I recently paid a visit to the Black Country Museum in the middle of England. The area that it looks back on, was known as the Black Country because there was so much Victorian/Industrial activity in the area, with so much beltching smoke and furious furnaces, that during the day it seemed almost pitch, and during the night the whole area almost glowed firey red.

It’s an open air museum, and they have managed to recreate a lot of Victorian life in that area – the iron works, and lime kilns, recreations of some of the worlds first steam engines, and steam wagons driving up and down the road. As a day trip, it was fantastic – though firmly Victorian rather than Steampunk, there were the machines and contraptions that fuelled Steampunk visions aplenty.

Flikr set of photos of the day.

A bento (or o-bento) is a Japanese style lunch, usually defined by being rice based, with various small meats and vegetables and great effort is put into the presentation. Indeed, some of the ones from Japan can only be described as works of art.

But I’d never seen a Steampunk one – so I created one. Above you can see the cogs (which are cut from two different kinds of cold sausage) are lying on a bed of rice. The ‘holes’ in the cogs are made from little pieces of nori (that black seaweed paper you get around sushi).

Anyway, proof if it was needed that Steampunk can pop up anywhere – in clothing, films, and now food! Maybe you’d like to make some cog-burgers, or cog-cucumber salad? It can be as fun (and as nutricious) as you like (For more bento, please see the Bento-Lunch Community, or my LJ British Bento.)

The terribly kind, and downright brilliant Mr I-Wei Huang (of Crabfu Steamworks) is well known for his amazing steam powered miniature contraptions. They, and their creator, have been winning awards for design and invention and are held up as fine examples of Steampunk creativity. Mr Huang was generous enough to answer some questions for Brass Goggles, regarding his machines and Steampunk.

1. What Steampunk influences do you hold closest to your heart? Can you remember when you first ‘discovered’ the genre?

I actually discovered Steampunk after making several of these Steampunk machines. As my website took off, people started bloging and covering these machines, and one term that came up over and over was Steampunk. I quickly surfed up Steampunk, and as a result realized that it was a term for something that I’ve long loved, and did not know there was an actual term for it.

One of my biggest influences in art and animation (I’m a concept artist and animator by trade) is Hayao Miyazaki, and his studio: Studio Ghibli. Many of his work and movies, such as Nausicaa, and Castle in the Sky, and Howl’s Moving Castle, has that Steampunk flavor that I love.

2. Do you have a fictional Steampunk character that you admire or identify with most? If so, why?

Well, I am not so much attached to Steampunk characters, as the world that Steampunk implies. However, I can’t tell you how many people have told me that I am a living Dr Loveless… in which I am not sure how tp feel about or react to Contrary to popular belief (Engadget post about Crabfu) I have no plans of taking over the world with steam powered robots…. yet

3. “Form follows function” is obviously a driving force in your steam powered work, how much if at all, do you compromise the function of a creation to achieve the form you seek?

Oh… Well that is a true statement – form follows function, however, I am an artist first, engineer/hacker second. So looks is VERY important to me, and I didn’t mean to understate the importance of design. I often design out bits and pieces in my head or on paper, but once in the hacking / creating mode, I try to keep as much aesthetics as I imagined in my head to the project. It is always the case though, that I have change my original design once in practice. But as I change and try different things to improve the mechanics, I always consider all possible ways of making it work…. there’s always more than one way to make something work… and the best form and line is picked from the choices – if performance is the same. In the end, if the whole thing isn’t working well enough visually, I then try painting, attaching and mounting things in different places to balance out the design, and often the outcome turns out better than I can ever imagined from scratch… perfect example is the Steam Trilobite (above left), which won Gold Medal at RoboGames 2006 for Best of Show. When I finished the mechanics and got everything working as well as possible, I still didn’t like the porportions, the clutch in the back stuck out way too far, and the boiler sat too far back, so it looked very off balanced, even though it worked well. So I took some aluminum sheets and made a head and tail and turned a stupid looking tank, into a compacted looking trilobite. That was not my original design, but the outcome turned out to be better than I could ever designed out in my head.

4. Do you have plans for your creations? Do you intend to go bigger or more complex? Or is more power your aim?

I am currently working with Joe Klann on a Steam Spider. We have been in prototype phase, creating a complex r/c controlled steam powered spider. However, due to overwhelming number of people asking if I sell these things, Joe and I decided to start over with the Steam Spider, in mind to keep it as simple as possible, as to be able to produce them as kits for sale. We are now working on a simple Steam Spider kit, that is designed for a popular low cost steam engine. We are never short of ideas of how to use steam to power complex robots…. but starting simple, and building on more and more complex kits, as well as add ons, is our goal. If all goes well, we will end up producing kits for a steam powered spider with functionality that is more complex than r/c steambot that I’ve done to date…. thanks to Joe’s engineering background

5. Do you have any advice for someone seeking to follow in your footsteps in creating mobile miniature steam devices?

Yes, saftey first. I’d recommend that you get a low end steam engine first, and read up and learn how to run them. With steam, you are dealing with fire, heat, and pressure, so caution must be taken when operating a steam engine, even at the small scale. I also recommend that you tackle on a small project first, and not try to do a complex r/c steam machine as your first project (which pretty much what I attempted, and my first dozen projects were failures). Tackle on simple first, just a wheeled steam machine that rolls forward, then slowly build up from there. The expeirence you learn from simple mechanics and steam engines, then becomes envaluable experience in the long run. Just remember, gearing, gearing, gearing…. no torque, high RPM’s, that’s all that these toy and model steam engines can do.

So there we go – some excellent news from Mr Huang on upcoming DIY Steam Spider kits for the budding Steampunk mechanic in us all. As a final helping hand, Mr Huang very kindly sent me a link to a Flikr image annotated with descriptions of the major parts of one of his devices, from chimneys to guages, it’s quite enlightening.

The parts of an award winning Steampunk Trilobite.

Many thanks, To Mr I-Wei Huang, Crabfu Steamworks!

Ok, so considered to be a travesty of all things good in the film industry, a showcase of bad acting, writing and directing – I have to say, I’ve never found it to be that horrendous. I probably have very low standards; I can accept that. I’ve never been good at spotting ‘good’ acting, usually too swept up in interesting ‘backstory’ that I can use to fuel my own imaginings – and this has some pretty nice backstory.

Based off an old series that was apparently very popular in its time (and supposed to have been released recently – I’ll need to keep an eye out) it’s set in the Wild West that never was – one of mad geniuses and steam devices gone awry. So, good start there. Personally, I’ve always had a soft spot for the inventor archtype, and less for the physical hero type – so Artemus Gordon the ‘good’ inventor and the evil genius Dr Loveless, though both overacted, made me smile repeatedly. Their inventions are deliciously detailed and resplendant in brilliant brass and the unsung beauty of this film is undoubtedly their personalised steamtrain. You thought I would mention Salma Hayek? Unfortunately, she’s not really developed much as a character, and I didn’t find myself liking her that much.

Verdict: The backstory is wonderful, the machines and inventions are superb, but I can only recommend to the quality-blind like myself. High score for machines, lowered for lost opportunities.

Steampunk Score: 6/10

This was the first film in the Doug McClure boxed set that I watched, and initially I wondered if it was Steampunk at all! There was a surprisingly non-Victorian boat in the middle of the ocean which got me worried initially – but within moments we were discussing suitably Victorian subjects while wearing absurdly restrictive suits. Then, they revealed their contraption – a diving bell. Almost worth it just for that, it was a beautiful brass device with rivets and valves aplenty. Full marks there for Steampunk Device.

The plot from there on in seemed strangely familiar, and it wasn’t until later that I realised that at some point during my childhood I’d played the “Choose your own Adventure” book of the same story. There are humerously tretcherous employees, suitably noble but innocent men of science, and Doug McClure being irresistable to the ladies and punching the men. The depiction of the Atlanteans world is fair enough – the effects are in this day and age, laughable, but if you can laugh with them, instead of at them, then you’ll do ok.

Verdict: The diving bell is lovely, the characters are old fashioned stereotypes, and the special effects are as cheesy as they come. A biased score, purely because the diving bell was very nice indeed.

Steampunk Score: 7/10

I have a dream: a dream of bold and courageous scientific adventurers taking their lives into their own hands and exploring the great unknowns of our world and beyond!

And I can make it happen, I hope.

So here’s the plan – I intend to construct old fashioned hot air balloons (a la Professor Lowes Balloon) using modern standard party sized latex balloons filled with helium, with hairnet meshes and thread lines, paper baskets and intrepid Lego minifig adventurers.  They may or may not (depending on weight allowances) be packed off with diaries of their adventures to date.

And then, the resulting expedition will be sent off from the nearest hill to bravely explore the wonders of the world.

Like a strange new take on the old “send a balloon off with a note”, I’d like to send them off with a story of their adventures (probably to the moon!) and include a personalised email address or webpage URL so that if they are discovered, they can report in. 

But like any expedition, planning is most important – I have the helium, I’ll find some cream coloured balloons, I have the hairnets (Tesco!).  I’ve not got any thread, nor do I have copious amounts of lego minifig adventurers.  The following page was useful for the carrying capacity of a balloon: How Much Can a Helium Balloon Lift?  And I measured the weight of a minifig to be less than that of a single British penny.  Which bodes well.

Updates as I progress.  First tasks – find balloons (of the appropriate colours) and source minifigs.

I intend to make my own, supercool Steampunk goggles, but it may be a long road for me – many skills to be learned, many things to be taken apart for parts.

But here at least is prototype 1 -

Constructed from a 1.5″ universal pipe adaptor from the plumbing section of my local Focus (DIY) store sawn in half with a coping saw and sanded to shape with aluminium oxide paper.  That stuff will take off skin if you’re not careful.  The lenses are coping sawn acrylic (3mm – which is really too thick) and it has one coat of primer and one of gold paint.  Alas (and beware) this gold paint does not agree with PVC – and it will remain sticky forever.  Thankfully, it’s a prototype!  Other painting options are being investigated.

For next time: tinted acrylic, alternative paints (ones that dry), leather strap, plastic cogs.

Someone I know is very much into his guitars – and he’d started to experiment with doing the ‘setting up’ himself (things like lowering the action and fixing the intonation). His next step? To build a guitar from a kit! However, not only was he not terribly interested in the visuals of the guitar (more the process of building it) but he is left handed! Left handed guitars are hard enough to find at the best of times, and kits even more so – so I was to get a guitar out of this, and one that I could decorate as I pleased.  Voila!

So, to cut this long story short – I had decided on a steampunk guitar. Primer, gold spraypaint and fake patina was purchased, sprockets were dissassembled from bike gear cassettes, and 15mm gate valves were found and taken gleefully apart. And that was just the beggining. It took a couple of weeks to do the painting – several coats of primer, many coats of gold and some experiments on rough pieces of wood to find the best means of applying the patina. (Use a sponge.) Put almost a whole can of laquer on that beast too! Sprockets were attached using brass screws, and upholstery pins used to keep the gate valve tops (the red things) on the volume and tone knobs.

In no particular order the other tasks – a vinyl skirt was cut up and glued onto the scratchplate, the pickup switch was replaced with two toggle switches, the string trees were replaced with gold coloured ones, the control plate and bridge were replaced with gold ones of the same. And last but certainly not least, I had a small brass nameplate engraved for the headstock – “The Professor”.

This is an oldish photograph (before the switch switch) but I will repost with other photographs in future. I love my “Professor”, he’s a wonderful guitar!

I had never embroidered before, and I can’t remember now why I thought it would be a good idea, but I decided just last week that I would have a go at embroidering cogs onto some clothing. The ultimate plan, is to embroider them as a small detail on the bottom hem of a skirt, but as I was a complete beginner, I decided I should do a test piece first on a pillowcase. And here it is:

The little cog is the size of a 2p piece (Sterling) and the larger one is the size of the bottom of a teacup. I’ve learnt my lesson, however – the teacup one too a surprising amount of time to do! The little one was far more time-managable.

The embroidery ring, threads and needles were bought at a nearby gallery/craftshop that I hadn’t known of before – and I’ll probably return there to stock up on random supplies for other projects. I’d call this successful test, though – I’m actually very pleased with it.