Our own Libby Bulloff has a wonderful article in the current issue of SteamPunk Magazine. Libby makes the case for what needs to happen for Steampunk to become a sustainable style rather than mere and fleeting fashion.

Within, she examines current trends in Steampunk dress and warns that:

We’re no better than our wealthy, trendy, hipster counterparts when we cease the continuous metamorphosis of our look, when we won’t fearlessly model our style at our desk jobs . . . 

I think she hits the nail on the head.

SteamPunk Magazine is available in print through Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness in the Americas and Vagrants Among Ruins for the rest of the world, and can also be downloaded for free from their downloads page.  Available for the first time is an iPhone/eReader version for 1£. This is the version I bought and I love having it on my phone. 

Also featured in this issue are pieces by Jaymee Goh of Silver Goggles and Ay-leen The Peacemaker of Beyond Victoriana who did me the great honor of inviting me to sit on their Social Issues in Steampunk Roundtable panel at the upcoming Steampunk World's Fair!

It is a truism that the people out there doing the most interesting things and having the most fun often don't have the time or inclination to post what they're up to on the internet.

Fortunately for us, they often have friends that recognize how impossibly cool the things that they're doing are and egg them on!

That's the case with Tien and Guiness' incredible Steampunk Ratrod! Click through for more info, pics and a vid of the this monster's awakening!

One of the reasons I love Noisebridge is that peeps are always bringing in the New And Shiny for us to play with. This week, it was Sai Emrys, who got a sample of EL Fabric. We spent a couple hours checking it out, trying to find that perfect project for it. I'd be interested in our brilliant readers suggestions of how to use it best.

I'm thinking bikini.

A rare opportunity to purchase a complete Datamancer Sojourner keyboard on eBay!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260579723084

Someone once told me that the first things people look at when they meet you are your shoes and your hands. It's very easy to tell if someone uses their hands to make things as they tend to have callouses, weathered skin, and may have curious stains or broken nails. Shoe choice reads just as clearly--do your shoes match your outfit? Are they stylish and functional? Are they impractical, well-designed, worn out, or coated in dust from the workshop?

I personally love how shoes complete an outfit, and I have a special lust for vintage-influenced footwear, both practical and whimsical. It can be very difficult to acquire antique footwear that fits a modern foot--our predecessors often had shorter, narrower feet--or that hasn't been worn to death. I am fortunate enough to own a pair of 1930s oxfords that fit my slender feet, a set of antique leather roller skates, and some killer scarlet pointy-toed punk boots from back in the day. However, if you're not so lucky as to have a real vintage shoe collection, lots of modern shoes still nod at the past in their design (and fit bigger feet). There is nothing quite like the curve of a Louis heel, mmhmm.

Here's a selection of shoes (ranging from totally casual to super decadent) for the ladies I've found in scouring the interwebs that all have vintage flair. I'll be doing a similar post for you gentleman types, never you fear. :) And hey, not all of these are brown and clunky! Yay! Let's get some SHOES!