Steampunk The ultra technological world born from hackers & maker culture has helped inspire a Jules Verne themed steampunk bazaar full of brass computer accoutrements, leather fly-boy goggles, and ray-guns made from candle holders that should help equip you well enough to fight off an attack from a wayward Eastern Block airship, a corset wearing phantasm from yesteryear, or just your everyday future warriors who refuse to acknowledge that an imaginary life in the past is better than living in the reality of today, or dare I say, the curious gaze of tomorrow. The retro futuristic world of steampunk is thriving on Instructables, and with this guide, it can thrive in your life too. By request: My take on goggles.Often times after piloting my steam dirigible, I arrive at my destination only to find my eyelashes and eyebrows have collected a mass of gnats, fleas, and small birds. ... Well lets put it this way, ive always had this thing about traveling through time, and having a time machine.
Cheap and Easy to make Steampunk Keyboard After looking at some of the fancy retro keyboards at Datamancer's Site and the nice tutorial over at the Steampunk Workshop, I really wanted to make one myself. Unfortunately, I lack the tools/space and money to get and cut brass, and I'm not confidant enough to do so with any other metal. Also, I did not like the idea of spending $60+ for two sets of old typewriter keys. It was at this point that I found stickers of old typewriter keys and realized another way I could make my keyboard "look" like it had old typewriter keys Thus I present a way to make a steampunk/typewriter looking keyboard for under $50 that the average person can easily make him/herself Tools Used: Screw Driver - both Philips and flat head will most likely be needed Dremel Tool - with plastic cutting blade Pliers - Needle nose work best for the finer cutting Small saw for cutting the scrap wood Materials Used: A Keyboard - DUH!
Miss Betsy's Steampunk Monitor If you visit the google library in these days, the librarian will find plenty of articles and depictions of so called "Steampunk Monitors". In my imagination though, I envisioned the creation of a device that could show static but also moving pictures generated by means of computation and modulation of waves generated by my ingenious new invention.... (Any resemblance to devices used in "City of Lost Children" is purely coincidental). I also wanted to add "loudspeakers" (E. Siemens et al.) to the device to present an even more pleasurable experience. The device will be able to reproduce sound and static/moving pictures and will be powered by another invention of mine , based on the works of my fellow researchers Nikola Tesla, using hyper-condensed steam applied to a turbine by the same name, Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta and Michail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, able to produce alternating current in the amount of 110 Volts.
fairy Copper Plating & Etching Altoids Tins UPDATE: There's some great information on this page and it's comments, but I've recently published a far more comprehensive article here: Etching Tins with Salt Water and Electricity With this project I wanted to try a number of new things: Magazine pages as cheap toner transfer mediaCopper electroplatingEtching Altoid tins with a salt water solution The copper plating met with mixed success, but the other two methods resulted in some nice pieces. Note: blue vitriol and muriatic acid are archaic names for copper sulfate and hydrochloric acid. Magazine pages for toner transfer: While looking for information on transferring toner using a fuser assembly from an old laser printer I ran across several websites where people suggested using glossy magazine pages for transferring printed circuit board images to a copper substrate. Preparing the Altoids tins turned out to be harder then I predicted. Next we: Copper Plating Altoids Tins: From the picture below, this appears to work. Foom!
What is Steampunk? | Steampunk.com This is a good question that is difficult to answer. To me, Steampunk has always been first and foremost a literary genre, or least a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam) usually with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, or rebellion against parts of it (the punk). Unfortunately, it is a poorly defined subgenre, with plenty of disagreement about what is and is not included. Take place in the Victorian era but include advanced machines based on 19th century technology (e.g. “It’s sort of Victorian-industrial, but with more whimsy and fewer orphans.”- Caitlin Kittredge There are probably plenty of other combinations I’ve forgotten, but that’s steampunk as a genre in a nutshell. And it isn’t just written fiction anymore. “To me, it’s essentially the intersection of technology and romance.” – Jake von Slatt But steampunk has become a lot more. So, steampunk is a genre and a design aesthetic.
A Visit to a Steampunked Home If you dropped by my house you'd probably be disappointed. Because (with the exception of my office, which is more post-apocalytic than anything else) it's simply not very steampunk. I do have plans, but none have come to fruition. However, a couple of weeks ago I was invited by Bruce Rosenbaum to visit his home in Sharon, Massachusetts and what I found there was just stunning! Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum started ModVic (Modern Victorian) Home Restoration in June 2007 and have now moved onto steampunk Home Design. Bruce's home is a Craftsman style Victorian built in 1901. We'll start the tour in Bruce's kitchen with a lovely Victorian heater restored by David Erickson, a local craftsman and restorer of antique stoves who's workshop is just down the street from my own. Bruce designed and built the fire-back and hearth to compliment the stove and installed the back-lit stained glass windows to brighten the entire kitchen. Next to the stove (below) is a copper water heater tank.
12 Steampunk Gadgets and Designs Steampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used. This post showcases creative gadgets and designs styled in a steampunk fashion. Steampunk PS3 Beautiful steampunk styled Playstation 3 mod created from old radio valve, a pipe valve, a pressure gauge, and assorted plumbing parts. [link] Steampunk Segway (Legway) A self balancing, human powered, steampunk styled, Segway. Steampunk Computer Mouse Amazing steampunk computer mouse created by a Russian modder. Steampunk iPod Mini Creative steampunk iPod hand crafted from brass, copper and oak. Steampunk Laptop This may look like a Victorian music box, but inside this hand crafted wooden case lives a Hewlett-Packard ZT1000 laptop. Steampunk Headphones “Mechanical aural communication device” by Chris from Chicago. Steampunk Watch Creative handmade steampunk watch design by koisuruusagi. Steampunk USB Flash Drive Steampunk Computer Keyboard Steampunk Guitar Steampunk LCD Monitor
Marvels of Science and Steampunk by *JonHodgson on deviantART Steampunk: 20 Core Titles By John Klima Featuring H.G. Wells, Neal Barrett & Cherie Priest By John Klima — Library Journal, 03/04/2010 Steampunk is everywhere, from movies like Sherlock Holmes and Howl’s Moving Castle to the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and an art exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, England. A little background: The subgenre has its origins in the 1980s with writers such as Tim Powers, James Blaylock, and K.W. Here are ten classic steampunk works and ten more recent titles for a well-rounded collection. The Classics | Recent Works Barrett, Neal, Jr. Blaylock, James P. Summarizing the plot is difficult to impossible, but events begin with a corpse-piloted dirigible that has been orbiting London for years and has finally caught the interest of the Royal Society. Di Filippo, Paul. Gibson, William & Bruce Sterling. 29461-3. pap. $7.99. Jeter, K.W. Moorcock, Michael. Out of print. Powers, Tim. Steampunk. 9. pap. $14.95. Swanwick, Michael. Wells, H.G. Akers, Tim. Lake, Jay.
A Beginner’s Guide to Steampunk Literature From humble beginnings as a loosely defined sub-genre of science fiction, steampunk has evolved into a cultural phenomenon that combines ‘a Victorian aesthetic and a punk-rock attitude’; one that has come to influence more than just literature. The creation of the ‘steampunk’ term is usually attributed to the science fiction author K.W. Jeter, who used it in a letter to Locus Magazine. He was trying to find a way to describe Victorian fantasy novels like those written by himself (Morlock Night and Infernal Devices), Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates) and James Blaylock (Homunculus). He believed novels written in what he described as the ‘gonzo-historical manner’ would be the next big thing but only if there was a general term that described them as a genre. It’s still inadequate to explain steampunk as just ‘Victorian Fantasy.’ Boneshaker by Cherie Priest Zombies, pirates, airships and mad scientists turn this into great YA steampunk romp. Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
Twenty Must Read Steampunk Books – An Introduction to the Genre This list is the first in a projected series of genre introduction lists intended to provide extensive overviews of various speculative subgenres. They aim to provide a resource for anyone who is interested in a particular subgenre but doesn’t quite know where to start. While this list is by no means all-encompassing, we believe that if you read some of these books you will have a working knowledge of what steampunk is all about. If you read all of them, we will be forced to bow down and acknowledge you as being well on your way to becoming a steampunk virtuoso. Steampunk is a hard subgenre to evaluate since the decision to classify a novel as steampunk often relates to aesthetics and may have little to do with the overall plot or feel of the novel. Therefore, when choosing books for this list, I have endeavored to explore all sides of steampunk by presenting a selection of books with varying styles, vastly different plots and different themes. Enjoy our Introduction to Steampunk list?
Beyond Victoriana | A Multicultural Perspective on Steampunk Exceptional Exhibition Artist and designer Greg Broadmore is the creator of Dr. Grordbort's a retro-science fiction universe of rayguns, rocketships and raw male idiocy. Lead conceptual designer on the film District 9, he has also worked on King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia and Black Sheep amongst many others in his 10 year career at New Zealand's Academy Award winning Weta Workshop. From simple beginnings, Broadmore's creations have taken on a life of their own. Two books, screeds of art, scribblings and dozens of art pieces later, we can finally show the depth and scope of his imagninatively unrestrained world. The future was certainly brighter in the good old days (at least for humans) thanks to Greg Broadmore Dr. Propagandist paintings depict the heroic conquest of our solar system, bizarre alien trophies and arcane illustrations of curious weapons and contraptions, Dr. The Exceptional Exhibition is an exhibition unlike anything before it, yet planted in the pop culture ingrained in us all.