Thursday, December 28, 2006

Yet Another Cheapside Hoard Necklace

Well, I finally hit the ceiling on complex jewelry. I made another reproduction of a Cheapside Hoard piece — this time, a chain made of alternating square-cut gems and little enameled flowers — but when I'd made a whole necklace out of them, it weighed in at over 500 prims. Way too many to link!

So I started cutting out links, working from the center back forwards, until I was far enough under 256 that I could use some simpler links for the back. I used the same links that I made for my first Cheapside Hoard necklace, but even that was too much; I had to take out the tiny prims which joined the larger ones, and stretch the large ones until they abutted.


I was hoping I could make a two-strand chain, but at a staggering 246 prims for just one half-strand, I guess that's as good as it's going to get. I'm going back and forth on whether or not to just use a simple prim with a texture mapped onto it for the complex bits. I mean, sure, there's a feeling of accomplishment at doing it without "cheating", but who really looks that closely at jewelry in Second Life? (Apart from other jewelers, I suppose). Would segments this tiny really suffer that much?

4 comments:

Natalia Zelmanov said...

OMG Johanna! I cant even rez that necklace at home :P You are so amazingly talented at making jewelry. Its really humbling for the rest of us to just understand what you are doing! :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful. Really stunning, well done!

Johanna Hyacinth said...

Aww, shucks... thank you both!

Natalia, I guess the grass is always greener on the other side; I look at your outfits, which you seem able to bang out a new one every day and still have time for fun in SL, and find myself envious of them. (And those dragonskin boots! I've tried I don't know how many times to make a pair, and they never come out looking as perfect as yours!) So the humbling goes both ways.

Anonymous said...

but who really looks that closely at jewelry in Second Life?

I do :) And i did before i started to do my own jewelry which is in child's shoes and not an inch near your's :)