I love to see people's workspaces, probably because my workshop is just about my favorite place in the world to spend time. 

My workshop is in my garage, which is a common situation in the States. However, in the U.K. it's the garden shed that often houses the secret laboratories of British Steampunks. This is doubly exciting to me because I love tiny buildings nearly as much as I love workshops!

Clearly many people in the U.K. share my affliction for there is a website solely dedicated to documenting these architectural gems and today they are featuring the shed of one Outa Spaceman, who many will recognize from the Brass Goggles Forums.

What a lovely little place to spend the day constructing infernal machines!

The title says it all - these are just brilliant! (via - Steampunkpics )

I have legions of minions (both cybernetic and meatiform) so if you say 'steampunk' anywhere on the interwebs I'm liable to pop up in UR LJ or UR Flickr within hours.  Such was the case this morning when I discovered this marvellous machine built by banjo player Will Segerman for a musical group aptly named The Clockwork Quartet.

Will's Flickr stream is here (be sure to check out the Blunderbuss and Transparent Armour!) and if I were you I would sign up to the Clockwork Quartet's Facebook page. If these folks musicianship match Will's craftsmanship - they are going to be awesome indeed!

More pics after the cut!

Yes, that is the Steampunk Strat in the hands of Nathaniel Johnstone of Abney Park on stage at SteampoweredCon 2008.

Sigh.

I made her but I could not give her what she needed as I have not the musical talent.  I'm glad she found a good home and I expect we'll all be hearing great things from her in the future.

In fact, I understand she's already laid down some mad trackz on AP's newest album project.

See ya 'round Lady Strat!

[Thanks to Kathryn Hedges for the photo!]

Kay writes:

I have often been inspired and impressed by your work. Here you can see one  of my lastest projects.  It's a original german steampunk keyboard. More pics you find at: www.flickr.com/photos/steamtux

There is nothing I like to hear more then that! and man-oh-man did he do a fine, fine job!  There are a couple more pics after the cut and more on Kay's Flickr including in process shots here!

Produced by Chicago Tribal Bellydance Troupe Read my Hips, this show looks like it was a lot of fun! 

I'm really excited that the fashions are not purely neo-Victorian, there is some definite punk in there as well as some middle Eastern influence.

Have a look at pictures from the event here and please note that some are NSFW.  XD

Hi Everyone!  I'm in Seattle now hang'n with rockstars and anarchists for a couple of days of decompression post SteampoweredCon in San Jose.  Steampowered turned out to be a really great event with lots of fascinating people of an even broader spectrum then the already broad spectrum I expected.

My flight was delayed and as a result I was exhausted and a bit shaky when I arrived to give my keynote with only minutes to spare.  The room was at capacity and the crowd quickly made me feel at home. I gave my prepared speech and then unveiled the Wimshurst Machine which I built for an article that will appear in Make Magazine early next year.

Then I brought Jeff VanderMeer up and we announced the fact that on Monday we signed with Artisan Books to write a book on Steampunk!  The book will be highly visual and project oriented and will draw from and highlight all corners of the community.  I'm really excited about this project and really, really happy to be working with Jeff who is a consummate professional and really nice guy.  It was also kind of neat that we shared the announcement, and in fact our first meeting in the flesh, with a thousand or so attendees at the Con!

The following is the complete text of my keynote - it's un-copyedited or proofed so please ignore the typos!

You should also have a look at Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's Reflection on Tinkering from which I borrowed liberally for the speech as it was incredibly relevant to the ideas I wanted to convey that night.

Steampunk Keynote

What sort of future were you promised? When I was young they told me I'd have robotic servants to tend to my every need, cars that would drive themselves while I read the newspaper and vacations in orbiting space hotels. When I was a bit older they promised me ecologically friendly communities where we would all live together in geodesic domes in our white jump suits.

If you are anywhere near the Mass. College of Liberal Arts in North Adams MA, you should definitey consider checking this out as it sounds absolutely wonderful!

Nichoals Fahey writes:

I'm a theater major and have the priviledge of directing a show in november. We're putting on "Deathmachine Andronicus" a spin on Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, set in a mythical roman setting in which the Roman Empire never collapsed but instead flourished to have it's own industrial revolution hundreds of years ahead of our time.

And he goes on the say:

[We're] building a fully funtional steam-powered "Deathmachine" that bakes people into pies. Blood, guts, gore, shakespeare, and steam.

How can that not be awesome!

Click through for a pic of the aforementioned Death Machine!

The latest SteamPunk Spectacular podcast is out!

This transmission brings you an assortment of oddments, including a sartorial and historical lesson from Sir Brandon Fitzroy Hill, Master of Blades and Hats; and, notably, a partial reconstruction of a most educational conversation with Jake Von Slatt himself ( I am quite hopeful that the rest of that Maurice will be successful in rescuing the rest of that conversation from the damaged communication cylinder). As always, Correspondent Chris Fisher provides the latest in happenings both corporeal and virtual.

The Romanian publication EgoPhobia has just released it's Steampunk Experiment.  It's really a wonderful take on the movment and includes a  great interview with artist Sean Orlando (© photo by John Curley)

I think that there are a lot of people out there who are simply dissatisfied with throwaway bottle-fed art and consumption artifacts that have been forced upon us by sheer repetition and rote consumption. So, as an antidote, we look to a time when care, design and artistry were applied to the everyday life in a more lasting way. We are appealing to a different non-dominant ideology.

But Sean's interview is just the icing on the cake!  The edition is chock full of interviews with artists that you have not heard of (yet!) and represents a different take on Steampunk then we're use to - and one I find really exciting and interesting!

Go now and and Read!