Steampunk Hats, from W The House of Wormwood

Up in Vallejo, CA every year for the past few years, they hold a “Pirate Festival”, open to the public for free. In my humble opinion (and I hope no one gets their panties in a bunch over this) it’s a rather fringy Renn Faire, but its free and a TON of fun. “Pirates” cover a lot more time than the Renaissance does. So you get a wider variety of costumes and goods.

Best Find and the ONLY thing I wanted to buy that I can still remember months later:
Wandering in front of a stall, my husband spotted aviator glasses on a hat. “Oooo” came the simultaneous response from both of us as we changed direction and headed for the display. And there to find some absolutely STUNNING steampunk hats, sitting all anachronistically quiet on a hat display. A wide variety of women’s hats. Wilamina makes them herself. She puts together little collage bitz of things together, finds a hat, forms it if needed and makes a unique hatpin designed specifically to go with your hat.

They are well worth the money and totally deserving of designing an entire outfit around them.

At the time, she hadn’t a website for them yet. But, thinking about the hats this morning I did a quick search and (God Bless the Internet), there she is! I had to come and spread the word!

So, without further ado, I would like to introduce, “W, the House of Wormwood” and Wilamina’s fantastical hats!

http://www.houseofwormwood.com/

Hands off the grey hat with the lightbulb, I own that hat in my heart and it will come home to me soon!

Steampunk Keyboard, The Mini Me Version

I was going through a handful of tiny watch parts I purchased on Ebay and a few of the bitz reminded me of a certain infamous keyboard. With much appreciation to Jake Von Slatt for the original, I present the Steampunk Dollhouse “Von Slatt” Inspired Keyboard:

 

Look a tiny bit familiar? The curved side pieces really are brass and the supports are metal painted to look like brass.

That's a tiny battery door type screw driver behind it. Notice the supporting copper bar.

Front View

Side view of the original

Jake Von Slatts original can be seen at his Steampunkworkshop website

Lizabeta’s Condensed Recommendations for Hunting Steampunk Treasures on Ebay

Let me say to begin with…   I am a firm believer that you cannot just smack a gear on something and call it Steampunk. The most beautiful Steampunk mods I’ve seen combine asthetics with function. A gear turns something, it makes something else move that makes something else do something. If you are going to use a gear in a steampunk item, hopefully it is useful, or at the very least, makes something move. There is, thankfully, more to steampunk than just gears and old watch parts!

If you already know what steampunk is, you can skip this next paragraph.

What is Steampunk? Good question… Look here: http://steampunkworkshop.com/ and here: http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/ , try here: http://www.datamancer.net/, and of course, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

It’s a genre I’ve been following for a while. Until this point I’ve been too scared to attempt anything serious myself. Well, I’ve done jumped in the Time Machine and turned the key. I’ve taken apart something relatively expensive and I will post pictures of its progress soon.

In the meantime, some Steampunk treasure hunting tips!

When I first learned that such a genre existed and saw pictures of the wonderful mods of Jake Von Slatt and Datamancer, among others… I was very excited. How thrilling! To me, like jumping off a cliff! How could they RISK something as expensive as a computer, laptop, LCD screen, an entire piece of furniture!? Well, perhaps they have more money than I do. Or perhaps just more guts. I looked up “Steampunk” on Ebay and saw maybe one page of a few random things. That was a year or more ago, and steadily the market for Steampunk is increasing. There are hundreds of items listed on Ebay now. Folks are catching on and getting creative. Which in turn mean things like Cogs and Gears are becoming harder to find. The secondhand (haha) market for used watch parts is quite brisk.

So where do you look for a good deal? Well, some folks on Ebay have realized that if you attach the word Steampunk to their auction of junk (junk can be good), they have a decent chance of getting you to pay a lot more for it. Since they know you want it and you don’t know where else to get it.

Basic Search Tip: Using quotation marks around a phrase makes the search engine look for the exact phrase inside the quotation marks. “ooga booga baby” will only return results that say Ooga booga baby. If the sentence read, I want to ooga and booga my baby. it wouldn’t show up in that search. Use quotations marks to look for SPECIFIC things. You can include words outside of quotation marks to look for something very specific along with some other thing that may not be included in an exact phrase. For instance, “purple vintage clocks” will only return a purple vintage clock (if there is such a thing). But “vintage clock” purple might return a vintage clock that has a manufacturers sticker on the bottom with purple ink.

You can further narrow your results by including a price range on the left hand side of the screen. That helps exclude those several thousand dollar items that only make you consider with regret your party years in college and your career choices in life.

So without futher ado, here are

“Lizabeta’s Condensed Recommendations for Steampunk Treasure Hunting”,

a list of brainstormed words and phrases to manually search on Ebay for that missing Link, Lost Shaker of Salt, Cog, Gear, or Brass Bit that will be the finishing touch on your creation.

Which you will then post on the internet for all of us to enjoy! (right?)

1. Hand Crank – Vintage Sewing machines to apple peelers to Air Raid Sirens. Hand cranks generally involve gears that do something. Which, you can then take apart and make them do something YOU want them to.

2. Broken – You are just going to take it apart into pieces anyway. You don’t need something to be new or in working order to reap the steampunky parts. Broken Watch, broken clock, broken vintage, broken pieces. “Not working” is another good one in a similiar vein. “Good for Parts”

3. Vintage – Pay good attention if you use this as a modifier. Some stuff is listed as vintage cause it ‘looks old’ and is really a reproduction. Which is fine if that is okay with you, but if you are looking for authentic antique pieces, just read the full auction. Vintage light bulbs, vintage cameras, vintage tools, vintage fabric, vintage radio… the list goes on and on.

 

$28.00 ‘Old Looking’ sewing machine

4. Old Looking – This is great for two reasons. One is, a lot of folks just don’t know what they have. They can’t find a better way to describe it. Two, if it is old looking, but they don’t know how old, you could be getting a really great deal because they haven’t listed it directed at the market that is looking for it. Three, maybe it’s not old, it’s a reproduction of an older item… in which case, it probably doesn’t cost as much as an antique or authentic piece. The sewing machine, as well as several other items I saw,  were all sold for under $30 dollars each.

 

 

Awesome photo light meter gauge-y thing!

5. There is just nothing like taking advantage of someone who couldn’t figure out what they had, was too lazy to figure it out, or just has too many items to sell to take the time to look. Put the words “I don’t know” in quotations marks.   Make sure you’ve checked the “Search Title and Description” box. To narrow the results, add a modifier to your search phrase, like this: “I don’t know” brass  or: “I don’t know” old looking  or: “I don’t know” victorian. Keep your modifier outside of the quotations marks. The “I don’t know” phrase will return a LOT of results. They will take sifting through to find the treasure, but find it you will. Here are some random things I found just this evening listed with the phrase “I don’t know” somewhere in the listing. “I don’t know anything about”  = I can’t price it accurately!

$20.00 Brass Antique Gas Pump

I found radio tubes, telegraphs, brass victorian keyhole plates, awesome brooches, medallions, a brass black powder flask, and gauges. All under a search of “I don’t know” and all for very very reasonable prices. There was even an old military safe for $25.00.

 

 

 

The glasses below are a great example of what I’m talking about. Someone told this seller to add the word steampunk to his listing.

“VINTAGE AO WIRE MESH SAFETY GLASSES / GOGGLES IN BOX

a person who is more of an expert in this field has told me to add steampunk to the listing -I am not sure why” (Emphasis his)

$39.00 "Steampunk" Safety Glasses

His glasses sold for $39.00. (emphasis mine)  An identical pair in a Non-Steampunk listing closed with NO bids at the bargain of $3.99!!!!  Others sold for around $10-20 dollars.

The bargains are still out there. Search hard, bid smart, plan well and you too can publish how-to’s on how to modify your Whatchamacalit into a Thingamagig that everyone turns aged-copper-green with envy over.

Stay tuned for my own debut Steampunk creations soon.

 

 

Don’t forget to check out my Condensed Recommendations for Maximum Buffet Enjoyment!!!

Steampunk Cubicle… How are you doing it?

Cubicles are meant to be droneish for a reason. The less difference in one cubicle to another means the less the employees stop to chat about anything unique. It keeps things productive. But when you spend 8+ hours of your day in your office, you want to have things around you that make you happy.

Having an office that looks as awesome as This One: http://www.wired.com/culture/design/multimedia/2007/06/gallery_nemo_office would be wonderful. However, that level of Steampunk Goodness is out of reach or impractical for most of us.

So, how do you steampunk your office into your happy place without driving your boss over the Edge?

Like all nice touches in life, the key is accessorizing.

A small industrial fan.

An Old Radio

A old library dewey decimal card cabinet for office supplies

Lightbulb with solar reactor

Venus Fly Trap

What are your ideas?

Awesomest Watch Evah

Heh.

For a modern off the shelf item….. this is the ONLY watch I will wear. ❤ my husband muchly for making it my Christmas present.

It winds itself by using a pendulum that swings with your body movement. You can see the jewels, the gears, the movement, the winding mechanism. Being on time has never been so much FUN! It’s ENJOYABLE to watch time pass.

Oh, and the model number, in case you wanted to track down one of your own: KC2486, made by Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole makes this Steampunk Watch

Steampunk Dollhouse, Continued…

It seems less intimidating to me to modifiy dollhouse parts. Less risky than trying to modify the life size (and considerably more costly) versions of things. Since folks seemed to enjoy my tinsy keyboard, I thought I’d add something else I had been working on.

Thermal Grandfather TimeKeeper

Just a fun little thing… nothing fancy. Just amusing. 🙂

Steampunk at the California State Fair

My family went to the California State Fair on August 31st. Mightily disspointed that the Sky Coaster had been replaced by a bungee jump.

However, there were some very Steampunky items on display at the fair.

 

The was the “Garr Scott”, a true steam-run tractor. It ran a large belt down to a columbine or thresher. It put out a mighty horn blast as steam poured out of the stack. It startled me a number of times. I’m not sure if there is much traffic out in a field that would neccessitate having such a powerful horn.  But there is a more than decent chance I’m ignorant of what kinds of audible communication might be handy while plowing or planting.

 

 

 There were a number of sculptures that had a very Steampunk look to them. The best of those I’ll save for last. Some of these are more steampunk than others.

There was a bizarre sculpture that doesn’t really fit into any catagory. A winged lady with knives for wings…

The gear turns her around and rings a bell. Her name is Lilly Rose.

There were the automotive bulldogs…

“Junkyard Dawgs”

 

There was a beautiful sculpture of a dragon done in stainless steel and copper. It was selling for $26,000. Done by William Mang, entitled Zanthony Chinese Dragon. It large and beautiful and has a surprising secret. Taken without a flash, the dragon is stunning. Take a photo with a flash and the copper in the wings gives the impression of the wings actually being on-fire.

 

And lastly, the most steampunk item I saw at the California State Fair was this humongous sculpture. Done by Dave Lane, he says about his sculpture:

“Grandpa Mosley” is the companion of last year’s “Grandma Planet”. This culture, which builds and moves planets, encountered space dwelling creatures, and built a place for them to meet and talk about things. Nobody can tell what they actually look like, so they’re depicted here (in the cylinder) as characters from alphabets. I used to work with a guy, Willie Mosely, who reminded me of my own Grandpa, also named Willie. They were both pranksters. Lately, I’ve been thinking of Jonah. The name Mosely goes to Mosul, across the river from ancient Nineveh. This piece uses parts from a variety of sources, can you find them?… A basketball backstop, old wagon frame, casters from caterpillar forklife, a stevdore (hand truck), spray rig wheels, I-beams, harrows, J.D. drive sproket, logging tongs.

I have many more photos of this last sculpture which I will happily upload later this week when I have more time to edit them to a file size more blog/internet friendly. They are currently big enough to wallpaper my house with.

Steampunk findings…

While gathering parts for a project I’m working on, I stumbled across a very nifty object that begs for someone to take it home and steampunk it. This poor lonely object is sitting on the basement floor of an antique conglomerate of dealers. I took pictures of it for you. I can give you their name and phone number and you can make arrangements to purchase it through them if you want. If they are unwilling to ship it, I’d even be willing to pick it up and mail it for you… though beware, its heavy. (obviously, if you pay for the shipping).

Secondhand Rose 14 N School St Lodi, CA 95240     (209) 339-1166‎

Buttons and knobs and graphs Oh My!!

Working Oscilloscope

 

It’s a working Oscilloscope. It’s $69.00 at the somewhat antique/consignment/mix of stuff place called Secondhand Rose in Lodi, CA. If you call and they say the What? Where?… It’s in the basement. Go down the stairs. If you walk straight ahead, it’s not the dealer RIGHT next to the stairs, but the one after that, on the right side. It’s on the floor behind his/her display case. I’m not selling this myself, nor do I get anything for it… I just think it’s begging to go home with someone who will treat it right. By right, I mean, do something awesome with it.

Closer view of the front

Manuals are available online. It says it’s operational and works. I know next to nothing about Oscilloscopes. They measure something about electricity. They make pretty lines and this thing has lots of knobs and switches and buttons.

Lizabeta’s Condensed Recommendations for Maximum Buffet Enjoyment

 

1. Do not fill one plate and sit down to eat, rising again to get seconds. This is how they delay you so that your brain catches up with your stomach. Go through every bar / station and fill multiple plates, making several trips if necessary to gather all the food you want to try. You want it all to be in easy reach without having to rise again.

2. Speaking of delays, if they’ve set out Crab or Shrimp, likely you have to crack it or peel it yourself. This goes for fruits or any other food they make YOU prep at your table. If you’ve followed step one and gathered all the food you want, then before you start eating, shell, peel, or prep the food. Cracking and shelling crab, or peeling shrimp or fruit: It’s all meant to slow you down! Don’t let them do it!

3. Do not assume that you should use the plate, bowl and/or utensil they have thoughtfully provided you with. By thoughtfully, I mean, they thoughtfully found a way to slow you down or make you take less. Those tiny tongs designed to pick up one shrimp at a time… Pshaw… find a good slotted spoon somewhere. Those tiny dessert cups don’t hold enough for a taste test. Go get a soup bowl for your Ice Cream Brownie Sundae with cool whip and sprinkles you know you are dying to make.

4. Speaking of dessert: Eat it first.

5. Do not drink too much. Beer, Wine, Water, Soda, Tea… it’s alllll going to fill up your stomach. Only sip something to drink if you need to help you chew faster. “May I get you a refill ma’am?” “No, you may NOT fill me up on liquids so that I eat less of the good food I paid for.”

6. Small Portions of EVERYTHING!There are dozens upon dozens of foods to try! This is your chance to eat them all! Take a small portion of everything to get in as many food experiences as possible. That being said,  beware foods that don’t go well together. Very acidic things with creamy things  tend to curdle your wame.(cream of broccoli soup and cranberry sauce; Pineapple and milk; Marinara and pudding)Avoid bad combos.

7. Always be on the lookout for ways that Buffets try to manage your meals. Don’t eat cheap filler foods. Don’t let them slow you down so you fill up. Don’t let them mess your mind on portion size with tiny dishes. Don’t let them delay your full enjoyment of an ALL YOU CAN EAT buffet. Buffets don’t just set out food and hope you don’t eat too much. There is psychology going on at a Buffet! CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

8. Posture: Sit up straight, it keeps your ribs outta the way of your stomach. Also… Don’t get up and walk around… that takes time. Just stand up… bounce up and down some to settle things. I find a light bouncing on the toes works real well. Almost like stretching exercises.

For the really sneaky among us:

9. Try to get a seat in a corner or out of the way place. They are less likely to refill your drink if they have to seek you out AND, if you’ve thought ahead, you have napkins your purse. (If you don’t carry a purse cause you are a man, bring a backpack, or a willing woman) You can sneak a few of those tasty muffins in your purse for later! Wrap them up in the napkin and slide them into the purse. Much easier to do if you aren’t in the main paths. And, you don’t need to sit close to the buffet if you’ve followed my instructions from above anyway.

Your Standing in Buffets has gone up and is now Ultimate in the Whole Ocean!