Evolution of an Avatar

As anyone who has noticed the Dahlinks blog would realise, up till now it has been mainly concerned with telling the grid about new releases from Dahlinks Jewelry. Well an interesting thing happened to me yesterday and it started me considering one of my other chief passions in SL, apart from glittery junk and SHOOOESESESESESSS... breath breath... okay I am good now, and that is skins.

You see, an avi I had never encountered and had no knowledge of called xxxxx xxxxx dropped a strange skin on me called xxxx xxxx’s Skin. [The names have been xxxed out for reasons that are about to become apparent]. Now I was curious and cautious at the same time but it was late at night so I tried it on. Oh My DAYUMN... Now this was a nice skin... Too tanned for a typical Alex skin but ver ver nicely done. In fact too nice for a full perm skin with a generic full avatar name... Yep you guessed it. Ripped skin anyone. And not any ripped skin. A little investigation revealed the original makers copyright name there on the lower skin tattoo and I immediately IMed one of SL longest established and best known skinners and let her know that she had been ripped. Of course I thought... She probably already knows and this is only the thousandth IM she is getting regarding this. Boy was I wrong. Nope. This was the first she knew of it and in fact this skin was one she had just released.


This finally brings me to the purpose of this post. I have a passion for skins. From my second day in SL I have hunted across the grid for skins that suited my shape and my vision of my avi. I have spent thousands and thousands of Lindens in homage to the long hours of photoshop pain that goes into creating a good skin. Along with numerous other lesser known designers my skin closet includes an X2 skin from the period BEFORE they were ripped and flooded the grid, TaP, Celestial Studio, Abyss, Redgrave and Damiani just to name a few. I name these skins for a very good reason though.

Dahlinks Jewelry is almost two years old. During that time I have ALMOST exclusively used my own avi to shoot my vendor shots. In most cases I have also used my skin of choice for that given period of my avatar’s journey. Anyone walking around my store will see the evolution of an avatar.. at least the evolution of MY avatar’s journey in search of the perfect skin. Over the next 6 weeks I will be reviewing different skins as I shoot my holiday and anniversary releases... Stay tuned... Aussie Madness ahead!

Alex

TaP Skin - Earliest SL Skin Used in Dahlinks Vendor Shots