Kuro Neko – Marsha’s Second Life Interviews

Nya! I met the owner of Gurl 6, Six Kennedy! I am very excited, as I really admire and love her work. I think most everyone knows of Gurl 6, and to think that she would take time to talk to a insignificant little kittie such as Marsha nya, is very surprising. AnywSix, here is the interview – it was conducted whilst bouncing around on my little kitties nya!

Kuro Neko: Hello, Six nya. When did you decide you wanted to make hair in Second Life?
Six Kennedy: It was last year October ‘05 – I was starting to fiddle with prims and had made some prim jackets and finally decided to give hair a try. Back then there was not as many hair designers, and there was definitly not a lot of hair coming out often and I wanted so many different styles so I decided to try them on my own.
Kuro Neko: When did you set up the Gurl 6 shop, and did it start as a small store?
Six: Gurl 6 was born with my very first coat back over a year ago.. my friend had a mini mall so she let me have a spot for my coats right away, it was a tiny little cube, then slowly but surely I needed 2 cubes, and she kept breaking down walls for me til I got to 4 cubes then she was like okay you’re outta here – make your own store across the street, lol. And it’s been slowly growing ever since, from Sleezywood I ran out of room and went to a rental place on Ginny sim, ran out of room went to a 1/4 sim on Euphoria Island and then finally last summer we decided we would need an island to house all this hair.
KN: What was your first ever style and did it sell well nya?
Six: (long pause) Ooh just found it, my first hair ever was “Student”. It was 2 pigtails and it’s actually still available for sale in the discount section of the store. It occasionally still gets picked up now and then lol. I have learned A LOT since then lemme tell you.
KN: You seem to produce a lot of styles often, where do you get your ideas?
Six: Ohhh really from everything, styles from everyday real life, styles from movies and television and suggestions from other people. There’s still about a zillion styles I wanna do.
KN: How long does it take to make a hairstyle, on average nya?
Six: It really depends on a couple of factors, the difficulty of the style, and my level of dedication to it, sometimes if a style is easy I can get it doen in a couple of hours, but if im not dedicated to it could take all night… other times a hair is very difficult and I spend days on it, taking lots of long breaks in between, it depends largely on my attention span.
KN: Do you make men’s styles, or do you leave that to Dominik?
Six: I make men’s styles but then I turn them over to him. He textures them, boxes them, does the ads, markets them and handles all the male issues for me. It just takes a load off lol.
KN: Do you ever do customs or take on board ideas from regular shoppers nya?
Six: Oh of course, and I always tell everyone that if they have a picture of a hair they like, that makes it much easier for me to interpret what they want to see, and if I end up doing a hair they suggest – including cutie lil nekos – I name the hair after them and give them a free everything pack
KN: Nya! Oh, I would love a Marsha hair nya. But, do you ever feel like you’ve done enough hair and then just stop making?
Six: Yeah I go through phases where I’m just tired of hair, and then I’ll work on shoes or jewelry or clothes to give myself a lil break on it.
KN: How often do you change your own style?
Six: Oh sometimes when I make a hair I really like I will keep it on for days, but generally I’m just wearing the latest thing I’ve made. So probably changing styles every once or twice a week.
KN: Do you only wear your own hair nya?
Six: I would say I wear my own hair 99 percent of the time because the styles are literally tailor-made to what I like lol.
KN: What advice would you give to anyone who wants to start making their own hair in Second Life?
Six: I would say to definitely spend some time working on basic building techniques first because they will all apply to hair making, I have had a lot of people that have come to me ready to make hair and haven’t first learned how to rez prims or use the edit window, so I would say to definitely get comfortable with the building tools and then to try to find their own style so that they will stand out and be distinct right from the start, to know that it just takes a little bit of patience and a lot of free time, but to definitely focus first on making things you like for yourself, that way if it takes a while for your store to get off the ground, you have styles you personally love wearing.
KN: Do you consider yourself an Anshe Chung of the hair world? And when will you get into Wikipedia?
Six: Haha, no no not at all. I am nowhere near in the league of the designers that I look up to and respect so much like Elika(peka Tiramisu, ETD) and Lost (Therian, Naughty Designs) and so many more.

Six and me on my little springy kitties nya!

Hello! Today, I was fortunate enough to get an interview with the owner of Curious Kitties, Ameshin Yossarian. And none more curious than I, nya. I was very honoured. Nya. Please read on..

Kuro Neko: Ok, firstly I’d like to ask, where do you get your inspirations for such wild skins and hairstyles?
Ameshin Yossarian: Hmm.. lol very good question. Well.. I just like colors. I guess one of the big insperations for the hair and skins would be wild birds.. the really colorful kind ^^
Kuro Neko: I always shop at Curious Kitties. I love the skins with the dark eyes nya.
Ameshin Yossarian: Happy you like it.
KN: How long did it take you to build Curious Kitties and did you do it all by yourself?
AY: Hm.. it’s constantly evolving so about 3 years but its moved twice. I’ve built the shop myself for the last 2 years, Sythia Veil and I started the shop and we built the first one together. Helyanwe Vindaloo put a bit of decor up before but shes left so its all my stuff now ^^
KN: Three years…wow. Nya. Was it all you ever wanted to do in Second Life?
AY: Basically yes.. designing is really fun for me..designing and building. I dont think I have a hobby I like more.
KN: How about eating cake?
AY: Hmm cake.. damn it..you got me. Okay, cake is my first hobby.. lol!
KN: Tell me, what was your first hairstyle you ever made and did you ever sell it nya?
AY: Oh wow hm .. first? i made a lot of stuff when I first came on.. hm my first I did sell I think.. it was just a default hair with a head dress type thing.. back then there was no prim hair. Or if there was i didnt see any.. they used to charge per prim lol!
KN: Did you ever get inspiration from fellow hair makers nya?
AY: No I dont think so.. I dont really look around a lot to be honest.
KN: So, I notice you look very scary in your profile pic. Is it likely you would slice my face off if I said one wrong thing nya…?
AY: Ah LOL! i change that regularly, I’m not too fond of my current but i need to keep updating my look.
KN: Do you always wear your own skins and hair, or sometimes buy others?
AY: Hmm i always just wear mine but i do enjoy getting gifts.. designing for me is really fun so basically whenever I design something I design it with me in mind, something I know no one else would make. So I am almost always wearing my new releases – when i get bored i make newer stuff ^^
KN: Well, Ameshin, thank you for your time, I hope I have been a good interviewer nya.
AY: Yes ^^ a very good one – it was fun ^^

Ameshin Yossarian from Curious Kitties

Hybrid Street (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gnoma/13/194/48) is a place to buy kitty things. In fact, I think they do the best Neko Huds in Second Life. At the moment they are 50% off in store, so get down there now! They also do Kitsune Huds (foxes) and Wildcats. I bought a skin there too, which you can get at the store next door called “Eat Me”.

I did experience a looooot of lag at Hybrid Street. I think that was just Second Life though, so don’t let it put you off. It’s a really cool place to hang out and buy kitty things. Check out my pictures below! You can click on them to see more details.

Hello everyone in reality world. I am Marsha, otherwise known as Kuro Neko (or Black Kitty). This blog will document my exploration of the online game Second Life…where I intend on interviewing various interesting people and visiting various interesting places whilst indulging in some interesting pasttimes. In fact, I played with a mouse and a bird yesterday.

Miaow >(o.o)<