When I was about six months into Second Life I set out to find some Navajo-style turquoise jewelry. Why? Because I like it in real life. I found lots of high prim fancy bracelets and necklaces and armbands, but not what I wanted-- and so I set out out to create some.
I'd had a few months to learn the SL interface and building tooks, but I was still a novice. I didn't quite know what I was doing (in fact, one prim I came across this week is named "Gem-- Don't Know What I'm Doing," but somehow I accomplished my goal. I was soon wearing belt, necklace, bracelets, and earrings in silver turquoise.
People responded well to the jewelry and I set it for sale. I maintained a half-ass store area, but most of my sales were on the twin websites On Rez and XStreet-- and, when Linden Lab purchased them, on the Second Life Marketplace.
Not wanting to co-opt the Navajo Nation, I called my jewelry Southwestern. I had nine pieces (two belts, two bracelets, three necklaces, and two pairs of earrings) in nine stones, available in both silver and gold. That made (quick math exercise) 9 x 9 x 2 items, for a grand total of 162 products to build, photograph, package, and set for sale in three different places.
That pretty much shut me down in the sales department.
I don't know why I didn't figure this out in 2007, but it would have made more sense to have nine products with a script to change their textures.
When the Marketplace did away with magic boxes and I was faced with re-doing all those products, I belatedly realized I need to change my strategy.
And so I wrote a script that allows the owner to select from nine semi-precious stones. The script not only changes texture, but color, and sets the texture density.
I toyed with the idea of including a command to delete the script, but as each piece contains only a single touch script, and since the jewelry is modifiable, I decided against it. I also decided against having the script change the metal.
I now have gold and silver sets in vendors at my store space 4000 meters above Whimsy. Within a day or two they'll be available at the Marketplace.
I'm going to move forward with creating a real store. Flights of Fancy will be athe wonderful (and huge!) Sub-Orbital Asteroid Retreat here.
I've set the vendors to give a 25% discount to members of the Flights of Fancy group; I'll also be sending gifts to group members twice a month.
I'll be documenting all this on my Flights of Fancy blog. I'll only occasional post store-related material here-- mainly when I'm excited about something.
Photos of Jewelry are below the line.
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