Steamy Shop Tips

Again it’s been quite some time since our last post. Sorry for that, guys, but we have been busy bees as of late. Not only are there studies and work to take care of, we are also in the midst of planning the reset of a Steampunk LARP. If you’ve been following this blog you’d know that we last summer attempted to set one up, but due to lack of time and other things we had to cancel it. Now we are trying to set it up again and hopefully we’ll be able to pull it off this time 🙂 It will be the first proper Steampunk LARP (at least I think it will be..) in Stockholm, Sweden, so we’re quite excited indeed ^^

In the meantime I thought I’d give you some tips on awesome designers – both fashion and accessories.

Clockwork Couture – Gorgeous designs and accessories, American brand

SkinzNhydez – Absolutely wonderful leather designs with a distinct Steampunk feel

Catherinette Rings – Jewellery and sculptures, Steampunk, SteamGoth and Cthulhu

Sarah Burchill, who has two shops on Etsy: one for metalworks and for glassworks – All handmade, there is probably nothing this artist can’t do. And her glass tentacles are lovely, the one shown below is my own ^^

Imperial Fiddlesticks Emporium – Unique handmade hats and corsages, the link goes to her Facebook Page

Steampunk Couture – Handmade designs, one of my favourite places to go to for inspiration. The picture is borrowed from her Facebook Page

 

Xx, Arathin

It’s A Steampunk Christmas

My, doesn’t the time fly? Christmas is waiting around the corner and soon enough we’ll exchange this year for a new one. I for one am hoping for lots of Christmas happiness, coziness, delicious food, candy, time spent with my loved ones – and if that bloody snow would decide to fall soon, I’d be a very happy girl indeed. It’s just not a proper Christmas without snow 😉

But right now my Winter Wonderland seems far away and so instead I pass the time (as well as getting Christmassy) by looking at pretty Christmas ornaments fitting the steampunky geek.

These two caught my eye as early as last year, when I was beginning to get a feel of this whole culture:

 

I mean, who wouldn’t say no to have an airship hanging from their tree? Or exchange that ordinary stocking for a more neo-Victorian one? If you want them too, you can find them at ClockworkCouture.com 🙂

Or, if you’re more into cogs and gears, Etsy just might be the place for you! I’ve been spending a lot of time drooling over these:

Etsy has quite a lot, just enter the keywords “steampunk christmas ornaments” and you’re off! You might have to look around a bit before you find exactly what you’re looking for, but in the meantime I can promise you you’ll find plenty of other stuff you’re going to want to add to your wishlists 🙂

I really and truly hope you all will have a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. Promise me you’ll eat more candy than you should and enjoy the holidays!

Merry Christmas!

Xx, Arathin

Tesla, electrical genius

One of our sweet readers, Therese, requested that we write more about steampunk DIY and science. So I thought, why not start off with someone that in my mind is one of the most influential people when it comes to the science part of steampunk? Who I am thinking of? Nikola Tesla, of course. I may be still quite new to the scene, but it seems to me this electric genius has had a pretty big impact on the subculture.

To start of with a little history, Nikola Tesla was born 10 July, 1856, in the village of Smiljan, in the Austrian Empire. His father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church, his mother the daughter of a priest in said church and he had one older brother (who later died in a riding accident) and three sisters. After graduating from the Higher Real Gymnasium in Karlovac, he went to study electrical engineering at the Austrian Pylotechnic in Graz in 1875. He never finished his studies though, but dropped out during his third year. After that he broke all relations with his family and went to Margur where he worked as an assistant engineer. After one year his father tracked him down and persuaded him to go to Prague and the Charles-Ferdinand University. Tesla, however, only attended one term and left school after his father had died.

During his lifetime Tesla lived in Budapest, Paris and New York, where he worked alongside Thomas Edison – who later on became his adversary in the electric field. He filed several patents and came quite close to recieving the Nobel Prize in Physics. Mostly Tesla is renowned for his work on electric currents, most specifically he formed the basis of alternating current (AC) which was one of the things that helped usher the second industrial revolution. He also did immense work on magnetic fields and created the Tesla Coil, a resonant transformer circuit capable of producing high voltage, low current and high frequency alternating current electricity. While Tesla used it to conduct several electrical experiments (a list and more information can be found HERE), it is today mostly used for educational displays, entertainment and in some cases also in fetish performances.

In 1943, on January 7th, Nikola Tesla died of the complications after a heart thrombus in a hotel room in New York, 86 years old.
But Tesla lives on in the steampunk subculture, where several of his inventions has come to find their places. He also frequents other parts of popular culture, such as literature, comics and movies. For a full list, go HERE! Without Tesla, I don’t think steampunk would look the way it does today or be as science-oriented as it is. So, thank you, Nikola Tesla 🙂

Source: Wikipedia

Xx, Arathin

 

Steampunk LARP – “To Capture A Heart”

This goes out to all you steampunk and LARP aficionados out there!

During the weekend of July 22-24 the roleplaying society Evighetens Vägskäl will hold a steampunk LARP called “To Capture A Heart” in the woods of Stockholm. Lilla Lugnet in Bromma, to be exact.

The LARP will take place in the land of Doname, where old fashioned countryside and steampunk science collide and at some points tries to coincide. The year is 1889 and the family af Edellöw has invited all the other noble families to their summerhouse. The reason for this is to tie them closer to the family by finding a husband for the daughter Gabrielle af Edellöw. But she may not be as inclined towards marriage as her father wants everyone to think..
Below the surface several schemes are bubbling away between the attendants and in other parts of the world a disease of unknown qualites rage. A disease whose shadow terrifies people to things they could never fathom.

For this first LARP, everyone will speak Swedish.

The price for attending is 350 SEK and final admittance date has been set for July 10. So if you’re in Stockholm 22-24 July and you want to LARP with other steampunky people, go to our Website and send us an email! Note though that the website is in Swedish and that some information may not be enterily correct.

Airship picture credit: http://vintageephemera.blogspot.com