Steampunk Alice in Wonderland

Done with me and seven of my friends, including two children. Click on the group shot below to see more picatures.

Better Mechanical Spider Top Hat Pictures

Just took these at work and thought I would toss them up, as they are much nicer.

Clockwork Spider-Master's Leather Top Hat

Second leather top hat is now created! This time in black, with a nice high-gloss finish. I shaped it a little more toward what I see as a ring-master style top hat. I'm sure I could find more technical terminology if I was interested in looking.

The real finishing touch on this, though, is the spider-web print hat band, which is nice and subtle and further accented by the metal clockwork spider pin on the side.

Close-up on the spider!
Front of the hat.
Side view on the spider side.
Other side, again with the rivets.

And the back view.

This will be listed on etsy soon, I just am not in love with the photos enough for such a major item. I may cheat and take some nice photos at work.

Plague Doctor - Redux

So, the original plague doctor mask that I did is off this way. It eventually sold, which was nifty, and led to me creating the top hat. The top hat continue to be worn and be awesome and I even have plans for a second waiting in the wings for free time.

The second go at the plague doctor mask led to me creating a Half Plague Doctor Mask. This was done as a lighter weight version of it. Amusingly enough, the same style of bird mask / plague doc mask shows up in Resident Evil 5. I won't go into the details on the character who wears, so as not to spoil anything, but it is interesting to see how often this particular style of mask shows up.

Now, I am back at creating another full on mask, with a few of the lessons learned from the previous two attempts as a custom piece. It is coming together much more smoothly. Pictures to follow soon!

Steampunk Wrist Braces

Finished and shipped out this set of steampunk bracers for there wrists. They are done out of a nice brown leather. It has a thumb hole, rests just below the knuckles and goes down the arm. There is a small dart in the leather to give them more shape. Lots of antiqued eyelets. The lacing is black and gold, actually done with crocheted cord. On the bottom side are slots with metal brace bits to keep the wrist sitting properly.

Leather Top Hat

My latest obsession that kept me from finishing other projects was the leather top hat. Excitingly enough, another project actually for me. I do manage to go for those sorts of projects every now and again.

I did a pattern out of poster board, based off of measurements and such. largely based off of me figuring it out as I want along, to be honest. Once that was reasonably what I was after, I pulled the mockup back apart and laid it out on my leather. I started with just plain old tooling leather.

With pieces cut out, I used wool daubers to swipe on the dye, which let me get a more mottled effect. Which is totally awesome. Once that had dried, I did a quick wet seal on it. Basically running it under the faucet to rinse out any excess dye, then dried everything again between paper towels.

That finished out, I played with options, and decided to put holes along the inside of the brim and the bottom edge of the main body first. Then I riveted the main body piece. I went with the double row of rivets for purely aesthetic reasons. Stitching or even a single row of rivets would have worked just as well.

To stitch the brim in place, I wet down the inside edge of it and then flared it up a little before stitching to get it to sit more how I wanted. From there, I could wet the brim itself and play with shaping until I found the brim shape I was after. Which I actually found rather quickly after first toying.

The top was originally going to have an amount of flare, but once I hit this point, I actually changed my mind and cut back the top piece and re-dyed the edges. I still had to stretch the top just a little to make things sit how I wanted, but the effect on the shaping is very subtle.

I actually stitched the top twice. Once while wet for stretching, then pulled it out and re-stitched to get it tight and perfect.

From there, I used a block out sealing layer. This didn't change the dye much, which is what I was after.

The hat band piece I also did myself. It currently isn't attached quite how I intend to really have it, but I have not finished the hat pin I want to do. By which I mean, I haven't quite figured out what exactly I want for it. For the time being, I am just using a pin to hold the hat band in place. I intend to keep it removable, so that I can swap in alternate hat bands easily if I ever want to change things up a little. Probably I will add some little hook catches for that purpose.

The band itself is some awesome fabric I found at a shop in Hawaii. (Yes, I went to a fabric store while on vacation on a tropical island.) I cut the strip and wrapped it around a semi-heavy bit of craft fuse stuff. I ironed it in place, then stitched the back edge by hand. I also folded over the one end and stitched that to give it a little nicer of an end piece.

And here are the photos.

Street Shaman Staff - Part I

This is an idea that has been rattling around in my brain for a good two years now, if I'm not mistaken. I finally actually had a chance to visit a wood-working shop and pick out the bits and pieces necessary and with my additional free time, I've even started work on it.

I picked out a piece of wood that I liked. I went more for the actual bit that felt right and looked fun rather then worrying much about species of tree. From there, I sat and whittled down the two end pieces so that I could get the handle and foot on.


Multi-piece foot bit. The plastic bit is removable and shows a spike for more rugged hiking and what-have you.

I went with the not quite as practical grip as well, since this is more a style thing.
I used a little epoxy on both bits just to make sure they sat well. Two part putty epoxy, to be more specific. The top piece also has a small screw holding it in. The spike on the bottom I actually drilled a hole, and then actually bolted into it. So that bit seems like it should hold quite well.

From here, I start adding symbols to it and play with how much bark is coming off and all. More photos to come!

Steampunk Cane Part II

I have taken pretty new pictures!






Copper tubing along the top and brass wire going the rest of the way down. Brass tipped, leather wrapped. I have listed the new Steampunk cane here!

Steampunk Cane part I

Only an early picture, because I finished rather late last night by which point I only really had the patience to do a quick phone picture.


You can see a little bit of what I did. It includes the added brass tip, copper tubing, brass wire running down it, some leather accents and a fun dial. I'll try and get some better photos and then go into more detail on what I did to create this later.

Wood Shop

I never really got into wood shop and the like back in high school. Which is almost a little odd, considering I did get into prop building for theater. As well as building set pieces and whatever else needed building. Still, it probably would be handy with some of the projects I find myself leaning into doing. Which is why I trekked out to the nearest decent wood shop and bought myself a few things.

Two big projects to come out of it will be a steampunk cane and my own urban shaman's staff. More pictures to come, almost certainly. Hopefully lots of in-progress photos.

I also picked up some tagua nut, which has a lot of the consistency and look of ivory while being more more friendly to the world. Or such is the theory. It is pretty though. Because I obviously don't have enough projects and methods to play with. Or have recently bought stuff to try glass etching that still isn't even open. Heh.

Slave Bracelet with Tatted Center

This stems from my continuing need to integrate bits of tatting into various other sorts of designs. Which I more or less blame on how much I enjoy TotusMel's work. Go, spend a few minutes drooling.

Now then. A friend of mine got ambitious after seeing this instructable and has started playing with tatting a bit, which means I have a lovely pile of little medallion thingies to play with. This weekend I found some time to make a first attempt at playing with it and wound up with this.


Which probably could stand some better photo treatment before listing, but it was sort of late and the roomie was playing chess and thus there were less wrists available for stealing. And I can only contort so much for photographing things.

The center piece is of course tatting. It attaches to the wrist piece with bits of chain and two rivets. More of the same chain loops up around the finger. (the chain was cannibalized from a necklace.) And the whole thing closes with snaps. I set three closures on it to give some room for sizing.

As first attempts go, I think it turned out rather fun. I think I can push the notion further. Also, I have some chain ordered that might be better suited for such things then my random dismantling of stuff. Regardless, The combination of elements makes me happy. I am thinking about playing with stiffening the tatting so that it lays a little better. Assuming that it wont just cause horrible problems. Heh.

Another Belt Tool-Kit

I should probably start investigating some other sources for old tools. The antique shop I like hitting is fantastic, but tend to have only so many tools in the price range I'm willing to spend (and think I can re-sell). The really awesome tiny monkey-wrench will not be making an appearance, as my roomie decided to buy it off of me before I could use it for anything. But I did finish this for an event I'm running with some friends.



It turned out fun. Though I may want to rough up the wood vial a little bit. So that it matches the rest of the piece. Also managed to wound another finger while working on it. Which was less good.

There is a giant wrench and another monkey wrench style thing that should be making appearances before too long. I do love working with this type of thing. If anyone knows a decent source for inexpensive old (at least looking) tools, let me know!

Video Interview

Technically a little old, but it popped back up and figured it would be amusing to have here.

WoW Engineer's Goggles

Per special request, I have created engineering goggles from World of Warcraft. The normal version in the game are rather over the top size was, so I pulled them back to a slightly more normal goggle look, while maintaining a lot of the distinctive ridiculous qualities. They make me smile.


These will not be showing up in my shop, as they are specifically for someone. At the same time, I do like trying interesting things, so if anyone else has a specific sort of goggles they want, I'll be around!

Leather Plague Doctor Mask

The idea has been lurking in the back of my head for a while now. Waiting for me to finally give in and build this particular mask. I attempted to win an alchemy bid for it, but that didn't work out, though the person was quite nice about it. It still seemed worth doing as a fun project. My bruised hand is less a fan of the project, since I ended up hand punching and hand stitching the entire thing. And I didn't make it out of a particularly thin leather...

For those not really familiar with plague doctor masks, they came into being as a result of the plague. There was a common belief that birds spread the plague. Many people think the bird beak shape was to help draw the plague out of the victim onto the plague doctor outfit. The red lenses were to protect the wearer from evil. The beak was typically stuffed with herbs to protect them from the miasma that was believed to carry the plague.

The rest of the outfit adds to the creepiness, with a wide brimmed hat, a long black coat, and a wooden cane. I really, really want to build a hat now too... though I'm not sure I have a proper piece for the brim. I will have to look...

Now, on to progress pictures! I started with the beak piece. Once I had that stitched together, I cut out a piece that would be at plenty big for a face and then cut an upside down T into it to slot in the nose.


Then I went to bed, actually. But the next relevant step was to actually attach the nose to the main mask. I left the large extra pieces in place, so that I had plenty of room to work. Once I actually had all three sides attached, then I trimmed down the extra bits around the nose.

From there, it was an easy step to cut the eye-holes, measures to fit the laser-cut lenses that I have on hand.


I cut a lighter black leather to work as a cover for the lenses. Circles with a hole in the center. It gave it a rough look, but I rather like the whole thing having a rough look. Here is a close up shot of it.


It actually looks better from a distance, though.


Once I was happy with that, I set the other lens. Which didn't work on the first go through. I got more then halfway through before pulling it off and cutting a new piece and re-attaching it.


I trimmed down the shape a little more, finalizing the shape a bit more.



The last touch was to cut slits for the straps, then to stitch them into place and attach the buckle.


It really does beg to have the hat added.... but I still think it is totally awesome.