SteamPowered is almost upon us! The etsy steamteam will be having a group table as well as a number of individual members in the vendor area and we are going to have a great time! If you are going to be in or near San Jose any time between October 31 and November 2 come and check us out!

I have already packed up most of my steampunk items and sent them out to Industrial Fairytale who has spearheaded the group effort. We have a beautiful banner that Crescent Wench got printed for us so we will be easy to find and we will have quite a variety of goods.

Hope to see you there!!!

Upcoming Shows, etc

The next few weeks will see me out and about. This weekend I will be merchanting at an SCA event, A Day at the Mill near Kokomo, Indiana. I will be selling jewelry that is appropriate for the Society for Creative Anachronism.

In three weeks I will be attending Steam Powered, the first Steampunk convention! San Jose, here we come. The etsy Steam Team has joined together and will be selling as a group in the vendor area. Several members will have their own tables (19Moons, Atelier Choklit, Chaoticaly Creative, Cracked Looking Glass, Faraday Bags, and Theriaca Fina). Others of us will be sharing several tables (Industrial Fairytale, Cognitive Creations, Crescent Wench, Clockwork Crow, Sojourn Curiosities, Gabrielle Lucretia, CJ Grand, WinonaCookie, Lilibat, TotusMel, Bell76, MadArtJewelry, CalloohCallay, as well as myself!) It is going to be great fun to meet the folks that will be there (not everyone will, many in the second group are sending items out as they will not be able to make it) and to see all the wonderful steamy creations!

The Spirited Autumn Event

From September 23 (the Autumn Equinox) through October 6 the etsy Earthpath Artisans Street Team (EAST) is having a special sale! Items included are fall or Halloween oriented or metaphysical/spiritual/magical in nature. On etsy search TSAE to find items in this sale from my shop and from other members of the EAST team. I am offering free shipping and a 10% discount in price for my items that are included in this sale.

Busy busy busy

After a 12 or 13 year hiatus my husband and I have gotten involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) again. I jumped right in with both feet and volunteered to fill the open office of Minister of Arts and Sciences for our local group. I figured with my crafting it was a logical thing to do. So now I am working on getting classes setup and scheduled. What fun!

I am also busy sewing! Costumes for SteamPowered which we are attending and selling at over Halloween weekend and lots of SCA garb since we basically have to start fresh. Too much to do and not enough time right now, I think.

My husband has gotten back into making barrel helms and basket hilts too so we are going to be merchanting at events here and there. The first will be A Day at the Mill in Kokomo, Indiana the 2nd Saturday in October.

Steam Team Contest Part II

I would like to thank everyone that voted for my entry in the SteamTeam contest for the month of August. My piece received the most votes!!! If you haven't see it, this is my entry:

The twins, DeLila and DeLoris Kilebrew-LaFontaine, were married on the same day to twin brothers, Edmund and Eduardo Smythe-Jones. For their honeymoon they were to travel by private zeppelin from London to Vienna where they would board the Orient Express to take them to Budapest.

Sadly, the newlyweds never made it to Vienna. Their zeppelin was boarded by Tsarist rebels over Prague. The rebels took all the valuables they could find on board, tied the crew and passengers up and blew the hapless craft up as they sailed off. Little was salvaged from the wreckage besides a watch face that had belonged to Miss DeLoris and a piece of Miss DeLila’s locket, along with a charred cork from a wine bottle. Their father was inconsolable and in his grief he took the pitiful remnants of his beloved daughters, along with a rose petal from the wedding flowers, a tatter of lace from a Christening gown and locks of their hair cut when they were babies and placed them in a bottle as a memento of his lost progeny. He attached a picture of the twins to the outside of the bottle to complete his memento mori and always kept it nearby.

The winner of the contest gets to choose the theme and make the prize for the next contest. I have chosen the theme already, but have yet to make the prize piece. Following the story accompanying my entry in the August contest, the theme for the next contest will be airships. This could encompass the ships themselves, the men and women who fly them, tools of the trade, airship pirates and/or their accoutrements. Anything that has to do with airships is fair game so put on your thinking caps and see what you can come up with while I try to come up with a suitable prize.Following the story accompanying my entry in the August contest, the theme for the next contest will be airships. This could encompass the ships themselves, the men and women who fly them, tools of the trade, airship pirates and/or their accoutrements. Anything that has to do with airships is fair game. I am really looking forward to seeing what my teammates come up with for this one!!!!

Frozen in Time

This month's Etsy SteamTeam contest is "Frozen in Time; a piece of the past preserved forever". Mementos: a lady's favour, a broken promise, a lazy summer afternoon, spring flowers. Each piece is a created memento with a piece of a story (fictional or not). Voting is open to everyone, you do not have to be a member of the SteamTeam to vote so please go take a look and vote.

You can see the entries and vote here http://etsysteamteam.com/polls/index.php?sid=54753

Voting for this contest ends on August 31 so go check it out and vote for your favorite piece!

Steampunk

If you haven't noticed, I have gotten more and more into the steampunk style with my pieces and my etsy/blog banner. My banner was done by TheOrangeNinja of etsy and I love it!!!

What is steampunk, you ask. Well, it is many things to many people. I have pulled this quote about what steampunk is from one of the great steampunk sites out on the internet, Aether Emporium:

Steampunk is an eclectic world of cogs and rivets. It is airships, goggles and steam. It is romance. It is traveling on clouds and diving beneath rugged waves. It is adventure
:- Aether Emporium

For more on what steampunk is from some of the great names in the genre, check out Aether Emporium's What is Steampunk page.


Some great sites to check out for a peek into the fun and fascinating world of steampunk are:
Datamancer
The Steampunk Workshop
Vernian Process
Neverwas Haul
Abney Park

and a host of others that can be linked to from some of those sites.

And also check out the SteamTeam at etsy to find all kinds of wonderful handmade steampunk items made by myself and other members of the Etsy Steam Team.