Steampunk Christmas Ornaments

I've been slightly obsessed with the idea of making steampunk Christmas ornaments for a while now, and have been collecting ideas on my Steampunk Ornament Pinterest Board.   If I didn't already have a Geek/Fandom themed tree, I would do my whole tree in steampunk.  I wish I had the room/money for a second tree, but I decidedly don't.

That doesn't mean I can't add a little steam to my tree.  Here are a few steamy ornament ideas.

Last year, we bought this Nautilus ornament at Hallmark.  I love it.  You might be able to find it for sale used.

I went looking for these awesome octopus ornaments at Pier 1 after seeing them online, but they didn't have them at the store I went to.  I still intend to look elsewhere, but I haven't had a chance.

Just a couple of days ago I found these awesome wooden 3D gear ornament kits by Cogbots.  I ordered several and can't wait to assemble and paint them when they arrive.  They also have several styles of flat wooden gear ornaments as well.

I found this lovely clock or pocket watch ornament at Joann's this year.  You should be able to find it there still.

I also have a few ornaments for sale.  I made some hand-knitted octopus ornaments.  They are up at etsy.

Finally, I was decorating the tree this weekend when suddenly a package of ornamental gears I bought a while ago caught my eye.  I bought them at Michael's a while back.  It's a Michael's brand: Bead Landing Found Objects. They are found in the jewelry section and I believe they come in two sizes.  These are large ones.  I really like them, but I haven't found anything to do with them yet.

Here are all the gears in the package.  I suddenly realized they would look good hanging on the tree.

I thought of a couple of different ways to hang them on the tree.  I first tried using gold metallic embroidery floss to make a string hanger.  I just tied it into a loop and slipped the loop through the holes in the gears.  Luckily all these designs have holes to hang them through, so no drilling required.

I also tried making loops with gold wire.  I wanted to make my loops so that the gear would face out when hung on a limb.  I ended up not liking the way the wire looked as much, because it was more noticeable and also my wire wrapping skills are lacking in neatness.

So I did the rest of them with the embroidery floss.  Here they are.  (It turns out this look neat, but are REALLY hard to photograph when on the tree.  So you get no hanging photos.)  If I was going to do an entire steampunk tree, I'd make a few packages of these.  It's a pretty cheap way to get some steampunk decor going.  They are less than 2" wide, but I actually like smaller ornaments and have a few kinds of mini ornaments on my tree already.

If you want some more steampunk ornament inspiration, I have lots more good pre-made and DIY ornament ideas on my Pinterest.   Epbot (one of my favorite blogs) did a great series of posts last year about steampunk ornaments, along with some tutorials on the subject.


I anyone has pictures or links to other steampunk ornament ideas, please share in the comments!  Merry Steam-mas!

A Moment of Egocentricity

I have several posts that I intend to make in the near future, but most of them require me to get some pictures taken first.  So I'm going to indulge myself a bit and post a few recent photos of myself at various events.  And because of the weather recently, this is a bit of a tour of my warm weather steampunk options.

Ok, not so recent.  Sherwood Forest Faire, March 2012

This is a variant of one of my outfits with a sleeveless version of the coat from the Simplicity 2172 pattern instead of a bolero.  However, I was very uncomfortably hot this day, and I think it's because the coat was made with two layers of polyester and having it covering so much of me was stifling.  This is why it's important to line things in cotton.

Texas Renaissance Festival Oct 2012

Part of my intent when I made this outfit was to have a warm weather option.  The skirts are short and  very full, and pulled up on both sides.  The corset leaves my shoulders bare.  The real problem is that I'm wearing knee high vinyl boots, so all the coolness I gain from the short skirts is lost.  But the boots look too good to leave off.  (Plus they were really cheap.)

TRF, Oct 2012

And some from the Showdown at Unobtainium.  The weather was warm and muggy, so my black and silver outfit got something of a makeover.  I clipped the skirt up to encourage airflow and left off the bolero.  This corset is pretty revealing in the bust, though, so for decency's sake, I had to cover myself with a hand-knit shawl.  The pin is something I bought at the event.  It's a sheriff's badge with an octopus on it.  The interesting thing is how many compliments I got wearing this outfit this way.  I think it went well with the environment of a dusty Old West mining camp.

Showdown at Unobtainium, Nov 2012

TRF, October 2011

The actual coolest of my steampunk outfits is my Victorian Bustle Dress, actually.  It's made entirely of thin cotton, so it breathes.  I couldn't wear it to any recent events because the corset that goes under it was busted (I wear it daily and I snapped the busk in half) and I hadn't had time to remake it.

If you're wondering why my husband is wearing a coat in 80 degree weather, and if he ever rolls up his sleeves, all I can say is that he is a little crazy.  And really likes cuff links.

Book Review: The Chronological Man

The Monster in the Mist (A Chronological Man Adventure)  by Andrew Mayne
I bought this book for my Kindle because it was a steampunk book and it cost $0.99. And then two months later I read it and was surprised to discover that it was quite good. In 1890s Boston, Miss April Malone has a strange job. She goes to work everyday and sits in a room by herself. She gets requests to read a lot of different things, attend lectures, feed punch cards into things, and keep the coffee pot full. One day, after two years of this, a vault door in her workroom opens and a man called Smith appears and they go off to investigate a series of disappearances. The story is instantly engaging because it's so strange and mysterious. The mysterious "Smith" is at least 80 years old, but still young, and he seems to have been in the cellar the whole time, until the calculating machines decided it was time to wake him up. April is his "computer" due to her extraordinary recall. Without really any more explanation they proceed to investigate why people have been vanishing into heavy mist around the city. 

Smith is fairly obviously influenced by Doctor Who, so much so that I can't picture him as anyone other than the 10th Doctor. But I have read a lot worse ideas than "someone pretty much exactly like the 10th Doctor is in 1890s Boston and there are monsters and weird science and a smart and awesome female assistant." Who or what "Smith" is isn't exactly addressed in this novella, but I'm certainly ready for the sequel.


The Martian Emperor (A Chronological Man Adventure) - This was not a disappointing sequel at all. There's a lot of adventure and mystery packed into this novella when the mysterious Smith and his assistant April Malone have to get to the bottom of an apparent Martian invasion of Earth. With appearances from Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Houdini, this continues the steampunk fun of the first volume. Honestly you cannot beat these stories for the price. I would love to see more.

Con Report: Showdown at Unobtainium: Tesla vs Edison

I spent the weekend vending at the Showdown at Unobtainium: Tesla vs Edison.  To even describe this event is a challenge.

Mr. Edison and his assistant.  Photo by Wendy Corn.

The organizers took  a piece of rural property about 30 miles outside of Austin and turned it into a 19th century mining camp.  The ore being mined is called "unobtainium" which apparently has some effects on the space-time continuum  The design of the town was inspired partly by Deadwood, and I was really impressed by the effort put into all the little details.   The entertainment centered around actors portraying Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison as well as various other contemporary celebrities.  There were educational presentations about various technologies, a Maker Mad Science lab, a few talks, several bands, and the Showdown itself which would decide who was the greatest scientist.

A project this unique and ambitious required a great deal of work, and I'm really in awe that it got done.  When we arrived on site on Saturday morning, everyone was helpful and friendly and things seemed to be ready to go.  The main problem during the day was that it was around 85 degrees and that's difficult to handle in steampunk or period garb at an all outdoor event.  Possibly that was the reason why things seemed sluggish during the early afternoon.  We got lucky in that there wasn't any significant rain, and it wasn't horribly cold, but I still would have preferred temps in the 60s.  But it's November in Texas, and it could be in the 80s or it could be in the 30s, you can't predict it.

Photo by Wendy Corn.

More people arrived towards evening, when the musical entertainment began.  If my count is correct there were 6 different musical acts over the two days.  My personal favorites were Shakey Graves and Barebones Orchestra, both because I had never heard of them before and because they were so good.  Shakey Graves plays some great blues-rock, and Barebones Orchestra is a sort of Texas roadhouse country rock with a horn section and a kick-ass violinist.  Marquis of Vaudeville headlined Saturday night but I was busy packing up for the night.  They sounded good as they usually do when I see them at a steampunk event.

Photo by Wendy Corn.

The actual Showdown between Mr. Tesla and Mr. Edison took place both on Saturday night and again on Sunday afternoon.  I was able to watch the Sunday performance.  It began as a debate between the two men on questions of science and energy which eventually devolved into fisticuffs and stick fighting.  It was, to be honest, more entertaining than I expected.  It was a lot of fun and I have to give the actors a lot of credit for pulling it off.  Needless to say, Tesla won and was declared the greatest scientist ever.

So, overall thoughts on the event.  It was a success for myself, vending wise.  As I mentioned I was very impressed by the setting and the love that went into it.  I think there were hopes of a higher attendance than they ultimately had, but I have no idea what the number actually was.  It's the kind of event that would definitely grow given a second year, so I hope it happens again.  Sunday was very slow and not very well attended, in addition to being hot and muggy.   It was nice to see a lot of faces that I haven't seen before at steampunk events.  There were a lot of people who were pretty new to steampunk and either were wearing their first outfit or were looking to put one together.

Photo by Wendy Corn.

If I was going to change something about the event I think I would try to create more things for attendees to do.  Besides a couple of educational presentations, shopping, and some demonstrations in the mad science lab there wasn't much going on during the daytime.  Most people spent their time standing around talking to one another, which is fine, but leaves newcomers a bit out of the loop.  If there had been more panels scheduled or more than one presentation area, I think that would have helped.  Or perhaps if there had been more structured presentations of the various technologies on display, perhaps on the main stage.  I know everyone wanted to see more of the Tesla coil than we did, for example.

A shootout in front of the saloon.  Photo by Wendy Corn.

But ultimately, I wasn't ideally placed to judge the event as a whole.  I had a bout of insomnia the night before the event, so I did all day Saturday on no sleep and retreated to my hotel room about 10:30 to pass out.  And I spent most of my time in my own booth assisting customers, and my booth was placed so I couldn't see the main field.  The fact that Sunday was much slower (and I wasn't in a sleep-deprived fog) meant I got more of a chance to wander the site.  I haven't mentioned it yet, but I was very impressed by the quality of the vendors.  I saw things that interested me at pretty much every booth, and was impressed with the quality of items being offered.  My purchases of the weekend were CDs from Shakey Graves and Marquis of Vaudeville, an octopus badge made by Mr. Tesla, and an Egyptian necklace from my booth neighbor Lisa Turner (for my Steampunk Cleopatra!).

I was so upset to have forgotten my camera because there was so much I wanted to photograph, both decor and people.  The level of costuming seemed particularly high, especially given that I wasn't seeing all the same people I'm used to seeing at Texas steampunk events.  There was a lot of quirky inventiveness on display.

All I can ultimately say is that I fervently hope this event happens again.  It really showcased so much of what is awesome about steampunk.

Steampunk Video Games

I play a lot of video games, but not that many mainstream games.  My true love is the classic point-and-click adventure game, although I branch out occasionally.  So you won't find me talking about Bioshock and Fallout here.  (I tried to play Bioshock, it totally freaked me out.  I get INVOLVED in my games.)

Machinarium

 Machinarium is a stunningly beautiful point-and-click adventure.  You control the world's cutest robot, who is on a quest to save his robot girlfriend from some robot bullies in a city of robots.  There's no dialog and no text in this game.  Everything is conveyed by the art and little thought bubbles with pictograms and drawings in them.  So this isn't really a plot heavy game.  For most of it, you are trying to move through this dilapidated, industrial city by solving puzzles, using inventory, and getting other robots what they want.  There are little mini-games throughout, some quite fun and some frustrating.

I don't think the people at Amanita designs ever set out to make this a "steampunk" game, but I do think steampunks will appreciate the design and the art style.  This is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played.  All the art is hand-drawn, in a sepia-toned sketchy style.  All the tech is both rusty and beautiful.  Well, look. This is pretty much a random screenshot.

At any rate, I think Machinarium is a game worth checking out if you have any interest in a puzzle-centric game.  There's a free demo available at the link above.

Fallen London

 Fallen London (previously Echo Bazaar) is a free online browser game.  The gameplay is similar to various Facebook games in which you build your stats by clicking on various tasks.  But Fallen London surpasses pretty much every other game of its kind by its incredible writing.  The story of the game is that London fell underground at some point in the Victorian period and now resides not that far above hell and is totally cut off from the sky.  In this subterranean London things are...odd.  Victorian in style, with supernatural and sci-fi elements, the world is difficult to classify.  Suffice it to say that steampunks will be at home with the combination of Victorian manners, sci-fi tech, demons and strange flora and fauna.

The gameplay involves clicking on different actions and cards in order to increase your characters basic stats: Dangerous, Watchful, Persuasive, and Shadowy.  To do this you travel to various locations around Fallen London.  There are various plot threads you can follow based on your choices and your level.  The world of the game is ever expanding, with access to new lands as you progress to very high levels.  Like any game that relies so heavily on stats, there's a lot of grinding.  I get bored with the game and abandon it for months at a time, before returning to it and playing for a few months.

As I mentioned earlier, the real strength of the game is its writing.  The style is both Victorian and hilarious.  To get a taste, try this tidbit of information (from a random sidebar in the game):

"The LABYRINTH OF TIGERS is open under the patronage of the LONDON ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY to CAUTIOUS VISITORS for EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. Here you may see the DEVIL-APES of FAR MANDELAY. The THING IN THE MIRROR. The CANTIGASTER'S CHILDREN. The gargantuan CAVE-SNAKE. The INHABITER OF WOLVES. The HYBRID FIEND. N.B. The MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDS that you arrange your exit WELL BEFORE CLOSING TIME."

Deponia

Deponia, from German game company Daedalic Entertainment, is a point-and-click comic adventure game.  Think the Monkey Island series of games from the 90s.  Deponia is a planet covered entirely in trash, and the people who live there build their lives from what they can scrounge from all the junk piles.  Your player character is Rufus, an egocentric and mostly incompentent inventor who is continually trying to escape from Deponia to Elysium, where presumably the people who produce all this trash live.  Rufus isn't exactly a likable character, since he's pretty much and idiot and doesn't care about anyone outside of himself.  But he's somehow charming in his wildly inflated self-regard and his confident incompetence.  He is soon involved with uncovering a conspiracy surrounding an Elysium woman who falls out of the sky (well, sort of).

The gameplay is pretty standard for adventure games.  Most puzzles are inventory based and you end up combining items and using them in weird ways to achieve your goals.  I did find the logic of the game pretty out there, and sometimes had to turn to a walkthrough to know what I was supposed to be doing next.  Sometimes things had to be combined in a certain order and things like that would trip me up.  I was trying to do the right thing, but going about it just slightly off.

My only other complaint is that I found the game suspiciously sexist at times.  It didn't bother me that Rufus was sexist, because that's in character for him.  But the Elysian woman is less character than plot point and, literally "goal."  In fact, her name is Goal.  She's unconscious for most of the game, carried around by male characters who are trying to seduce her or use her or similar.  I was hoping that once she woke up that she would start kicking ass or something, but, not so much, really.

So, what makes this game steampunk?  Well, I wouldn't exactly call it steampunk, but a steampunk design aesthetic is definitely at work.  The surroundings are industrial and mostly made of junk.  Rufus's outfit would not be out of place at any steampunk con. (See screenshot.)  The cursor is a pair of gears.  Some of the better puzzles are mechanical in nature.  That's pretty much it.  But for me, this is a pretty cool vision of a post-apocalyptic steampunky world.  I'm looking forward to the sequel which is currently in development.

The main lab.

Nancy Drew and the Deadly Device 

This is the 27th (!) game in the Nancy Drew series of adventure games.  Although officially aimed at teens, I've recently come to appreciate these games as having well-designed and challenging puzzles, enjoyable mini-games (and I normally HATE mini-games) and a good sense of humor.  These games don't do any hand-holding when it comes to puzzles.  Expect a challenge, and bring a pen and paper.  The recently released latest installment is one of the most steampunk games I've yet played.  And I didn't expect to be saying that.  The mystery Nancy has to solve is a murder of a physicist by a Tesla coil.  The research facility is working on Tesla's idea of wireless energy transmittance and is close to revolutionizing the whole energy field when the head researcher is killed by a sabotaged Tesla coil.

The only screenshot of the room I could find online.  But it gives you a sense.

So there is a lot of content related to Nikola Tesla's life, work, and theories.  More than that, the main lab is thrillingly steampunk, with all the Tesla coils and other steamy devices.  I knew the designer was giving a gentle nod to steampunk when the victim's office featured a giant half-gear motive on one wall.  But I didn't expect to come across one of the coolest steampunk rooms EVER in this game.  It's towards the end of the game, and I am in LOVE with the decor of this room.  I was SO upset that I couldn't get my computer to take a screenshot in this game.   The gear-based stenciled wall, the airship and DaVinci wing models hanging from the ceiling, the gadgets...seriously, I want to RECREATE this room.

As a game, this is one of the stronger Nancy Drew games.  The puzzles tend towards the science and mechanical: you will mix chemicals, assemble circuit boards, make etchings, and hack into numerous computers and other secured tech.  The storyline is decent if not remarkable.  These games are never very long and are priced accordingly.  It takes me a couple of days to play each one, but I freely admit to checking a walkthrough if I get really stuck.

Syberia 

This is the only game on this list that isn't fairly recent.  The first Syberia game was released in 2002.  It's another traditional point-and-click adventure game, and considered one of the classics of the genre.  I played this game and it's sequel, Syberia 2, back at the time.  I enjoyed them but didn't fall as utterly in love with them as other people I knew.  Of course, that was before I had even heard the term steampunk.  So I was interested in revisiting the game(s) to see how steampunk they really are, and also to see how well they have held up.

First, I have to say that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed playing the first game, and how utterly steampunk pretty much all of the design is.  The plot is that you are a modern day lawyer from New York, Kate Walker.   You are sent to a small town in the French alps to finalize the sale of a company that makes clockwork toys to a large corporation.  The company has fallen on hard times due to a lack of interest in clockwork automatons anymore.  Things get complicated when the current owner dies before the deal is finalized and you have to track down the long lost heir.  Eventually this involves journeying across Europe in a clockwork-powered train with an automaton engineer.

The background art in this game is gorgeous, and the combination of clockwork, industrial, and art nouveau design makes for a wonderful environment.  Graphically, the game was fairly advanced for its time, so it doesn't look that out of date today.  The 3D character models hold up worse than the 2D backgrounds.

It's a good thing the backgrounds are pretty, because there are a LOT of them and you will spend a lot of time running through them, usually over and over again.  The game takes place in a series of different locations where your goal is just to get moving forward again.  The puzzles are inventory and dialog based, and aren't fiendishly difficult or illogical, but it's sometimes difficult to figure out exactly what you are supposed to be doing.  There is less narration in this game than most, so you don't get as much direction from your character.

Syberia 2 is the second game and is a direct continuation of the first.  You can't really call the story complete without the second game, which is a shame because I think the second one is much less well written and designed than the first one.  It also lacks any real steampunk elements beyond the already established train and automaton.  The first game, on the other hand includes not only a clockwork factory, automaton sidekick, and clockwork train, but a clock-spring powered space rocket, an airship, giant automatons, and many smaller moments of beautiful steampunk technology.  The first has a much larger variety of settings, tasks, and characters.

So, I'm actually quite glad I replayed these games.  I really enjoyed replaying the first game, since I think my memory of the second one had biased my memory of it.  The beauty and design of the locations are wonderfully evocative from a steampunk point of view.  And since you can get both games for less than $10, I think it's worth it.  Also, I had no problems running either game on my new Windows 7 laptop, which isn't always the case with older games.


I hope these recommendations encourage someone out there to try a game they might otherwise have missed, and if you do, I hope you enjoy it.