Steampunk? Why Not?

While catching up on my emails this morning I happened across the cute critter I'm featuring below. He's the inspiration for today's romp through creative speculation. This wonderful guinea pig is dressed in a custom-made steampunk harness with wings. The perfect accent for his trip to the nearest guinea pig con and get-together. I had to laugh, and then I had to follow the thread to see where it might lead me. So here we go on a journey through steampunk.

Is he not adorable? The artist does custom orders because each
one needs to fit your fuzzy little critter exactly. Too cute! 

Steampunk is a mix of Victorian English-styled clothing blended with industrial overtones and mechanisms based on steam power instead of other power sources such as gasoline or solar. The style has been around for quite a few years now and has planted some deep roots. I feel like wandering through the possibilities for new costumes with all of you today.

Steampunk fashion is based on leatherwork with gears and
brass accents. My friends and I fell in love with belt-carried
tea sets, a new item at one leather purveyor at Renaissance
Fest this year. Each delicate china cup and saucer was accompanied
by a lace serviette and hung from the belt so as to be easily
accessible for 4:00 o'clock tea time.  

Many outfits feature goggles. Goggles, made from leather and brass
 (or sometimes plastic - not a good material choice) are worn on the head,
around the hat, or even actually over the eyes. Why wear goggles? All I
can think of is protection from industrial waste and air pollution. The
more important question is "What can you see through them?" To
paraphrase Howard Carter, "I can see wonderful things."  

The gears and enhancements to the lenses of each unique set of goggles allow the user to see in different ways - through dimensions, into the molecular level, beneath the surface, telescoped or microscoped. A good set of goggles can be key to an effective steampunk presentation.

Steampunk bandolier pouches are often worn across the chest or
as belts. They often have tools attached - tweezers, sewing thread,
flares, or medicine bottles, and they feature a variety of pouches.
Essentially, the steampunk bandolier is the Victorian equivalent
of Batman's utility belt. 

Here is an especially nice leather corset with the
bottom rings acting as a type of bandolier for the
pouch and bottle that are hanging loose. 

Of course, steampunk is a grand opportunity to work with leather and make something really customized and unique. Take a look at these examples of some amazing and beautiful leatherwork.

This really fabulous pouch carries the clockwork gears motif
into the leather. The back has a strap where a belt can be passed
through and the top fastens with a back snap, allowing the front
design to be unsullied. Very nice! 

I love the embellished interleaved gears stamped into this leather
top hat. The decorative lacing at the top is a nice addition as well. 

Are you a reporter in the world of steampunk? This pouch may be
for you. This is a journalist's pouch with paper and pencil along with
a lower pouch featuring a plasma disc. This is made to hang down
from a belt. 

Here's a small steampunk belt box featuring a turn
latch (I sell these and love them) and a wonderful
octopus (or Cthulu) below. Yeah! I want! 

And finally, because I'm getting closer to making myself a set of grieves, here's a steampunk take on a pair with brass, leather, and a wonderful pocket watch.

This grieve, or bracer, features a brass top, some embellished
tubing, a leather body and a chained and pouched pocket watch. A very
nice design. 

So there you have it. New outfit ideas and some wonderful examples to build from. Have a wonderful Tuesday and dream on!

Finally Friday

It's been a very busy week at the shop and after hours. That's great, but I'm a bit behind on my beta. I'll finish the latest chapter for Iris tonight and get it sent off to her. But I should have had it done a couple of days ago :-( I did get a story posted for Game of Thrones, have another couple in the works, am continuing to work on drabbles, and when I can find the time and inspiration, work on my H-verse. I am tempted to go back - seriously back - and do some major editing on this.

Thursday nights we reserve for Project Accessory. Yesterday's show was all about handbags. They said that the average woman has six handbags. Six! I adore handbags. I can count six just sitting on ledges around me right now. If I open my closet to see my handbag shelf, I'll have more than 30 more. I adore handbags. I guess I'm not the norm :-) I wanted to put a pic of the winning bag - it was truly beautiful, but their website really sucks and I couldn't grab an image.

However, I did grab an image of the winning shoes from the shoe challenge two weeks ago. Now, many women who may not be that crazy about handbags are bonkers over shoes. Shoes don't do a thing for me - they are something I wear to keep my feet away from broken glass and icky stuff, and because of my orthotics, they also keep me free from pain. But I'm no fashionista when it comes to shoes. These shoes, however, were really wonderfully made and very colorful. Sassy! Enjoy a creative Friday and carry that creativity through into your weekend.

A Journal In My Future

Last night DH wanted to go to our local art supply store for some posterboard.  After finding what he considered to be the perfect weight, he asked me how I was coming along on my leather-bound journal.  Since I hadn't done any work at all on the journal, I was able to say that I had other projects in front of it.  But we looked through papers - handmade, hot and cold pressed, watercolor, pastel, drawing and sketching, finally ending up with a larger sketchpad for drawing with a slight texture, but not as deep a texture as the oil pastel paper that I had also loved.  I will cut that up and start making signatures of the pages soon, and I'll probably have to take another look at the journals that I liked at Renaissance Fest to see how they are binding their signatures into their journals.  I really loved them and had decided to try and make one for myself because I love to make my own and because I'm too broke to buy one of theirs for myself.  I have all of the components - the paper, the leather, the closures - so it seemed reasonable.  But looking through my bookbinding books late last night, I can't find specific directions for the type of binding that I recall their using.  I can get the signatures together, but that's as far as I'll be able to go until August.  (Isn't the pictured journal amazingly fun?  It's a design idea, I won't copy it but there are aspects of it that I might put into my own journal.) 

I set the colors on my silk and washed out the resist last night.  I'm in love.  The colors are bright and vibrant and exactly what I had wanted.  Now I have the resist that I had down at the horizon that needs to be painted.  I will put the silk back into it's frame tonight, put a small amount of resist back onto the fabric, and touch up the small amount of white at my horizon.  Or I will look at it again tonight and agree with DH who says that he rather likes the white.  But I just can't make up my mind completely.  I just know that I'm very happy with the colors and imagery and that the whole project, as it shifts into it's final stages, is turning out to meet my mental imagery and project requirements.  And that's important because I want to get this completed and move on to the next two projects that are perched in my mind.