I'm Hopefully Taking Steampunk to New Heights…
You know all those bits and bobs, the things we scavenge for to make things that satisfy our desire to play with the steampunk aesthetic? I spent years searching flea markets, online auctions, etc, I found some really cool stuff over the years but it's never been enough to satisfy how far I wanted to go and the gods know how many different things I wanted to eventually make.
Pursuing this has its challenges that most of you are probably aware of so I'm sure you've already come to conclusion at one time or another finding yourself wishing there was, more.
Well, I have decades of making and craftsmanship, tools and I guess you could say, chops that has allowed me to make my own things. A little bit of time browsing my journal entries over the years you'll see I go all in on anything I decide to pursue.
I'm a sculptor, metal worker, leather craftsman, graphic designer and 3D modeler, to just name a few. I've operated foundries since the 90’s, and have involved myself heavily with the development and innovation in prototyping and the 3D printing industry. I could quote a small piece from a song and just say “I've got the tools to satisfy.” (laughs)
I started some plans as far back as about 2014 or so putting together a plan for not only just making things I wanted, but offering them professionally to other makers out there. A lot has happened in 10 years and I won't get into all of it but there's been a lot of back burner work on and off during that time and I'm finally comfortable and focused enough to start bringing these ideas and offerings to fruition. I could write a whole other article on the challenges involved just with the design and technologies involved but I won't do that here.
There have been stages involved, and most of the delay has been my satisfaction with the end results. I have all my design method, tools and materials, and finally now the time to start getting serious about this. I have hundreds of parts, components and even some systems developed and I think it's time to start getting some feedback.
I have numerous concept galleries on my website to help other people envision where I'm going with some of this stuff, and I'm going to include a small handful of images here just to give you a taste. what I would really like from the community at large is of course, how they feel about having this sort of thing available but also, any more ideas of or on perhaps things I haven't thought of yet.
I'll just call it a system for now, it's probably a poor designation but it's as good as I can get for the moment and what I mean by that is I intend on producing oodles of different parts that people can use in their projects so they are not bound to the limitations of modern hardware stores, sculpting things out of clay or kit bashing things from other everyday items to make them just look steampunk.
Finials, terminals, connectors, dials, gauges, and even component systems for introducing lighting into your projects as well as more advanced things like steam aesthetic pneumatics, containers, holders, and other decorative pieces of what I call “icing “. My goal is to not make the stuff “almost” look like it has that Victorian or Steampunk aesthetic, it's to make it be just exactly that and give you the opportunity to take it wherever you're inspiration leads you. The opportunity for you here is that not only am I putting this stuff out there, I'm very open to suggestion and after things stabilize a little better, even doing custom work, so the possibilities there are practically limitless.
I'm hoping for, and open to any questions, comments, and most definitely criticism where it can be useful- the thing I can't do for you is give you the desire to pour over a lot of the things I've covered in my journals and workshop notes on my website, but I hope you do. It's a lot to take in and I've been working for years at putting this all together and I'm really excited to finally bring it all to reality.
I explored a lot of different options through my own website for taking community feedback and I'll note that in addition to all of the different areas of making I am involved in, it also includes the maintaining and development of my website. That is a job in itself that I need to compartmentalize the time for so that is one of the reasons I put together a community forum on Twitter/X, and one of the questions I have already been asked is why haven't I thought about Facebook. Let me just say that Facebook has lent itself to too many impediments that I don't feel me, or anyone else should have to deal with. I’ve been met too many times already with resistance of just bringing the subject and plans I have into open discussion there and seen the worst behavior from people for all the wrong reasons.
Anyways, take a peek at some of the images that I put into this article, and by all means if you have any questions ask. Poke around on my website in the various areas and you'll see that there is a very large table with very many things on it to let your mind wander and hopefully, it's my desire to see you get inspired and look forward to what you may be able to do with things that come to pass along the way.
Galleries, Workshop Notes, Ect.
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