While gears do not scream Steampunk to me, they do have an appeal for a lot of Steampunks.  Kinekt Design has come up with a ring design that incorporates working gears.

Cost? $165, according to the website .    Video Link  ->  Gear Ring

The Continentals” – murder, mystery, and steampunk .

Transfuzion Publishing has signed to bring the webcomic series, The Continentals, to print in the form of graphic novels.  The series, which is currently running on WebcomicsNation, will be collected in a series of trade paperbacks as each storyline finishes its run.
  Crisscrossing the literary genres of murder/mystery, action/adventure, historical drama, horror, science fiction, and  steampunk, “The Continentals” by writer/creator Darryl Hughes and artist Monique MacNaughton, — both nominated for the “Rising Star” category for the Glyph Comic Awards—is a modern re-imagining of the classic 19th century Sherlock Holmes “who done it” murder mystery created for the 21st century comic fan.
  The story begins in  1889. Barely a year after the mysterious Jack the Ripper’s murderous rampage and equally mysterious disappearance,  the city of Mansfordshire, England is shaken by a series of brutal “mangling” murders that plunge the city into an abyss of fear.
   Investigating the case, Continental Operatives Jeffrey Tiffen Smythe and his partner the gender bending adventuress, Lady Fiona Fiziwigg,  uncover the threads that bind the murderer, his victims, the highest echelons of society, it’s lowest dregs, and even the police officers investigating the case in a tangled web of mystery, adventure, intrigue, and murder.
  

Transfuzion Publisher Gary Reed said, “when Darryl sent me the pages of The Continentals, I was very interested.  I knew that I wanted to see more so to obviously, I thought that it was something other people would like to see more of.  We started talking and I’m excited about bringing out the hard copies of the story.”
“The exact date of the first trade paperback to be released will be announced as soon as a firm schedule can be structured,” Reed stated.  “We’ll let the first story arc complete its run online and the next story will continue online while the first trade comes out.”

The Continentals is currently running on webcomicsnation.com and is also featured on other sites including Transfuzion’s home page.   Writer/creator Darryl Hughes says response so far to the online strip has been fantastic.  “The main attraction of The Continentals is that its a really well told, well drawn, murder, mystery, adventure that draws you deeper and deeper into the story with each turn of the page as you follow characters that are both interesting and engaging unravel a tangled web of intrigue as you both try to figure out who done it and why. That’s what a good murder/mystery should do. And that’s what The Continentals is. It’s a damned good murder/mystery, with amazingly detailed black and white artwork by Monique (MacNaughton) that will just take your breath away, if I do say so myself. And I do!”

Transfuzion Publishing

From the pen (or keyboard) of Robert C. Rodgers , with illustrations by  Tod Wills-( Ninja Hijinx) , comes a new novel that includes, mechanical spiders, insidious rogue mathematicians, and an incident involving steam-powered cutlery.

The  novel (70,ooo words and 14 illustrations) is available from  Arcadia Snips .

Here’s a good re-purposing of some older technology – a steampunked HP320LX..

The story :

“Story: I had this little computer for over a decade and it had not seen much use. I had recently rediscovered interactive fiction on my iPod touch. However, playing text adventures on a touch screen was ultimately unsatisfying. I remembered I used to play them a long time ago on this machine. So, I dug it out of the closet. I had to use a Virtual Machine to get the software loaded, but after a little tinkering, it was good as new. I loaded up a Steampunk text adventure and I was off!

However, something was missing. I knew there could have been a better experience. Inspired by meetings with our steampunk club, The Queen’s Arctic Expeditionary League in Fairbanks, Alaska at the Sipping Streams Tea House, I began work on modifications of the device. I had previously found a wonderful leather case for $3 at a thrift store which fit the device perfectly. Simple materials: contact paper, spraypaint, gears and glue combined to make it so much more fun to play with. I plan to also mod the dock and other parts late”

More pics at:

The Queen’s Arctic Expedition

See the video here : Steamed or Whos art is who

Tonight it was discovered that the promotional video for Katie MacAlister’s new book “Steamed” (a steampunk romance novel now on the shelves at your local bookstore) included images by various artists who were not credited. Whoever put the video together failed to give proper recognition to the people whose art made it possible to create the video. It is up to the artists to contact the publisher and sort this out, but hopefully it can be resolved positively so that the artists can still benefit from having their work (properly credited) available to such a wide potential audience.

In the meantime, I think it’s best to credit the artists. I am including names and links for all of the ones that I recognized, but if I miss anyone, please leave their name and website in the comments.

The model in the photo of the gentleman with the clockwork arm is author G. D. Falksen. The photo is by Tarilyn Quinn. The original image can be seen here.

The background image at 0:51 is Gears and Wrought Iron by steampunkwallpaper.com.

The illustration of the city was created by Alberto Gordillo, as seen here.

The watches flashed one at a time are by the wonderful Haruo
Suekichi of Japan.

These are the ones I could identify right away, but there were more images in the video so if you recognize the ones I have missed, sound off in the comments.

On the one hand, this should assert to all the artists who have had their work used in this video that they are doing a great job. The art is wonderful enough to be used in a commercial to advertise a book put out by a major publisher. But the publisher should have contacted each artist for permission. At the very, very, very least they should have credited their sources. I know a number of the artists identified here have contacted the publisher to get credited for their work, so it should all work out one way or another. It also should be noted that typically the author never really has any say in the production of advertisements like this, and so this is in no way, shape or form Katie MacAlister’s fault. She did her job and wrote a steampunk book for everyone to enjoy, and I’m certain had she known she would have insisted that the artists all receive the recognition due their work. But the publishing company, which was responsible for the video’s creation, should have known better. Whoever was delegated to for making the video should be in hot water right now.

“In the town where I was born, lived a man who drank a lot of tea, and he told us of his life, in the land of tea-infusing submarines”

Well, there you have it, Tea is Steampunk, Submarines are Steampunk, so how could this not be?

The question now becomes – What tea would Nemo drink? – and with lemon, or cream, or sugar, or honey or??

The Music Artist, Arthur van Poppel, a Dutch entertainer with more than twenty years experience, has created his  latest invention, The Nautilus , complete with an arsenal of wheels, handles, chains, gears, connections and complicated transmissions, this Music Artist has again been able to create an amazing insturment for his one-man band act.

More pictures and info can be found at:   The Music Artist

The Steampunk Lab has a page devoted to watches in the Steampunk Style.  They include a few of my favorites, including the Vianney Halter “Perpetua Antiqua”

They might be a bit short in info, but its a very successful  attempt at creating a collection of watches a la Steampunk.

Steampunk Lab – Watches

In keeping with yesterday’s post, we present a few more tractor, but unlike those previous, these are true steam tractors.

Foden Type “C” Estate Tractor:

Foden Type ‘D”  Timber Tractor:

Lastly, Sentinel GB Timber Tractor “Brutus”

Steam-powered that is.  Those who know me know that I’m a sucker for steam locomotives (the result of the last 6 years of my railroad career having been involved with the restoration and running of a Class 1  mainline steam  loco), and even more of a lover of streamlined steam locos. That’s why these, although not steampunk per se, struck  my fancy.

I give you  vintage Porsche tractors:

the 1963 Master AP 144

Which conjures up images of this:

And the Coffee Train P312: (which was designed with streamlined shrouding, as it was meant to work in the coffee plantations. This way the plants could be gently slid aside by the tractors bodywork, thus avoiding damage.

Which really makes me think of Mallard: