Brass Cogs and Gears: Tinkering Time

... Or "Steampunk and the Arts".

    Good evening to you all, ladies and gentleman! It's been a while since I posted up a Steampunk blog post but since it has been on a hiatus due to the unruley behavior of dragons, I think it's high time to get the ball rolling again.
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   Talented artists and craftspeople have embraced Steampunk aesthetics as well, and incorporated them into their works and their wares. This is clearly visible through the use of deviantArt.com, a website where artists can post their works and receive feedback. If one searches it, using ‘Steampunk’ as the search term, the number of results is currently 185,488 and increases nearly every day.

     Russian artist Vladimir Gvodev takes animals and transforms them into mechanical beasts, while still keeping them recognizable as creatures. He makes them look as if they were technical schematics as well as illustrations of animals from the Victorian times. He had this idea based on a story, dating back to the year of 1918:

          “Once, I was told about a German mechanic who lived in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, the mechanic went mad and was held in a lunatic asylum for life. There he began inventing vergeltungswaffe, a German term for ‘vengeance weapons’. I never saw his blueprints, but I liked the story as much that I tried to make via my blueprints a sort of portrait of the inventor himself- to create a little museum of the mind of that German mechanic.”
                        - Vladimir Gvodev, artist

     Not only does he capture these images on paper, he also turns them into finely made sculptures and figurines. Using rough materials to capture their mechanical nature, Gvodev blends the realistic with the fantastic. Others have also taken real-life animals and turned them into something else. Mike Libby, an artist from Boston, MA, alters insects and makes them robotical with his company, the Insect Lab.  He says:
      “I wanted to honor, revere, and play off of the minute, unique, beautiful details, shapes, textures and colors of each specimen. I want them not to look like bastardized, Frankensteined mutant freaks of nature but have a sense of whimsy and luxury, like they came out of a great sci-fi story.” 
                                                                     - Mike Libby

     Some Steampunk artists also take things which already exist and apply Steampunk onto them. Richard ‘Doc’ Nagy, known more commonly as ‘Datamancer’, is known for modifying electronic gadgets such as his famous Steampunk laptop. According to him, he began to do these things when “there were maybe four search results for ‘Steampunk’ on Google”. Now, he is extremly well known for his modification of everything from iPods to, more common, people's mundane-looking laptops.

    And this is just the beginning of what can be done when Steampunk meshes with the craftiest of people on the planet. Just take a good look at some of these examples:

Mike Libby's Steampunk work.

 

       Datamancer's Steampunk laptop. I'd love to get my hands on one.

 

  An envisioning of a Steampunk mage. My kind of Steampunk, blending fantasy and scientific ideas (original belongs to ~khallix of deviantArt.com).  

           ~Sercive of deviantArt shows off a Steampunk pendant. You have to love clock faces!


    Of course, there's more to art then these. Costumes, even, could be considered an art form to an extent. Trust me on that one, a good costume could be as nerve-wracking to create as much as the perfect portrait of the president by his own personal commission. An amazing costume/cosplay that is a piece of art is something to be seen by one's own eyes and it's often hard to believe that someone made it, oftentimes by hand.

    With that, Steampunk can delve into fantasy, science fiction, alternate history and alternate futures. Dystopian futures, comic books and fairy tale characters have been washed in a sepia hue and given the Steampunk treatment. A fairly common thing to see in Steampunk style is Alice in Wonderland. The quirky-ness of Alice's adventures down the Rabbit Hole make it a prime location and setting where anything, realistic or not, can happen. To the right you can see ~Cyv's (on deviantArt) take on a Steampunk White Rabbit, complete with goggles and a monocle as well. And of course, the myriad of original characters (or OC's for those who are in the know about character creation) who jump head-first into the subculture as we know it with the full intention of making them fit the Steampunk bill.
    Personally, I like seeing both of these. On one hand, you have the imagination to transfer something that may or may not belong in such a world and make it work, but the other side has the sheer audacity to make something by scratch and purely original. I give credit to both of those types of people!

And like always, here comes a colorful photograph spam. Enjoy and oogle!

       Steampunk Harley Quinn (~thecrystalshoe, deviantart.com)

And if you have not seen this image floating around on the Internet, then I do not think you have looked too well for Steampunk. Abraham Lincoln, with a jet pack.

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Whew! Are your eyeballs tired yet from the colors and pictures? Next will be an all-out attack on your ears, with 'The Sound of Grinding Gears: The Sweet Steampunk Sound' where music (yes, music!) shall be receiving the specialty Steampunk touch.

Do Not Meddle in the Affairs of Dragons..: A Two Part Special

For you are tasty and good with ketchup.

Spurred by how I (surprisingly) have not written about this as well as the angry actions of such creatures in Game of Thrones in the last few episodes, I think it's time I write about a topic I know a fair good amount about.

Cue the giant wingbeats!

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Like always, I start this off with some music to fit the topic:

     Long before The Elder Scrolls video game franchise and George R.R. Martin wrote about our favorite Targaryan who has claim to the last three of her house's signature beast, dragons were already the well-established lords of high fantasy when it comes to mythical creatures. Traditionally shown as fearsom fire-breathing monsters born of nightmares and the bane to most fictional lands, the dragon has come to be almost larger then it's own massive legend.

     But, what most don't realize or fail to remember for that matter, is that there's more then one type of dragon. And it's pretty surprising the number of types there are.

     What the general public who doesn't know any better likes to think of a "dragon" is actually the Western version of it. This is your everyday, garden-variety description of what we see today: a winged creature covered in diamond hard scales, four legs, a tail, horns and belching smoke and fire. He normally guards a stockpile of gold and other valuables, plagues villages and in some cases, likes to partake in riddles. Your archetype idea of a dragon can be seen in Smaug the Magnificent from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit as well as Malificent's dragon form in the Disney film Sleeping Beauty. He's big, imposing, and unless you are rather good with a sword or manage to sneak away out of his view, there is a slim chance you are going to be getting away from him alive. The addition of a skilled wizard is a great help, though.

     However, one has to tred carefully in the shadow of a Western dragon. In this type there are even sub-types of dragons. Let's go exploring for the cousins, shall we?

  Wyvern  A wyvern is not so different from the common image, save for that he has only two legs and, perhaps his most striking feature, his barbed scorpion-like tail ending which delivers a lethal poison. Large enough to kill elephants with either it's claws, tail or powerful bite, the Wyvern is something Western explorers in Africa claimed to have seen. Marco Polo on one of his expeditions, writes that he encountered Wyverns for himself but who knows if these beasts were real or not. They are even harder to kill then normal dragons, due to the enviroment in which they live in. These have appeared in the popular Kingdom Hearts video games as an enemy.

 

   Lindworms Not as glorious as the Wyvern or the Dragon, the Lindworm lacks wings. At times he even lacks legs as well, and generally does not have a fiery breath. In replacement of this, it's bite is lethally poisonous. Think on the level of the modern-day Komodo Dragon, who's reputation is as fierce as it's mythical namesake. In mythology, the World Serpent Niddhoggr in Norse stories could be seen as a Lindworm, for he was large enough to circle the world and it often shown with no legs or wings.
    Niddhoggr was also supposed to be one of the beasts unleashed during the End of the World but perhaps I shall write on that myth another time....

   Hydra  Now I don't know about you but the Hydra in Disney's take on Hercules scared me out of my mind the first time I saw that thing in theaters. I'm pretty sure it was the unsettling CGI in an animated feature. The Hydra in itself is already pretty scary: it's specific to Greek mythology and is a dragon or dragon-like beast who has the ability to regrow two heads for each one cut off. Slain by the hero Hercules (duh!), it was one of his many tasks in order to become a god.

And those are just the ones off the top of my head.


You can find dragons everywhere though, in their Western format. Game of Thrones features three by the names of Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal as well as the sigil of House Targaryan (specifically a Hydra), the classic epic  Beowulf (terrible movie though, trust me) and everywhere in between. The books of the Inheritance series use dragons as companions for their Riders, but they're still dangerous to begin with. Even Falkor the Luck Dragon, in The Neverending Story is by all means a Western-based dragons. Video games like The Elder Scrolls, Oblivion and Dragon's Dogma have them and HOW can I not mention everyone's dice-based tabletop game Dungeons and Dragons? I'd have to role a d20 to save myself from the damage I'd take!


Dragons seem to pop up everywhere, though, and not just in Europe. The Celts also had dragons in the usage and designing of their intricate knotwork and art, which often depicted dragons. The Vikings as well drew them quite often. While they are more commonplace in the lore of that continent, they also from time to time appear in the Americas as well.

In North America, the legends of the Dragon are few and far between. It's not generally known if the Native Americans of the country had legends of a dragon-like creature  but there is one story which does lead to a small belief that they may: the beast is known as the Piasa Bird.

     ""The Piasa bird is said to have flown over the "Great Father of Waters" thousands of moons before the white man came, when magolonyn and mastodon were still living." The Piasa, or Piusa, means "the bird that devours men" or "bird of the evil spirit". Early drawings depict it as part bird, reptile, mammal, and fish. The colors used in early paintings symbolize war and vengeance (red), death and despair (black), and hope and triumph over death (green)."
          - Illinois Department of Natural Resources

A Native American creation, the Piasa Bird has little information on the whereabouts of it's mythology. A picture of this hideous and ferocious beast was found on the cliff bluffs in Alton, Illinoise by explorers. The legend of the Piasa says that it "swooped across the beach and carried one away. From that moment on, the Illini were terrorized by this incredible and blood-thirsty monster." . He's still there on the bluffs, preserved for everyone to see: personally I don't think I'd like to encounter him for myself.


  
   More often then North American dragons are the ones seen in South American and Mezo-American cultures, like the Aztecs and Mayans. Here, dragons were not just feared but often worshipped and put on the status of gods and deities as well. Probably the most well-known god who shares his fame with dragons is Quetzocoatl, a god who is often represented as a shimmering and shining serpentine dragon.
   You aren't going to see four-legged fire spitting monsters here. Dragons in this region have no legs, no fire powers and are covered in feathers. They moreso resemble giant carnivorous birds, for that matter. With how they are surrounded by birds like the Harpy Eagle, one of the larger birds of prey in the world, perhaps it is only natural they thought of their dragons to resemble these flying predators.

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You'd think I'm done with the subject of dragons, don't you.

Wrong! Next time in the blog, we cross the lands far and wide and head to Asia and other ports unknown for their own interpretations of the popular dragon myth and legend.

The Sun Rises: Life, Creations and the Goddess' Descent

* Caution: there is a large number of photos in this entry.*


   Hey, all you people out on the Internet through your homes, iPhones, etc.! Faith here, for another random update on what we like to call LIFE.

   So, not much else going on here save for the usual Steampunk blog entries. Hope I am not boring all of you yet with them and that you are learning some new, interesting things with their updates. I am actually in the process of starting up a 4H Steampunk club, and that's consuming much of time as well as planning out a 21st birthday party with the same theme in mind (goodness I take on too many projects at once).

   Finals for me are done, very happy with that! So far my final grades for the sememster are all A's, so I'm hoping that the good grade streak is perfect. With the ending of classes, I can get back to doing crafting, enjoying life and being a general derp.

   And of course, there's costuming.

   Amaterasu is coming along spectacularily! She's almost done, with the sleeves having to be painted and that's it.

Really, I couldn't be any happier with her results so far. I first debut the unfinished work at the Sakura Matsuri at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens this May, and much to my surprise, our small group of Celestial Brush Gods were actually recognized a good bit. We were constantly stopped to have pictures taken of us, with people freaking out a bit after they realized what game we were from and the individual characters we represented.

  The sleeves in the photo weren't painted, but the finished result will have them decked out with clouds and sakura petals, and I will be toting around a large sumi brush.

 I definetly need to get different shoes for AnimeNEXT though: the ones I wore killed my feet, and while they had me tall enough to not get the dress dragging along in the dirt, I dont want to come home with huge blisters. Anybody have ideas for that part?

   For anyone else attending AnimeNEXT, my cosplays being worn will consist of Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Kusuriuri or NyanCat on Friday and Sunday, and Amaterasu will be bought out all day Saturday morning and afternoon.

   Major Projects Numbers 2 and 3 are for my Steampunk 'Technomage' costume, which is still in the start process of. The character, or 'Steamsona' I am working on has a vast knowledge of sciences so advanced, that to the untrained eye they seem supernatural. Those who understand these scientific ways are known as Technomages. What you see here are my two main props for the costume, a book box and a modded Nerf gun. The book I have named The Cosmic Machine and the book, Chrysoprase. The book will have shelves in it so I can stock it with potion bottles and curiosities that a Technomage may need in her life.

 

   Chrysoprase is named after a mineral which resembles jade: the Nerf gun is actually a SharpShot, with the ugly Nerf logos and caution logos pain-stakingly sanded off by hand.  Spray painted with Krylon 'Satin' brown, it resembled a chocolate gun but with the 4 and the bulls-eye designs painted green, it no longer looks like something made by the Hershey company (at least as much). You can tell that a key color is going to be green but others which will be present include gold, black, and a lighter brown. The green bits will all glow in the dark as well.

   Personally, I think it looks so much better then the original SharpShot: look it up for yourself for the hideous yellow-orange-black Halloween-ish color scheme.

   And you think I have all my projects listed here? Wrong! There's a sign for the upcoming 4H club, inventory for a convention to make (especially since it's on Sunday!). May be good to say what the convention is called: it's the wonderous event known as CloverCon 2013.

   OH JEEZ, where do I begin about it? CloverCon is a small little convention run every year in May, a few weeks before AnimeNEXT. It's run by young people, for young people and their family and friends. Completly youth-friendly, it offers everything about  that a larger 'con has: panels, games, a cosplay catwalk, and even a Silent Auction which serves as a fundraiser the club does.

  This is the third time I will be selling things at the event, and boy, is making the last of inventory and setting everything up for it crazy! It will be a fun time regardless, though, and I look forward every year to it!

  For more information on CloverCon, visit the official convention page http://www.clovercon.org/.

   Probably the next update will have more photos of the adventures at the Sakura Matsuri, a CloverCon summary with pictures or another Steampunk entry. Or something completly different, even! Stay tuned, stay curious, and always look on the bright side of life!

  - Faith