Dana Writes:

Hello,

Holy cow! this is awesome and the most impressive Steampunk case-mod I have seen yet!  I wonder where he found all of that lovely hardware? It kind of looks to me like an oil system from an old machine tool, but that's pure speculation on my part. The attention to detail is amazing and you only see a tiny fraction of the whole thing here. Be sure to click through above for the rest of the pictures.

I can't wait to see what he does for a keyboard!

"Dammit, I'm on the wrong coast" is becoming an almost constant refrain for this Boston based Steampunk!

However, all of my friends in San Francisco and Los Angeles will be on the right coast this March when that crew of drunken pilots and great friends of The Steampunk Workshop comes your town to play a couple of all ages shows!

But no matter where you are, if you've never heard their music before you owe it to yourself to go to The Abney Park Vault and have a listen!

A friend overheard a karate classmate, a professional baker, mention that she had just created a cake for a client in a "Steam Punk" style and that prior to this order she had not heard of Steampunk.  Well, my spy collected this intelligence and forwarded it to The Lady von Slatt who brought it to my attention this morning.

I contacted Karen Collins of Babycakes in Boxborough, Massachusetts (just a stone's throw from the Steampunk Workshop) and she kindly forwarded pictures!  I think she did an absolutely terrific job of living up to Babycake's mission statement with this, her first foray in the world of Steampunk:

Be it the humble chocolate chunk cookie or a wedding cake for four hundred, I give my complete attention to every confection I make, from my choice of the highest quality ingredients to the time I spend making every item uniquely stunning. My goal is to thrill the senses and to treat each of my customers to a moment of sweet perfection.

Four more pics after the cut!

I had the honor of sharing space in a gallery show with Art last year in the Hamptons.  I've long admired his Steampunk lamps and I particularly like that his work often incorporates elements that are reminiscent of pulp science fiction cover art - there's always a touch of Forbidden Planet along with the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!

Well, Art's latest working is simply stunning, Art writes:

My most most complex Steampunk work to date with influences of Hinduism, Freemasonry and ancient astronomy. 72" tall x 72" wide. Solid Mahogany, Solid Brass, Glass, Spun-Filament Fiberglass, Plaster, LED + Incandescent Bulbs, Acrylic Resin, Ultra Violet Tubes + Electric Motors.

The central part of the mandala is a precise, hand made reproduction of an ancient Persian astrolabe as seen in the Museum of the History of Science at the University of Oxford.

There's much more on Art's Blog here.

From Social Design Zine in Italy comes this article about sculptor and metalworker Gianni Fanelli.  It appears to be a review of the artist's recent show and the reviewer clearly liked what they saw - at least that's sure what it looks like to me viewing the Google translated version:

The work of Gianni Fanelli has the substance of dreams (I already said the title of the exhibition) is air and light, elusive, but also the strength and concrete ferramenteria, with its brave solders, the riveting, the bolts, rivets and zippers. The Demiurge is moving with ease in her world of oxymoron, among creatures' hydraulic 'light and heavy, with the myths of' transformation 'that leave slip meanings suspended between' field 'and' spirit '.

Regardless, the work is beautiful and I particularly like this Steampunk pinball machine with it's anthropomorphic wooden legs!

(Thanks Dario!)

Some of the very best letters I get come from people who have built things to give as gifts, a case in point:

Dear jake,

I really have enjoyed your site, especially the bus conversion.  I really like how you talk about using found objects and have so many pictures showing your process as you work on your projects.  My husband showed me your site last year and proceeded to drool, so when he got dual monitors for his edit system and needed a monitor stand, I knew just what to do.

. . .

Yours in Mad Science!
Amy

You sure did Amy - Awesome work! Thanks!

Much more after the cut.

Marcus writes:

There are only so many broken typewriters in the world – so it’s going to be difficult to get my hands on a decent set of keys.  You can’t get them on ebay here in Europe, importing them from the US would’ve been hilariously expensive – so I had to think of something else.

What I’ve found is a certain kind of fastener (like brass fasteners for envelopes, only with a fancy little gemstone instead of the brass knob). You open it, discard the stone and what you get is a perfect ‘key frame’. Just print your labels, cut glasses out of polycarbonate sheet, cardboard backplates and you’re done.

 He's put together a nice write up that you can find here.  Great work Marcus!

Update: Jacqui dropped me a link to some interesting looking typewriter key tokens at Oriental Trading. - Thanks Jacqui!

Mad Uncle Cliff blogs:

My first steampunked webcam - tested and fully functional. I call it finished but I will probably cloth bind the cable.

Now this one is for sale. I have decided to fund my Dremel set with the sale of this 'one off' design steampunk webcam.

He's getting ready to eBay the camera but will entertain offers prior to listing it.

Details are here.

Tim See is an exhibitor in this year's Smithsonia Crafts Show and he has chosen to produce a series of works in the Steampunk style. Pictured is the Teacup Presevation System and an as yet un-named Steampunk air conditioner is in the works.

You can see more on Tim's blog  and I in particular am excited to see what other wonders he comes up with!

I spotted- not that you could possibly miss it- this storefront in Tokyo. It's a comic book store called Mandarake, which is supposedly the biggest comic book store in tokyo. The actual store was about 4 flights downstairs, and also had an amazing selection of vintage toys. They got a little chuffed when I tried to take pictures inside, though.