Home and Garden Expo – Organica & The Wilds

Home & Garden Expo is upon us again!

The past few days have been especially hectic with the development of new releases as well as build for Organica’s spot at the SL Home & Garden Expo. With the added work of needing to prime all my vendors with an event-friendly script, sleep has been hard to find this week.

Fresh on the heels of the Cherry Tree release, I put myself to task for putting together a new structure that would be a good fit for the smaller space I had chosen for this year’s exhibit.

I set out to work on a converted warehouse look and have been pretty happy with the results, but this particular build will be on-site as a preview only, while full release should occur not too far from now, in-store. When final tweaks are taken care of, the space should be a very flexible prefab suitable for use either on the ground or as a skybox, great for either commercial or residential use.

Additionally, I’ve created a number of brand new items for exclusive premiere at H&G Expo:

This vintage lamp can be used either as a hanging or standing lamp – or both! Put it right up against a wall to bounce light off in a diffuse manner or away for a more eye-catching effect. You can use it to divide a too-large room or to create an interesting centerpiece if you so choose. Mod, copy with a copy-only script. Click for on and off, or to set it to turn on at night.

This is a five-piece, modular brick & wrought-iron fence set, put together for a stately look. (Three unique pieces total – semi and full-circle items are included for your convenience) Great for gardens small or large! Use to line the perimeter of your land or simply to divide off a section and create a quiet enclosure. Ranges from 1 to 13LI depending on which item is used. Optimized for use with Advanced Materials. Mod, copy, no transfer.

This is a simple garden lantern – great for placement in a garden bed or upon any sort of patio table, plinth, etc. It’s 1LI, mod/copy with a copy-only script. Click for on and off, or to set it to turn on at night. This is an RFL item, so all proceeds will be sent to Relay For Life.

Additionally, both an RFL Edition Rosebush 2 and Fresh Cut Roses are now available, alongside many of the RFL-only releases, so if you missed them in previous years, now’s your chance to pick them up (although some very old offerings have been retired).

Several recent releases are also available for viewing – if you haven’t yet had a chance to check out the Animesh Weeping Willow and Cherry trees, you can now do so, along with many other items that have been put together over the past year, all in one small exhibition located in the heart of Hope 3 region.

SL Home & Garden Expo features nine merchant regions as well as a gachapon region, all attached to the American Cancer Society region. It begins March 15 and runs thru April 7. I hope to see you there!

If you enjoy what I’m doing here or think someone else might also find it of use, please feel free to share this blog with them. If you’d like to keep up to date with posts, the RSS for this blog is here, I can also be found on Twitter and Plurk. The Discord server is here.

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Perks include new release postings, access to beta testing (should it be required), a monthly L$1500 credit, and (recently unlocked) monthly Patron-exclusive gifts !

Your continued support helps to produce regular content (written, modelled, animated or otherwise) and helps to keep original content creation in Second Life!

Thanks for your support!

The Sale is On!

As I touched on last week, Organica, Wilds of Organica and Akimeta stores on Organica region are now participating in a 25%-off sale across the board (with the exception of gacha machines)!

The sale will proceed until May 5, after which the region will be temporarily closed in order to facilitate a vendor system switch-over and to reassess existing offerings.

Just a reminder – Some older items will be retired from active display (to be made available only on the SL Marketplace) and other items will be removed from the Marketplace entirely.

Drop by today to take advantage of the discount and be sure to check the credit terminal (indicated below) to see how much credit you can apply to your purchases.

You can use your credit on any non-gacha purchase from Organica or Wilds of Organica by left-clicking the vendor and clicking ‘Use Credit’. You will be asked how much credit you want to use and any remaining balance will need to be paid before the vendor will dispense the item.

Click here for a direct SLURL to Organica Region!

On an unrelated note outside of the sale, Organica will be appearing at the SL Home and Garden Expo, beginning May 19th. Please keep an eye on this blog for new releases, which will make their debut there!

In the mean time, I’ll continue to document my process and development here on the blog on a weekly basis.

If you really like my stuff, perhaps consider donating to my Patreon? Your continued support helps to produce weekly content (written, modelled, animated or otherwise) and helps to keep original content creation in Second Life!

Thanks for your support!

New Releases today at Home & Garden Expo!

Organica is participating in this years Home and Garden Expo, which runs Sept 16 thru 28!

For the duration of the event, the following new releases will be exclusive to the Expo!

This one roomed structure is the latest in a set of builds which intend to make use of small spaces, both on the ground and in the air. Included is a version with and without the patio. Without, this structure will fit comfortably on most standard shaped 512sqm parcels. With the patio, it will fit on a 1024sqm parcel. This build features a comfortable reading area along with a flexible open-concept area for many uses, including use as a residence, cafe, or more. The patio includes a trellis for shade, as well as planter area ideal for any plant arrangement. With all optional items removed, this build can be as low as 29 LI (no patio, no books linked) – with books linked, the build is 77-82 LI, depending on whether the patio is linked. The build is mod/copy with some copy-only animations and some no-mod scripts. See it in person at my build at Home & Garden Expo here.

Additionally, a new couch and armchair set is now available in purple, brown, black, green and red, with all original animations and carefully detailed and realistic textures! This is a great addition to any cafe, lounge or home! Mod/copy, with copy-only animations and scripting.

100% of the proceeds from the Eggplant Purple Belvedere set,as well as the Varsity Reading Room will be donated to the American Cancer Society for the duration of the Expo.

Visit Organica’s spot at HGE here!

Organica at Home & Garden Expo 2013

Organica returns to the Home and Garden Expo this year with a variety of new products!

First up, this new structure is the product of a lot of research and construction to capture the essence of an abandonment located in Detroit, called St. Agnes (later, Martyrs of Uganda Parish), but better known as St. Stony by many urban explorers.

Built during the early 1900s, the structure was abandoned by 2006 and has fallen victim to a great many acts of vandalism; metal parts have been salvaged for scrap, ornate tiles removed and smashed, pews torn away and organ smashed to bits. By the time I got a chance to visit in late 2010, graffiti had crept ideas way to the interior, and things have only gotten worse since then. While the building was acquired in 2012 once again, it remains to be seen whether the building will be restored or simply torn down, like so much of Detroit has been in recent years.

In any case, the key goal for me with this project was to preserve a sense of the building as I remember it, rather than to produce a straight copy, and hopefully that comes across here.

The building is 36m by 60m, with a 20m ceiling and 35m spire. It is packed in a rezzer for easy unpacking and placement, and features high quality textures, efficient modeling, scripted doors, optional window light rays. It’s mod/copy/no- transfer, with some copy- only scripts.

This wrought iron chandelier is low LI and compliments many environments quite well. This item is unscripted, and offered mod/copy/no-transfer.

These new Amazon lilies are ideal for rivers or ponds. 1 li at packaged size, unscripted. Mod/copy/no transfer.

Additionally, drop by to pick up some new RFL-exclusive items! Both are mod/copy/no transfer and being mesh, require a mesh capable viewer. They are RFL exclusives, so remember to pick them up while the fundraiser is on! (Other RFL exclusives from previous years will also be available in the main store as well as on-site at Home Expo)

Drop by Organica’s spot at Home & Garden Expo to view these items for the duration of the show (May 24, 12PM to June 2), after which everything will be moved to the main store.

Home and Garden Expo breakdown, Event exclusives, freebie

H&G Expo End of show notes:

First off – thanks to all who dropped by my spot at Home Expo this past couple of weeks; Home and Garden Expo is always interesting (and sometimes stressful) to prepare for and your support definitely makes it worth the time.

This year the Expo was home to 14 sims, one which was completely dedicated to live music events and another which was home to Breedable exhibits. All of the other sims were packed full with dozens of merchants and sim sponsors were encouraged to get their fellow merchants together to make their sims unique.

I managed to get my exhibit mostly designed and ready for presentation by a couple days before, but was putting together new content for the show as late as the last day before opening. I originally decided to make a larger prefab to serve both as a display and store-space, but regrettably had overlooked the fact that my booked space was not very large. Ultimately, while I worked on the prefab until about 75% completion, it became evident that even if i were able to get it to fit, thematically it wouldn’t make sense to put a whole bunch of my stuff inside and not actually allow people to compare the rezzed item with the item on the vendor.

So a couple of days before the event I discarded the idea of finishing the prefab for Expo and decided to work out some sort of display which would take advantage of developments in Second Life since the last show; namely mesh. While the nature of terrain and estate management in SL really isn’t condusive to a lot of custom changes in terrain, I did take the chance to sink down the majority of my parcel and instead created a wholly mesh terrain covering that would take its place. By doing so, I was able not only to create shapes that would not be as detailed with normal terrain, but I was able to texture the ground of my exhibit the way I wanted, including the addition of a desert-like corner, which helped a lot with making the rocky outcrops work with the set. (I noticed one of the other regions did this on a region-wide level, making sim look more authentic compared to what normal SL terrain can do. It worked out really well!)

All in all, it worked out. There was a lot of last minute repositioning, adding, removing of stuff and there was definitely more content I wanted to fit on my parcel, but I ran out of time, space and available prims, so had to make do with what I had.

As far as the overall event, I was able to raise a significant amount for the American Cancer Society and in addition found it remained profitable but have some lingering concerns.
– At 14 regions, there are a LOT of merchants to sift through. While the sims were arranged in a figure 8 configuration, the pathways (which seemed to have been predetermined by staff and not by sim sponsors) were laid out in a grid pattern and did little to direct traffic. While this has always been the case, I did find that with the immense size of the show, the lack of linear direction made it easy to get lost.
– While none of the sims looked bad, it seems to me like a couple of sims were designed to be pretty and not necessarily optimized for shopping. This is especially important for events such as these because with an event that features rezzable content, there are already so many prim, sculpt, mesh and textural assets being sold. I found myself crashing a heck of a lot, especially in the Southern/swamp-style landscaped regions, due to the plethora of huge trees wherever I turned.
– I’m not sure I understand the need for a completely separate region for live music events when each region was also given live event space. While that region may well have been donated rather than paid for by the other merchants, it inevitably demanded the majority of the event traffic, night or day. It wasn’t uncommon to see the number of avs in the Entertainment sim completely surpass the number of avatars in all of the other merchant regions combined.
– Breedables – while I get that any sponsor might demand presence, whether relevant to an event or not, i kinda felt like the Expo jumped the shark by making Breedables a big part of the event. I don’t contest that the breedable market extends the need for suitable home and garden items, however *all* of the Breedable exhibitors were grouped together on a single region and no major association seemed obvious when viewed in the context of the larger event. If Breedables are to remain part of the event moving forward, I’d prefer to see their relevance stressed throughout the event rather than confined to a single region that battles with one other region for traffic.
– Is the event getting too big? Clearly there are a lot of skilled Home and Garden-type merchants within SL. Should the event continually grow to accommodate that growing number or should it concentrate on presenting quality work visitors will be more interested in picking up? I kind of felt like such a large event led to diminishing returns. It’s not a matter of feeling competitive; after having browsed the 14 sims several times seeking items I wanted to buy, I came away fatigued with only a handful of items.

With all that said and done, the Home and Garden Expo crew did their best to make sure merchants had what they needed to get things ready for the show. I’m thankful they were so considerate with set up times and asking many merchants (including myself) for assets to fill in unused areas. It does look like the event was a success; Team Home & Garden Expo has raised L$8,184,288 for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life so far and the publicity generated for all of the participating merchants will likely help to generate more in the coming months.

All Organica RFL items will remain available in-store for the duration of RFL, so if you missed your chance to pick up any of them, please feel free to drop by and have a look.

New Event items:

Organica is participating in two major events at the start of June; FaMESHed is a monthly event which showcases exclusive content from a selection of mesh creators within SL; I’m flattered that I have been considered for participation and will be offering the following item as an exclusive offering for the month of June.

This low land impact item is offered mod/copy/no transfer and comes with detailed foliage & branch structure and a suitable rocky base. Offered exclusively at FaMESHed!

Organica is also participating in Mesh Around, which is a hunt featuring mesh content, running June 1 thru 15.

While this item is not exclusive, this will be the first and only time it is offered for free. To learn more about Mesh Around, check out their website, where you can find out more about the hunt as well as the starting location. 2LI as packaged, comes with full and petite sizes. Mod, copy, no transfer.

ACS Relay for Life Home & Garden Expo 2012 + housekeeping + land news

Organica returns to Home and Garden Expo this weekend thru ’till May 28 with some new releases as well as some Relay for Life exclusives!

Drop by my display at Dreamseeker Home Expo8!

April showers last month brought May Flowers this month!

Eight varieties of pansies are now available! They are sold seperately in individual pots or all in one big fatpack, which includes both individual pots as well as one big pot that includes all eight varieties. You can also unlink the individual plants from pots if you’d like to use one or the other separately. ( Buy in Store )( Marketplace link to follow )

As part of fundraising for the American Cancer Society, this set of four purple pansies (also known as violets!) is offered as a single pack; they are individually potted but also come with a larger pot which includes all four varieties. You can also unlink the individual plants from pots if you’d like to use one or the other separately. As a mesh item, this does require a mesh compatible viewer. ( Buy in Store )( Marketplace link to follow)

These purple anemones are the first of a series of anemones which will be released soon and this variety is available only as an RFL item! The full potted plant is 24LI, but can be broken down to 2LI individual flowers. As a mesh item, this does require a mesh compatible viewer. Pick these up at Home Expo or in-store!

This open concept reading house has a 16x20m footprint featuring expansive window roofing and fabric shade. Textures also feature tasteful baked shadows suitable for a structure of this kind. The structure is unfurnished and is 29 LI as packaged. As a mesh item, this does require a mesh compatible viewer. Offered as an RFL item for the duration of RFL this year, available at Home and Garden Expo as well as in-store. Mod, copy, no transfer.

A bit of housekeeping; this item was released during March Mesh Madness but never made it as a post to this blog, so I’m rectifying that now. This frame set features three detailed Japanese maple leaves, carefully mounted for presentation. They’re excellent accent pieces to almost any interior and are great as gifts. They are mesh, so they do require a mesh compatible viewer. Available at Home and Garden Expo as well as in-store. They are mod/copy/no transfer, however they can be gifted in-store; just click the vendor prior to purchase for gifting options.

Land:

Land is still available in Sylvan and for the month of May, successful referrals will gain existing Residents two free weeks of tier on any parcel which they currently occupy. Come by the land office , explore the sim and have a look to see what Sylvan has to offer! If you’ve been here a long time ago, consider dropping by again, as I am continually improving upon unused spaces to create a more immersive atmosphere. Feel free to also make use of the sandbox, which while small, features a 3hr auto-return, a beautiful environment, many board games and media stream control for group members.

Available Land:

Parcel size	Prims	Weekly price	SLURL
Parcel 1B – 1024sqm	410	L$738	SLURL
Parcel 2B – 960sqm	383	L$690	SLURL
Parcel 3 – 1840sqm	737	L$1327	SLURL
Parcel 7A – 1120sqm	448	L$806	SLURL
Parcel 7B – 992sqm	397	L$715	SLURL
Parcel 8 – 1696sqm	679	L$1222	SLURL
Parcel 13 – 832sqm	333	L$599	SLURL
Parcel 15 – 1680sqm	672	L$1210	SLURL

Home Expo Aftermath & other notes

Home Expo was again great to be a part of!

Organica was able to raise $7400L at the show for RFL, but if you missed picking up any of the new items at Home Expo, you can find them now at the main store. RFL Exclusive shades will be available for the duration of RFL only, after which they will be archived for future RFL events.

The roses discussed last post are now available both on the grounds and in the store.

Three new types of flowers are also now available:

All three are mod/copy, come in four sculpted shapes to best fit your terrain and are low prim. As usual, they’re on sale both on the grounds and in the store at Organica Specialty Trees.

Home and Garden Expo 2011

Organica will again have a display at this year’s Home and Garden Expo!

As usual, items that were originally RFL fundraisers are being offered again as fundraisers, so things like the Bougainvillea Gate & Tsukubai will raise funds for the American Cancer Society for the duration of Relay for Life. Additionally, RFL exclusive items will make an appearance/reappearance for the fundraiser; the RFL Pink tulips are back and two new RFL exclusives will debut at the Expo, then make their way to the main store when the Expo closes on May 23.

Like the other lilies released earlier this past month, these RFL exclusive purple tiger lilies are low prim, come in 4 shapes to fit various terrain, and are mod/copy/no transfer.

New roses are now available! Ranging from white through red to black, these bushes are low prim and look great! Offered separately or as a fatpack, mod, copy no transfer.

There’s also a RFL exclusive purple rosebush, and it’s also mod/copy/no transfer.

Visit Organica at Home Expo 2 sim May 13, 12PM thru 23rd 10PM SLT!