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Odd as it may seem, this video is surprisingly catchy – it shows the irrepressible Mr Elemental waxing lyrical about his preferred beverage, tea. Clad in his pith helmet and more than a little wide-eyed from rather a lot of caffine, and accompanied by a gyrating lady and his phonograph-spinning butler, he comes across as a little strange, but well – he’s just very keen on tea. Around the world in 80 brews – herbal? No thanks. Thanks instead go to Mr Alexander Edmund Clough for his excellent taste in videos.

I’m rather a big fan of the young person’s series of Steampunk books by Messers Reeve and Wyatt, known as the Larklight trilogy, so it is with great excitement and no small amount of crossing of extremities that I hear that the filming for the first book in the series, Larklight, has been given the green light, a budget and a director!  Mr Shekhar Kapur (director of Elizabeth and the sequel, Golden Age) has been signed on with a $200 million budget to bring it to the silver screen – a not insignificant amount of money, I hope you’ll agree.  Thank you for pointing it out, Jwlphoto!

With Warner Brothers at the helm, I cannot help but wonder who will be developing the inevitable game to accompany this huge a budget of a film – being a games industry person myself I am wringing my hands over the fear that a game might be rushed and shoddy (please don’t be!)  But to give an indication of how much I enjoy Larklight and its sequel Starcross, I’ve recently started reading it aloud to my gentleman friend – what an enjoyable way to revisit a book it is!  How strange that it is only children who get to enjoy such treats – I look forward to reading out Starcross and the upcoming Mothstorm in the same manner.  (Amazon links to the Larklight series in the UK and the Larklight series in the US.)

Mr Sillof, who has been featured here before due to his magnificient Gaslight Justice League custom action figures, has outdone himself with his Steampunk Star Wars custom figures (only some of which can be seen above – the ‘baddies’ are just as well realised). Made some time ago, but held back for a convention grand reveal, he’s looked at the essences of these characters that so many adore, and applied them to an alternate Steampunk world.

I think that the most telling aspect of these is that I can quite easily imagine a scene where a bowlerhatted young boy re-enacts and re-invensts the thrilling adventures he’s seen played out at the magic lantern shows. Vast imperial ships patrolling the aether and a small band of rough and ready rebels with quirky steam automatons and mysteriously powered swords. These are art in our world, but they’d be well loved toys in another world – keys to fantasy; both heroes and friends. Very well done, Mr Sillof!

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While many (if not most of you) are aware that Issue 4 of the Steampunk Magazine has been out for a while now, I do want to mention it here on the site!  The Steampunk Magazine continues to publish thought provoking (and action instilling) articles on things of interest to a wide variety of Steampunk fans – from well written short stories and serials, to interviews with interesting people, to instructions on hat making and mad science!

The magazine is still available for free download, donation, or purchase, with how to get in contact with their contributors for other work should you wish to commission something.  I also want to let you know that the Steampunk Magazine has their own forum called the Gaslamp Bazaar - catering to those of a more anarchistic bent (those with more punk in their Steampunk).  A nice contrast to the Steampunk Forum here at Brass Goggles, and with some very interesting discussions there on many important subjects.

Lastly, it seems that the Steampunk Magazine has decided to go bi-yearly, with a small summer edition with fiction and reviews, while the more substantial winter edition will be replete with the same, and supplemented with how-tos and articles.  I am sorry to see it become less frequent, but I can barely imagine how difficult it must be to run a magazine!

Dear all,

With recent outages of Brass Goggles and the Steampunk Forum (for which I am sincerely sorry for) and my lack of regular posts in the last few months, I finally admit that while I struggle alone – I could really do with some help.

So I thought I better ask here first – because I know that there are phenomenally talented people both here and on the forum, and no-one knows Steampunk and Brass Goggles better than the readers.

I’ve got two ‘roles’ to fill, you see:

1. Co-Writer for Brass Goggles.
2. Technical Aetherweb Assistance.

The co-writer would help me keep the post regularity up here on Brass Goggles – I have no shortage of things to post about, I merely lack real world time to turn them into posts written with care.  If there were someone enthusiastic about Steampunk who could in their own well written style contribute 2-4 posts a week, remembering to stay on the lighter side of Steampunk, I’d very much like to hear from them.  If I get more than one volunteer (as I have one volunteer already – a very kind offer indeed) then I’ll have to make some tough choices, but anyone who offers to help already has my heartfelt thanks.

The technical request is due to my lack of cunning with the more technical side of running this site.  As you may know, Brass Goggles is run on WordPress (a rather out of date version) and the forum runs on Simple Machines (again, somewhat out of date).  I’m with Fasthosts, mostly due to the fact that I have unlimited bandwidth.  I’m really seeking some occasional assistance to get things up to date, stop the hacking that has been sneaking in (my apologies to anyone who saw the contents of that RSS feed), and generally get this house in order once again.  An occasional hand, really. The Brass Goggles site is something I run because I love Steampunk (and the people involved in it) and I do not make money from it – that said, I pay for the hosting out of my own pocket and always consider the donations I occasionally get to be ‘extra thanks’ so while I could not pay a co-writer over any length of time, nor could I ‘employ’ an aetherweb advisor, I’d like to give out occasional gifts of thanks from the ‘kitty’ as and when appropriate if I could.

Thank you for your time, and consideration, if you think you could be of assistance, please either comment below with a link to an example of your writing (preferrably to do with Steampunk) if you are interested in co-writing, or with some indication that you have aetherweb muscles AND brains to technically assist.

The year is 1897 and the world has been beleaguered by the machinations of the evil Baron Battenberg.  Five long years the few free countries of the world have fought against the Baron and his steam powered war machines, but now Britain has been struck a terrible blow – the evil Baron has kidnapped Queen Victoria!

Now is the time for the world’s greatest hero – Dirk Valentine!  Explorer, spy and expert in multiple exotic and secret martial arts, along with his scientist friend Monty for advice, Dirk will have to infiltrate the headquarters of the Baron using the nifty Chain Cannon weapon and tool – it can vanquish foes and aid in navigation both.  Time is running out – perhaps you can help Dirk save the day?

Congratulations on a game well made to the Nitrome team, and thanks to Ms(?) Djainette, Mr Xenocryst, Mr Brandon and Mr Rick for bringing it to my attention!  Evil is most certainly afoot as you say, Mr Rick!

Urk!  I thought I was done for the evening, but I could not resist posting about this cunning creation by Acanthusleaf Design studio over at the Clockworkers Guild LJ group!  It’s a ring, as you can see, based on the one from the book by Diana Scarisbrick, Historic Rings.  It’s based on a 17th Century design with some modifications – but as you can see, it’s a ring with rivets that opens out like the armillary spheres that it is inspired by!  How utterly magnificient!

They are clamouring for the opportunity to buy one over at the Clockworkers Guild and I really cannot blame them in the slightest – were I a jewellery wearer, I’d be tempted in a second.  As it is, I wonder if you could engrave the seperate rings to hide messages, keep codes, or use as impromptu sun dials or sextants!  Wonderful work, Acanthusleaf!

Anyone for a Steampunk MMO?  Upcoming from the Flipline developer, and slated for release on the Kongregate site (known for free to play, Flash based games), Remnants of Skystone is a very Steampunk multiplayer game featuring character creation (look for gas masks, spats, goggles, brass cuffs and the most stunning facial hair I’ve yet seen in a game), socialising and co-operative side scrolling missions battling the bally alien invaders!  There may even be the opportunity to have your own floating residence!

Apparently going to go live sometime this autumn (or fall, if you prefer) it looks like it has some potential indeed, and the blog has some nice backstory, art inspiration pages, and character screens.  Several of the characters could do with smiling more, but I suppose with alien mimics denying the very ground you stand on, you might be a little disgruntled too!

If the creators of the game should perhaps stumble across this little post, you’d make me very grateful if you’d reserve the name Tinkergirl for me.  Thanks to Mr Tony for pointing it out some time ago, and to GameBunny for reminding me!

Those who can look at the above coffee temple and not see a Steampunk automaton staring back at them, are possessed of a different frequency of mind than I posess.  While it looks very much as though it should be able to create and serve the coffee under its own mysterious power, it’s actually the Elektra Belle Epoque Q1 coffee machine (also available in brass and copper, though not apparently in images of any useful size, alas. Also available in chrome – thank you Mr Graham!).  It’s beautiful, a little terrifying, and the sheer richness and the details – from porthole styled water viewport to the wooden looking knobs and handles – cry out to be the beverage maker of the most discerning of Steampunk caffine fiends.  Thank you, Laird Douglas!

It also introduced me to the wonderful phrase, Belle Époque – French for ‘beautiful era’ – which describes that almost impossibly interesting time in world history between the late 19th Century and the Great War.  Prime Steampunk-inspiring times with science and arts leaping forwards in an uncharacteristically peaceful time in Europe.

If you find yourself in London this weekend, you may be interested in attending a meetup of those of the Steampunk persuasion at Crystal Palace Park.  There will be thunder lizards to observe, (though the only shooting should be done with light capturing devices – rayguns, pistols, harpoons, portable tesla cannons and shock-canes etc are forbidden, lest they peturb the local authorities) and time to enjoy some light refreshments that you may decide to bring.

So far, a healthy two dozen have signed up to attend either in the thread on the Steampunk Forum, or the Facebook event page, and all are welcome (though scallywags will have to be on best behaviour).  I believe several people will be taking the opportunity to dress to impress, and it would be lovely if others did too.  Weather forecast suggests sunny with showers (an appropriate British spring forecast) so bring a brolly!  I look forward to meeting you all.