Why Make Jewelry?

Written 13 December, 2007


Why Make Jewelry?



When I first arrived in Second Life, I bought all my jewelry. But I was eventually frustrated.

First, a lot of jewelry was non-modifiable, meaning I couldn’t tweak it to fit my avi’s form. I remember buying a pearl necklace and earrings from a not-to-be-named French outfit. It gave off a horrible light that made my avi look like a monster! I IMed the maker, who assured me the problem was with Second Life. Ignoring my request for a copy with the light turned off, he sent me a replacement set which made my avatar look even worse.

For my first couple of months I was enamored of bling jewelry, but that fascination wore off. Unfortunately, the bling didn’t. I was stuck with a lot of non-modifiable blinging jewelry.
Now, bling can be turned off and on, but the default is on, so every time I put on a piece of jewelry or, worse, teleported to a new region, I would be blinging. One doesn’t want to have to say Bling Off in church (even the Church of Elvis)!

I was able to successfully de-bling some of my jewelry, but not other pieces, for they were locked and I couldn’t stick in a Remove Particles script. I’m grateful to those creators who were kind enough to send me non-blinging replacement parts, and a bit resentful of those who didn’t.
So one reason I turned to jewelry making was to be able to provide jewelry that could be modified and copied so customers could put copies of my pieces with the appropriate outfits.

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Aside to Jewelry Makers
I mean c’mon, creators, why turn off copy? Are you afraid your customers are going to litter the landscape with necklaces and earrings? Why make life difficult to them?
And why not tweak that freebie bling script you’re using to set bling off as the default?

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The other reason I made jewelry was because I simply couldn’t find pieces I liked.
In particular, I was unable to find heavy silver turquoise pieces. In fact, most of the turquoise I did find was photos pasted onto a flat prim. So I made my own. And, having done so, I thought how neat it would be to have variations in gold and bronze, with stones such as jade, onyx, malachite, citrine, and lapis lazuli, and in abalone and carnelian.

So there you go. Now I’m a jeweler!

I need to get me one of those loupes-- so I can squint at your best stone and say, "Sorry, hon, but this is high-quality glass. Not a virtual diamond at all."