Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Nekhbet, the firstborn


Nekhbet, the first style, is now available, both inworld and in SLExchange.com.

Nekhbet comes in three packages:
* the sheath dress which is available in eight colors
* the accessories that goes with it
* the collar

But you call also get all three in a "full pack".


If you want more than one color, you only need to buy one full pack and buy additional dresses separately. Everything is Mod/Copy and the bands (armbands, wristbands, anklebands) are scripted so you can easily change the textures/colors. You can get more information about the products in SLExchange.

I named the style "Nekhbet", who is the Egyptian vulture goddess, because of the vulture headdress, which was apparently a popular style during those times. To the Egyptians, the vulture is representative of motherhood, so it's actually a good symbol. "Isis" was probably a better name because of the wings design, but there are too many hits when I search for "Isis" so it'd probably get lost in the searches.

As with any new line of products, this took me a long while to do, so I apologize sincerely to friends who had to get my Busy message. At least my custom Busy message made a couple of you chuckle. :D

First, I had to painstakingly recreate the pattern from scratch. Then I had to lay the pattern on a dress template. Then I had to make the straps meet front to back. Then I had to match up the patterns on the sides of the skirt. I didn't even bother with matching edges in the glitch pants, so don't wear the glitch pants alone. And I studied how to do the folds in the material. Sometimes, the folds don't look right after importing into SL. So there was a lot of trial and error involved in this. It's way easier to do a prim skirt, I tell ya. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that the pattern is also deformed where the folds are. ;)

But now that I have the base form, future designs will be a bit easier. Well, maybe 20% easier. *sigh*

To be honest, I was just planning to do the dress itself and the collar, but when I was showing the draft version to Lora Chadbourne along with the source picture, she asked, "How are you gonna do the headdress?" Troublesome girl. So I had to do the rest of the accessories too. But I'm making her wear the bird on her head everytime I see her. :D

And, just for fun, I made a display which makes you imitate the pose of the source picture next to it. You can see it in my tent at the courtyard of the Temple of the Gods, which is an Egyptian-style temple. I was very lucky to get the last tent available. After I finish tweaking that display, I'll post it in a group notice, so don't forget to join the "Ancient Visions" group.

1 comment:

HakatRe said...

Great job, Opal. I'm surprized no one commented on your work here. I am probably the biggest AE (ancient Egypt) fan there is in Central Florida. I moderate the largest MySpace ancient Egypt group of 15,000+ members but have only been on SL for a short time (haven't had time lately, I admit).

As an ameteur designer of fashions myself, I definately can appreciate the time you've taken to make the dresses look authentically Egyptian in appearance. I was lead to create an SL profile "Hakat Rau" by a very Egyptianesque friend of mine but, have since stopped logging on. If and when I do go back on I'll look up your apparel for sure. Take care ~ HakatRe

www.myspace.com/hakatre
www.groups.myspace.com/ancientegypt