The most magnificent majesty of multiple meanings will manifest to the masses on the following months in these places of meeting:

Ikkicon - Jan 1st - 3rd Austin Texas

Templecon - Feb 5th - 7th Warwick Rhode Island

The Steampunk Worlds' Fair - May 14th - 16th Piscataway, NJ

World Steam Expo - May 28th - 31st Dearborn

This agenda is subject to change and will notify if done so.

The Lord Emperor would love to know who else may be attending these fine gatherings of the creative elite and endorses you to introduce yourself and converse greatly on matters of non-importance as you carouse till your heart's boil with joy.

The Emperor would also like to take this opportunity to enforce every one of you to have a joyous holiday.

Thank you,

Emissary to the most masterful of monarchs.

SOME NEW STUFF FROM JASON:

( Rose Tyler - The Stolen Earth )

WELL. IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN. I know I'm not going to have time to complete any more costumes this year,... so here's the Year End Review.

Le Chevalier D'eon,Blade of the Immortal, Gurren Lagann, Firefly
Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Disco Doctor Who, Bosozoku Aimee and Circus, Wolverine
Black Butler Sebastian and Circus vr, Rose Doomsday and Updated 10th Doctor, Rose Stolen Earth, Kitsune.

--------------
STUFF I DID

- overall I had a lot of fun this year even though I didn't do a ton of complex costumes. I think perhaps the highlights for me was Costume College with Judy (pretending to be fancy 18th century ladies), dressing up in Sleeping Beauty and going to the Atlanta Aquarium, seeing how happy Mitch was in his Kamina costume, and scaring the minds of Doctor Who fans everywhere with a sequin-covered TARDIS that dances.

- Used a crapload of rhinestones to make my first fancy Disney Princess Dress.
- made a bright purple jumpsuit O_O
- put my husband in a confetti dot see-through shirt and convinced my coworker to moonwalk as a TARDIS
- didn't compete at all this year and only performed in one masquerade as a lark.
- went to Costume College for the first time in a long time, really enjoyed it and decided I wanted to do more historical costumes
- finally wore my bosozoku unicorn wig.
- didn't do ANYTHING for Halloween.

STUFF I DIDN'T DO:

- really really meant to do my ELF costumes this year. Bought all the stuff, did the muslin, made the hat. Didn't finish.
- did a TON OF WORK on my Vampire Hunter D costume that I'm really proud of. I learned a lot. But got overbusy and put it off. This year, for sure. I don't actually have that much left to do on it.
- meant to make my Doctor Who Madame de Pompadour costume for Dragoncon, but there was just -no way-. I'll have it done by Gallifrey.
- meant to drape my own Robe a la francaise pattern... but I need someone to partner with, so I haven't done it yet.
- meant to make Mitch a Prince Philip costume and/or Phantom of the Opera.
- really want to get more photoshoots with Doctor Who, Sleeping Beauty and Chevalier.
- lots of other stuff. :P

Thomas M. Thomson
His mediums of choice are Oil on Canvas and Pencil on Paper.

click on the picture to see and know more

Thomas M. Thomson
His mediums of choice are Oil on Canvas and Pencil on Paper.

click on the picture to see and know more

Here's a present I made for my Mom for xmas! A little tea lady, she is about 4 inches tall and made out of shrinky dink plastic. I drew her on the computer, printed her out and baked her. Her joints are fastened with tiny brads shaped like hearts. She can kick her little legs and move her arms to pour tea!



And here are some BOWIE earrings I made for a friend of mine:



and the original illustration:



Man if I didn't have a day job I would make this shit all the tiiiiiimmmeeee.

( permalink )

Poor, poor Rich Ellis.

Not only is he stuck being my studiomate at Periscope Studio, but then he has to come home and live in the same house with Matt n' me.

He must have kicked a puppy or something in a previous life.

Comment on Comic

Being a writer changes the way you experience the world. You’re a student of the senses; you notice the way light curls when it lands on your arm, or the scent, texture and flavor of a honeycomb. You notice the lines of his torso, the vectors of her arms, the way he seems so reptilian you might check for scales while he sleeps, or the way her stretches are so lupine you begin to anticipate the full moon.

Or maybe those prone to sybaritic voyeurism become writers, artists, chefs, craftsmen, and connoisseurs by default, knowing no other way to bear a sensually-saturated world. I imagine it’s a little of both, and that by writing, by creating, we nurture our natural tendency to luxuriate in the physical. We stretch each tactile experience, each olfactory delight, each epicurean delicacy and visual enchantment, until it’s large enough to wrap ourselves in, and it becomes more than physical. It becomes metaphorical, philosophical, spiritual– we drape our characters in our discoveries, our curiosities, and we vicariously unravel existential complexities through them.

More than anything, we tell stories.

Will you tell me about three sensual details you noticed today?

(I encourage comments on this post here; thank you!)

Fave on DA ( Oiran New Year (larger under the cut) )

Greetings. Longtime costumer, first-time steampunk explorer, etc. etc.

In a search to understand just what makes steampunk costumes steampunk -- outside of actual pieces of faux technology, e.g. brass ray guns -- I've seen certain symbols: cogs, gears, watch faces, watch fiddly bits, keys, locks. To a lesser extent I have seen compass roses, compass faces, clock hands. It's also usual in jewelry in decoration to see coiled wire, with the occasional ship's wheel and (for some reason) the octopus. (All hail the octopus.)

There is another class of symbols that don't seem to be drawn upon for steampunk identifiers: the square and compass, the sun, the moon, scales, or the phoenix -- which are all masonic symbols. Freemasonry was a prestige club in Victorian England (or so I understand) and it seems like these "symbols of devising" would fit in with steampunk. But so far I have not seen any. Has anybody run across any of them in their steampunk wanderings?

(Also... has anybody seen Illuminati symbols worked in to steampunk costumes, like the eye in the pyramid?)

Thanks.

Greetings my fellow steampunks,

I pray that this missive finds you all in the rudest of health and the highest of spirits despite the seasonal chill that blights this land. And possibly the Americas too, I am uncertain. I had high hopes that this new technology would find a way to end the cold winters of my youth, but regrettably they continue unabated. Global warming my left foot.

But it is not environmental policy I wish to discuss with you all today. It is the orient. I believe at some point in the not too distant past, our very own J.D. Falksen wrote a series of articles relating to steampunk across a variety of cultures, one of these I believe was Japan and China. Sadly I am unable to locate a copy of this essay, despite my best efforts. I do wonder if one of my fellows would be able to send me one of those hyper-links to this work? I would also be very interested in hearing the thoughts of others on this matter, whether they be in essay format or less formal manner.

Seasons greetings from England,
Professor Zarkov

Want a little more "steam" in your coffee? Introducing the Royal Vacuum Coffeemaker.

But more than a vacuum...what really sucks is that they're out of stock until Summer of 2010.

I hope this is alright to post here. I'm sure there used to be a steampunk place to buy and sell, so please feel free to remove if i've done the wrong thing

i'm posting this here because I have made a gorgeous dress that i'd like to sell, and it looks like it would fit it nicely in the steamy world.

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade SilkOrchidCorsetry.etsy.com

Been a little lazy and just pasted widget thing. This will link you to my etsy shop and you will be able to look at my other things. some of you may even be into lolilta as well.

if you're not intereted in buying the dress, i hope you've enjoyed the picture, there are a few more pictures in the listing as well.


Thank you for your time, and i hope that my post has made some people happy

That movie was so EPIC and FANTASTIC.

I was totally expecting it to be shit. Like, utter horse-patootie. I only went because a bunch of my classmates and their dogs had already gone to see it on the Thursday night it premiered and then got on planes bound for home the next day. It was just something I thought I had to see...not something I actually thought I'd ENJOY.

Boy, I'm glad I was wrong.

I've been hearing critiques from others about how they were bored for the first hour or how un-PC the plot was, but I loved every minute of it. From the creatures and the special effects to the characters and the plot. Just everything.

And yeah, the main, underlying plot is cliche, but it was a cliche done right...with characters who you understand, empathize with, and root for. That's apparently hard to do, because so many action/adventure flicks recently have been utter crap in that regard. Not since Star Trek have I enjoyed a movie so much.

And it was utterly fabulous in IMAX 3D. I can't even imagine seeing it on a regular screen. That just wouldn't be as good.

Fantabulicious.

/End gush

Hello!

This is Psyche Corporation [of Gilded Age Records]. I finished a new song ("Institute") last week, and it's probably the most steampunk song of my upcoming album. If you feel like it, take a listen! It has a ticking clock noise and other amusing percussive noises. Lyrics are under the cut, and the song can be heard at http://myspace.com/psychecorp Just scroll down the playlist and click on "Institute". I tried to make it go to the top of the playlist, but myspace keeps thwarting me, so it's at the bottom :/

More info on Psyche Corp. at http://www.psychecorporation.com

..and here's a picture to be decorative:
[photo by Steward Noack]
larger version also under the cut..

( lyrics for Institute )

I got pretty fantasy-like choices, heeee. UNICORNS~

I made curry with brown rice tonight. Mmmm, it was good and spicy. It had bellpeppers, chicken, potatoes and enokiiiiiii mushrooooms~ x3

My story: this gal (modastrid) and I met through a community and hit it off, she was weird and cool and we both disliked the same people for the same reason (on a community) so we often PMed about that.

Then we had a disagreement, mostly when I saw her boasting about something she made in an ebay-seller warning post. And that really turns me off. A lot. It shaded my opinion of her in a totally different light. Ego and boasting in artists who sell their work just squicks me, big time.

But I decided to get past that, cause she still does some cool stuff. Then I saw her newest creations- animal pelts put into round necklace pendants (cabochons?) and I ordered one. It came with glue and dry skin sticking out of the top. I thought she had better crafstmanship than that. As a friend said to me: "visible glue is amatureish".

I ordered a 2nd one (mind you these were ordered and shipped at the same time, I had not seen the poor craftsmanship of the 1st yet) custom-made. I wanted a The Lion King inspired piece and I asked her to do a yin yang symbol of dark lion pelt and light warthog pelt. I was assured twice that they lay flush together:

Yeah they lay flat when they're glued down.

I asked for clarification: ( long post is long )

So.. my week.

Sunday : Up until 6:30 AM finishing school work; done for the semester.
Monday: Up until 4:30 AM designing invitations.
Tuesday: Up until 2:30 AM after game night with work friends and printing invitations.
Wednesday: Up until 2:30 AM stuffing invitations.
Thursday: Spend day off finishing invitations - get out at 5 PM. Party at Joe's. Bed around 1 AM.
Friday: Dinner and games with Mike, Joe, Ryan, Jonathan, and Rebecca. Bed around 2 AM.
Saturday: Dinner and games with Deb, Gary, David, Annisa & Co. before running holiday errands and up until 2:30 AM doing housework.
Sunday: Dinner and games with Mike, Joe, Ryan, and Kris. Then put up Charlie Brown Christmas tree and did last minute Christmas shopping online until 2:30 AM.

Lack of sleep is an understatement.

Also had mini-fiasco when I discovered we'd printed out RSVP cards saying "We've reserved ___ seats in your honor." Yeah, '1 seats' doesn't sound or look very nice. But I could only fix 18 of the 20+ and made the random decision to send to the corrected ones to friends and close family instead of the folks I don't know from Mike's family.. ugh. I tried so hard to make it perfect and then to fail so hard at GRAMMAR.. blech. Also sent 3 known invites to the wrong addresses. But. It's done.



Then today Ryan unwittingly spilled the beans on my honeymoon locale. I thought the other day Joe had, but it turns out he was just playing around. So at first I thought Ryan was doing the same thing or was going to stop himself - but apparently Michael never told him the honeymoon destination was a secret. That alone was kind of a bummer but then what he'd spilled was that we're flying into Cancun, which really concerned me at first.. I mean, I have little to no interest in ever going to Mexico. And especially not some spring break tourist trap like Cancun. So I was a little shocked because I thought we'd been pretty clear about that when we were planning together before I released the reigns to him - but I had promised to be happy with whatever he decided. However, upon actually talking to Mike it appears that while we're flying into Cancun, that is not our final destination. So I'm thinking we're headed towards one of the small, outlying islands.. which would be fun. So I'll be okay, it just took awhile for the shock of knowing and suddenly dealing with it to settle in. See, I wanted to not know until right before so I couldn't think (ie agonize) about it too long because we'd already be on our way. ;P But, best laid plans of mice and men..

The road goes on and on.