Saturday Steam 11/3/12

"Whiskey Nick" Triton - the same steampunk artist who made two of the steampunk Jack-O-Lanterns I featured a few weeks ago - makes some of the most amazing steampunk accouterments. Check out this hat he's dubbed "The Divinci."

Or how about these "Nautical Goggles with Seahorses?"

SEAHORSES!!

Triton's work reminds me why I fell in love with steampunk in the first place. I love the character he gives each piece, and his finishing is just spectacular. Definitely go check out the rest of his creations for more inspirational beauties like these!


Next up, Emma sent in a different kind of Steampunk Insect:

These "Litter bugs" are made from vintage book bindings, clock parts, and miscellaneous hardware. So clever! See the whole collection here on Flickr.


And for your steampunk parlor, check out this awesome "Candle-By-The-Hour" Melissa sent over:

How cool is this?? I've seen a vertical version before, but never one on a rotating drum. I think I need one for our back room, which is slowly being assimilated by my steampunk dining room. (Resistance is futile...)  It's about $35 at the Cabela's website.

And here's the vertical version, in case you've never seen one:

There's a new Kickstarter out for a Twilight Zone-style steampunk series, and it sounds pretty darn cool. Watch this:

This has the potential to be seriously awesome. I can't wait to see!

Maranda B.'s husband Matt was a steampunk Ghostbuster for Halloween, and I am loving all the details on his proton pack:

See more (plus pics of Maranda as an adorable Harley Quinn) at their Flickr account.

And while we're talking steampunk costumes, I've seen a lot of great ones this Halloween, but Jennifer P. may have found the greatest:

This is Emily Green, who styled herself as a steampunk assassin - and she made everything herself, from the jewelry to the leather pieces to the dress! Go here for a few more pics and a detailed description of everything she did.

And finally, you've probably seen me rave about Datamancer and his steampunk keyboard and laptop mods before, but those are well and truly out of most of our price ranges AND skill levels. That's why I'm so gosh-darned impressed with this PC makeover by blogger AJL, who claims it only took him about a week to do and roughly $50 in materials:

Fifty bucks? THAT'S IT?!

He doesn't give any details, so I've been staring hard at his photos trying to figure out how he did it all. The wood trim pieces I've seen at Home Depot, and upon closer inspection I've decided he must have used a wood patterned contact paper to cover the faces of everything. It looks great, though, and really the only give-away is the slightest bubbling on the inside edge of the keyboard:

The keys you can see he painted silver and then glued on metal nuts, with printed key tops decoupaged over...screw heads? Maybe? I can't imagine the rounded keys are comfortable to type on, though - there's a reason keyboards and typewriters always have a concave surface - so I'd be tempted to fill the nut interiors with epoxy clay smoothed in a bit in the middle.

The PC case is mostly a mystery to me - although I do spy some nixie tubes - so I'm guessing those are mostly found objects decorating it.

The scrolled sides of the keyboard are more wooden trim pieces with dowels running the length of the front and back. Really, the whole design is genius, and AJL's setup looks like a million bucks.

Go see the rest of his photos here, and then tell me you're not tempted to head to the hardware store. (Although I don't think John would take too kindly to my covering my Mac with contact paper. Hee!)

Seen something steamy this week? DO TELL. Share your links in the comments or over on the Epbot FB page!