Steampunk Walking Stick/ Steampunk Cane

Here is one of the props I will have this year for my Steampunk Hephaestus Costume.  The head of the cane is a brass hammer head.  The bottom portion is a brass piece from an old candle holder ala Goodwill.  The body of the cane was a hardwood wooden dowel that I found in my garage.  I have no idea what the dowel was originally purchased for, but it worked pretty well in this application.  I then added some brass upholstery tacks. 

Well I can now post pics of one of my latest projects since it was a gift and has been delivered.  I've started to refer to this style as a Tesla Cane. 



The main housing began life as a sword cane that I found online.  It took quite a while to find one that was a Bear's head.

Here are some pics of the finished cane:

The EL wire was from ELLumiglow.  The plastic tube was from ePlastics. 

 

Here is a closer picture of the leather case that covers the battery pack to power the EL wire.  You do get some pretty impressive glow from just a AAA battery.  

 



 

Well that's all for now.  Gotta go work on some stuff:) 

More Goggles and Such

Super busy weekend, but I did manage to get one project finished last Friday. 
Can't post pics yet since it's a surprise.  Also making good progress on our TV room to give it a "vintage industrial" look.  I'm pretty sure vintage industrial is just decorator code for steampunk, but I totally get that it allows you to discuss the aesthetic without a 15min explanation of the genre.   

So on to some older goggles:

Here was a pair I built for me to go with my steampunk tinkers costume:

There is a small working light (total score from Harbor Freight) mounted to left ocular.  The brown derby is from Gentleman's Emporium.

Here's a pic of the costume this derby usually gets worn with:

Here's another pair that are for my wife's airship pilot costume:

She adores fleurs-de-lis.  The fleurs-de-lis on this pair were actually some silvery necklace ones from Wal-Mart.  I hand painted them bronze and added a threaded screw shaft to the back with some superglue so that they could be attached to the leather. 

I have recently changed office locations (to a new building at my work) and had a very Sheldon-esque moment last week. This Sheldon for Reference :)

So I was heating up my lunch when I noticed this sign by the microwave:

So looking to my left and right I realized
1) I was alone
2) I was using the microwave
3) I was not complying with the posted notice

This revelation was then followed by the thoughts listed below exactly in this order:
1) That signage is silly.
2) I think it should actually say DO NOT LEAVE MICROWAVE UNATTENDED WHILE IN USE.
3) On whose authority was such a notice posted?
4) Should I point out to the above authority that that the stated requirement on the sign is most likely incorrect?
5) What if it isn't incorrect and I really do need to bring a friend whenever I want to use the microwave?
6) This sign smacks of reactive instead of proactive requirements what was the inciting cause?
      6a) I'm betting popcorn. 
7) Wow I just went full-on-Sheldon there for a second.

I then snapped out of it and scurried off with my now heated lunch before anyone could accuse me of being a scoff-law.

more later...

Some Goggles

So onwards and upwards.  As we began to discuss this whole Teslacon thing I started to come up with some ideas for goggles.

Here were a couple of the first ones that I put together:

So my friend Sara likes Owls. So with this pair I was trying to to a stylized version of a great horned owl. I really need to get a better pic of these on her hat...

Geof wanted a steampunk monocle. So this is what took shape:

the round ring is part of a wall protector so your door doesn't damage the wall when you throw it open with too much panache

Here is the finished version:

Switched out the veggie tanned leather for some black leather.  Added some brass rivets and some 8 gauge brass wire for the connection to the head strap.

Here's a pic of the dashing couple with their custom eye wear.








Origin Story

So whats this all about you ask?

• Steampunk
• Gadget Making
• Random Musings

How I got started in this whole steampunk thing.  So the year was 2010 and the conversation with some good friends of mine went something like this:

Them: "We're going to Teslacon, you should come, it will be fun." 

Not knowing anything about conventions in general (which is a bit surprising considering how big of a sci-fi geek I am) or this convention specifically.

Me: "OK...what is Teslacon?"

Them: "It's a steampunk convention."

Me: "Gonna need a bit more."

Them: "It's Victorian Era dress up with science fiction...there are goggles..."

Me: "Goggles you say, well let me take a look at some on the interwebs"

Looks online, splutters at the price of brass goggles (did I mention I'm cheap), looks closer.

Me in full on incredulousness: "Why why, those are just some leather bits and plumbing parts I could make those"

Them: "Oh really you could?"  {Internal monologue: Excellent our plan is working to perfection bwahh hahh hahh".}

So that was pretty much it.  They laid the perfect trap for me it combined my abhorance for paying good money for stuff I can make myself with my basic leather working skills.  The rest as they say is history.