Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Mini Top Hats!

Kudos and all credit to Cordelia MoonTea & Bev Hale!

I'm sharing a pattern for mini top hats which I was given at an OctopodiCon Tea!  This pattern is easy to use, as we did at the local library with people of all ages. This pattern is made to use 3 ounce plastic cups and also there is a version for 9 ounce light weight plastic cups.  We used felt in various patterns from a local hobby store, but lots of materials would work, if you want to improvise.




In fact the library tea was so much fun, my daughter and I adapted it to up-cycle the little medicine cups I'd kept in the cupboard left over from tussin and other meds.  We spray painted them and used old holiday wrapping or construction paper to make tree ornaments for our steampunk holiday.

Hope to see peeps at Anomaly Con this weekend and also at OctopodiCon in Norman, OK Nov. 1st!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Steampunk Wedding 

Anomaly Con: Sunday, March 31st @ 2pm

We are preparing for a trip to Denver for Anomaly Con! We hope you can join our presentation of photos and information about steampunk wedding artisans who use your family history to create a celebration to cherish in the future!

DIY crafts include mini-top hat favors and metal boutonnieres.  If you can't join us, then read on for the highlights!

Eclectic weddings are individual, distinctive, and often a singular moment for the bride to the focus of the fanfare, especially if she’s starring in a steampunk wedding!  This dress is a show-stopper, created by seamstress Lisa Sauter as photographed and shared here with permission from Ian Danziger.  [Their links are below.]

Why the peacock? Here's a little history...
 
Peacock feathers are exotic and reminiscent of some Victorian society’s love of things ‘Oriental’.  According to enthusiasts peacocks are native to southern Asia and Malaysia. Peafowl were extensively raised by the Romans and in medieval Europe, explains Laurie M. Johnson, editor of Gamebird.com. This look can be found today in current artisans.

These colorful birds were “kept for centuries by people first in China and then in Europe and America. The Phoenicians brought the peacock to Egypt more than three thousand years ago. Historical records indicate that Solomon kept several peacock species, among other pheasants, with the India Blue being his favorite peacock.”  History is fascinating, but on with the wedding planning...

Reaching back in history to the Victorian era is simple with handmade fingerless lace gloves made by Seamstess by the Sea's Tracey Audrey from California.  She can't join us for Anomaly Con, but she's sending samples for a raffle! I bought this pair & love them!  Did you know most people have different sized hands; one is often a little smaller than the other. Tracey has a very useful size chart on her sight and makes all her gloves individually for just this reason!
 
One last teaser, our discussion in Denver will try to incorporate science and technology, steampunk standards, into the perfect steampunk wedding.  Check out this perfect example of upcycling items into fabulous center pieces for the wedding reception.  Imagine giving the groomsmen some time and space to invent!  This photo is just one of the table toppers from our featured brides party.  Also not the little light bulbs for seating cards!

I hope you've enjoyed this mini-con session!  Stay tuned for photos after the event!

Kindest regards,
Dalynda Marie
 


LINKS:


Seamstress who created the dress, Lisa Sauter:


Seamstess who creates the lace gloves featured here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/SeamstressbytheSea
 
Photographer, Ian Danziger:

Peacock historical information, Laurie M. Johnson
 
Pinterest Board:

Etsy Treasury:

Monday, March 4, 2013

Author & OU professor Jeff Provine blogs for Crimson Steamers!



Professor Provine speaking at OctopodiCon '12

Guest Blog by OU Grad Jeff Provine

During summer breaks while pounding my way through OU's Professional Writing program, I wrote steampunk novels for my the Celestial Voyages series.  I didn't know they were called "steampunk" at the time; I always figured them to be "Victorian science fiction."  It's sci-fi, but it's set in olden times, like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells intended with the birth of sci-fi.  Of course, they meant it to be the present or not-too-distant future, but there's a strong spirit of adventurism in exploration and yet a sense of modesty, patronage, and civility that's bygone today.  Little did I know that the genre was blossoming and there was a whole world of people out there who shared my passion.

The idea for Celestial Voyages came from a web fan page where somebody had made models for a sequel to H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds.  According to the site, the humans had reverse-engineered the Martian technology and now were counter-invading.  These models showed open-decked spaceships with solar sails.  I was aghast!  Martian technology were rocket-fired canisters.  To semi-quote Annie Wilkes, "They just cheated us! This isn't fair! THEY DIDN'T USE COCK-A-DOODIE SAILS!"  Out of creative spite, I sat down and sketched out what a Victorian-style luxury spaceship would need: chemical-based rockets from Chinese and Russian designs, air-scrubbing Amazonian plants, batteries, washrooms, crew lists, food stocks, etc etc etc.  The result was the Star's Comet.

As we've seen in the explosion of steampunkery, invention really is the key to it all.  Getting that one little iota of an idea can make a whole world appear.  People come up with great costume designs or maybe an aether-powered ray gun, and creative explanations add one on top of the other.  Or, a guy can draw up a spaceship and then create a crew to fill it with and worlds for it to explore.

The two classic modes of creation follow the two greatest writers of the era (who, by the way, weren't fans of each other).  Verne wrote his science fiction with an emphasis on the "science."  He spends entire chapters explaining how the electrical system on the Nautilus worked and how the cannon for From the Earth to the Moon was funded.  Wells, meanwhile, was more focused on the themes of the story, dreaming up anti-gravity "cavorite" and not detailing time-travel, just telling us what awesomeness it could show.  In their feud, Verne noted that Wells' inventions wouldn't work, while Wells said Verne couldn't write his way out of a paper bag.

I took both approaches for Celestial Voyages.  Being a fan of "hard" SF, I like to know how the magic works.  I have a detailed walk-through of the five decks of the Starship, from the pilot's station down the electric elevators to the cavernous engineering hold.  Magnets are used everywhere to keep things right-side-up, even the goats in the zoological room that supply the adventurers with enough protein to keep adventuring.

I also like aliens and seeing how other societies do things in the softer Wellsian perspective.  Under the moon's surface, caverns are filled with jungles lit by glowing, upside-down plants and populated with ant-men who never sleep.  Venus (whose atmosphere has been changed, because having everyone die in acid rain hot enough to melt lead would be interesting, but no way for book two to go if there's to be a third one) is a heavily forested world ruled in city-states where intelligent trees take "knowledge is power" literally.  Mars is an aged desert world past its prime, running low on resources with a populace addicted to an impossibly bureaucratic government.  Every world they cross gives the Earthlings something new to ponder.

That's the fun of steampunk: getting to make things up and seeing where that takes you.  You never know what you'll see invented next.

~      ~      ~
 
Jeff Provine is author of Celestial Voyages: The Moon, Venus, and Mars, as well as YA ebook Dawn on the Infinity.  His latest story is "Where is Captain Rook?" is one of seven in Carnival of Cryptids, a Kindle All-star e-anthology with all proceeds going to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.