Traveling the Silk Road

The Silk Road Hunt has been full of amazing things - beautiful, carefully made, wondrous things. Even if you have little interest in Asian influence, you might want to give this hunt some attention. at 100 participating stores, it's doable in a day, and while you won't come away with a whole new wardrobe, you may come away with a whole new lifestyle and some surprising aesthetic choices. Much of what is in the hunt is furniture, homes, sundries, landscaping pieces and garden structures and some brilliantly colored costume pieces, each of them carrying a little bit of history with them.

By and large the creators stayed in theme. Some names you may recognize, others not so much, but you may find yourself returning to them even after you've claimed you hunt prizes. (Click for larger views...)

Capallini's fine furnishings (left) may be familiar to you from the Steampunk hunts. Their usual focus is on the Victorian era, but for Silk Road, they offered up this beautifully detailed writing desk, complete with a touch set for writing and reading and multiple sits.

If you need some quiet time, time to recenter yourself, Prime (right) offers you this MeditaZen shrine and floor cushion. It comes with optional sound and burning incense and a floating lotus to help you focus.

Alma's Fantasy and Antiques (left) provides you with this amazing touch option kneeling desk, that allows you to work on your own calligraphy masterpiece at a touch. the rice paper can be made to appear in various state of completeness, and to save prims, you can clear it via menu with a touch.

The craftsmen at Haven (right) offer this pillar with banners and blue flame to help travelers along he silk road among other Asian themed gifts, and give you a mini hunt within the hunt as you follow the hints and gain a little history on the real Silk Road while looking for the multiple gifts offered by the merchants and citizens of Haven township.

From POST, (left) you can indulge in something a little more decadent when you pick up this authentic to the period Opium bed. It's a wide lounger with footstools, seats two, and is complete with a tray of opium paraphanelia and a seriously stunning worn silk brocade to cushion your weary body. This piece if furniture is a really amazing, full of surprising details (and not even frightening in the prim count.) I wouldn't mind having this in my own home (minus the drugs.) I freely admit I returned after the hunt and spent an insane amount of lindens at POST and redid and entire section of my land just to accommodate the amazing builds I found there.

From Dreamer Designs on the Bare Rose Sim, comes this low prim Asian bridge; baked textures, classic design with a separate invisible arch if you want to make it functional instead of decorative.

From Orquidea is this Silk lounger, with a zen sand garden base (not shown), the floral disaply in a traditional red vase and a separate attaching hand fan for those heated sultry days when the temperature rises and the only reasonable response is to be as quiet and still as possible.

Noctis offers a full bedroom set - Silk dreams, loaded with couples sleep animations, a carefully crafted duvet that can change from satin to silk, multiple color choice options for the pillows and linens on the bed. It comes complete with a changeable silk rug, two side tables with touch activated lamps, and a dressing screen. It also comes with (not pictured) a standing mirror and a double armed chaise lounge. (given that this is a complete set and a clever bit of craft --this set alone is worth the hunt.)

After all your travels, some sustenance is needed and Satu's Sushi, has a meal ready for you , complete with mackerel ngiri, a side of rice, dipping sauces and shareable chopsticks so you can split your meal with a friend.

I have more to share, but keep in mind that among the contributing creators are names that may be familiar to you: 22769, LNL, Yellow Jester, FallnAngel, and Robbish, to name a few.

Blatant Indulgent Vanity

Not much free here today, but maybe a couple of designers you might be willing to give some of your hard earned lindens too.

I've blogged before about the detail in the clothes from designer hiwinyu Fazuku of ::[ Mr.Poet]:: . The latest release of workshirts is no exception.

The look is layered and so are the sculpted necklines and cuffs, one on top of the other for the kind of look that makes the fabric look like you can reach out and touch it.

I am completely bowled over by the skill and artistry of hiwinyu's work. And given the level of detail, the cost is scarily reasonable.

::[ Mr.Poet ]::Work shirt Denim - $200L

Three shots here, just so you can see the details -- and even when you move (and I have a pretty constant movement AO) this shirt and jacket set holds together. Amazing.

Worn with this shirt are ripped jeans from Kobalt. Now jeans are generally not all that exciting. Let's face it, there's only so many pairs of jeans one avatar can wear in second life and if you are like me, you tend to find a pair and a designer you like and stick with them until you find another pair and another designer you like and so on. Well, I may have found that magic switch off.

I have to give a hat tip to Aida and M4ri1yn over at S.Luxury; who in addition to being one of SL's hottest couple, also have an amazing eye and taste for really good, new designers. Their latest fashion photo essay featured some of the works at Kobalt and I had to go check it out and was impressed with what I found.

$250L is about the top of what I will pay for a pair of jeans unless they come with multiple wear options. Kobalt managed to do that and gives you an unexpected but hot extra. Most of the jean I looked at came with two wear options, but the second wear is a blatantly sexy look, for the the hard core cruiser (and not a bad choice for an erotic dancer,) or for those nights when you want to give your partner an extra thrill.

To the left I have on Kobalt dirty tank top Moonlight ($110L), and Kobalt jean "2 styles- moonlight" ($250L). The basic style comes with cuffed pants and a well fitted prim bulge, but dig into the box a bit and you'll find and open version, complete with a well designed package for show and tell, and a hud to assist in matching your bonus package to your favorite skin. The look is sexy-hot, even if only for show (for more interactive genitals you will need to look elsewhere.)

To the right you'll get a hint of what kind of options you have with Kobalt's suki speedo blue ($200L) -the reveal here is a little less blatant but you get the idea. The speedo, like the jeans comes with 2 wear options -- in case you find yourself in more polite and less frisky company.

In case you need a little warm up before you strip down to the dirty and playful, you might want to stop by Brocade Tiger's new location and see what Lexi Vargas has been up to.

Lexi has been realigning his work to match his new logo "a style for every man," and you can find a wide array of options from street wear to the glam look of his newest offering, Dark Luster, in multiple color options. Luster is a neuvo-goth-glam look with a full coat, nice drape and movement to the coat skirt and adjustable chest chains. Clubbing or just dressing to impress and you can't go very wrong here, and he's currently running a sale. At $400L, Dark Luster is a pretty sweet deal.

He's also been working on some new lines so keep your eye on his Brocade Tiger blog.

Rounding out my latest indulgences is a gift from one of my favorite designers in SL, The Black Canary. Morrigan continues to impress and push his creativity. This fur trimmed cloak was a gift to his subscribo members and it's yet another example of what he's capable of. This comes with a hood option (not shown) and is unisex. It's a full double cloak, that moves amazingly well, the perfect outerwear for the cold night creeping up on us. Paired here with the pants from his Worthy Pearl set ($350L), it only reminds me I need to stop by his store and see what of his I don't yet have in my inventory.

And lest you think I've completely given up on free, I haven't, although most of what I am wearing is no longer free (That will teach you to miss those hunts, now won't it?) the skin is from LaVie, the Echo promo release with dragon tattoo that Pompeja offered before the full line release, and the Feather Necklace is from the MHOH4 hunt from Zenith. The hair is Army Crop from MADesigns (not free but not scary expensive either ), and the *Gemma* earrings are from Rozoregalia, from prior hunts.