Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Caledon Celebrates Seven Glorious Years

Caledon Highlands

Today’s jigsaw once more comes from Honour McMillan’s excellent blog, Honour’s Post Menopausal View (of Second Life). Today she has been visiting Caledon which is launching its seventh birthday celebrations – you can read about it on Honour’s blog.

I think my first birthday in Caledon was the Second – I remember there were fireworks the length of the Firth (the great waterway that stretches from Caledon Mayfair to Caledon Sound) and one year I had a firework dislay on the roof of the Primgraph offices in Caledon Glengarry.  The Primgraph’s glory days are sadly gone now, and it currently operates out of a shed in Caledon Penzance …

I hope to take in some of the later events myself – there will be two Balls on Sunday 24th February, hosted by Gabrielle Riel. Or, like Honour, you could simply explore this fascinating land that is still thriving after seven amazing years.

Caledon Highlands, photographed by Honour McMillan

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: The Forgotten City

Forgotten City

Today’s jigsaw is another fromHonour McMillan’s excellent blog, Honour’s Post Menopausal View (of Second Life). Today she has been exploring a fabulous location – the Forgotten city – and she explains in her post: Ruins Discovered Near Second Life’s Forgotten City.

If you love steampunk, this ones for you.

It makes for a great jigsaw too!

Forgotten City, photograph by Honour McMillan

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: Witchport

Witchport Waterfront

We hear a lot about regions dying, but sometimes they aren’t dying – they’re just evolving – as I talked about yesterday.  Witchport is a case in point. It’s part of a new estate of three regions – Witchport, Witchwoods and Cairntaigh – under the ownership of Gabrielle Riel, the well-known owner of Radio Riel.

For the past four years, Gabi has been the owner of the New Toulouse estate, an area with the look and feel of New Orleans back at the turn of the century.  Now she feels that it is time to move on … but she hasn’t finished with community management; she is just ready for a new theme! The estate of New Toulouse has been sold (as it was once before – to Gabi!) and will continue, supplying a home and a commercial location for all those who like the Louisana feel and music. And Gabi will develop her mysterious – and very beautiful new community.

So today, here is a jigsaw from that new community – I loved the way the water reflected the waterfront buildings.

Witchport Waterfront

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Designing Worlds discovers the mystery of the stolen books in New Babbage

Now available on the web – our seasonal New Babbage show!

There’s a coal shortage in snow-covered New Babbage, as Saffia and Elrik pay one of their periodic visits to the steampunk city. But they’re just visiting some of the libraries there … what could possibly go wong?

An unexpected encounter in New Babbage

Before long, Saffia and Elrik, aided by the Assistant Maceholder Victor Mornington and Librarian Bookworm Heinrichs – accompanied, of course, by a hapless Mr Biggins – are dragged into an adventure involving stolen books, seasonal curses and a highly dangerous book, fit to be mentioned in the same breath as the Necronomicon and the Book of Al Azarine …

Uncle Tingly’s Christmas Tales for New Babbage Young ‘Uns, secure in its case

Uncle Tingly book designed and created by Edward Pearse
Bells, Bookstand (and chains) designed and created by Beq Janus

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Designing Worlds pays a seasonal visit to New Babbage – what could possibly go wrong?

Join us at 2pm SLT today, Monday 10th December, for the new episode of Designing Worlds at our studio in Garden of Dreams when we’ll be taking a seasonal trip to New Babbage. A rather chilly one too, if all the reports we’ve heard about the coal shortage are true!

New Babbage in the Snow, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

Now, our trips to that industrial steampunk city have not been entirely without incident in the past – what with murders, dangerous dark mermaids, mendacious Santas and purloined diamonds … to say nothing of Elrik being mistaken for Sherlock Holmes, or that time we discovered the dark secrets under the lost Asylum …

But really, we’re visiting libraries this time! What could possibly go wrong?

Although we might wonder why it’s necessary to keep a certain children’s book chained up in a locked desk …

Uncle Tingly’s Christmas Tales for New Babbage Young ‘Uns, secure in its case

So join us, at 2pm today, to unlock the true terror of Uncle Tingly’s Christmas Tales for New Babbage Young ‘Uns … if you dare.

Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 2pm SLT on Monday for the live show on http://treet.tv/live – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site at http://treet.tv/shows/designingworlds – our very own version of the iPlayer!

Uncle Tingly book designed and created by Edward Pearse
Bookstand (and chains) designed and created by Beq Janus

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: New Babbage in the Winter

New Babbage in Winter

Today’s jigsaw is a wintery vista of the industrial steampunk city of New Babbage under a dark sky, captured by Wildstar Beaumont.  Too dark and cold for even the urchins to be abroad, New Babbage is shivering in the grip of a severe coal shortage.

Fortunately (fortunately?) Miss Widdershins and Mr Merlin are on the way …

That’s right, today is the broadcast of Designing Worlds’ Christmas trip to New Babbage … what could possibly go wrong?

Let’s do a jigsaw – full details of the show will be coming shortly.

New Babbage in winter, photographed by Wildstar Beaumont

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

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Happy Hunting! is on today with Hunt News, Interview – and the latest Blackened Mirror episode

The Acorn Hunt in Old Europe

Join us for today’s Happy Hunting! in the treet.tv studios in Garden of Dreams at 3pm, Friday 28th September, to learn about the great hunts that are going on across the grid, to see an interview with Up4 Dawes of The Acorn Hunt– and to catch the third episode of our exciting new segment – The Blackened Mirror!

Acorn Hunt Poster

Cinders Vale, our host, will be on location in the Old Europe region to talk to Up4 Dawes about his exciting new Acorn Hunt.

Rosamoo Mendelsohn of Hunt SL, our new hunt reporter, will be on hand with all the latest hunt news, and some examples of the wonderful items she’s found.

And there will be the new episode of our exciting new mini-series – The Blackened Mirror; a show within the show which will combine elements of narrative and hunting in a fascinating multimedia experience.

It’s an online series of short episodes, following the adventures of a cynical private investigator, Harland Quinn, who has been taken to a strange new location by his mysterious client, Miss Alais Alleyn, and her associate Mr Biggins. She says they are safe – but there’s a strange library to visit … and an alarming present.

Quinn finds himself in a strange new world …

You’ll be able to watch the show as part of the Happy Hunting! TV show or in its own dedicated channel on treet.tv or You Tube (or on the website). But that’s only the start of The Blackened Mirror, because it’s is more than just a virtual world TV show; you’ll be able to find more information and win prizes by following a series of games and puzzles within the virtual world of Second Life or through a variety of social media across the internet.

Happy Hunting!

So join us at 3pm today in the studio for the broadcast. Bring along your hunter friends too. We will be glad to have you all join us for the show.

Or – if you can’t attend in person – tune in at 3pm SLT on Friday for the live show on http://treet.tv/live – where you can now chat with other audience members and even some of the participants during the show – or catch it later in the week on our shows page on the Treet.tv web site at http://treet.tv/shows/happy-hunting.

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Prim Perfect Jigsaw: They Keep Good Time in New Babbage

The New Babbage Clock Tower

And their display at Relay for Life shows this.  The New Babbage build is on RFL Recovery (and the build is still there till Friday, so do go and have a look at it!).  It consists of a clock tower, set in a garden that shows the fours seasons (a nod to lasy year’s RFL theme, Seasons of Hope).

As Beq Janus wrote in her tour of the RFL builds:

Nathaniel Lorefield has constructed a clock tower, in true New Babbage style. The tower features 4 clock faces each of which has a different function, a clock to tell the time, a calendar, a planetary motion dial and a counter that counts the number of unique avatars that pass by.

Inside the Clock Tower

What is particularly impressive at a technical level is that the clocks are fully mechanised and actually work. This remarkable feat is due primarily to the contribution of New Babbage resident Mr Brandon Pappentas, a clock maker in real life, who made sure that all the designs would actually work.

Every quarter of an hour, four teams of mechanical dancers parade beneath the dials as the bells ring, whilst on the hour a steam engine is engaged to wind the central spring that powers the clocks themselves.

I think that’s worthy of a couple of jigsaws today – don’t you?  Fortunately, Beq has also provided some lovely pictures to go with this.

Here’s the first – a view of the tower.

The New Babbage Clock Tower in its Garden – photograph by Beq Janus

And here’s the second – a view of the beautiful gears inside the tower.

The Gears inside the New Babbage Clock Tower – photograph by Beq Janus

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Catch up with your Prim Perfect jigsaws (showing images of Second Life and other virtual worlds).

If you’d like to submit a photo of your own to feature as a jigsaw, send it to the Prim Perfect Flickr Group. It should be sized 800w x 600h, or else it will need to be re-sized.

Read Full Post »

Saffia up for Sale! Rowan to be Rented! And a chance to buy Mr Biggins …

It’s all for Relay for Life, of course. Today in New Babbage at 5pm at Piermont Landing, there is an auction of prominent citizens and associated friends of New Babbage.  You can read all the details here on The Primgraph … but three items for sale may be of particular interest to readers of Prim Perfect and viewers of Designing Worlds (particularly the New Babbage shows).

Mr Biggins

There are:

Mr. Biggins – Adventure!
Buying Biggins will win you (and, if you want, your build) an appearance in our next Designing Worlds Babbage show.

Saffia Widdershins
Buy Saffia, and choose between:
1) An exclusive shopping trip, with Saffia taking you around the grid to stores you may never have heard of;
2) An tour of exploration, finding beautiful, out-of-the-way places;
3) A home makeover by Saffia and her team, with the option of appearing on Designing Worlds.

Rowan Derryth
A private Rowan talk for you an your friends by Professor Rowan Derryth, on Victorian art, design, and/or fashion (subject catered to your whims).

Illusions Ball

The auction will be followed by the Illusions White Themed Ball, to be held at Piermont Landing from 6 – 9pm with DJ Bats.

And if the People Auction doesn’t offer anyone who grabs your attention, perhaps you might be interested in the Auction of Things, to be held at 1:00 pm SLT Sunday, July 1st, also at Piermont Landing, and also just before a dance (DJed by Loki Eliot) – you’ll find further details of this too on The Primgraph blog!

So do come along and make a purchase to support Relay for Life … and you could find yourself in the next Designing Worlds show filmed in New Babbage!

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Welcome to Winterfell, Rustica!

Maxwell’s Graf’s famous island of Rustica, complete with the beautiful castle which houses the great Rustica store, has been on the move!

Max has decided that the darkly beautiful region of Winterfell, located to the north of Caledon, will provide a fitting location for his work.

Rustica links with Winterfell, photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

Winterfell moves in theme from dark Victorian in the south of the estate to a more medieval inspired ambiance further north, with elements of dark fantasy at times. Throughout it is stunning beautiful – as we found on Designing Worlds when we visited Winterfell in March 2011.

In actual fact, this marks the fulfillment of a very longterm plan, as Maxwell explains:
“I feel like it is where I have belonged all along. I had initially designed the castle to be a gateway between Caledon and Winterfell, with the canyon under the store being a passage for ships, but for various reasons we were unable to complete that. After all this time, I am extremely excited and happy to be part of such a wonderful and longstanding community of people, many of whom are already friends. It’s like coming home.”

Rustica links with Winterfell, photograph by Wildstar Beaumont

And such are the wonders of Second Life that your landmarks to Rustica will still work, as will the Rustica slurl (but if you have Rustica in your picks, you will need to update that).

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