A Cornish Cabinet of Curiosities of Steampunk Art, Culture, Gadgets, and Gear viewed through rose tinted ocular goggles. The secret steam blog from a pseudo-Victorian science laboratory bunker in Cornwall, UK.
Anatomical & other 'Cabinet of Curiosities' pieces
on sale in specialist London shop.
'Cabinet of Curiosities'
Creating not-so Antique Anatomical
Figure Pieces or High Prices
The sterility of minimalist interior fashion decorating has dominated UK homes in recent years, but there is a quiet counter move going on.
The good news is the 'Cabinet of Curiosities' room is back in favour with some (including some within the Steampunk movement). Collecting of interesting objects & artefacts has also been made far easier with accessibility of the internet.
There those seeking out the 'different' & who clearly do not want mundane, boring bland beige sameness of smooth mass produced 'ticky-tacky' one piece injection moulded plastic seemingly created more for benefit of modern manufacturer & retailer, than the customer.
In recent years there has been a steady surge in collecting of Surgical Antiques & Macabre Anatomical Medical Pieces. Many of the more spectacular prized early pieces already housed in private wealthy 'Cabinet of Curiosities' collections & museums.
Wax male anatomical figure, Italian,
C1776-1780
The downside is prices, sometimes of thousands of pounds are being fetched at Auction for such antique anatomical pieces & are well beyond the shallow pockets of the Boffin.
Boffin Solution:-
Create your own
Anatomical Faux Figure
Centre of picture: Boffins Bunker
created Anatomical Figure
The Boffins Bunker Anatomical figure (centre of picture above & in image below) has been created by using a car boot purchased former child's toy 'Man of Action' (or GI Joe). Wrapped head to toe, mummy like, in masking tape. Coated in Black ebonised French button polish. Decoupage with a copyright free anatomical illustration printed off on computer. Applied with PVA glue. When dry, polished with Dark Tan shoe polish for the aged patina & wax effect.
Above: Two example of Boffins Bunker Anatomical
figures (I) Skeleton (ii) Muscles for a 'Cabinet of Curiosities'
There you are dear Boffin Bunker Laboratory journal reader, a relatively simple project (NB: may involve sticky fingers)
Now please don't get me wrong, I think the video below is very clever, really funny, both accurate & also skewed in equal degrees.
Perhaps one thing the Boffin liked & drew me to steampunk is my 'theory' it encourages people to personal creativity at many different levels. The 'theory' that anyone can join in and have a go at 'steampunk'.
...and for some that may mean simply 'Gluing some gears on' something.
That includes the Boffin to a greater or lesser degree, who just likes to tinker with resources available. Those resources being (1) personal level of ability (2) materials I can afford/access.
Boffins Bunker Android Robot Desktop Pen holder
(Gears & stuff glued to 1980's plastic toy tat)
However having sniffed around the steampunk world there is a definite whiff of elitist snobbery wafting up from behind a veil of otherwise polite & congenial conversation generally encountered in Aether web online steampunk circles.
Much of this 'from beneath petticoat snipping' seems aimed at some eBay & Etsy contributors. (No, the Boffin does not sell on Etsy or eBay, but who is to say I won't?)
Ok, yes, the Boffin concedes there are some truly awful screaming gaffs out there for sale masquerading as steampunk. Some of which elicit even from the Boffin a response of 'you are joking', (Which is why there is the saying :- 'Caveat emptor'...Buyer Beware), but there are crafters genuinely skilled, creative & finding their own style, level & abilities...and having fun & maybe even making a penny or two!
There really are some stonking creative, skilled & astoundingly talented people contributing to the craft of steampunk aesthetic/genre. Some more or perhaps differently skilled than others. Boffin weeps in complete & unabashed jealousy at the mind boggling talent abilities of some to create wondrous works of art, be it an object or like clothing that Boffin cannot even aspire too stitch together (as some steampunk clothing are surely a work of art).
The Corkscrew : Rob Higgs : Artist in Cornwall Yes it really opens & pours a bottle of wine!
Having seen what is sometimes considered & constitutes as highbrow 'ART' by elitists drawing up the short list for such as the prestigious Turner Prize award, actually gluing some gears onto 1980's plastic tat & spaying it copper & calling it Steampunk, in comparison the Boffin finds sticky fingers to be most creative (& therapeutic) indeed.
This Boffin will continue to glue on gears & calling it steampunk.
Proper Cornish Trevithick Steampunk Pasty from Cornwall
Dear Boffins Laboratory journal reader
Today is Richard 'Trevithick Day' in Camborne, Cornwall. Mr Trevithick being one of the founding fathers of steam & his 'Puffing Devil' (Don't believe, then click the link?) therefore the Boffin thought he'd tinker up something proper Cornish steampunk in the laboratory.
It is said that the Cornish once had such a reputation for putting anything in their pasties that the Devil refused to cross the Tamar from Devon least he end up in a pasty.
Now given the propensity of steampunkers to add gears, watch parts, sprockets, rivets & pistons to anything that they can lay their hands on...it seemed only right and proper to 'steampunk a pasty'.
The Cornish are right proud of their pasties, just look at the stink kicked up when that up-country gentleman (I use the word very loosely) tried slapping a VAT tax on pasty's.
Because the Cornish once had a reputation of putting anything in a pasty,
the Devil refused to cross the Tamar from Devon least he end up in one!
What is more the Cornish pasty is a protected species, seriously! It has PGI protected status from the Brussels European Commission, just like Champagne does from the Champagne region of France. If a pasty is made anywhere else but in Cornwall (UK) it cannot by European law be called a Cornish pasty.
...and if you really want to upset a Cornish person...put carrots in your pasty. They will not be impressed.
Don't even start on whether it should be crimped to one side or down the middle, that's how civil wars are caused. Then there is the whole short crust verses flaky pastry debate, that can keep Cornish bal maids jawing for hours as to one or the tuther.
Even the spelling of it; 'pasty' or 'pastie' can cause a long discussion.
Steampunkers will add gears, clock parts, rivet it & put a piston in
anything if its in their reach & they can get their hands on it!
It is said in Cornwall that the pasty was invented for the Cornish tin miners croust (see Cornish dialect words), the end left over bit of the pasty which was held in the miners hands was then left as a token offering for the 'knockers'.
More recent research in 2006 has thrown up a little dilemma from Devon in 1510, but we won't talk about that....tis blasphemy in Cornwall!
Now I have to go as there appears to be a flame torch bearing lynch mob making its way up from the village towards the Boffins Bunker laboratory. They will be here 'dreckly' & after what happened to Victor Frankenstein & his experimental laboratory I'd better go batten down the blast doors.
kind regards
Boffins Bunker
NB:- Judging from this video of the 'Puffing Devil', the day went well.
Artificial arachnid & other experimental Cornish steampunk insect entomology
Collecting things for the 'Cabinet of Curiosities', back-a-while the Boffin decided an entomology section may be a good idea. However the 'Budget Of New Developments' was at the time a bit scratchy at the bottom of the barrel for a full blown South American exploratory jungle jaunt. (Have you seen the bus fare to Penzance lately?)
Boffins Bunker Beetles & Bugs
The creation of artificial arachnid & other experimental Cornish steampunk insects in the laboratory seemed to be the ideal solution. Especially as it meant using up mainly spare parts already lying around in the bunker. In the case of the quite simple tarantulas, these primary consist of:-
(1) Copper wire
(2) Torch light bulb
(3) Top metal bit of a disposable lighter
(4) x8 Compression springs
(5) x8 nuts and
(6) a small assortment of watch part.
Oh! ...and
(7) Boffin Bunker secret formula ingredient (ie:Super glue may be purchased at many retail outlets)
Ta-dah! One Cornish Copper legged tarantula
Please note: These bugs may possibly be useful for surveillance purposes or equally completely & utterly pointless.
Boffins Bunker Artificial Arachnid
of the Cornish Steampunk Copper legged Variety
Now the trouble with insects, bugs, beetles & spiders is they do tend to proliferate, especially the more you make in numbers. 'Doris' the original Cornish Copper legged tarantula certainly has not helped, winding up the other creepy crawlies (well the clockwork ones). Now the little blighters are everywhere in the boffins bunker, although some have now been confined to a display case.
NB: Since the boffin has had these spiders in the study...not a single regular biological spider has been observed on the walls. They may possibly all be cowering under the sofa!! That's not to say there are not still cobwebs in the Bofffins Bunker, the like of which Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan chappie could almost happily swing around on.
What is steampunk clothing...?
Well in severe cases it can look a little like this!
Here at Boffins Bunker reality of the outside world has crept and seeped in under the tatty tarpaulin hung at the bunker blast door. So I have to do 'real' boring stuff at home in the Bunker today.
However; Over the weekend I had to try explain to a steampunk un-initiate just what steampunk clothing looked like. The rise & rise of steampunk fashion in clothing is being reflected on the Haute Couture of the most fashionable of top cat walks today, so I decided to 'put in a link' to items of clothing which have caught my eye & have gleaned to my Pinterest boards.
For images of Gentlemen of a steampunk scientific, adventurous or military inclination:- CLICK HERE and visit 'The Adonis Outfitters Gentleman's Tailors Club'.
For images of Ladies of a steampunk genteel, scientific, adventurous or military inclination:- CLICK HERE and visit 'The Aphrodite Society Of Appreciation of Female Steampunk Fashion Apparel'.
After seeing the images I was then asked.... 'Why?'
My reply was; 'Why not?'.
Definitely far more interesting than sweatshop tracksuit pyjama bottoms or ski pants & a hoodie I think?
A return to tinker in the laboratory.
Image is not the Boffin Bunker but seemingly a colleague in the scientific world
Dear Reader
Having taken the step in the region of two weeks ago to emerge from my bunker, today I am having a little respite & returning to my lair of dank experimentation for a little practical R&R therapy. Plus I have been neglecting my tinkering, & with more than half a dozen projects on the go ...but none anywhere nearing completion I must prise myself away from the infernal screen which sucks leech like upon my time, like a Goth vampire on a vein.
My blunderbuss 24 bore steam cannon approach to getting out there in steamy punk world (when did I start, was it really 3rd April?) has had a smattering of very positive results, and some less successful than had resulted with prior experiments on different topics on the internet in the past.
However, this has left me scratching my head & now considering a different Boffins Bunker formula & strategy to my world domination plans or at least to the furthering of steampunk in/from Cornwall. What worked for me once in terms of the internet are clearly not as useful as they once were, (something to do with google having a zoo filled with genetically altered algorithm pandas & penguins, or something like that) so things having moved on whilst I've been hunkered down in the lab. That will teach me to take my eye off the leather spherical object.
My google page rank when 'Steampunk Cornwall' is searched has been most satisfactory, but its not resulting on 'boots on the ground' trampling around of multitudinous visitors on my various interconnected sites ie. youtube, pinterest, flickr, twitter & this blog. That said the quality of visitors & contacts made has been epic & my peeks into the analytics of source visitors I always finds interesting & educational...not that I've worked out what to do with the stats yet, but hey, who knew I had a fan in South Korea?
Fascinated by the antique anatomical wax models & engravings, illustrations of the C18th & C19th, but I have found them beyond my meagre budget to collect.
I felt I had to have something in the Boffins Bunker Laboratory 'Cabinet of Curiosities' collection reflecting my liking of these aspects of antique medical curios, so often macabre to our modern sensibilities, but so often fit into the genre of 'Wunderkammer'.
So I created this:-
'Anatomy of Death' Fold out decoupage card
created by Boffins Bunker Steampunk Cornwall
Ebonised card with an aged feel patina created by wax polishing the card after decoupage. Anatomical transects through body. I might see if I can develop it more along the lines of a pop-up book next time I fiddle with the images I created to make this folding card.
One of the images from 'Anatomy of Death' Anatomical folding card
created by Boffins Bunker Laboratory from bits of this & that.
(PS: Not the Boffins body used in the pictures. However, you do have to use whatever resources, corpse that happen to be lying around when being steampunk creative....and note of warning:- apparently home post mortems are likely to result in a court order...who knew?)
There are more images of Boffins Bunker 'Cabinet of Curiosities' creations from the laboratory in Cornwall, UK to be found here on Pinterest.
Also looking around my study there are growing piles of this & that. The visible bit of the carpet disappearing as the piles of stuff encroach on the ever decreasing floor space.
Just when does collecting tip over to becoming obsessive border line hoarding?
I can see a box of dismembered porcelain dolls heads (project), a big pile of water pistols (another project), some recently acquired boxes of watch parts (lots of projects) , some welding equipment (it came with valves & several sets of goggles), etc. etc. Shakes fist in air....'Damn you, you sultry temptress eBay!'
So here's todays Boffins offering, a video I made previously.
Lets tidy this room, now where's me Cornish shovel?
Cursed Occult Steampunk Androids Hand, Chemical Weapons & a Monkeys paw
The Cursed Occult Androids Hand.
Kept in the Cornwall based vaults of Boffins Bunker Laboratory
The Occult Androids Hand seemingly powerless now & spent of its power to grant three wishes, wishes which were said when granted meddle with fate of the possessor.
This severed Androids early robots hand comes from a vintage golden age when modern science was in its most exciting infancy & magic still had a place as a force & power of influence in some parts of the world. The Occult Androids Hand is the result of inkiest black science & sinister dark occult forces that were brought together in an unholy ritual & experiment of the most foul & un-natural nature.
Conjured from knowledge said to have been gleaned by torture, intimidation & bribes about the origin & creation of the fabled Fakirs Monkeys paw. The cursed Monkeys paw, an item as legend has it brought so foolishly back to England from the Sub continent of India whilst India was still the jewel of the British Empire at the turn of the C19th.
Research & rumour indicates the Androids Hand may possibly have been created at the turn of the C20th in a secret British government weapons research facility at Nancekuke, near Portreath on the north cliffs of Cornwall (or not).
Nancekuke was rumoured to have been long been in operation as a secret laboratory prior to factually having become an outstation of Port Down (CDE) Chemical Defence Establishment. The manufacture of the nerve gas Sarin began at Nancekuke in the early 1950's and this location in Cornwall became an important facility for stockpiling the UK's Chemical Defences during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
The Androids Hand embodied in its power through ritual practise & laboratory creative experimentation. It is said to have had the power to grant its owner three wishes, but the Androids hand would interfere and rebalance with malice the fate of the possessor if the wishes were used.
The ritual to recharge the foul object had been written on the finest Egyptian papyrus parchment but said by some to have been burnt, by others dissolved in acid of vinegar to destroy the secret of restoring the hands foul power.
It is an example of the darkest of unnatural Occult practises & quasi-modern science steampunk artefacts. Allegedly rendered impotent of its former Dark Art & now kept retained firmly in its containment box amongst the other acquired 'Cabinet of Curiosities' artefacts held in Boffins Bunker Laboratory in Cornwall.
It also is said if you stare at the hand long enough through the bottom of a lead crystal whiskey glass in the flickering light of an open fire one may see a slight nervous twitch or the skin move or a finger flex ...ever so slightly!
Barking Mad Kernow Laboratory Punk Event Virgin Getting up a head of Steam in Cornwall
Well its a little over a week (or so) since I took the plunge to stick my head over the blast door parapet of Boffins Bunker Laboratory to blink in the sunlight & enter the outside Aether Steampunk world. I burst forth (stumbled, damn the absinthe) as a complete newbie into the world of Steampunk!
Steampunk Cornwall : Boffins Bunker
However, I have quietly been a steampunker all my life & just not known it. When I did find out that my little foible laboratory art/sculpture creations fitted in a sub-culture genre all of their own called STEAMPUNK I decided to bide my time before taking over the world, letting my creations & 'Cabinet of Curiosities' objects & artefacts lose upon an unsuspecting public.
I first tried 'Brass Goggles', a Steampunk UK based forum, but for some strange reason their clanking machinery had a wooden 'sabot' tossed in it & would not accept my UK email address (hmmm, still will not?).
Therefore my real 1st port & contact with the Steampunk world was through the nice people at 'Steampunk Empire' forum,
...from there I began my plan for world domination building a profile web image of
'BOFFINS BUNKER' with a view to further advance Steampunk in Cornwall, UK
So far in a week Boffins Bunker has a presence through:-
(If you haven't visited them yet please do)
I welcome positive & constructive contact from other steampunkers, be they in Cornwall UK or further a field.
I am most happy & keen to promote through my blog Steampunk enterprise in/from Cornwall.
Kind regards
Boffins Bunker
Below a Boffins Windows 8 rant!
(NB: Whilst setting up all these various new points of website interface, I have to deal with an internet connection WiFi (joy of rural Cornwall) that has the speed of an arthritic snail in death throws, plus I have been fighting, battling, struggling in coming to terms & trying to get my almost month old new fangled desk top computer which came installed with (for me utterly loathsome) Windows 8 to actually do what I want. I am singularly unimpressed with the Windows 8 roundabout nonsense, & things jumping out at me un-expectedly & disappearing again (with large squares of primary colours clearly designed to entertain pre-school children ), of the Microsoft Metro Tiles format. Personally (an opinion), if one has a desk top computer with a mouse & do not have a touch screen and only use your comp for nothing much more than buying merely as a consumer from commercial websites or posting 'likes' on social media like facebook, then Windows 8 will probably be fine. If however as in my personal experience you use a desk top comp for more than mundane & consumer purpose I would now avoid Windows 8 like a typhoid Mary. A Typhoid Mary that is that has a severe case of small pox & the black death plague & the clap combined. My experience of the new W8 OS has been most negative in the extreme & not much good for low/mid end creative &/or business use of my endeavours. Don't believe me? Do a google search (I did) under 'I hate Windows 8' and visit some of the computer tech geek & nerd forums & websites to see just how many small/medium business people & those who use their desk top comp creatively and/or for business purposes really loath Windows 8. There is seemingly a small cottage industry booming for computer IT techie types to reinstall the absent start buttons, practically disable (as much as possible the Metro tiles App interface) & for others re-grading desk top computers to back install Windows 7 or a different OS provider altogether instead! What were Microsoft thinking about alienating so many small business people? I've had Windows 8 almost a month & I still despise. loath & hate it!)
RANT over, I needed to vent & now desperately require to sip a cup of sweet Lady Grey tea!
Cornish Crustacean Steampunk Lobster Submarine Bot Mod
Here at Boffins Bunker the good thing about being labelled a completely barking mad scientist professor & laboratory tinkerer in the Steampunk genre, is nobody can really tell or dictate to you what is and what is not 'steampunk'. Being a boffin operating in isolation for many years one develops ones own style & angle on what one creates which have been entirely for ones own amusement...and some might think clearly as a result of lack of basic sanity having been in isolation to long.
Like "A Steampunk Cornish Lobster Bot".
Cornish Crustacean Steampunk Lobster Submarine Bot Mod
created in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall
Well I do live in Cornwall & Lobsters are a staple of local coastal fishing.
Backstory; now it seems some 'Coglings' (apparently a term for some steampunkers?...who knew?) create back stories for their creations.
So clearly a "Cornish Crustacean Steampunk Lobster Submarine Bot" must be a disposable clockwork automat. A robotic device deployed from the likes of a Nautilus submarine for external keel maintenance. I therefore believe every submarine should have one.
Apparently, as I learned yesterday from a Nerf gun video on youtube (don't ask), this Crustacean creation is a 'Mod' = Modification. That is to say I have taken a basic component (in this case a plastic children's toy lobster) and modified it with additions & new paint work. It is not scratch built, whereas some of my polymer clay creations are.
So where do you keep a Cornish Crustacean Steampunk Lobster Submarine Bot Mod in the home. Well at the moment mine has moved from the back of a chair & is residing on top of a Victorian Taxidermy Armadillo Sewing basket containing, ...well that's entirely another story.
These are a few of my Victorian Museum style Mycology Specimens. I made these fun Fantasy Fungi for my 'Cabinet of Curiosities'.
They are in keeping with my other interests of Steampunk & Occult, sitting happily beside other bizarre items and artefacts in the collection. The genuine C19th antique papier mache museum specimens of fungi & mushrooms are so very expensive. A single Victorian antique example on eBay listed for over £100, so I made my own.
These fungi created in my Boffins Bunker using wire framed & aluminium foil as armature, with a skin of polymer clay (One of my 1st ventures into using 'sculpey' TM). Mounted on an ebonised (Black French Polish) wooden base.
'Cabinet of Curiosities' Victorian Museum style Mycology Fantasy Fungi
Specimens made in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall
Below: A close up on two smaller specimens each being under approx. 4cm inc. base
'Cabinet of Curiosities' Small (4cm approx.) Victorian Museum style Mycology
Fantasy Fungi Specimens made in Boffins Bunker in Cornwall
Some of my Steampunk insects & creepy crawly creations look quite at home sat on the larger fungi specimens.
For more images of my work & other items I've started a Pintrest Board which can be found here.
(I pinched their picture of the cliff top labyrinth, I don't suppose they will mind
as I'm now sort of helping to promote the Cornwall Steampunk event a little :-)
Fortunately I did not have to last year prise this item from the sticky grasp of any child. The child's parents were happily selling off their children's future nostalgia collectables at a car boot sale.
Once in the Boffins Bunker laboratory this 'man of action' was subjected to the art of 'steaming of punk'.
He makes a neat pen holder now.
A Steampunk Robot Soldier Android Desk Pen Tidy
from the Boffins Bunker, Steampunk in Cornwall (UK)
Centred on (but not exclusively) Steampunk in Cornwall(& other curiosities & foibles of mine)
If you are a creator, designer, artist or into cosplay...in Cornwall (UK) with an interest in Steampunk, then tag along. If you have a Steampunk event in Cornwall, let me know, or if you've made a new Steampunk creation in Kernow, let me know.
This is the sort of tinkering I do creatively...
Amputated Android Robots Hand from Cornwall (UK)
(Before Asimov's x3 laws became affective)
