Stop #6: Trilby's Mill in Caledon Mayfair

Now here was an interesting find!  Trilby's Mill in Caledon Mayfair is the oldest point of interest I've visited so far.  I did a little scouring of the internet to get a little history and actually found Trilby's Mill featured in a compilation of essays called Networked Effect, in Essay #9, entitled Technologies Of Feeling: Affect Between The Analog And The Digital, written by Jenny Sunden.

You find that the mill has been around since 2008, and has had more than a thousand visitors as of the printing of that book in 2015.

Upon landing, you're immediately caught up in the whimsy of Caledon, New Babbage and other steampunk communities that have been a part of Second Life for over a decade.  Tall ships and railroads tell of a bygone era, but with a futuristic and fantasy feeling, typical of steampunk sensibilities.

The fountain sculpture outside says volumes about what you'll find once you enter the paper mill, with a kind of "ages of man" feeling, but with the history of paper.

Left to Right the statues are holding, a*YEN* text scroll, a palm leaf manuscript, an open book, an accordion dresden codex, and, in a nod to the digital, an iPad.  Pretty clever.

As I climbed the stairs to the entrance (The stamp kiosk is right out front for you BBB stampers out there,) I kept hearing the sound like grinding stone, and before I realized it, I saw that the stone gargoyles out front were following my every move.  A little disconcerting at first, but eventually pretty funny, and challenging, to see if you could fake them out. (HINT: You can't!)

The ground floor shows off some of Trilby's fashions, designed based on historic publications, and they were free!  I managed to pick up a vest and shirt based on what I believe is The Gutenberg Bible.  Considering that I have one of the latest mesh bodies, this mesh combo of separate shirt and vest actually came off looking pretty well!

The top floor is where the immersive "history of paper and printing" takes place, with interactive exhibits and videos.  This is what Jenny Sunden was talking about in the aforementioned RL book, where in a digital world, you can get a feeling of what it might be like to hammer a book binder, or sew a book together.

And in typical steampunk fashion, there is always an imaginative source of power.  Mrs. Potts from "Beauty and The Beast" would be proud!

I tend to shy away from older builds, but I'm getting over that, and might be returning to Caledon to see what else I can find.