Steampunk in the News

The following is a link to an article that appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National program, called How the Steampunk movement is catching the eye of Big Tech.

Guest Post - The Essentials of a Good Steampunk Party

Today sees the second ever guest post on my blog, again by Marie Sumner.

The Essentials of a Good Steampunk Party

Steampunk is a fantastical, semi-nostalgic, extravagant celebration of the Victorian and early industrial era. Intricately detailed, mechanical when possible, unconcerned with practicality, and loosely based around Victorian codes of behavior and dress, steampunk is a playground for imagination and inventiveness. If you want to throw a steampunk party that makes an impression with the right costumes and atmosphere, there are a few essential things you’ll need to keep in mind.

Décor

Clockwork Items

Besides actual steam powered items the next most iconic representation of the steampunk genre is clockwork mechanics. Hang up a few different types of clocks and use things like music boxes and clockwork toys as decorative items on tables and shelves.

Pipes

Metal pipes aren’t something you’d install for decorative purposes yourself unless you’ve got a lot of money to burn, but when picking a venue you would be lucky to get hold of an old building with exposed piping on the walls. Pipes are obviously necessary to conduct and condense steam, and when used correctly can add to the atmosphere significantly.

Gears

Big gears, small gears, they’re all good as far as steampunk is concerned. Arrange several gears together and hang them on the walls as decoration. These are used to represent clockwork mechanics and will look excellent in whatever capacity you choose to use them.

Old-Timey Phone or Other Gadgets

Any old-timey machines make excellent background decorations for your guests to admire. Find things like old phones, sewing machines, velocipedes, or a steam engine (large, small, or incomplete, doesn’t matter). If you happen to locate Tesla coils or gas lanterns, display them prominently as these are the kinds of detailed additions that really set the scene.

Costumes

Ladies

 

Ladies generally have two options as far as steampunk costumes are concerned. They can go with the neo-Victorian lady approach, or the steampunk mechanic. The typical neo-Victorian lady is dressed in a corset, Victorian style dress, gloves, hat (either a top hat or any of the various lady-hats popular during Victorian times), and of course goggles. Typically all of this will come in shades of brown or black, but there is no real restriction on color choices, you can go nuts if you so choose.

The mechanic look also wears a corset on top with pants or a more conventional skirt on bottom. Instead of a hat you’ll just go with the goggles, and the whole outfit will be completed by some knee high boots. Possible accessories include monkey wrenches, clockwork based jewelry, or canes. 

Gentlemen

Like the ladies, gentlemen also have two options with a spectrum in between, the neo-Victorian gentleman or the mechanic. A neo-Victorian gentleman should be dressed in a tailcoat, vest, starched Victorian-style shirt, top hat, and boots. He should be well accessorized with a watch and fob, cane, and the requisite goggles. 

The mechanic should be dressed in the manner of 19^th century workers with a loose shirt, suspenders, a canvas cap, heavy canvas pants, and boots. Wrenches, goggles, or blunderbusses make excellent accessories for this costume. 

Gentlemen should also consider that they have a powerful effect on the era that they represent through their choice of facial hair. Wearing a well maintained, luxurious moustache is a perfect complement to your outfit and if you can grow one you should take the time to do so.

Costume Consultant Marie Sumner is an avid cosplayer and passionate writer who owns more superhero movies and comic books than anyone should be allowed to.

Steampunk Wedding Invite

My fiance and I are getting married in eleven weeks, and for it we are having a Steampunk/Victorian inspired wedding. The invites we sent out reflect this, and are a little bit different.

For it I wrote a very short story and a friend of my fiance illustrated them. The end result was a small booklet which served as the invite. The following images are from the invite.

Lego Steampunk Walking Ship.

Here is a rather cool - and creepy - Lego build by a man by the name of Jason Allemann. Yes, it actually walks.

Steampunk Art

The Order: 1886

At the recent E3, vide game developers Ready at Dawn, announced a game which has a bit of a steampunk feel to it.

Entitled The Order: 1886, it is an alternative universe setting where the industrial revolution came about as an effort to win a centuries-old war against inhuman enemies.

Few details are known, but a trailer was shown.

Steampunk Zombies

It was bound to happen.  You can add zombies to near anything.  Likewise with steampunk.  So sooner or later the two would be combined into Steampunk Zombies.

Warmachine: High Command

One of my earliest posts was on Privateer Press, who make the Warmachine miniature gaming series and the Iron Kingdoms RPG, both set in the Immoren world.  They label it Full Metal Fantasy, but it certainly falls into the steampunk genre.

They have just annoucned a new game coming out soon - Warmachine: High Command.

The blurb about it reads;

The fires of continent-spanning war engulf western Immoren, forging great leaders in a crucible of conflict. Bold commanders orchestrate grand strategies and daring battlefield tactics, their actions bringing glorious victory—or the despair of final defeat. Do you have the courage and cunning to lead your forces to ultimate triumph? Take command and muster the military might of an entire nation to conquer the Iron Kingdoms!

WARMACHINE High Command is a deck-building card game for 2–4 players set in the steam-powered fantasy world of the Iron Kingdoms. This stand-alone game can be played with just the contents of this box or combined with other WARMACHINE High Command products for a customizable experience. Leverage your resources, rally your armies, and dominate your foes to set your banner above all of western Immoren!

 There is also a short moving picture clip with a bit about the game.

Steampunk Lego

I was a big fan of lego when I was young, though back then it was pretty basic.  You had the city theme and the space theme and later on the castle theme turned up.  Beyond that, you had to use your imagination.

Over the years things have changed, with plenty of new and different sets, even ones based on popular franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Harry Potter.

And now a new theme is coming - steampunk.  Well, sort of.

Lego has something called the Master Builder Academy - I'd never heard of it until the news of the lego steampunk broke.  Basically, it teaches tips and techniques on creativity, building and design with lego.  There have been three levels, each with three kits.  Each kit has a theme.  Coming in July is level 4, and one of the kits for it is Steampunk.

Sadly that appears to be it - just the one kit, with instructions as to how to make a number of steampunk models with it, such as a hover-mobile, steam engine and mad scientist's ray.

Hopefully, if it proves popular, they may release some more, but in the meantime, if you want to build that steampunk lego city, it will be the old fashion way - with imagination.

• TRAVEL TO THE PAST… AND DESIGN THE FUTURE! – Launch your Invention Designer adventure! LEGO Master Builders merge the futuristic idea of time-travel with the clockwork gears and puffing steam-engines of the Victorian 1800′s – Steampunk! Steampunk is a science-fiction art-form that imagines the future as people might have in the past. Let it inspire all kinds of new ideas, and pick up some tips from professional LEGO designers on how to make your creations look futuristic, industrial or just plain cool!

RX Boiler Room - A Steampunk Restaurant

Related to the story I mentioned yesterday, about steampunk cooking, comes this one.

In Los Vegas, chef Rick Moonen is opening RX Boiler Room, a steampunk inspired restaurant.

Described as 'The Alchemy of Food and Drink', it is slated to open in July.

I wonder if guests will be encouraged to dress to the part.

Steampunk Cookery

I had this blog pointed out to me, the blurb of which reads 'If you can sew a steampunk wardrobe, write a steampunk story, and create a steampunk computer... why shouldn't you cook steampunk food?'

At some stage I will have to try out some of the recipes.

Steampunk BBQ

All the way from Russia comes this rather amazing steampunk locomotive BBQ - just the kind of thing any man would want in his backyard.

Steampunk AT-AT

This one is a labour of love - in more ways than one.

Captain Bayley (aka Mark) constructed what he called Captain Bayley's Infernal Mechano-Perambulator (also known as an AT-AT from Star Wars) as an engagement gift for his fiancee.

The amount of detail put into it is staggering.

Further photographs of it can be viewed here.

Grand Steampunk Homes and Businesses

Over on IO9, they have a listing of a number of homes and businesses that have been done over in a steampunk aesthetic, complete with the obligatory photographs.

I'd could quiet possibly live in a place like that.  Anyone else?

20,000 Leagues Above The Clouds

Recently announced by a Swedish indie gaming company, That Brain, is 20,000 Leagues Above The Clouds.  They describe it as;

Floating islands, airships, steampunk technology and alien sky pirates in victorian outfits populate the wondrous world of 20,000 Above. Design and outfit your ship with the gear you want, be it the biggest cannons and a shrink-ray, or fast engines and hidden cargo holds for smuggling. Obtain blueprints or reverse engineer your loot, then manufacture the equipment you need with resources collected from floating rocks and gas clouds. Hire crew members in shady ports that bring their own abilities and attitudes aboard. Make your luck trading, mining, running missions or scavenging the success of others as a flying buccaneer across the seven skies.

There isn't a whole lot of detail yet, but there is a short video about it.


It certainly sounds interesting if they can pull off what they are planning. Certainly one I'm going to be keeping an eye on.

DIY Steampunk Computer

From Reddit comes this gallery of one gamers attempt to steampunk their computer.  The craftmanship involved is most impressive.  It obviously took a great deal of time and effort to do, but as you can see, the efforts are worth it.

Moving Pictures - Land of Giants

Recently released was a crowdfunded 12 minute pilot/proof of concept for Land of Giants, described as an apocalyptic steampunk sci-fi actioner, with hopes of it being picked up as a movie or television series.

After the storm reduced our world to ruins, the Giants came to us, to punish those who would ever again lay their hands on the magic called "Electricity".

A long time ago Crutch (Mathis Landwehr) challenged the Giants anger. His destroyed knee won't let him forget the day, they took everything from him.

So he ventured out to hunt and kill them.

Guest Post - How To Steampunk Your Wardrobe

Today sees the first ever guest post on my blog, this one from Marie Sumner.

How to “Steampunk” Your Wardrobe 

With the increasing popularity of sites like Pinterest, the inspiration I find for steampunk outfits has also grown. Unfortunately, my budget for awesome outfits and accessories has not. Since I am a big fan of dressing up though, I always find a way to create awesome costumes on the cheap. Below are some of my inspirations for steampunk outfits.

I find that the best thing to use when trying to save money is leverage. Repurposing items you already have in order to flaunt a new style can really save you a lot of money (and put your creativity to the test!).

When it comes to steampunk, it’s all about the details. Steampunk is usually Victorian inspired clothing, but has an industrial slant. Goggles and clockwork accessories can go a long way to making your theme apparent. Other time-appropriate items such as stove-pipe hats, corsets, and monocles are great too.

If you’re looking for corsets and fancy Victorian dresses, you might be shocked at the prices. Considering how much skin a corset doesn’t cover, you might not expect them to be so pricy. But dang they can be pretty.

But you don’t have to buy a whole new outfit. If you have the right accessories, your base can be a suit or a black dress. If you had a goth phase, a lot of that clothing can be altered (or maybe even used as is) to fit your needs.

The best way to put together a costume is to focus it around one fantastic aspect. Below are some pictures of steampunk outfits that aren’t inherently over the top.

photo credit: Anna Fischer via photopin cc

You can’t see a lot of this outfit, but the top is pretty basic. Attention is drawn immediately to the necklace, and secondly to her goggles. While jewelry is not cheap, if you frequent thrift stores and learn to keep a keen eye, you may get lucky. Plus, if you save a lot by using clothes you already have, you might be able to splurge on a fancy accessory or two. Goggles can be found in many a workshop and be spruced up (or down) to your specifications. A similar necklace to this woman’s can be made using ribbon and a gear from a broken machine or hardware store. See if any workshops you know might be willing to give you spare parts to use.

photo credit: Anna Fischer via photopin cc

This guy does have a lot going on, but the main attraction is his hat. The Mad Hatter himself would probably steal this. The key necklace and feathers are nice touches that could easily be procured in second-hand or craft stores.

 photo credit: Anna Fischer via photopin cc

I love so much about this outfit: the gloves, the fan, and of course, the hat. The dress is beautiful as well, and do you know how many places you can find dresses on sale? Also, for the ladies, I find that a dress can be a lot cheaper than an outfit that includes a shirt and pants, especially if you were going to throw a vest and other additions in.

The great thing about the Pinterest age is that there’s a tutorial for everything. You can make your own clothes, gloves (and out of pretty much any material), hats, fans, goggles, and jewelry. If you can think of it, there’s probably a tutorial for it. The great thing about making things yourself is that you can make it fit you and the rest of your outfit perfectly.

So whether you want an over-the-top costume for a convention or just want to shake up your wardrobe, there are a lot of affordable ways to steampunk it up.

What are your favorite steampunk accessories? I know some people will dress up as “steampunk “ versions of star wars characters and other pop culture icons. How would you go about that? Add clockwork parts to your shoes? Hair? Share your ideas in the comments!

About the Author: Marie Sumner has been obsessed with dressing up since she was a child. She spends her days going to as many anime conventions, pirate festivals, and renaissance fairs as she can. She pays for it all by writing about her experiences. You can follow her on Twitter or Google plus to see more of her writing.

Did Steampunk Kill Alternative History?

Did Steampunk kill Alternative History?

Once upon a time alternative history used to be fairly common, with what-if stories ranging from the USA loosing the War of Independence, the South winning the Civil War, and the perennial favourite, Nazi Germany wining WWII.  Nowadays, it seems Steampunk is displacing it.

This article by Abraham Reisman looks at the question in more depth.

Steampunk Easter Eggs

Steampunk Art

TIME Joins Those Noticing Steampunk

Previously I mentioned how IBM was prediciting that steampunk was going mainstream, and now it seems TIME is joining in on noticing it.

They just released an article entitled '5 Reasons You'll Be Talking About Steapunk in 2013'. 

As usual, this will spark the debates of what exactly steampunk is, whether mainstreaming will help or hinder it and the usual such questions.

A Big Thank You

When I started this project for my Library & Information Systems course, I had no real expectations for it.  I had hoped that it would do decent, but so far it has exceeded my wildest expectations.

The traffic I have been getting visiting the blog is far in excessive of on any blog I have tried to run before.  It has only been up four and a half months, and so far there have been over 3200 hit and visitors for 53 different countries.  Most of that traffic had been since January as well.

I guess I didn't anticipate just how popular the steampunk genre is. 

I look forward to continuing to post for as long as people are interested.

And the top three posts on the site are;

Victorian Era and Steampunk Names

Stampunk Trains

Steampunk Dragons

More Steampunk Wedding Goodness

My fiancee, in the course of planning our own wedding, has come across all sorts of wonderful ideas and examples of other people's steampunk weddings.

One such repository for this is RockNRoll Bride - a collection of photos of Steampunk/Victorian themed weddings can be seen there, as well as accounts on the events, how they came to be and turned out.

Well worth a look if you have the desire to have a wedding of your own in that style, or just like looking at wedding photos.

Shakespeare with a Steampunk Vibe

As yet another example of how wonderously varied the whole steampunk movement can be, comes this story of Shakespeare with a steampunk vibe.

At the Maddermarket Theatre, in Norwich, UK, Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is being staged, but this one with an innovative steampunk look to it.

As one who has always enjoyed the Bard, I would have enjoyed seeing it.  Alas, living on the other side of the world does tend to cause issues in that regard.

Those behind the staging also have a blog about it all.

Moving Pictures - Dr Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game

Recently coming to light is this Dr Grordbort moving picture, featuring Lord Broadforce, showing off his collection methods of rare Venusian wildlife - all guns blazing!  It is very much in the old pulp style of planetary adventure.

 

Moving Pictures - Lantern City Concept Trailer

Lantern City, the upcoming television steampunk show, have released a short moving picture concept trailer for it.  This is not the full trailer, but designed to give a feel for the visual style, character development, and emotional importance of the series.

Jim Butcher to Write Steampunk Series

Publishers Weekly just released an announcement to say that Jim Butcher, author of the popular 14 book urban fantasy Dresden Files, has signed a seven figure, three book deal for a steampunk series called The Cinder Spires.

The announcement reads;

Penguin Group is continuing its relationship with bestselling fantasy writer Jim Butcher. The author of the Dresden Files and Codex Alera closed a seven-figure, three-book deal with his current publisher for a new series. Anne Sowards, at Roc, took world English rights to The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass, and two sequels, from agent Jennifer Jackson at Donald Maass Literary. Butcher recently published the 14th book in the Dresden Files, a series that has been adapted to TV (on SyFy channel) and turned into a comic book (published by Dynamite Entertainment). The Cinder Spires, Jackson said, is set in a world “of black spires that tower for miles over a mist-shrouded surface” and follows a war between two of the Spires: Spire Albion and Spire Aurora.

And from Jim's website;

At the Reddit AMA a few months ago, Jim said, “It’s kinda League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Sherlock meets Hornblower. There are goggles and airships and steam power and bizarre crystal technology and talking cats, who are horrid little bullies.”
Jim is still writing the first book, The Aeronaut’s Windlass, so we don’t have a release date yet. We’ll let you know as soon as there’s something to announce!

Steampunk Submersibles

One of the best known of Jules Verne's novels, who is one of the main inspirations behind steampunk, is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which features Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus.  While submarines had been designed and built previous to his work, his vision of them was more advanced than any at the time, and encouraged inventors towards making his vision a reality.

So here follow some steampunk refashioning of submarines and submersibles.

A Steampunk Robot's Workshop

Steampunk Dogs

Man's best friend goes steampunk.

Steampunk Teatime

My fiance is an aficionado of tea and tea sets, so for her some steampunk inspired tea sets.