Steampunk Update

So, shirt found, and not only is it ruffled, but it's pinstriped.  Squee!

Toy guy bought; now I just need to get paint.  I can't wait to post pics of what it'll look like when I'm done.  It'll be pimp.

I've decided on wearing braces (suspenders) as well.  I just love them, and I can clip stuff to them.  The downside is they make my already huge boobs look...huger.  Darn it.  I've also decided to go with an ascot-style cravat and found the most PERFECT and awesome brooch to pin it.  Apparently it's an older Miracle piece, so not super glamorous or anything, but still pretty.  If I could find the camera, I'd show you.

Tomorrow I'll head over to Leo's and see if I can find a top hat.  They were closed today.

Note to self: Do I want to include a fan?  Or shirt-sleeve garters?

Also: Damion's antique light meter thing is neat and comes in a pimp lil' leather case.  Yoink.

Places to look for gears/cogs: old machines!  Old walkmans, VCRs, anything.  Looky looky. Flea market much!

Steampunkery

I just like to make up words.

Anyway, I'm going to a steampunk party in a couple of days and I am suck at ideas, so while I surf around on the interwebs for other people's ideas, I will post the ones I like or that simply occur to me as I look at stuff.  If you're wondering what I'm talking about...well, you suck.  It's kind of like the new Sherlock Holmes movie: Victorian-style dress with lots of cool steam-era mad science happening all over the place.  Think of it that way, more or less.  If you have not seen that movie...er, who are you and why are you bothering to read this blog?  Read this first.

Really good examples of steampunk costumes!

1. Get thyself a toy ray-gun or some such and some copper/brass/bronze-lookin' paint.  Paint gun in old-timey fashion.  Make sure to get a little tarnished feel in it.  Zap your friends while going "whoosh!"

2. Leather straps and metal bits (buckles, grommets, buttons, etc.) should go on EVERYTHING.

3. HATS! (Top hats, aviator caps, bowlers, bonnets, page boy, who cares?!  Everyone wore hats back then.)

4. If it looks even vaguely Victorian, use it.

5. Girls apparently can NEVER go wrong with garters.  I mean, never.  Wow.

6. Guys totally can.  Don't do it.

7. Lab coats are part of the mad science element that creeps into steampunk.  Exploit it.

8. Gears and cogs are a common motif. Find a way to incorporate it.  Embellish outfits with bits of copper wire/wing nuts, that sort of thing.
Link to steampunk accessory creating ideas.

9. If you're a girl who wants to go old school with the accessories, think about finger-less gloves, cameo brooches or pendants, lace additions to cuff/hems/neckline, a small drawstring purse, or antique-looking lockets.  Also, jet beads and rows of tiny little black buttons were popular for women back in the Victorian era.  The buttons can be a bit of a bother, but if you make them superficial/cosmetic, then the look pays off without the hassle of fastening each and every one.

10. Eyewear can be useful, too.  Lab goggles for the mad scientist, aviator goggles for the aspiring pilot, monocles for the aristocrat/villain, or those neat specs that have several different lenses that can be swiveled/clicked interchangeably over one or both eyes.
Click here for a how-to on making some "brass goggles"!

11.  For the really, really, really hardcore, steampunk embroidery! 

12. Don't be afraid to get a little wild and let some oriental influences creep in; remember, the Far East was influencing aspects of Victorian culture, and thus can be a part of the steampunk image.

13. For the ladies, a parasol is always a classic touch, or perhaps one of those little hats with a modest veil.  Remember, Victorian ladies avoided too much sun.

14. I haven't quite figured out why yet, but kilts seem to be a popular look for dudes in steampunk fashion.  Any guy who can pull off a kilt, should.  Seriously.  They're awesome.

15. Vests!  Especially if they be pinstriped.  If you're a guy, wear them.  If you're a girl going for the racey no-skirts look, also wear them.

16. If you're a girl, corsets also seem to be necessary, but with any fantasy cosplay that often seems to be the case.  If you can, do it.  I won't bother because nothing pisses me off more when I'm drunk than restrictive clothes.

17. Recycling tip: if you have some pirate gear, this stuff can often be easily modified to look steampunk, even though the eras are 50-100 years apart.  Replace scarves and sashes with hats and belts, the cutlass with a ray gun, the eye-patch with a monocle, the open vest with a buttoned one, and just generally clean it up. Throw on some wiring or brass gizmos, and you're set.

Additional links:

Livejournal community devoted to steampunk fashion
The Steampunk Workshop
Pics of more steampunk costumes from DragonCon '08

So far I have shoes and gloves.  I have some jewelry I'm going to fiddle around with, and I have decided that a top hat is a must.  I LOVE top hats and have always wanted one.  This is my year to have that top hat, then steampunk it out.  Definitely going with pants (pinstripe).  I'll prolly have to get a new top.  And some sort of coat.  Belts?  I'll definitely be getting a gun of some sort, then modding it with paint, gears, wires, tubes, etc.

I found a shirt I would love to pair with a cute vest: http://www.lanebryant.com/apparel-accessories/tops/shirts-blouses/ruffled-keyhole-blouse-from-our-icon-collection/4018c4019c90p26213/index.pro

More tattoo ramblings.

Okay, so I've decided on a few things.  I'm really fixed on the one arm as a nature-themed sleeve and the arm as a wing-themed sleeve.  I going to do it bits at a time, though, like most people.  What I'm focusing on right now are two pieces that remind me of two very special people.  One is my grandfather.  For his piece I want a hummingbird with some amethyst calla lilies.  I can't decide if I want a Calliope hummingbird or a Green Violet-Ear hummingbird.

  
   

< Calliope





















 < Green Violet-Ear

 < Amethyst Calla Lilies









I kind of like the pose of the Calliope up top with its wings out-stretched.  Anyway, amethyst calla lilies will be part of it because they wound up being my favorite part of my wedding bouquet and my grandfather officiated my wedding.  The reason behind the hummingbirds is that he loved them, and had feeders for the everywhere, but especially right outside his window.  Every time he went to the hospital, it became this tradition for my mother and I to get him something with a hummingbird on it.  When I think about hummingbirds, I think about the Old Man.  So I'm wanting this piece on my right forearm, eventually to be integrated with the nature sleeve.

The other piece I want done is for my left forearm, which I want to feature a running horse, its mane and tail streaming behind.  The horse should be...I dunno, sort of a coppery color, I guess.  I don't want wings on it, but I want the suggestion of wings to be behind it, like made of the wind of something.  I also want it racing after birds, maybe with a couple already out-paced behind it.  This will go on the wing sleeve arm.

                                  

The Ink Addiction

Tattoo ideas:

Gryphon
Tri-raven design
Vines instead of stars around the face
Another pin-up
Something reminiscent of Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Something extremely nerdy, possibly of a Star Wars/Star Trek/Fantasy nature
Something that combines nerdy with pin-up, like my Poison Ivy tat

I'm thinking of making my right arm a nature-themed sleeve; vine, flowers, nature-oriented goddess figures/nymphs...Oh, too late, I like the idea so much that I have to do it.  Sigh.  Which means now I have to decide what to do with the other arm.  I would look pretty silly with just the one sleeve, I'm guessing.

Hmmm...maybe the other arm can be devoted to winged things...phoenix, raven, gryphon, etc.

OH SNAP.  I JUST HAD AN IDEA FOR MY NOVEL.

Creative Nothing

I dream of a house without siding.  I hate siding.  I hate it so much.

Anyway, I haven't been writing lately and I think I may explode as a result.  I'm debating the merits of daily writing exercises.  Back when I was in school and I HAD to write, I produced more stuff.  99% of it was crap, but the stuff I sifted out of it wasn't so bad.  Maybe if I throw myself into my work, I'll actually get something done.  If only video games weren't so distracting.

Been working on a fantasy novel idea for some time now, and it may or may not inspire a future tattoo.  I need to start getting a better grip on the main characters.  I feel like I have a good grip on one lady but not the other.  The title and vague overview of the story is something I've been kicking around for years, but the details have slowly evolved, adapting themselves to my ever-changing perspective.  In its current projection, I wonder if I'd dare to put my real name to it.  Maybe none of my relatives would notice.  Well, maybe Jeff would.  He reads most of the same stuff I do.  Hrrrmmmm....

I'm still trying to figure out how the two mains meet.  I know the origins of the first woman, and the underlying conflict between herself and the main male antagonist, but I'm trying to focus on what the central conflict is going to be.  The first woman's freedom means the freedom of an entire people, I think, but how to mold it and make the relationship between the two women pertinent... The relationship between the male antagonist and the first female protagonist is the foundation of the whole story, so that's easy.  I've been working out some of the fun cultural ephemera; the fun part of a fantasy novel is creating a setting in which the story unfolds.  All I can mysteriously say is amber (the stone) will play a very, very important part of the climax.

Losing my religion?

Like many Americans who want to reassure themselves that they are "rational" and"open-minded", my beliefs concerning religion, spirituality, and other cosmic ephemera are sketchy and vaguely defined, mutable and about as solid as fresh goat cheese.  Also like many such Americans, I am easily swayed by people I perceive to be "witty" or "cool".  And I like to put stuff in quotation marks to be swotty.  So, basically, like Kevin Smith would say via Chris Rock, I don't have a lot of firm beliefs, but I do have a few ideas.  Maybe.  Sometimes. Kinda.

Who knows if there is a higher power and whether or not it gives a shit about the human race in general or an individual specifically?  No one.  It are not a fact.  Now, I'm not saying I'm ruling out such a divinity, but I certainly stopped asking it directly for guidance a long time ago.  It's not like it ever answered me directly, personally.  Reading a book or a series of books will simply mean that I'm left to decipher my own answer, anyway, right?  So I've decided to switch to something, or rather, someone, a little more...real.

I've decided to try praying to Brian Lynch.  Why?  He's funny.  He's may also be a genius.  He certainly manages to shake a bunch of stuff together and sift out new answers.  After reading his comparison of 30 Rock to The Muppet Show, I figured, why the hell not?  We pray to a perceived being greater than ourselves in order to try to draw to ourselves some quality or essence of that being in order to be more than what we are, for we see ourselves to be inadequate.  What if I want to be as witty as Brian Lynch?  Therefore, perhaps praying to Brain Lynch will imbue me with some of his coolness and I can share quips back and forth with people like Kevin Smith.

I figure it makes about as much sense as any other religion.