The Steampunk Librarian

a quick summing-up today...

nobody@vox.com(Steampunk Librarian) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:48:52 -0700

How popular is steampunk these days among the DIY crowd? Just take a look at the results for "steampunk" on Instructables. It's inspiring. There's even a first volume of steampunky fonts out there now!

Mechanicrawl takes place July 12 in San Francisco. Go, crawl, and learn.

Recent arrivals: check out the Anachronaughts Guild as they gear up to celebrate Tesla's birthday, and join me in waiting with bated breath for the Airship Academy shirts at Got-Steam.

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the tinge of mad science

nobody@vox.com(Steampunk Librarian) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:24:56 -0800

The Smoking Lounge is a new forum for those attracted to steam and diesel matters. It's run by M. Ottens, who once had a similar space on nov-net. Go and mingle!

San Francisco will host the 2008 Edwardian Ball Weekend which kicks off on January 25th. Sigh. I need a pneumatic tube that shoots me to San Francisco every few weeks or so.

Over on the other side of the world, Iberian Coppers makes all sorts of wonderful shiny items for distilling various substances. They're not only beautiful, but useful!

The World of Stereo Views is a staggeringly huge respository of stereoview photographs (over 12,000 of them!) dating back to 1850. You can get lost for hours, which I highly recommend.

Steampunk is always tinged with a bit of mad science (at least to me), so I'm drawn to this Instructable on how to make a mad scientist light. I think it would be even better if you built an animatronic hand to manipulate the light, and you could wear one of these shirts while creating your contraptions. Lovely!

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A veritable avalanche of information

nobody@vox.com(Steampunk Librarian) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:49:10 -0700

JD_Flyer

Yep, that is my stained glass. Eeek! A slightly different version of the Angel of Death is at the show (the one pictured above now lives in Toledo, where she is happily reaping souls), as is the Cthulhu mosaic table I made over the summer and a bat-themed glass & wood box I made with Mr. Kazendei. If you're near Cincinnati this month, try to stop by and check out all the local artisans - I've seen a few pieces already and they're all very cool!

I went to San Francisco two weeks ago, and we went to an absolutely amazing store called Paxton Gate. It's highly recommended for anyone into science, history, or art...including steampunks!

Continuing on with the art/steampunk combo post...the always fascinating Instructables website shows you how to make your very own mad scientist goggles, and if you're especially hardcore you could try to replicate this voltmeter-ammeter bra. Eeek.

A gallery of tarot card designs shows how infinite the symbols behind the cards can be, while a gallery of old photos themed around crime and punishment show how it's possible to waste entire days and nights poking around Flickr.

If you want old-fashioned housewares and lighting, Rejuvenation is the place to go. I love the light switches!

Something fun for the futuristic transhumanists among us: a free downloadable pdf of Raymond Kurzweil's essays from 2001-2003. (Thanks, Bunny!)

Behold the museum of flashlights, bringing you a vast array of tiny lights throughout the years.

So what attracts a person to steampunk? A discussion on LiveJournal brings up all sorts of interesting points. The overall answer is the same one I have: we were always interested in this sort of stuff, we just didn't know there was a name for it!

(I also like this comment: "It's the constant feeling that I was born a century too early or a century too late.")

And finally, Unhallowed Metropolis looks like all kinds of awesome. The bios are especially great.

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