Lunata Lupino is one of those creators who deserves to be better known. Her product range is limited – but exquisite. She produces hand textured and hand-painted flowers, some of the loveliest in Second Life, which she sells from a small garden centre in Darkwood Gardens in DarkWood.
I first came across Lunata’s work when we were shooting the Christmas episode of Designing Worlds (or Meta Makeover, as it was then). Our location was Summer Gildea’s home in Caledon Cay, because she had decorated her home for Christmas in amazingly rich Victorian style. While we were filming, I noticed that she had the most spectacular garlands over her windows, richly and beautifully textured, and another, with hanging Christmas cards, over the fireplaces – and I asked where she got them. She explained about Lunata and Darkwood Gardens and warned that they were not exactly cheap to buy … but really, I think one should be prepared to pay a decent price for the sheer amount of detailed, intricate work that goes into her textures.
Lunata comes from Berlin – which means that some of her products are labelled in German – the garlands, for example, have the names Kartenkette (christmas cards garland) and Mistelgirlande (mistletoe garland). In real life, she is a screendesigner, and says that her reason for being in Second Life is “for painting textures (gardening + tapisserie)”. She says her creations require experience, endless patience and lots of real life-time. Consequently those textures are highly detailed and sharp without having halos.
These go beyond simple plants, I think. They’re works of art.
Prim Perfect 