with. I decided to wear Skin Within’s Turkish skin, Saba, with the lovely limited edition makeup done for Relay for Life. That particular makeup is no longer available, but 25 others are still in the store. I also put on the Kadin silks in black and silver by Solange, which went well with the colour combination I ended up trying out.
Since I was in the mood to play with more jewellery after visiting the Expo, I decided to also show off the latest release from Tekeli-li. This is the Nautilus set, named for the shell which inspired the shapes used in this jewellery, and the pictures really don’t do full justice to the intricacies of these pieces. After I put it on, I kept zooming in to look at the gorgeously rendered shells that give the whole set such a lovely, organic feel.
The set consists of a headpiece (yay, another one), a necklace, a pair of earrings and a pair of bracelets, and is scripted to change colour in three sections as well as to turn glow on and off. It can look very nautical in blues and greens, but also quite fantastical if you start mixing in some other colours, like red. In addition to the pieces shown here (which can be bought together as a set) Tekeli-li has also made a staff, a belt and a hair that matches the jewellery perfectly. Given the aquatic theme, the jewellery and the other pieces would be excellent for a merfolk avatar, but they’re also great for anyone else with a love for the fantastical.
I stayed with the same skin as before, but switched to the red and silver Kadin to match how I coloured up the Nautilus set (colour change jewellery is fabulously versatile). The poses used for these and the other pictures are all from LAP, and most are from the Eye Candy set, designed specifically to show off jewellery.
Given the Expo, the risk of further jewellery-centred posts in the weeks to come is considerable, though I may have to restrain myself in order to tackle a few other things instead. Such as some planned tweaking of the blog to introduce a new way of managing Slurls (you may have noticed that they are absent from this post) that I am hoping will make posting a little quicker and easier. I just haven’t quite decided whether to still itemize all the pieces worn in a post, or whether to work that information into the main body of the text. Given how indecisive I tend to be, it might take me a while to come to a firm decision. ;)
Thanks Freyja ♥ I’m so glad you got it to fit so well, lovely big noses should not be discriminated against!
You look gorgeous in that skin, I’m so glad you seized the chance to nab it. Ayesha does wonderful ethnic skins ^.^
I really appreciate everything you’ve said, thank you.
Thank you. :) I was really thrilled by the fit (and by the whole look), its no mean feat to have created that veil to fit so many different faces.
I tried it on several of my shapes, and I think the most substantial tweaking needed other than sliding it forward some was to create an extra copy to attach to my mouth for when I want to keep my lashes in (oh, virtual vanity ;).
And yes, I love Ayesha’s skins for getting a really unique look. The Saba is such a perfect excuse to indulge in silks and veils and other such goodies. My inner harem girl squeals in delight. ;)
