what got you into steampunk

[nikki1876]

  What got  you into steampunk  and   were did you hear  about it   

[akumabito]

I was led to believe there'd be pie and punch..

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

wearing side sheilds on my prescription safety glasses to a Science fiction convention.

[Argus Fairbrass]

I was led to believe there'd be pie and punch..

Yeah I'm still waiting for that too.

I'm a bit of a vintage clothing nut and Victorian/Edwardian era obsessive tbh. When I finally got on line properly whilst searching around for stuff I kept hearing the term. I was a tad confused at first because before then I just thought it was an antique inspired design aesthetic. I'd heard it coined about Dr Who when it was rebooted and I'd seen Datamancer's legendary laptop (without understanding quite what it was all about). I was familiar with some of the older books, movies and comics sited as influences (but again had no idea they were Steampunk)

I've never been to a scfi con or indeed Whitby Gothic Weekend, and there certainly weren't any Sp's in this area I'd seen, so I was totally unaware it was an actual subculture until pics of people in natty Vicwardian duds (with um...extra bits haha) started turning up in my internet searches.

It got to the stage where I couldn't escape the bloody term to be honest, so then I thought 'well if you can't beat 'em', and decided to check it out properly. Hence I started lurking on this forum, although It actually took me quite a while to get the courage to join up.

Still (much to the dismay of some of them I fear) I finally did and the rest as they say, is history.  

[Dr Fidelius]

I was told there'd be cake.

Otherwise, about three years ago I was laid up for a few months after a spinal cord injury / cervical vertebrae fusion operation.  After the better drugs wore off and I had gotten bored with Youtube videos and porn, I was poking around on teh Interweb looking for other interests of mine.  Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars stories led to ray guns, which lead to Weta, which led me here.  I found that the people her shared many of my interests, I dressed in a tweedy, stuffy fashion already, and they had not heard all my jokes yet.  The rest is alternate history.

(Edited to add: Last year the Wife and I chaperoned our younger daughter and some of her friends to a Convention.  We had fun, I dragged her to a few of the Steampunk panels, and she actally met and liked some of you people.  After that I needed to buy a pair of goggles because she insisted that we go to a few events in costume.)

[lilibat]

I have always liked the aesthetic so once it became a 'thing' I was there.

[Tito Alba]

I was told I was steampunk by a Victorian goth.  I saw no reason to disagree.

I still don't know if the term really applies 100% as I have absolutely no contraptionry and no real intention of getting any but my kakhi safari jacket and white pith helmet, or white linen suit with straw boater are definitely not black enough to be goth and so steampunk seems a better term.  Before then I considered myself something of a mad chap, beard grower, tea enthusiast, living cartoon character or just a continuation of the great Victorian eccentric that had inspired me for such a long time.

I remember reading and dreaming about being a Victorian explorer when I was young.  I studied anthropology to learn about them and maybe do whatever people like that do today.  When I got old enough I grew my beard to have a twiddly moustache and started collecting fancy hats, suits and walking canes.  One day I discovered what a good cup of tea tasted like while on holiday in the Czech republic and ashamed that the tea they were drinking out there was better than I had tasted in Britain - a nation supposedly renowned for its obsession with tea - I resolved to educate myself and become a connoisseur.

I was doing all that long before I ever heard of steampunk as a subculture.  I'd heard of it as a literary genre, especially within graphic novels, and so was quite amused when I was told I was "very steampunk" and that it was all the rage at Whitby these last years so have cautiously dipped a toe in the scene to see what is out there and so far I'm quite amused.

[The Corsair]

Mortal engines.
Questionable as far as 'steampunk' goes but it's what got me into to nevertheless.

[Nikola Tesla]

I didn't exactly get into it.  It kind of found me like a wave finds driftwood.  I used to hang with a Goth crowd and was known as the "Victorian mad scientist" of the bunch; when playing White Wolf's tabletop Mage game in the 90s I was always a "Son of Ether" (a tradition of mages in that game; they even used goggles); where possible I dressed the part, in either natty quasi-period dress or a beat up lab coat with Frankensteinish accessories.  The latter was very good for parties, as the lab coat easily absorbs the damage occasioned by sloppy drunks, even if the sloppy drunk in question is oneself.  My hobbies when I could afford them were oddball tinkering, some of the things I made having the "look" (these would generally be accessories or decor items, as those were the type of things where looks are important); classic science fiction; and study of old magical traditions, especially alchemy.  I was always combining up this stuff to act out in a LARPish fashion at conventions and the like.

A couple of years ago (it has to be a couple of years, because it feels like months and that is how I always am with the passage of time) a friend read an article on steampunk and pushed it at me with a characteristic, "dude, this is you".  I read up on it and looked at the pictures and had to agree.

(Am I the only one who read such a thing with a twinge of trepidation, knowing that once a thing becomes popular suddenly the "popular" crowd has dibs on it and authority over it?  And realizing that in this case, the thing was a personal style one had always had, and that this meant eventually some idiot would be accusing one of "doing it wrong"...doing oneself wrong?  Because, mad scientists who read and study magic don't usually have a lot of free time left to work their way into the "popular" crowd.  Just sayin'.)

So there really isn't a what got me into steampunk story, unless it's things like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells (with a little later-time-period flavoring from good ol' Lovecraft thrown in) when I was back in my early teens.  Or realizing that there was an aesthetic out there that included my odd hobbies and convention/gaming personae.  Many contributing factors.

Though on balance, I'd have to say the free ice cream.  Yep, definitely that.   

[Captain]

I drug my wife in cowboy action shooting which she agreed to only because I found her cool guns and she loves Victorian clothes.  (Hates cowboys and especially John Wayne with a passion.)  So when she discovered SP I was drug in sort of side ways. 



I now how a lot more cool stuff to wear to shoots.  SP goggles are the envy of a cowboy shooter wearing plastic safety glasses. 

[Tito Alba]

(Am I the only one who read such a thing with a twinge of trepidation, knowing that once a thing becomes popular suddenly the "popular" crowd has dibs on it and authority over it?  And realizing that in this case, the thing was a personal style one had always had, and that this meant eventually some idiot would be accusing one of "doing it wrong"...doing oneself wrong?  Because, mad scientists who read and study magic don't usually have a lot of free time left to work their way into the "popular" crowd.  Just sayin'.)

That was exactly how I felt when I heard everyone at Whitby was coming dressed in steampunk and selling off last years cyber clothes.  So far I haven't seen a whole lot of it around though but if it does I'll just carry on in my own direction until the goths and steampunks are saying "what the #@!* are you supposed to be?"

[Nikola Tesla]

Just an aside, sir...I like your term "electrospagyrist"...very similar to what I was doing, that was part of my not-yet-called-steampunk stuff... 

[Tito Alba]

Just an aside, sir...I like your term "electrospagyrist"...very similar to what I was doing, that was part of my not-yet-called-steampunk stuff... 

Heh. I explained it in the steampunk jobs thread when I first joined but nice to see someone got the reference

I'd be curious to hear what you were developing.

[andrew craven]

 I was studying Fine Art in university when I came across it. Looking at artists on google image search to support my naughty fetishistic subcultural images I was producing in the last year of the degree. I also did my final dissertation on Graffiti and Latrinalia to support my reasons..one thing to say about Fine Art degrees is that everything you did you had to kiss the tutors arse with reasons and research etc. Anyway I simply came across some guy who produced a PC and laptop with a wooden and brass finish and the old type writer keys for the key board etc. I also saw that steamgoth chap who has these superb mechanical dreads...The Anachronaut. I was already looking at punk and goth and it just grabbed me. I loved the look and designs I was seeing as I was into my vintage fashion. As a kid I was into my military history and sci fi that never reallly left me...and so I created the Venturous Inventor, a sort of steampunk Ann Summers rep who invents his own sex machines and delivers them to different kinds of people taking part in all sorts of scenes.

 It was later it would influence my wardrobe this steampunk. I began with a Halloween costume I loosely based on what The Venturous Inventor would wear. I did actually draw him wearing this costume I put together in a scene with airship pirates. He is seen in shackles.

http://andrewjohncraven.deviantart.com/gallery/28631440#/d396a71

And so I began to develop my vintage wardrobe towards steampunk and these days I have taken up a lot of military inspiration.

[SteamLove.com]

I loved anything Victorian even before I knew about Steampunk.
Growing up, the family homestead used to be decorated in a Victorian manner. Unfortunately, other than the grandfather clock, the inside has all been modernized.  YUCK!

Steampunk gives me a reason to dress up old fashioned in public, without being carted off in a straight jacket. LOL ^^

[JohnOdin]

Honestly...I was googling something one day about 3 years ago and the word Steampunk came up, It caught my interest so I googled it some more, One of the first hits I got was The Instructables site and some costuming. So the imagery came first, then the rest sort of clicked into place.
But it didn't seem "real" till we attended our first Waltz on the Wye.

[D.Oakes]

Before steampunk I was just "punk" and then gradually evolved in college into more of stereotypical bohemian.  One day a fellow artist accused me of being steampunk.  Then my mother found an article on it and she got hooked.  Having done reenacting and always having an interest in history, as well as the literature of the 1800s, it was a natural fit for me.  It was not until her passing in June that I decided to invest more time and money into it.  It has become my way of finding myself again or rather reinventing myself. 

Plus a lot of people in my area started wearing fedoras so I needed to be different again.     (I am 1/8 serious in that remark)

[Dove]

Well, I've always really liked the look of the older victorian era furnishings and styles but never really thought about them in the modern world. I was looking up costumes to make and wear at work when a rather odd, but very intresting outfit popped up on google. When I went to look at it, it was called "steampunk styled" the word seemed really interesting, so I dug in deeper, and here I am!

[TVC15]

My cat made me do it.

[Rosetta Anderson]

My interest was a lot of little streams that came together as a raging river. I was interested in the idea, I like the aesthetics, I had an interest in the clothing, my dad is fond of it, and the people are pleasant. The final push that broke the dam was my sudden and extremely disheartening realization that though I love to draw and though I was doing it semi-professionally, I hated the field. I found that the maker community was a much friendlier place, and I discovered that I had a talent for sewing. That was it - I was hooked. I started designing and sketching outfits and props. I started a sewing class. I joined this forum. I feel comfortable in my own skin here and I look forward to creating wonderful things with wonderful people.

[Augustus Longeye]

LEGO
I'm not joking.
I found a "steampunk" lego tie fighter and went from there.
~Longeye~

[Captain Brandsson]

Define "got into"?

[The Corsair]

Define "got into"?

Unbuttoned the tailcoat and put it on your own shoulders before buttoning back up.

[Nikola Tesla]

...I'd be curious to hear what you were developing.

Again an aside, I don't want to go so far with this as to threadjack, but the thing closest to the sort of stuff you describe in the jobs thread was when I was in high school and we did the then standard frog dissection.  I really really wanted to get the dead frogs' legs to kick like the Galvani experiment, and the teacher let me try.  I was unsuccessful.  Whether this was because the equipment I had at that time wasn't good enough or the dissectable frogs are too far from nature (being all pickled and injected with that rubbery stuff in the circulatory system and what not, might damage the nerve structures) for this to work I'm not sure.  It was a long time ago.  Needless to say, I was also a lot less careful than anyone would be with a living, especially a human, subject.

What was more along my recent lines was trying to work electricity into stages of plant alchemy.  This was due to some fascination with the "electric pickle" or "electric potato" combined with an interest in that branch of alchemical herbalism.  It doesn't make any of those plant alchemy processes go any faster, but I thought giving the saltier bits a jolt might enhance the final material.  One of my friends at the time was a "traditional" Wicca-style practitioner of herb stuff (though less alchemical); she thought I was nuts.

Either way, the combo of electric with medical/alchemical if either works at all then both should be better, right?  

[VampirateMace]

Well... I didn't really fit in anywhere else? Really it wasn't that long ago for me...

I wore a lot of black back in High School, but I wasn't really a goth (or anything else). I didn't like their music, I didn't mope or wear their make-up  (this was old-school, before the whole pink is the new black stuff)- I just happen to like black, and bats, and bones... and there were too groups of goth in our High School, one of which tolerated me. But I hung with the gamers/nerds and preppies some too...

But one day... well after High School, after college, well after I'd left the black 24/7 phase... I was watching G4 (This is the gamer/nerd channel, if you don't know), and they had a variety show. They talked about Urban Spelunking first (which was cool enough to keep me watching the show, I mean there are non-cave places I've spelunked, and want to spelunk...), then they interviewed Abney Park... Now I'd heard the term Steampunk used before, but I didn't really know what it meant. So when Robert commented on the aesthetics and roots of it, there was literally a click in my head, "Steampunk? It's all that stuff I've always loved!"