2010-12-31

Punishment Pickers now available in the main store

Further to yesterday's update about the new Punishment Pickers, we've now made them all avialable in our main store:


Feel free to come in and have a play with them and see how they look and what they do.

2010-12-30

New Punishment Pickers

It's a month since we released the first two Punishment Pickers and we're delighted to say that they've been rather popular. During that time Antony's been busy building new ones (while, of course, helping to relocate the Z&A main store). Here are the latest Punishment Pickers available from Z&A Productions:

The Candle


The Coffee


The Globe


The Lamp


The Whip


Remember, for now, these are only available on the Second Life Marketplace (you'll note they're available via Antony's marketplace shop, don't worry, these are still Z&A products and are still dealt with in the same way, it's just that the Marketplace still isn't smart enough to let two or more people manage a single shop). Just click on any of the images above to be taken to the page for the Punishment Picker or visit the page for the whole store to see them all together.

2010-12-28

Getting naughty after Christmas

It's finally here. The Essendy post-Christmas raffle is well under way and, today, the raffle board is in the main store of Z&A Productions. It's easy enough to find, right above the subbie parking:


All you have to do is TP into our main store, go touch the board, and you're in the raffle. The winner will be picked at the end of the raffle period (which lasts for 14 days) and the raffle board will move around the different main stores who are donating prizes. You can see some of the prizes if you visit Essendy's RLV Mall. Z&A's prize is a choice of any three items from our main store (over at the RLV mall we've got a select from our black/chrome range on display but you're welcome to choose three of any items we sell).

Don't forget that the Essendy skybox raffle is still ongoing (see the raffle board on the front of our main store), as is The Naughty Night Before Christmas hunt.

2010-12-24

Getting ready to get naughty after Christmas

Even though, here at Z&A, we've only just started getting naughty for Christmas, we're already planning on how to be naughty after Christmas. To this end we're going to be one of the companies supporting Essendy Estates' "Naughty Days After Christmas" raffle. Right now we've got a raffle board on the front of our main store at Shackles that, if you slap it, will enter you into a raffle to win a free stay at an Essendy skybox (and, trust us, that's a nice prize -- Antony won one once and Miss Vila really enjoyed it, she was even kind enough to cage Antony there once or twice). The board looks like this:


As you can probably see from the text in the picture, the skybox is just one raffle. Starting some time on Boxing Day a second raffle will take place where you'll be able to win prizes from companies who have stalls at Essendy's RLV Mall. We'll be putting a prize up for that raffle too. So, if you like the idea of winning some Z&A goodies, keep an eye on this blog and also for "Friends of Z&A" group notices (if you're not a member, now's a good time to join -- you'll find a joiner board in the main store).

And, while you're there, don't forget to grab your free Z&A snowman and consider heading out on The Naughty Night Before Christmas hunt.

2010-12-20

Starting to get naughty for Christmas

Today sees the start of the Naughty Night Before Christmas hunt and, of course...


...we had to be part of that. If you like the sound of the hunt come down to our main store and touch the sign out the front (see above) for a landmark for the starting location.

We think our hunt gift matches "Christmas" and "naughty". Let us know what you think. ;-)

2010-12-16

Seven new products in the main store

Z&A Productions are deligted to announce that we've released seven new products into our main store. Currently you'll find them on display on the ground floor:


The products are:

Z&A Arm Hang Frame


Z&A Cell Bed (Black)


Z&A Cell Bed (Rust)


Z&A Floor Sleep


Z&A Ball Helmet


Z&A Punishment Log


Z&A Hair Stick Gag

2010-12-13

A Brief History of Z&A

It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment that Z&A Productions was born because, as often happens with these things, there wasn't an exact moment when it was decided that it should be born. It started with some coding Antony did to explore RLV, and with some building Zardia was doing, and the demands of Antony's Mistress, Miss Vila Pixelmaid. Antony's very first build was a prim that could be worn with a touch to lock and a touch to unlock. After that was a simple ball-shaped isolation helmet that further explored what could be done with RLV. After that came a cube that you could sit on and be locked on, by way of experimenting with and understanding talking to an RLV relay.

Meanwhile, Zardia was making jelly (don't ask)...

What is recorded is that, one day, in February 2010, Zardia told Antony of a mall that had some affordable spare shops, run by a friend of hers. She tried to talk him into opening a shop, he came up with a bunch of objections, she came up with a bunch of reasons why those objections were total crap, he couldn't argue with that and...


...on February 19th, 2010, Z&A Productions had a shop.

Well, actrually, that's not quite true. Zardia and Antony had a shop, we'd not decided on a name yet. The name came a day or so later and, on the 21st, we had our logo:


There was still some work to do though. First came the shooting of the products:


(keen-eyed Z&A fans will notice we didn't go with a white backdrop in the end) and then came the creation of the vendor boards:


(keen-eyed Z&A fans will notice the backdrop we did use in the end) and, finally, on the 24th of February, we had a shop, with stock:


That shop only lasted about three weeks. The owners of the mall had been offered a whole mainland sim at a good price and wanted to move everything over there and build bigger. So, with the promise of a good price on a bigger shop (and direct TP rights! DIRECT TP RIGHTS!), we agreed. And so, on March 16th 2010, Z&A Productions' Main Store, MkII, was born.


We were so chuffed with that shop. It was huge, and open, and felt like it was going to be impossible to fill and would last us forever. It lasted just under a month.

Turned out the landlords couldn't afford the next month's tier and were looking to sell it from under us. So, sadly, just as we'd started to get into the swing of things (the keen-eyed reader will notice that, by this point, we'd discovered hunts and we were taking part in a few of them -- we'd started getting traffic and, more important, we'd started getting sales!), we had to close it all down again, with nowhere to go.

But then Miss Vila discovered Craigie and a spare plot there. It was bigger than the previous store. Moreover, it was an actual plot of land (none of this renting a building on someone else's plot nonsense). It was more expensive than we'd been paying. It was, dare we say, an admission that this was getting a little serious. After a three hour conversation about the pros and cons we decided it was time to get serious. The Z&A Productions Main Store MkIII was born:


There's so much we could write about Craigie, it was an awesome location for us. The people were great. The sim was great. Meeting and doing fun things with the 24/7 Restricted group was great. Craigie is, without question, where Z&A grew up and became a name that people know and pass on.

And, sadly, that brings us to the reason for this post. You'll notice we're talking in the past tense here. As some of you might know, Essendy are having to let Craigie go, to consolidate their sims somewhat and to make more waterfront for their residential sims. Because of this the commecial lands that are on Craigie are being moved to another sim. And, in any other situation, we'd be moving there. We adore Essendy and would still do business with them (and probably will, there's still going to be a mall...), no question, no hesitation.

Only....

Meanwhile, the home sim of Miss Vila, Zardia, Antony and the Z&A Workshop had undergone some big changes and had turned into a BDSM-friendly femdom sim. There was some land still going spare (as of the time of writing there still is -- if you want to come live on, and be part of, SL's newest femdom sim, do get in contact) and, if we had to move the shop, it made more sense to move to our own sim than it did to move to another one. It was a hard decision to make, a very hard decision to make. But, in the end, it made sense to support the sim we've helped to build and that we live on.

So, as of today, Z&A Productions' new main store lives on the island sim of Shackles:


We hope you come and visit us. We also hope you come and explore the wider sim too (you'll find many Z&A products dotted around, not to mention some builds exclusive to Shackles). Please also note that we've closed down the small shop we opened at Shackles. Now that our main store is located there there didn't seem much point in keeping that going (right now it's a MoDesign affiliate shop -- Antony's still giggling like crazy at Mo's PG-friendly RLV-enabled barrel).

So, there you have it. A brief (well, okay, briefish) history of Z&A Productions, ending with the next step in our evolution. If you've purchased from us, supported us, or just popped into our shops, thank you. You make it all worth it. :-)

Many thanks for your support,
Zardia Avindar
Antony Fairport
AKA Z&A Productions

Sixth Z&A Productions Group Gift

The sixth Z&A Prooductions group gift is now available from our main store (note new location, news on this to come soon). Just pop down, wear your "Friends of Z&A" group tag, and click on the vendor board. It looks like this: