What a dashing (yet faint-inducingly dastardly) looking Steampunk mad scientist!  The gentleman in question wondered why there was all this talk of brass goggles, but precious enough actual brass goggles to be found.  Finding himself a mad scientist, there was naught to do but make his own.  (If you want a crazy invention done right…)

First, a brass and cog filled monoggle was created as a test piece.  That seemed to go rather well indeed (though it looks rather sharp on the outside) and opened the floodgates for the next iteration – the goggles themselves.  Very well made, and a rivetted leather mask to accompany it!  There’s work in progress images (we do like pipes) and more photographs to be had.  Thanks to Mr Willeford himself, and Rikibeth Stein for pointing them out.  Lovely work, Mr Willeford!

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Reader Nuithon pointed out the above moving-picture recording of various solar hot air balloons from the Festival of the Solar Globe, Colombia, from 2001 to 2006.  While many of these balloons (lifted purely by the heat from the sun) are a little colourful and merry, a chill ran through my person at 2 minutes in – an Air Kraken!  Truly terrifying (though the colouring is quite exotic.) I’ve actually constructed a solar balloon myself from the instructions linked off Make in the past, but I despaired of it being so very black.  Obviously if your material is thin enough, and your envelope large enough, it does not have to be such a terribly dour shade.  This bodes well, I think.

A day or so ago I recieved the Personal Blimp update email with links to more photographs from recent flights (at the XLTA website) and information that the FAA is being a little reticent in saying what liscence will be required for flying your own personal hot-air blimp.  Apparently the problem is that blimp or rather airships are classed as pressurised helium lighter than air vehicles, but the Personal Blimp is neither helium or pressurised.  I’m sure they’ll come to some decision soon – I hope it is a kindly one!

Oh wonderous joy and curious wonder – above is the Ætheric Flux Agitator Mk2, a peculiar device purported to have been created by a starving artists father, intending to use the priceless diamond at its centre to provide free energy for an entire town.  Perhaps inspired by some of the previous bulbous and crystaline constructions, Mr White has made a most ominous looking device that glows with an unholy (and yet somehow comforting) emerald luminescence.

Of interest also is the previous work, the Ætheric Flux Agitator Mk1 (of course) that stands proudly on a brassy base and has a dull red glow to distinguish it.  I must say that I am yet to tire of glowing crystals in Steampunk mountings, so these put a smile a mile wide on my face! You may also be interested in the works of creative fiction apon the site – in particular the story “Gearheart” caught my eye, especially as it’s purportedly for ‘Steampunks’.  chuckles  Now to find the time to do it justice in the reading. Thank you very much, Mr White!

Mr Lorsung contacted me to tell me about his work – an assembler of found things which often aquires a bit of a Steampunk feeling. The above item is called “Flight Controls”, and while I’m sure it’s not supposed to have a real, hands-on function, I like to imagine that it is a feather dispensing (and depressurising) device, with vials of concentrated feathers ready to fill pillows or furnish hastily made wings. Mr Lorsung says:

“…my work uses flight (mechanical and natural) as metaphor with which to explore human relationships. Hope you enjoy!”

Alas, I’ve not managed to find any more of Mr Lorsung’s work, and only a yet to be updated cover page on JustAnAssembler.Com. Thank you, Mr Lorsung! Nice gauge.

Sometimes I despair of reducing the size of images for posting – today is such a day because the works of Mr Ron Pippin feed my eyes until they can bear no more. Of particular interest to us, must be his utterly intoxicating museum cases and show boxes such as the one above – travelling treasure troves of the artifacts of wonder and natural science. I become lightheaded pouring over the vials of mysteriously labelled fluids and powders, scrawled in a script I cannot read. I boggle at meticulously arranged skeletal remains of moles, ducks and cats, either neatly displayed in order of size, or posed in an imitation of life surrounded by Steampunk contraptions that I dare not imagine the purposes of.

Mechanical wings, plastic piped entrails, skulls covered in tiny script, memories of 19th Century ancestors surrounded by trinkets and teeth and teabags. Jars and pumps and dials and gears and planes and dragons and oh so much more! But I love the travelling cases by far the most, I imagine that I could spend a brief lifetime staring at each part and its relationship with the others – like some Steampunk Science mandala. Sorry, I’ll go and calm down somewhere. (Seen at the Wonder Cabinet Livejournal Community).

Just a quick post to let anyone interested know that the Stardust movie official site has been updated, and now has a few more videos, wallpapers, a rather poor game, and images to take a look at, mostly about the village called Wall.  There’s very little airship action to be seen, but you will get to repeatedly see Mr De Niro say “Touché” and that can’t be too bad.  *chuckles*  Who would have thought you would find Ms Pfeiffer in a goat-chariot, either.  It still seems to be on course, and reading Mr Gaiman’s journal seems to give the impression that he’s not dissapointed in it either – this all bodes well!

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Oh Mr Von Slatt – you are the internet’s darling today and rightfully so – your monitor conversion is a beautiful item of purest Steampunk, and you are even kind enough to document your methods.  From the ingenuity of your button levers, to the sideways thinking in printing out your marble (I’d have stumbled along trying to use feathers and sponges) – you’ve done wonders with it.  I’d be greatly surprised if you’re not asked to make these for others (watch out, Mr Datamancer!) because I’m sure most people are like me when they gaze at it and look dissapointedly at their own monitors.

A beautiful mod that goes perfectly with the famed Steampunk keyboard and even the photographs set it off nicely – a Steampunk desk of anacronistic wonder lit by kerosene lamp to the sound of RSS morse feed.  Utterly wonderful – you’ve excelled yourself, Mr Von Slatt.  Thank you for sending word my way (and I did notice the page you were on for the photographs – thankyou) and thanks also to Martin van Velsen, Cylver, Glimjack, Matt B, Toru Nagisa, Bram van Zoelen, Pat Regan, Jared B, Isaac Epp, and Morten Iversen.  All greatly appreciated!

Oh my – I’m very almost too late to write this, but the vagarities of timezones may yet save me.  Tonight, at half-past 7 in Oakland CA, Dorkbot will be held with some really fantastically Steampunk things going on – Make blog has far more information about it, but I just wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to attend in the area didn’t miss out!  There’ll be talks on steam engines by Mr Smythe, clockworks by Mr McNamara and the Steampunk Treehouse team.  (Oh, they seem to have the incorrect link for Mr Smythe, but it is here instead.)  I do apologise for leaving this so late!

Mr Hudson wrote to tell me about his latest construction – the In Home Steam-Powered Information Processing Device.  Designed to be used with a standard Twyford steam outlet socket and capable of two score calculations per minute! Alas, intended for a Steampunk photoshoot (that intrigues me more by the moment) this isn’t a functional peice, but it looks simply marvellous – the idea being that were it real, you’d hold one or more ‘shifting’ buttons to get the symbol you desired, as a keyboard.  I do like the percieved complexity of it! Mr Hudson has also added the final step in his goggle making tutorial that we posted some time ago – adding the lenses.  Such a difference it makes, to.  Thank you, Mr Hudson (and your letter found me very well indeed, thank you for asking).