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Friday, September 24, 2010

Not Remotely Steampunk

Now, I've talked a little bit about what I think steampunk is, and now I leave you with the following gem of a thread from Regretsy, a great site forever proving that just because it can be made, doesn't mean it should be.

http://www.regretsy.com/category/not-remotely-steampunk/

And that, is Not Remotely Steampunk.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

A Prop Update and the Beginnings of a New Outfit!!

Well, I finally finished my gun for my Captain costume and am very proud of it, seeing as it's completely mine, from design to painting.  I will admit that it was just a modified water gun, but I'm proud of it, nonetheless.





And here's the beginnings of the outfit it goes with.  Yes, I have multiple outfits and hope to move more towards a completely steampunk wardrobe for both fancy and everyday wear.



Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Just Bought!!

So I wanted to share my new stuff in my last post, but then it glitched out so I had to put it here:


My new Ray gun: Bouught on Etsy!

New Ear piece by the same folks who did my gun.

There is also a great skeleton key from Ebay, bringing my grant total of keys to 4 and a really cool new pair of goggles in silver and brass.  There will be new pictures of my outfit once all the new pieces come together.

My Outfit

Before I jump into other folks outfits, I wanted to show off my own.  Please note that I am a modifier, not a maker, so if it's awesome I probably did no more than give it a couple coat of paint.

<======== My beautiful self.  This was taken is Salem, MA, during The 2010 Steampunk Invasion of Salem.  I was playing croquet with the Emperor, The Baron, the Professor, the General and a travelling gypsy.  It was very awesome.








Interesting Pieces:

My earring.  You can't see it in the photos above, but I love it!











My wrist 'Time Machine'.  I was bored and had a cool calculator and painted it.  The crochet was done by a dear friend of mine, Hillary, who is nothing short of awesome.


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Credit Where Credit is Due

I owe my craftiness to a lot of wonderful people in the steampunk world, and they all deserve hugs, so here goes:

The Wandering Legion :  I saw the General before I knew what steampunk was and I squealed.  I have now had the joy of getting to know him and his merry band, who are awesome and show up at Cons and generally make me happy.

The League of S.T.E.A.M. :  This is what I aspire to.  EPIC AWESOME!!!

The Steam Fashion Livejournal Community :  A generally awesome group of very together people who know a lot more about steampunk than I do, by warrant of being a very large group.  In this case, many brains really are better than one, so if you want a great crash course, cool well priced shops for all your costuming needs, or just cool stuff to drool over, this is the place for you.

Monday, September 20, 2010

And so it begins.....

So, I pride myself on being a crafty person.  I'm into jewelry making, costuming and remodeling, and as a result, for the past two years, I have slowly been getting into a fabulous sub-culture known as steampunk.  This blog is a chronicle of one woman's sojourn into time travel, air ships and all things steampunk!

So what is steampunk anyways?  I've found that it can be rather hard to pin down.  For many that's is exactly the appeal.  I first got into it at an anime convention (nerd pride) and I have read a lot of the classic Jules Verne, which is one of the founding inspirations of the genre.  I don't claim to be an expert, but my formula goes as follows:

A Victorian fashion sensibility + Jules Verne-esque speculative fiction + any sort of fantasy, sci-fi or gothic slant.

It lends itself very well to adventure settings a la Around the World in 80 Days, but it also has darker more dystopian aspects, often referred to as gaslight fantasy, which is a little later than the steam powered era of classic steampunk.

Browns and blacks seem to have become the unspoken norm in steampunk fashion, but I am currently working on a purple and black outfit.  ( more on this at a later note.  There will be WIP pictures soon.)  Goggles and top hats are often common, but they run the gamut from classic aviator goggles to heavily modified completely individual ones.  The long and short of it is that if you pay a little attention, almost anything goes.