189: Necklace for Niramyth from Sternwood Treasures

I can't remember what prompted it -- perhaps my usual pleasure in possibly finding a gift for my husband Alex Thaub -- but I ended up looking on Marketplace for a necklace that was made for the larger-bodied Niramyth Aesthetic mesh body. I'm happy to say I found one; in fact I bought three necklaces from a company called Sternwood Treasures, designed by Jack Sherwood. (The company name links to the Marketplace store; they [edited later] have an in-world presence here.)

   One of the things that attracts me to particular products or designers in Second Life is whether they are conducting their business in a way that suits people who inhabit Second Life. Sometimes it can be a tiny nice way of giving your customers a gift, or a pleasant experience; sometimes it can be an entire large-scale marketing programme that's designed to imprint the name of, say, a skin designer across the SL blogosphere. This is one of the times when I had a tiny nice experience.

  When I bought the necklaces on Marketplace, one went to Alex's inventory and the other two went to mine (hey, who said this was fair? LOL). When I arrived in SL a few hours later, yes, the necklaces were waiting, but so was a note from Jack Sherwood. He said, essentially, "I saw you bought something, thanks for that, and I'd be grateful if you left me a review on Marketplace." Fair enough, but not something that happens often, where a designer wants feedback without trying to influence what it is.

  Unpacking the items was the second half of my nice experience. When I'd taken the contents into my inventory -- the container deleted itself. Now, okay, this for me was the answer to prayers. My inventory is littered with empty containers that I haven't dared to delete at the time because I wasn't sure which one is which. Honestly, I think this should be the new standard in SL; containers should be required to delete themselves. (Although I must say occasionally someone packs their stuff in a cute object that I'd actually keep around, but the principle is a good one.)

  So finally I tried the necklaces on. I suppose it's reasonable to expect that they would fit my Niramyth Aesthetic body ... but things like this in Second Life don't always work the way they're advertised, do they?  In this case, though, look at the pictures. The chain falls exactly where it should fall. I admit it took a few minutes to get it into place, it was quite a fiddly fitting process to get it exactly into place, but once I did it was nailed.

  The workmanship is great. Check out the side view of the gold chain on Alex's chest. I zoomed in as close as I could to show you the level of fine detail -- you can see where every link has been put in place individually, it seems. And the design is great also. I was looking for something masculine, naturally, but also something that's on a little bit larger scale, because the body that will be wearing it is on a larger scale. The design is very street, but that's a good thing; this kerb-chain style is very popular in real life right now, mostly in steel and turned out by machines. The dog tags turned out to be my favourite, mostly because of the rude saying written on them in tiny letters (the designer offers the chance to have your own engraving on them and I think I may, but if you care to leave them you will be quietly amused).
  All things considered, this is the kind of business I like to support in Second Life; someone who is offering great design and thinking about what suits the customer in the process.
  Added 24 hours later: I didn't search carefully enough, there is an in-world store found here and I wasn't aware of it when I mounted this post. I've corrected the first paragraph for your convenience and provided a SLURL.