Gearing up Cornwall Steampunk resource links to further creative inspiration

Steampunk has been happily chugging along as a sub-culture for some time.  Up until now it has been some might say very much the world of partly bonkers individuals having fun & being creative. 

However, even I (not known for being observant to trends) have noted the growing number of mass produced items being described as 'steampunk' entering into the consumer market and often with their source of origin being a factory in the far east of the world.

Beautifully crafted Steampunk bookstand lectern

Even the media http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/steampunk-introducing-britains-latest-fashion-craze-8458861.html have been making predictions that steampunk is the next big thing in fashion & design, with big business & manufacturers watching solid market trends using all the gubbins of web analytics to keep an eye to profit from us.

Until recently Steampunk has been primarily the preserve of crafters & the individually creative to a great extent with fashion couture element, skilled painting daubers, comic book creators, furniture designers, model makers & tinkerers, literary writers, even a genre of music, (although I must confess to be mystified about that last one).  The more hand crafted works often being made available to a wider audience in the know via sites like Etsy http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=steampunk&search_type=tag_title

For most interested in the genre it is far more than just a few watch cogs glued on but a look at the website Regresty http://www.regretsy.com/category/not-remotely-steampunk/ does show a glimpse of some of the worst (but amusing) abuses of steampunk used as a description.

The sub culture of steampunk does have further sub-cultures, making diversity & individuality of expression within a theme one of its broad appeals. 

                                                                                                                                                               


Even the sub-culture of steampunk has sub cultures of its own

One of its other merits to me is it has caused many people to join in & be creative, be it in costume cos-play, or tinkering to create things!

...but where to get ones inspiration?

I found Pinterest to be a most edifying resource http://pinterest.com/boffinsbunker/ where I have been happily gathering images that inspire me (& plugging a few of my own creations)

...but for a rather large single collection of several thousand steampunkesque images for inspiration one could not do much better (for simplicity) than to visit the Pinterest pins boards of Brenda of Steampunkcircus.com  http://pinterest.com/steamcircus/
I recommend a visit, but give yourself some time to peruse through all her numerous pin boards.

Cornwall Bigfoot sighted near home of Beast of Bodmin

Cornwall Bigfoot sighted near home of Beast of Bodmin

Bigfoot Studios that is...

I recently started to Twitter & one of my first new contacts made was Trystan Mitchell.  A most talented artist & illustrator based in Cornwall running Bigfoot studios. 

A quick look at his blog, impressed, immediately promised him I would write about his illustration art upon my own blog.

Upon my return to write said piece...I ventured to the Bigfoot blog & became happily lost in the Bigfoot studio art works.

After an hour not a word had I written.

Transported back to being a child when I would steal my brothers DC Comics & hide under my bed to look at the weird & bizarre illustrations. I found myself spun sideways into the Victorian, steampunk-esque (is there such a word...there is now!) & the clearly influenced by Cornish folklore & landscape illustrations of Trystan Mitchell. Then catapulted into the future-past with visions of what maybe yet to have come ...back then! In particular I liked being able to see some of the draft bones of a design, before being worked up into the finished illustration.

I just kept scrolling back through the inkfunnel blog posts.

I loved the almost caricature but in a pop art, comic book illustration sort of way portraits. As for the Hairy Pothead (I chuckled) ...and I swear to God I had to deal this very week with the creature from Zombie Direct that Trystan had illustrated.

Happy, happy was I looking at all these 'fabutatious' illustration creations.  I even downloaded one of his free to print & make paper toys.  All set to print it off & spend some time playing with scissors, glue & card...then remembered...I'm supposed to be writing a blog article about Bigfoot studios.

So far better I write less ( I have serious paper toys to make in the laboratory) and you simply follow this link to the wonderful world of Bigfoot studios;-

 http://www.thebigfootstudio.com/

Steampunk Android Robots Paranormal Occult 'Hand of Glory'

Steampunk Android Robots Paranormal Occult 'Hand of Glory'

Steampunk Android Robots Occult 'Hand of Glory'
created by Boffins Bunker, Cornwall, UK

Before that nice chap Mr Isaac Asimov came up with the three laws of robotics

You know:-

1.  1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Well before Mr Asimov's three laws,  I feel sure there may have been a few rogue element robotic creations out there from the late Victorian era.  Not least amongst the darker scientific community of the late C19th, the ones tinkering with both science & the paranormal occult. The real inspiration for  Mr Jules Verne & Mr H G Wells writings, & possibly the good lady Mary Shelley too.

The idea of a severed hand having occult properties is old, very old.  The traditional 'Hand of Glory' associated with witchcraft & the paranormal folklore of Europe, including the United Kingdom over hundreds of years, was a fundamentally a  burglar's tool made from the fat of the hanged corpse of a criminal.  See here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Glory



Image from Whitby Museum of their 'Hand of Glory'

When the  'Hand of Glory' was burning, all those asleep in a house were said to stay asleep & all those awake said to stay awake.  A handy little tool for a would-be thief.

Whitby Museum has one of the only known examples of a real human  'Hand of Glory' to have survived from the period of darker witchcraft & folklore in Europe.  It is on display in their museum. 

Forefront: Steampunk Android Robots Occult
'Hand of Glory'

The Steampunk Android Robots Occult 'Hand of Glory' featured here from the Boffins Bunker collection in Cornwall may have been removed from a convicted criminal robot (or not).  A bot that clearly must have broken the three laws (before they became the benchmark of robotic conduct).  It is a cross over between science & the occult by those seemingly meddling in the darker more sinister forces of nature, science & paranormal.

More images of Boffin Bunker creations from Cornwall can be found here on Pinterest

Victorian Style Cabinet of Curiosities Romantic Steampunk Venus Flower Basket

From Boffins Bunker 'Cabinet of Curiosities' collection in Cornwall, a Venus Flower Basket.

The incredibly delicate & fragile 'Venus Flower Basket' is for its size & weight most amazingly robust & strong, ...but don't stand or sit on it. 

A skeleton of a species of sponge Euplectella aspergillum, which is inhabited by a pair of shrimp in a type of symbiotic relationship with the sponge.  The pair of shrimp bond & become entrapped within the sponge for life, however their offspring can escape to form new bonds. 

In some Asian far eastern traditions the Venus Flower Basket is given as a wedding gift symbolic of the marriage, like the union of the shrimp lasting for life.

A must have for the connoisseur gentleman or ladies 'Cabinet of Curiosities' collection in the C19th Victorian era, with prices said to have reached as much as £500 for a prize specimen.



Venus Flower Basket, a favourite in the Victorian 'Cabinet of Curiosities'
The decoupage boxed example from Boffins Bunker Cornwall Steampunk Collection

The example shown above came when I threw caution to the wind & risked purchasing one mail order from the Philippines.  My specimen was less expensive to purchase direct from the far east than from within the UK. I hasten to add my specimen did not command anything like the prices they did in Victoria's reign. The rigid skeletal sponge arrived quite safe & sound in its own polystyrene box.  

This Venus Flower Basket is now housed in a more permanent sturdy decoupage wooden box in the Boffins Bunker Steampunk & other collectables 'Cabinet of Curiosities' in Cornwall.