Vintage Patio Furniture by R(S)W

If you love the retro look of mid-century patio furniture, and you're a resident of Second Life®, you'll enjoy the new patio furniture I've just made!

It's 100% original mesh, with all original textures (including the new Material layers, to give it that extra bit of depth and shine.)

The chairs have 12 animations built in. The lamp really works, with either Light that affects your Local Lights, or Full Bright that doesn't. You can set it to Auto, too, so it goes on at dusk and off at dawn.

The Umbrella Drinks give unlimited umbrella drinks that you can hold, with blue umbrellas if you touch the one with a blue umbrella, and pink ones if you touch the pink. You'll love the umbrellas. They have all their little ribs and things, just as they should!

Each drink is sitting on a beautifully detailed cocktail napkin, that has an original Tiki Mask and the legend "Robin's House of Tiki" printed on it in green. (Note the cat's eye glasses on the Tiki Mask.)

Best of all, the whole set is only 6 LI, and comes apart into 8 pieces that you can mix, match, and arrange as you like!

Available in six colors (Red, Teal, Green, Blue, Yellow and White.) The first five are real colors, not tints. If you want tints, buy the White; it's specially designed to make it really easy to tint any color you want! L$450. Copy/Mod. Come see it at the R(S)W Main store on Livingtree or in the SL Marketplace.

You'll be glad you did!

Robin's First Mesh Kit!

My first 100% mesh kit is out, and it's a fun one!

Seven flags hung from a tape, to celebrate, emphasize, or just for fun!

There's a bright and pretty white polka dot on solid color on each flag, for a summer rainbow, right out of the box. Or use the included UVs and shaders to make your own textures. It's easy!

I've even included a box that will download my layered .psd files to your hard drive when you touch it. You can open them up, see how I work in Photoshop, and use them to make applying your own textures to the flags a breeze!

Note that I have used Smart Objects to put your flag designs on the lowest LOD with just a few mouse clicks. You'll need Photoshop CS2 or later to use Smart Objects.

The string of flags is only a single Land Impact, and I've included examples for hanging across an opening or for hanging against a wall in the box.

There's more info, including a picture of the UV Map, on the SL Marketplace.

You can buy them now on the Second Life Marketplace or come see them on Livingtree, in SL now!

100% mesh, full perms, 1 LI, L$300.

Draped Stools - New Designs!

Robin just finished making four new draped stools, bring the total number up to 10!

The stool is an original model, in mesh, of a four legged stool in the Arts & Crafts style, with a beautifully textured quilt dropped casually on top, and falling in graceful folds to the floor.

There are 8 poses in the stool, and you can adjust the placement to suit your needs.

Most of the quilts are Robin's original designs, too. (The exceptions are a traditional Arkansas Crossroads design, and a Summer in the Park design.) All of them are available from the R(S)W Quilt Shop except for the blue and white sampler quilt (center back in the picture above) which is only available from the The R(S)W Circle SubscribOMatic, located in all R(S)W stores.

Six of them are also available at the SL Marketplace.

1 LI each, Copy/Mod, 8 poses, all original work, L$125

Picnic Table 3.0 - Mesh ALL the things!

Robin is in the process of making a mesh of all the things that she's previously made in SL. (As well as coming up with new things.)

As part of the mesh-making process, she's redone her Picnic Table!

Now it's only 4 LI for all four pieces (table, cloth, and 2 benches.)

There are still custom poses in the benches, with 3 sitting positions in each one, so the bench seats 3 if they are small or like to be really cozy, and 2 if they need a bit more room.

Scripts in each piece let you change the wood for the table and benches (choose from 6 colors) or the tablecloth pattern (choose from 20 designs.)

They're all copy/mod, so you can tint them, resize them, or add your own texture to the cloth. You can add your own texture to the wood, too; but it won't have the baked in shading and highlights of the current textures.

The tablecloth takes any square texture with no distortions or cropping, so it's perfect if you want to make your own special tablecloth designs.

For more info, or to buy one, check the listing on the SL Marketplace, or come see one at the R(S)W Main Store on Livingtree.

Changes Coming to Livingtree!

Hi Everyone!

Everything changes; but Livingtree hasn't changed in while. Next Tuesday, April 9th, that is going to change!

The land is going to shift some, buildings will change, some places will vanish, and others will suddenly appear. When it's done, we think that Livingtree will be more beautiful and welcoming than ever. (It'll certainly be more  up-to-date.)


We're not telling you exactly what we're going to do, because that would ruin the surprise.*

But if you have a place on the island that you're particularly fond of, or you want to see it in its current state one last time, you have a week to do it in.

We're all excited, and can't wait! It's going to be great. :D

Hugs!

Robin, Mari & Pygar

*If you don't like surprises, IM Robin Sojourner or Marianne MacCann, and we'll tell you what's going to happen.

Arcade Gacha Festival Sneak Peek!

I'm down with a bad case of flu, but still looking forward to The Arcade opening December 1.

That's less than two weeks! Eeek!

For my gacha machine this time, I'm going to have plates to go on your wall. I have 8 of them done, and hope to have another 7 or 8 before the Festival opens. Five of them spell out a famous saying, if you look at them just right. The others are just for fun! (I'm particularly happy with the pi plate. Did you notice that it's square? Because π r, after all.)

More when I get them all done!

Paper Plane Gacha at Livingtree

Fall winds are blowing; The perfect time to set a Paper Airplane soaring into the sky!

Come try your luck at the new Paper Airplane Gacha machine at the R(S)W Main Store and see which of 8 designs lands on your desk!

The paper planes are 100% mesh, Mod/Transfer, and 1 LI each (or link two for 1 LI.) The designs range from plain graph paper or plain ruled paper, to a misprinted Music Lover print, plans for The Arts and Crafts Plant Stand, a printed page from the PDF of my short course on Critical Thinking, a sheet of stationary that I designed, and a practice page covered with feather designs for quilting.

There's also a plane made from a plain sheet of white paper. That one is Rare, because it includes the Shading Texture that will let you make your own paper plane from any image you like! (Instructions are included.)

The mesh is the same as the one that was in the gacha machine I had at The Arcade Gacha Festival from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 this year. That design was exclusive to The Arcade though, so I'm sorry if you missed it. These are all totally different.

Just L$50 a try, 100% Mesh, mod/transfer. Come and give it a whirl!

R(S)W SubscribOMatic

Robin has a new SubscribOMatic! So even if you don't have a group slot open, you can hear about it when she has a new product, special sale, hunt, or gacha festival.

Not only that, but you'll get at least 4 special gifts during the year, and quite possibly more than that! Right now, you can click the SubscribOMatic Kiosk at the R(S)W Main Store on Livingtree, or any of her other furniture stores, and get these lovely White Candlesticks as a welcome gift!

They're copy/mod, and there's a script that lets you light them (with or without Local Lights) blow them out, set them to Auto (so they light themselves at dusk, and extinguish themselves at dawn,) color them as a group or individually, and more.

They're mesh, so you'll need a mesh viewer, and only 3 LI for the set of three. Come take a look at  the Main Store now!

See you there!

Heartland Shelf Sculpt Kit

Robin has another sculpt kit done, and out in the stores now!

This time, it's a lovely shelf, with a heart shaped cut out and graceful curves.

The shelf is one prim, the pegs are another, and the shadow it casts on the wall is a third. You can use as many or as few pieces as you like, of course, or mix and match them with other prims!

As always with Robin's sculpt kits, there's a Maker that lets you create the shelf from your own prims with a single click. You also get five shaded textures, ready to use, for shading the shelf with or without pegs. And you get a Test Texture that lets you see what part of the texture lands on which part of the shelf, in case you'd like to make your own texture.

All the textures and sculpt maps are full perm, so you can upload them to your own computer if you so desire. (You are given permission to do that in the license agreement.)

The included examples, of the shelf with and without pegs, are mod/copy.

Full instructions included (but it's so easy to use, you probably won't need them.)

L$500, from Robin's main store in Livingtree or the SL Marketplace. Come take a look!

New Mesh Hall Table Set from Robin (Sojourner) Wood

Robin just finished a Hall Table set, all full of Meshy Goodness!

 It consists of 3 parts; the Table and Table Runner, the 3 Candle Tray, and the 7 Frame Group.

The table has turned legs, a single drawer, chestnut veneer, and is enhanced with marquetry.

On the table is a quilted runner that lets you choose from seven fabric combinations with a click. You get one for each season, Christmas, Black & White, and Flamingos (for when you want to really brighten things up.)

The table and runner are two separate pieces, so if you want, you can remove the runner, or put it on a different table. (There are textures in the Instructions so you can remove the shadow of the runner on the table, as well.)

The candles are in a black tray filled with river pebbles. If you touch the tray, you can choose to light the candles (Local Lights or Fullbright,) blow them out, set them to Auto, add or remove glow, and so on. You can also recolor all three candles at once. Touch the individual candles to recolor them one at a time. There are lots of colors to choose from; but since they are mod you can really make them any color you like!

The textures change when the candles are lit, so they appear to glow from within, like real candles. The shadow on the pebbles and tray changes as well, and the shadow they cast on the table flickers. You won't find more realistic candles anywhere in SL.

The frame group lets you show off seven pictures for just one LI! You can leave the black and white Robin Wood Original photographs, or easily replace them with your own pictures. Just drag the one you want into the frame! (A ratio key and instructions are included, in case you want to avoid distortions.)

All pieces are copy/mod, no transfer. (Scripts are copy only.) The whole set is only 5LI, when the table, runner, and candles are linked, at the size given.

Come see a demo at Robin's Main Store on Livingtree.

If you just want to cut to the chase, you can go to the SL Marketplace, and buy the Hall Table Set. Or if you prefer, you can get the Table and Runner, the 3 Candle Tray or the 7 Frame Group by themselves,.

I'll think you'll like them!

New Small People Playset!

Hi there! It's been a while, but I have a new playset for the Small People Dolls I make. It's a Castle!

Actually it's two castles, and some armor and helmets for the dolls, and a Bunny Rabbit Siege Engine. With a catapult. Great for pretending to fling the sheep from the Small People Farm Animals into the neighbor's yard. :-)

Oh, and most of the parts of this playset are mesh. (The drawbridge is a good ole cube, and opens with a satisfying clank.)

So stop by my store in the Kick the Can school building, and take a look! I've got a little setup right by the box.

Bye for now!

-Pygar Bu

Robin at the Home & Garden Expo!

Robin has a booth at the Home & Garden Expo!

She's been doing a lot of Mesh Work, and has some new stuff that is totally meshy goodness. Low prim, beautifully detailed, and (for now) available only at the Expo.

Come check them out! You can play with the demos, buy individual bits, and take a look at the LI (which might surprise you.) She's still doing some sculpt work, and you'll find a couple of new quilt designs, a bench with a sparrow that's full of birdsong, and a few other goodies there as well.

And, of course, since the entire event is to benefit Relay for Life, Robin has made two new items that are exclusive to the show just for the Relay. All proceeds from the sale of those items go to the Relay, so please take a look.

The Home & Garden Expo is running from May 19th to May 28th. See you there!

New Things for Winter Campers!

Hard Knock Winter Camp 2012 is coming soon! It's time to pull out your Long Johns, and get ready to play in the snow.

Just in case you don't happen to have Long Johns, Kick the Can at Livingtree has you covered!



There are three separate packages, ranging in price from L$50 to L$200.

The first pack has Long Johns with the camp logo on them, printed in white with blue collar and cuffs. (Seen in the center in the image above.) They come with the tops tucked and untucked, and there are sets for both Boys and Girls in the pack. L$50, copy/mod.

The second has those, and also has a set that uses layers to be fully tintable! In order to use them, you have to have the ability to wear multiple clothing layers. (3 Jackets, 3 pairs of Underpants, etc.) That will depend on your viewer, of course. But if you can, then you can wear a set of plain Tintable Long Johns, Add the Logo layer, and then Add the Cuffs layer, and you can tint each layer individually! So you can have any color combination you want, and the logos will remain exactly as designed. L$100, copy/mod.

The third pack has the Long Johns from the first and second packs, and also includes Cold Weather Tattoos! They go on the tattoo layer, and allow you to get progressively redder as you stay outside longer and longer. There are four levels, from chilly (barely pink) to frozen (bright red.) You also get a set that's white, not red, so you can tint them if you have a viewer that lets you tint Tattoo Layers, and a non-red blood color. (Finally! Your Vulcan kid can get bright green cheeks from being out in the cold!) L$200, copy/mod.

All packs include "See my Breath" particle emitters, so it's obvious just how cold it is outside!

If you don't need the Long Johns, the Cold Weather Tattoos are available separately for L$150.

Come take a look! You'll also find things from Mari and Pygar, including an award-winning cork board from Mari!

New stuff at Pygar's Stuff!

Hi there!

Acouple weeks ago, at one of the summer fireworks shows, there was a girl with a Deadwood tag looking for vintage toys for their role-play community. She was not having any success, so I told her I'd start working on some. So, now I've got a papier-mache style doll in my store:

I think she turned out pretty nicely, and in only 7 prims! I used Robin's cuddle script for a hold, included three sizes with dresses in five colors (pink, yellow and blue in that piccie, peach and green are the others).

Now I'm working on cast-iron pull toys and bell toys. I made a good horse figure I can use, and then got distracted LOL!

This carousel horse is also seven prims, but just sits there and looks nice. :-D

Well, that's all the news I have. I'm going to be helping Mari build Inner Child Camp on the virtual Playa for Burn2 for the next couple weeks. Then back to cast-iron toyland!

Enjoy! :-D

Pygar Bu

Party, Sale & Gatcha Festival at The Nest!

Okay, it's not really Livingtree; but I have a store in The Nest, and this week we're doing a special Labor Day/End of Summer/Sim Opening parts and celebration!

The parts kicks off at 4 PM SL time, with a couple of DJs, and lots of other festivities.

The Gatcha festival starts then, too. I made a little white wicker occasional table for it, with a quilted cloth that's finished with lace and satin in the border on top. There's a pile of 3 books on the table shelf, and a flowerpot full of blooms on top of the table. The table, books, and plant are 3 different objects, so you can use them together, or separately.

It comes in 9 varieties, with 9 different quilts, and 9 kinds of flowers.



The flowers are from the Arctic Greenhouse; but all the rest of it is my own original sculpts and textures. There's a lot of detail here. The shadows of the lace are burned into the table top, there's a raised design on the flowerpot, and the books are real books that I actually own.

Here's a closeup of one with White Flag Iris, so you can get a better idea of what a single table looks like.



Just L$65 for a try. Come visit my Gatcha machine at The Nest

Also, as part of the promotion and sale, I have set my picnic table, and all the snack coolers and ground quilts for sale at 50% off the normal price! Yep, half off, but only at my Home & Garden Store at The Nest. They're still full price in my main store, and the Marketplace, because we're trying to encourage people to come see The Nest.

And really, it's well worth seeing! It's right next door to Cheeky Pea (you can see my shop from the Cheeky Pea main store) and most of your favorite furniture, home and garden stores are right there on one of the two sims.

So come by and check it out!

Tuesday Photoshop Tutorial - Brushes 10 - Organizing Brushes!

Another Tuesday, another Photoshop Tutorial!



This time, we finish up the series about brushes in Photoshop CS4 and earlier with a discussion about how to make a brush from a color image, using either a Black & White Adjustment Layer, or Lab color, to get the values you want for your brush.

I'll also show you how to easily copy the settings from one brush preset to another one.

Finally, we'll talk about how to organize your brushes, save them so they show up in the Brushes menu, and save them so they won't; but you can find them easily.

Next time, I'm going to do something else, because I feel like all I've talked about for months and months is brushes! (Mostly because that's all I've talked about for months and months.) I'll get back to them, and do brushes in CS5, later.

If there's anything you're really curious about in Photoshop, let me know!

Mesh Exploration Plant Stand

Mesh came to SL™ last week. For those not familiar with it, that means that, for the first time, we can now upload models that we make in other 3D applications directly to SL, with their UV Maps and everything else intact.

It's a huge change, and like all other changes in SL, it's not without controversy and confusion. To help alleviate some of that, I've made a mesh object for people to experiment with, and 3 videos to help explain how to work with it.

The first one talks about what mesh is, what Prim Equivalency is, what LOD is (and how to adjust the LOD you see using renderVolumeLODfactor,) what UV Maps are, and how to save a texture from SL onto your own hard drive.



The second one explains how to use the UV Map to easily put a texture on the plant stand.



The third one shows how to bring your finished textures back into SL, and put them back on the model.



If you are an SL resident, and you want to try playing with the plant stand yourself, you can get it at the SL Marketplace.

Enjoy!

Robin has a New Store!

This isn't happening at Livingtree; it's happening at a brand new sim called "The Nest" which is attached to the Cheeky Pea sim. But if you are interested in shopping for your Home and Garden, and interested in Robin's Home and Garden store, then you'll want to know this!



The Nest is a home and garden shopping paradise, with all your favorite Home and Garden stores. (Places like the Loft, LISP Bazaar, Theosophy, Clutter, Mud Honey, Thistle Homes, north west, Second Spaces, and many, many more.)

The sim is beautiful, with a main street, some cottages, and a farm and "shacktown" on the wrong side of the rails. I wasn't early enough to get a store on the main street, but I did manage to get one of the shacks! So Robin's Home and Garden Store is right there on the same sim as the Big Names!



I'm very excited about this, and am already starting to get more home and garden stuff done. You can see the "Rail Quilt" I did just for this shop in the picture. (The shack really needed something to brighten it up!)

So come on down to Robin's Home and Garden at the Nest and take a look at my new digs!

New Coolers!

Labor Day is almost upon us; time for cookouts, tail gate parties, outdoor concerts, and one last picnic on the beach!

Take along all the snacks and drinks you want, for just 2 prims, with my brand new Large Snack Cooler!



It's packed 14 different snacks, and 21 beverages, in 5 categories (Healthy Snacks, Sweet Snacks, Soda Pop, Juice, and Milk.)

Just touch the cooler to get a menu that lets you choose the category, and then click the button for the category you want to get a random snack from that group! So you can see if you really do get the peanut butter and jelly sammich, or if you're given a raw carrot instead.

You get unlimited servings, so if you don't like sugar cookies, you can feed it to the ducks, and try again for the choklit cupcake!

There are no alcoholic drinks, so it's safe for families with kids and teenagers.

When you're tired of standing around eating muffins, you can have a seat right on the cooler! Just right click and Sit Here to sit on top of it. Then touch the handle to choose from 9 different seat poses; 3 on the cooler, 3 sitting on the ground, and 3 lying down.

All the poses are adjustable, and the cooler will remember the adjustments for people who sit there frequently.

The cooler, and most of the food, are original sculpts and textures; and there's one pose specifically for watching fireworks or clouds that's also original. Available in 5 colors, that match the colors for the Water Coolers.

Transfer Only, L$300. Available now at the Home and Garden Store on Livingtree at Robin's new Home and Garden store at the Nest and on the Marketplace.

Photoshop Tutorial on YouTube

It's occurred to me that some of the people who join Livingtree Island do so because of the tutorial materials there, and that those people might be interested in tutorials I have on YouTube as well!

So, for those of you who are, I posted a new one today, about Making and Saving Brushes in Photoshop. It's actually a continuation of a series I've been doing. (The rest are on my channel.)



We start with a short discussion about setting up the workspace to make a new brush, and capturing a brush tip shape. Then we'll explore how to save your new brush as both a Brush Preset and a Tool Preset. Finally, we look at the differences between the two types of preset, and talk about how to choose which one to use.

Next week, we'll finish up this series with a lesson about organizing your growing brush collection, and how (and where) to save Brush Sets.

Until then, I hope you enjoy this tutorial!