I've had the honor of being interviewed about my Steampunk art for the Sun Journal newspaper. I mostly make Steampunk hearts out of clay. The article was released today and I can't really describe how happy and excited I am right now! I was very nervous during the days leading up to the interview. I also had a really terrible head cold that zapped all my energy making all the cleaning I had to do more difficult than usual. (I was interviewed in my studio and it was a bit messier than I would have liked) I was also really excited of course.

I’m just starting out and this is a really great opportunity for me. I got all dressed up in my usual fancy outfit and wore one of the hats that I made. I set out a small display of what I felt were some of my best pieces and arranged my typewriters. When the man from the Sun Journal arrived to interview me he was very nice and quite easy to talk to. Most of my fears dispersed, but I still had trouble explaining myself at times. Trying to describe how and why I make hearts is always a little challenging to explain. The photographer was also friendly. She took quite a few pictures of me in front of my display holding Ira my leopard gecko.

The advice I would give to any other artists with an interview before them is mostly to just stay calm and not get tongue tied. Try to plan out some of what you want to say before hand and have examples handy.

Here is a link to the article: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/lewiston-auburn/2012/09/30/makers-lewiston-artists-heart-pins-break-mold/1254529

Greetings, steampunk community! 

We have taken the famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven, and fused it with the world of steampunk. This dark tale vividly depicts one mans decent into insanity, due to the loss of his love. As he ponders his loss...he is visited by a dark creature. A raven. This is where things begin to fall apart...literally.

Check it out here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bigfloodproductions/the-raven 

The beautiful thing is, the room that this whole plot unfolds in represents his mind.  Being steampunk, with all the pipes and gears etc the room (his mind) has function, it feels alive! But this life amy be short lived- as it slowly begins to fall apart around him, just as his sanity is crumbling.

We are ready to film, but we need the funding. So, we have launched a kickstarter campaign but need YOU to help back us! 

Holla, steampunx! I finally managed to get into this bad boy after lots of trouble with the whole registration process. Someone from this board approached me on my etsy site, a ways back, and said I should post some pix of my jewelry. So here I am, slapped pink from registering and raring to go. So right off the bat, I should tell y'all...I don't think I'm a steampunk, per say... But I've always always always used gears in my art..from huge industrial sized ones right down to the teensiest watch gears. I love their symmetry, symbolism, and great utilitarianism and am so happy that the whole steampunk scene has made it such a popular aesthetic. Okay, that said, Ima gonna attempt to post some pix. Hope y'all like my shizzle ;) Any feedback, good or bad, is much appreciated. My etsy store is at www.etsy.com/shop/UrhammerArts

Check out these Steampunk creations made from upcycled gears, nuts, bolts… and bullets!

Read the entire article here!

While I was browsing the Steampunk Facebook group, I encountered the work of Stephen Fitz-Gerald, a sculptor residing in California. I was immediately impressed, so I contacted him for an interview for Steampunk Community.  

Q. How does your work relate to the Steampunk community? 
A. I taught in the Art Dept. at U.C. Berkeley in my capacity as sculpture technician from 1987-1993. Sometime during that time I was building a conference table from massive recycled I-beams. I was featuring the industrial qualities of the material and exploiting the texture, patina, and fasteners as a worthy aesthetic. One of my students at the time (about 1990) said: "That looks really Steampunk." I had no idea what they were talking about. I had cast the piece in my mind in the category of “Industrial Modern”. But I got online and did a Google search for Steampunk and was pleasantly surprised that various pieces I had made over the years might actually fit this new category. I have used recycled metal and machine parts for years. First, because of the ever increasing cost of new metal, but often simply because there is an inherent beauty which can be revealed if the piece is used out of context or in an alternate role. When I discovered that there were also literary sources for Steampunk, it only reinforced my interest because Jules Verne is one of my very favorite writers. I saw the original Disney version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", with Kirk Douglas as Ned Land when I was a very young child and the combination of the organic style of Art Nouveau with the Industrial aspect of the interior of the Nautilus stuck with me (as well as the "tentacle theme"). I called this hybrid "Industrial Organic." In the 70’s HH Giger’s designs became very popular and I saw his works as the pinnacle of this stylistic expression, though I never really liked that his particular aesthetic was always a twisted and dark, almost horrific vision. Fortunately the Steampunk style is so broad that many of my works seem at least obliquely related even though there's no brass, nor any particular reference to steam or even the Victorian Era. I let those that view my works judge their merits and disregard any attachment to genre or stylistic constraints. I am interested in beauty after all, and it is unimportant in my opinion ultimately what labels are attached to the works.

Squaring the Circle

Star Tetrahedron Wind Spinner

Model for the entrance to a city.

Hello, Steampunk Community!  My name is Corey, and I'm brand new here...  I was pointed here by someone who found me on my Etsy shop.  I think she was doing what a lot of us like to do:  scope out cool Steampunk clothes and accessories!  I was asked to introduce myself and my work, but as I started to explore this site and thought about it a bit more I realized I could touch on some topics for Steampunk Community that would make my blog post a bit more than a simple "look at my stuff" sort of thing...

Now, personally I'm relatively new to the Steampunk phenomenon.  I've only been to one convention--the Gaslight Gathering here in San Diego.  I've tooled around the internet exploring a lot of the various Steampunk-oriented sites, and found a lot of visual eye candy that I just drool over.  The art, the DIY projects, the props, the costumes, the videos--it all looks like so much fun it's hard not to fall in love with the style!

The more I read about Steampunk, the more I realize that there are lots of different "shades" of it depending on where your interest lies.  Some love it for the social aspects, some love it for the creativity, some love it for the philosophies reflected in it.  The great thing about it is that it can so easily embrace everyone's bent.  Personally, I love it for the attire.

I may be biased.  I have an MFA in Theatre with an emphasis in Costume Design (not a unique background in the Steampunk community, I have learned--there are a LOT of theatre folk interested in it!).  I design and sew for a living, so I pay attention to the costumes that are worn.  Much like theatre, there are lots of degrees of realism in Steampunk costuming, varying from the utterly fantastical to vintage recreation.  Part of the fun is how one decides to "tweak" their clothing for their own needs or how closely one hews to historical accuracy.  There are pros and cons to each side of that debate, but certainly beautiful results regardless of one's preferences.  And one can have a fabulous Steampunk ensemble with relatively little investment, or take pride in special purchases, or even seek out actual authentic vintage pieces.  The range is limitless.

Saw this giraffe and thought it was done really well so I read up on it a bit. The artist is Andrew Chase and his website features other Steampunk styled animals, including a cheetah and elephant. The giraffe was built from transmission parts, plumbing pipe and electrical conduit.  The area I found even more exciting was the fact that the giraffe was functional with moving parts and not just a statue. It features fully rotating and locking joints and a neck that can be raised and lowered. The attention to detail is phenomenal, Andrew mentioned that it took around 80 hours to build.
 

Mixed media white clay painting with antique hardware and salvaged speaker. Original artwork by Jason Brammer. 

Awesome black widow Steampunk chopper 3D art.