Prophe-see T.V. is on the Air!

Society member Tbone of "The Todd Don't Stop" fame went live with his all-seeing future visionary device. It was very popular around the playa. Here he is at The Deep End and Kid's Camp. Can you tell which is which?

Perambulating About to Visit our Steampunk Brethren

Members of The Society visit The Steampunk Tree. The Baron, The Baroness, The Amazing Leslie and Professor Fate visible.

A stitch in time...

We had a little costume clutch here at the workshop on Saturday before the last Perambulatory work day. We started with a few trips to different thrift stores followed by a turn of the century fashion show. The ladies showed us many wonderfully steamy costumes. Here the stately Baron shows of his Sunday Best.

Steampunk Article and Von Slatt link

I just read the latest Techsploitation column - it was a neat article about the steampunk craze with a mention about Jake Von Slatt's work.

Steampunk found in Nashville

Ok, so it's not the most monumental of finds - and there's no photo of it because it was in a dark country bar, but I saw the coolest steampunk noisemaker.

It was a square bellows that sat flat on top of a shelf. There was a cord so the bartender could squeeze the bellows from below. And when the bartender pulled, the bellows, instead of simply blowing air, blew the air through train whistles that stuck up out of the top bellows flap.

Duuuuuuuuuude.....

I have no idea where to find such a thing, but any thoughts on how we can make it for the perambulator?

I've Got the Power

The Solano Flea market has granted us (with a $10 donation) our Perambulator power supply. Think Flux Capacitor. It's 12v (instead of 1.21 gigawatts) so it should be a snap to install. And it should look mesmerizing at night. Doc Brown would be proud.

Paradise by the Dashboard Light

Update from the workshop- The Navigator Station and Captain's Command are taking shape. Details include Calliope keyboard, the weather station and a few big beautiful gauges. There's still a long way to go but progress is good. We need more gauges.

Gauges, Gears, Iron Airships! Oh my!

The Amazing Leslie and I found a little Australian movie on Brassgoggles. It's called The Mysterious Geographical Explorations of Jasper Morello. (It can be Netflixed here.) Done mostly in silhouettes. It is amazing. With so many airships that I was still drooling over the previous one when a new one would appear. Steampunktastic! Along with gauges and dirigibles, I find myself now infatuated with wrought-iron railings and other iron work. Here is the first 9:37. UPDATE-I now have my own complete copy I can lend.

Along these lines it occurs to me that we're going to need a lot more gauges and valves. Let's keep our eyes open for cheap stuff (or free) especially at garage sales and fleas markets.

Dorkbots do SteamPunk in Oakland on Wednesday

Steam engines, something from last year's burn and the steampunk treehouse presented at 21 Grand.

Not So Modern Mechanix

You'll lose hours on this website that has full scans of pages from Modern Mechanix magazine. Not all of it is steampunky, but what odd modern inventery!

Check out categories like "Impractical" and "Useless Tech."

Eccentric Genius

A "gentleman inventor" makes inspiring inventions with steamy names.

Yay Area Steampunk Event

The Steampunk Treehouse camp of 07 Burners is having a fundraiser event on June 9

The treehouse project details are so tantalizing. We will need to make this a stop on the perambulator tour and maybe, if schedules permit, have an excursion to the fundraiser together.

I Can See Clearly Now

AP and I managed to barter ourselves some very fancy bi-ocular viewpieces. Each has it's own steamy character and charm. Only $3 each! All we need now are some leather cases or straps to carry them on our person. Onward!

Nice period costumes

This site has some very nice period correct formal costumes for men and women. I don't think that I'd buy from this site (I'd rather thrift-store-it), but it's a great reference. Their pocketwatches are neat as well. I'm thinking I'd like to have two different costumes to wear when Perambulating. One would be the crazy Steampunk Captain similar to my previous post. And one would be a gentleman's outfit similar to this one at left.
A funny coincidence-this guys name is Alexander Parrish (AP), Medical Doctor. Take that Bugger.

Amazing animation

Here's a beautiful little movie I found at Brass Goggles. The best site on the net for all your Steampunk curiousities.

Spy photos from the workshop

We had another productive day at the workshop yesterday. AP came by and worked on the design for the rear of the carriage. He got crazy with the polyurethane glue. The dowels were salvaged from the dump. The end result is quite an interesting detail. We all agreed it looks like a pipe organ.I worked on the design for the new front end. Since the new rear used up both halves of the coffee table I had to look elsewhere for inspiration. And I found it in the form of a broken pedestal fan I had in the garage. (hoarding 1, minimalism 0) Using smaller steel that I scavenged from some salvaged fencing I set to work. I created the curves with a conduit bender and a lot of trial and error. I was making things up as I went along. I plan to take all of my ideas and put them into a model tonight to try and figure out the whole front design. I imagine a curving, almost bullet shaped front. We'll see.
Here's a shot of the work from the front. It shows the fan blades that I'd like to use. The idea is to put the blade back in it's normal place, line the grill with fabric and then light the slow-moving blade from behind. Should be a neat effect at night.

Steampunk Captain costumes

I found a neat sight that had a drawing contest to create a Steampunk captain. There's lots of great ideas for costumes here if this is your interest. It certainly is mine. Here's my favorite.

WOW! What a great day!

We had quite a productive day over at the Perambulator workshop yesterday. It was pretty impromptu but we eventually rounded up 5 of the group to get things started. In the morning AP and I took all of the unnecessary parts off of the cart. Then we removed the rear shocks/springs and replaced them with steel tubing. This will prevent the cart sag with all the extra weight. When The Baroness, The Amazing Leslie and Baron of All showed up we took the cart out for a stress test. We even piled on two teenagers. We were all impressed that the cart didn't seem to mind all the weight.
Next we got to work on the steel frame. Using the model for reference B of All and B of Less set to work cutting the steel to length. AP worked on cutting the table top in half for the end details. The Great Leslie worked on the overall shape of the exterior and did a lot of grinding. I worked on welding. Everyone contributed ideas for structural and detail elements. Things took shape quickly. We had a large portion of the frame done when The Baron and Ness left for the day. (Thanks for lunch!) The rest of us soldiered on. Leslie worked on the boiler for the vehicle. (An old air compressor tank.) While AP worked on hardwood flooring for the cab and passenger area. We finally punched out around six. We were exhausted.
But the end result is pretty impressive. We've got a lot more work to go but if this first day is any indication I'm sure we'll reach our objective before the big week. I'll send out a more formal email next time we have another work party. Go team!

Strange missive from Africa...

photos may follow, if the technology gods favor me...

Steam Dreams

That was a great meeting the other night. This is gonna be a badass burn.
I would like to hear more from Matt and Eran - how do you guys imagine spending your prep time and energy when prepping for the burn?

Jon talked about having a thin material covering the dirigible with lights inside. This is the method that made this seahorse chariot one of the prettiest things on the playa. You can see it works tremendously well.

I've really got no experience on engines and whatnot - but, Jon, I want to encourage you to find someone who can let you know how much weight different engines can handle. Perhaps an art car forum on tribe will have the answers. All of the art cars I remember on the playa were built off buses, tractors and cars. The car ones seemed to struggle when they got to six people.

Maybe we could think about a two-person perambulator and a posse of steam-punked bikes. When we travel around town together, we'll be memorable which will make people want to visit our camp full of Wonders .

One wonder could be a collaborative Cyclorama (360 degree panoramic paintings - popular at 19th century world's fairs). LG and I tossed around a similar idea before our first burn.

This last picture is a doodle on a slightly-greened steam punk look.