Moon-scape

 The second destination for the Safari this week brought us into contact with great architecture, in every sense of the word! We were guests of Luna Lunaria, who specializes in mesh builds, often on a very grand scale, and she welcomed us into her Emporium on Wolf Territories grid, rather than her art installation  'Lunaria', because it is on Mobius, a grid that is sadly not open to OSgrid residents at this time.  It's a great strategy to have different pied-à-terres on different grids, because the ups and downs of opensim are never that predictable  and a presence on multiple worlds makes you nimble!

The very nimble Luna Lunaria

The Emporium is what the name suggests, a store full of creations, all original work by Luna, which she sells both here and on Kitely and in SL. 

Luna Lunaria: welcome everyone :-) So glad you all decided to come today. You are all such great people. Make sure to grab your free safari gift here in the front. The skates I'm wearing are also free in multiple colors. They're here in the store and on the seasonal region.

Thirza Ember: well nobody has an excuse for not making it, there was an Emporium portal on our first destination!

Luna Lunaria: ha true

Nara Nook: I love ice skating

Luna Lunaria: For those of you who don't mind joining groups, I have a free castle for you. I prromise not to spam you :-)

Thirza Ember: How long have you had a presence on this grid Luna?

Luna Lunaria: I've been on this grid now for about 9 months, mostly with my Luxor region just across the water, this store is only about 3-4 months old now

Thirza Ember: your stuff is kind of famous, Luna, it's a landmark sim in opensim

Luna Lunaria: awww that was kind I love making things I can't help it lol

Star Ravenhurst: You do amazing work Luna.

James.Atlloud: Luxor is just beautiful

Inveterate sitter at work - James Atlloud

Luna Lunaria: There's a lot here to see. Everything that's sold here in the store is also displayed in the main areas outside. These teleports can take you there by clicking them, you can access them by bridges or by boat as well. And of course you can fly and cam

Beth Ghostraven: Wow, what a great group gift! I love it!

Thirza Ember: so, while you have some freebies, many of your things are for sale, tell us about that. Some people can be a bit bullying about having everything free. How do you answer that?

Luna Lunaria: Yes I've taken a lot of heat for selling. I try to engage politely if possible but I believe everyone has the right here to do what they want as long it harms no one. I sell to support the regions I own. I choose to locate on larger grids that support creators rights and that costs money. I break even most months thankfully. Kitely Market is a great help but it's a lot more fun to actually walk through thesee things and I so love to go big lol Opensim completely expanded the possibilities of what I could create in virtual worlds.

Thirza Ember: BIG is the word! do you have a favorite piece you would like to show us and tell us the history?

Luna Lunaria: Lol I have a lot but lets go to the venues - entertainment venues. each one of these venues began as a community project I built for different grids that I was on. I would donate them to the grid until they closed down, then I would sell them to the public. Click the entertainment venues sign to go there

Beth Ghostraven: Beautiful!

Luna Lunaria: They take months to build

Kelso Uxlay: This place is H U G E

Thirza Ember: do you start with a RL building, or do you begin with a historic period, and then use your fantasy?

Luna Lunaria: they all start with a request from a grid owner and I have them send me some inspiration pics. I take off from there, This one I'm facing now is the most recent, the Victorian Club, we can head this way to see it.

Luna Lunaria: I had more fun building this than anything else

Thirza Ember: this looks like one of those upscale bars in Washington, lots of Tiffany

Beth Ghostraven: yes, it does, Thirza! It's the embossed metal ceiling

Kelso Uxlay: One beer please... I like the beer names!

James Atlloud: I'll have a John Beer please.

Luna Lunaria: This started life as a club buld for a grid until they closed it to the hypergrid. Once a grid closes or shuts down, then the exclusive I give them ends

Luna Lunaria: I have a lot of display areas of which this is one. There's one for castles, roman architecture, Japanese, cemeteries

Thirza Ember: you're most famous for your big builds, is there a reason for such large constructions?

Luna Lunaria: they seem to be in demand and I love creating great social spaces. My first cool memories in SL 16 years ago was hanging out with friends in cool places - I try to make places like that

Star Ravenhurst: This building is stunning, I can see it useful for many things

Beth Ghostraven: Are you still in SL too, Luna? I see you still have a shop on Marketplace

Luna Lunaria: Yes I am. I go there a couple of times a week to care for the store and connect with old friends

Luna Lunaria: I love trying completely new styles. I have a modern clubhouse here that's also popular, done in a Frank Lloyd Wright style

Thirza Ember: what is the biggest challenge you come across when building?

Luna Lunaria: Mostly being willing to commit to months of detailed work, but I always have a clear vision in my head of what the end result shouild look like

Thirza Ember: is this kind of creativity related in any way to your rl work? I mean, do you do graphic work in RL?

Luna Lunaria: I design kitchens in RL which I've done for a very long tiome now, I love that work

Thirza Ember: LOL what's easier, RL or inworld design???

Luna Lunaria: ermahgerd lol they are SOO different

Kelso Uxlay: Do you make your own textures ?

Luna Lunaria: yes I do all my own textures for the most part. Some I grab from places like textures.com but I mangalate those lol... I make all my own normal maps and specular maps

James Atlloud/likes 'mangalate'

Kelso Uxlay: Nice work

Luna Lunaria: thanks :-) Gimp is my friend and so is Blender

James Atlloud: So this bar is all mesh I imagine, designed and exported from Blender?

Thirza Ember: not all of us mangalate at this level. I think you're a high-level mangalater

Kelso.Uxlay: After all that beer, we will need to go to the WC - I do not see them!!! I guess victorians do not need these

Luna Lunaria: feel free to wander around see stuff. each area has its own EEP environment

Thirza Ember: what's your favorite style in architecture

Luna Lunaria: mid century is my fave, but I appreciate all styles and eras and love trying to recreate them, I remember I spent my first two years in SL before ever trying to modify a prim, but I fell in love with it right away, I had a region and wanted a castle but didnt have 14000L to buy one. So I decided how hard can this be?... REALLY hard! ... but I did it, it's homely but I still have it :-)

Kelso Uxlay: bravo

Thirza Ember: from SL where did you go next? 

Luna Lunaria: I had friends who tried to drag me to multiple places: Inworldz, SimVally, Lost paradise etc. They all closed and I lost so much every time. I finally settled on Bill Blight's old grid and loved it till it closed, but I had learned about OARs and IARs by then

Star Ravenhurst: I share that history. Sim Valley. Lost Paradise, Bill's

Luna Lunaria: Star and I go back a ways

Star Ravenhurst: *-* YeSS! *-* we do

Luna Lunaria: Bill was fun and so were the people thereI still miss that place

Star Ravenhurst: Me too Luna. We had some fun times

Luna Lunaria: Ubit would hang out with Bill and they would be talking dev shop or trying new physics. I was the kid in the room lol I was also Bill's guinea pig he said, "I want to try out this new script engine. Tell me if your store breaks" umm...thanks Bill

Star Ravenhurst: He did love to experiment!

Star and Luna reminisce

Ard Rhys: I must head out also. Good night everyone. Thanks Luna

Nara Nook: Me too. Nice seeing your place again Luna

Yara Eild: We have to go. Have a nice evening everyone

Luna Lunaria: great to see everyone :-)

Mal Burns: great builds - esp this one

Beth Ghostraven: I'm going to run off and explore the freebies here

Luna Lunaria: This was a lot of fun

Angelic Kisses: this was very interesting, thank you for having us, Luna

James Atlloud: I am going to go with the flow and say my goodbyes too.  Thank you so much Luna.  This place is so awesome!

Jeff Kelley: gotta go, thanks for the visit Luna, I have been impressed, and i don't say that often

Luna Lunaria: Thank you that was kind

Thirza Ember: yes thanks a million for having us Luna, this is a place people will come back to again and again, I am sure

Luna Lunaria: gonna go back to work in RL now Love you all :-)

Star Ravenhurst: Thanks Luna for the tour!

HG Address: grid.wolfterritories.org:8002:Lunaria Emporium - Main Store