From Aphra to Bibi

A bijou grid and a gem of a region on Opensim's biggest grid this week. 

Our first port of call was the home of Aphra Hendrix, Cozy Comforts grid. Check out the Cozy Comforts Grid website to learn about the meaning of the place, and for news of events. 

There were a dozen of us, landing on the sim Cozy Comforts World, where the party was already started. Full HG Addresses of our destinations are, as always, at the end of the post.

Beth Ghostraven: Hello everyone!

Ard Rhys: Hi Beth

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Beth

Thirza Ember: wow nice big crowd

whirli placebo: and so quiet and polite!  good looking too

Beth Ghostraven: lol whirli

whirli placebo: dancing with the avatars!

Beth Ghostraven: that's why I was late, getting dressed in something new :o)

Aphra Hendrix

Aphra Hendrix: we go to central station in a few minutes, is a place in the sky where all teleporters are. I have lots of teleporeters all over... oh wow, LOL a bit laggy

Thirza Ember: yes a little lag lol, you go we will follow

Beth Ghostraven: that's the downside to a nice crowd :o)

Thirza Ember: Aphra did you ever have so many people here?

Aphra Hendrix: no never Thirza

Ard teleports in, wearing That Hat

Thirza Ember: i think some people may have crashed... nice hat Ard

Ard Rhys: yes, I am about to

Aphra Hendrix: i am so sorry, kind of laggy, but so much fun you are all here!

Thirza Ember: lol no, WE are sorry Aphra we make lag, some very complex avatars are here

Aphra Hendrix: now we are in the center, all kinds of teleporters are here is fun to travel and visit all places, but we only have an hour, so we visit a few spots only

Star Ravenhurst: stuck

Loru Destiny: made it :-)  that was very dark *g*

Star Ravenhurst: That was great!

Thirza Ember: tell us about this center, Aphra

Aphra Hendrix: lets walk over to the rental office... see the black rings over there?

James Atlloud: Aphra - this is a very cool place in OpenSim!

Aphra Hendrix: Here you see the rentals but i think the landmarks don't work, the region was on zeta before, i will make new landmarks soon

Thirza Ember: we can come back to get them, that's normal with our big group. Aphra 'rents' houses - you don't pay but you can have one if you like as a little holiday home... 

Loru Destiny: great offer :-)

From there we moved on to a beach party area, and discovered a hidden cave containing a golden octopus. Not something you see every day?

Loru Destiny: I love the octopus statue :-)

Thirza Ember: that's valuable octopus /me steals one leg, he won't notice, he has so many!

From there, up to the mountain, where the full view of the 4x4 var was visible.

Loru Destiny: Aphra please tell more about the philosophy of cozy comfort

Aphra Hendrix: hm philosophy? well you can find a lot on the website i am doing partys on celtic holidays and i had djs and live music 

Loru Destiny: a pity I wasn't at any of your parties

Aphra Hendrix: i love to take pictures here is my Flickr 

Tim communes with the pets of Cozy Comforts

There is plenty to see here, lots of interesting areas for gatherings, and the Healer center is probably one of its kind on Opensim, but after a few mass tp's it became clear that the grid was not enjoying our presence by this time, and people were freezing and crashing. However,  it had withstood us for almost an hour, so not bad at all!

Star Ravenhurst: I love taking pictures too.

Wizardoz Chrome: Many Thanks  and see you :)

Ard Rhys: Thanks Aphra for showing us around

Aphra Hendrix: yes, come back when it is more quiet LOL = it is most of the time, just today we have soooo many visitors

Max Well: felicitations Aphra

Bibiana 'call me Bibi' Bombinate

Our next stop was on OSGrid, where mesh gardener supreme Bibiana Bombinate.  The sim is a magnet for plant lovers, who find her creations both attractive and breathtakingly detailed. Free and original content,  Wizardoz Chrome: Ciao a tutti

Bibiana Bombinate: ooo, those gnomes are most likely below standard

Fitheach.Eun: A gnome standard eh?

Thirza Ember: ooh can i get a photo with everyone by the gnomes?

Beth.Ghostraven: Tim you fit right in there!

Bibiana Bombinate: lol

Thirza Ember: hehe tim is like the gnome cousin they don't talk about

Beth.Ghostraven     : /me smiles haha thirza

Fitheach.Eun: We don't talk about Bruno....

Star.Ravenhurst: I think Tim is the cutest one here

Rage Darkstone: hello everyone - still finding my way around open sims :)  <-- Mr. Incompetent :))

Thirza Ember: this is rage's first safari, i think he fell in at the deep end

Fitheach Eun: Hi Rage... it is all the deep end,  lol

Beth Ghostraven: Hi Rage, glad you made it!

Star Ravenhurst: You will get the hang of it Rage.Darkstone

Bibiana Bombinate: I'm glad you all could make it, it's my first time having this many folks here at once :) I made this place about 3 years ago in order to share the things I made. I had a shop back when I first was in opensim, but then I had alot of rl going on and let that lapse

Fitheach Eun: Love you creations, Bibi :)

Bibiana Bombinate: thank you so much, I have alot of fun making them and I'm glad people find them useful and fun

Star Ravenhurst: I am using a lot of your creations in my own build, so thank so much for haviing this place and your work.

Wizardoz.Chrome: It's beautiful region :) I've also been here a while ago , everything is so well built and accurate

Thirza Ember: you make clothes too - are clothes more, or less, of a challenge?

Ard Rhys: and you make clothes as well?

Bibiana Bombinate: well, I have made clothes before, but, they are super time consuming and tbh, I just find making home and garden things more fun

Jupiter Rowland: And they can be quite useful.

Fitheach Eun: Especially if you do any fantasy builds

Thirza Ember: do you ever make something based on a suggestion or a request from another opensim resident?

Bibiana Bombinate: normally, I make a lot of things that I can't find around.  This all started with me making things I wanted to use on my sims. I have on occasion made things that people have suggested to me. Usually it's just things I find I see online or want to have in vw. I've tried to group the outdoor items into seasons and this is fall for me. it's all a work in progress and I just add items as I make them

Star.Ravenhurst: Love the little ghosts!

Bibiana Bombinate: the halloween trees and pumpkins are spooky on touch, the ghosts are animesh, I love having things moving around

Thirza Ember: you spoke about making things for your builds, do you hve many regions?

Bibiana Bombinate: I have 3 other regions besides this one but this is the only public one atm. I have my "attic" which is basically where I build and store things, then I have a home sim and one called the Glen which I will eventually open if I ever finish it lol

homage to 'Spoonbridge and Cherry'

Bibiana Bombinate: oh, up here, sort of out of the way, is one of my copies of sculptures, I put a picture of the real sculpture next to it so no one thinks I was hallucinating when I made this

Fitheach Eun: the original is so cool

Thirza Ember: where is it in the real world

Bibiana Bombinate: it's in  minneapolis, Minnesota

Thirza Ember: tim is molesting your spoon sorry about that

Bibiana Bombinate: omg, a spoon molester

Thirza Ember: there's always one...

Bibiana Bombinate: I went through a phase of looking for big sculptures to re create lol, couldn't resist this one

Thirza Ember: do you plan on more sculptures or do plants take up more of your creative energy

Bibiana Bombinate: well, if I see one I like, I will most likely give it a try. I did one from Philadelphia, the LOVE sculpture

Fitheach Eun: There's a couple in Philly you might like.  There is this giant button..

Bibiana Bombinate: ooo,  giant button!

Bibiana Bombinate: this is the shop building, it's intended for household and miscellaneous things, I needed somewhere for all the things not garden lol, I made a working elevator for it which I get a real kick out of

Jupiter Rowland: Oh, it works again!

Thirza Ember: what has been the toughest thing you have made in terms of mesh madness?

Bibiana Bombinate: well, some of the plants are hard to model, like the allium, I had to figure out how to make the petals, same with the dandelions which have gone to seed. Bibiana Bombinate: the animesh butterflies were hard at first till I got better at working with that

Star Ravenhurst: How did you come with the name Encantada?

Bibiana Bombinate: well, it means enchanted but also nice to meet you

Star Ravenhurst: Nice!

Bibiana Bombinate: I thought it appropriate

Thirza Ember: are you self taught in blender? or is it associated with your rl ?

Bibiana Bombinate: I learned a ton from my friend Aaack. When I started, I couldn't even make a mesh box. It just takes alot of patience and practice Aaack is awesome, very patient

Bibiana Bombinate: my next section is "non christmas" winter with the bears. I went on a real tear with those last year... if I ever get the glen finished, there is a winter mountain there where I used most of these winter things. the snow in this section is from one of Aaack's weather machines, he makes great stuff. Everything here is Full Perms so people can have fun, change colours, textures that kind of thing. I used to hate it in SL when I would get something no mod and I wanted to change the colour or texture.

Thirza Ember: a question about content in opensim - it can be a touchy subject - but do you find people passing your content off as their own, and if yes, does it upset you?

Bibiana Bombinate: well, it's happened, I look at it this way, all I can do is ask people not to. if they do it then they are an ass,

not me lol

Star Ravenhurst: Good attitude!

Balloon dog sculpture by Bibi

Bibiana Bombinate: I mean, now, enough people have seen my things around, they usually know if it's mine. the only thing that would really make me mad would be if someone was trying to sell it

Thirza Ember: that is a protection in a way

Bibiana Bombinate: yes, the more people see your things, the more they can identify what you build 

Wizardoz Chrome[it→en]: The flowers are gorgeous

Bibiana Bombinate: aw, thank you, I love doing the plants

Thirza Ember: the detail on your plants is really breathtaking, usually the rule with plants is don't look too hard' but yours are so pretty up close it's amazing

Bibiana Bombinate: these npc's are dancing in my human snow globe, you can use it for regular avis too, I just use them for display

Thirza Ember: do you ever get people saying that your stuff is ripped from SL 'because it's so good'?

Bibiana Bombinate: actually, no, I think because the really good stuff from sl has been ripped and is around and they recognize that mine is different

Star Ravenhurst: Open Sim finally has some really good talented creators

Bibiana Bombinate: I hope lots of people get into creating in Open Sim

Bibiana Bombinate: these are a couple of my fountains, I like doing those every once in a while too

Thirza Ember:  do you do scripted stuff too? do you like scripting?

Bibiana Bombinate: I can do some scripts, particle ones especially but I always need help with scripts for more complicated objects, my friend Aaack comes to the rescue with those scripts for me

Thirza Ember: i once wrote a blog post called 'Aaackangel'

Bibiana Bombinate: hahaha that's very appropriate. I went on a little binge a while back and did the 3 greek inspired buildings that are here, no reason, I just started doing them and didn't stop lol

Thirza Ember:  are real plants more of a challenge than fantasy items where you can let your imagination go a bit more free?

Bibiana Bombinate: yes and no, the real plants, pictures provide a really good guide, when you are just doing sometime fantasy, I find it helpful to try to draw it before I model it

Bibiana Bombinate: this is my start at a fantasy section. The first thing I did was the dryad tree then I've just been adding little by little... I'm partial to the giant mushrooms hehe and here are my animesh fairies

Thirza Ember:  lol its a buying frenzy hehe... Bibi, why free? you could be on kitely market or something, or selling in sl

Bibiana Bombinate: well, it's my hobby and I just do it for fun

Jupiter Rowland: Also, it's nice to have such a big choice of good legal freebies, isn't it?  And it's a great showcase for what OpenSim can come up with. Especially since you're using sit scripts made in OpenSim.

Bibiana Bombinate: well, yes, but, I feel like if I sell it it kind of makes it a pressure for production and quality. This way, hey, it's free don't complain if it isn't to a standard or something, it makes it no pressure for me. I try to do my best when I build, but, I'm still learning and some things may not be as good as the sl makers and things

Sitting on pumpkins

Star Ravenhurst: From what I see, your creations are every bit as good as anyone else's!

Jupiter Rowland: I'm a big SFposer fan, by the way.

Bibiana Bombinate: I love SFposer. I still have a couple of things to convert but it's great

Thirza Ember:  jup, tell us what SF poser is and where people can get it

Jupiter Rowland: A sit controller. Somewhat like AVsitter, but made in OpenSim, open-source, more lightweight and more powerful.

Bibiana Bombinate: it allows multiple sits on an object that is menu driven

Thirza Ember: and where is it available

Jupiter Rowland:You can get it at OpenSimWorld. Both the website and Satyr's sim. Or if you need a copy, I could give you one.

Thirza Ember: this has been such a brilliant tour, Bibi, thank you so much for taking the time to show us around.  It brings the place to life to have you here, so we can thank you personally for enriching  all our sims.

Bibiana Bombinate: I'm so glad you guys could come

Ard Rhys: Yes, thanks Bibi

Bibiana Bombinate: no problem, it was lovely and come back any time

Roffellos Kisses: thank you

Wizardoz Chrome: Many many thanks :)

Ard Rhys: Take care everybody

Bibi's animesh fairies

Star Ravenhurst: Thank you for the tour! Beautiful things.

Fitheach Eun: Thanks so much, Bibi, great tour

Bibiana Bombinate: Thanks to you all, have a great rest of your day!

HG Addresses

Aphra Hendrix's grid       grid.cozycomforts.net:8002:Cozy Comforts World

Bibiana Bombinate's plant and garden freebie store     hg.osgrid.org:80:Encantada