Steampunk, as defined by Wikipedia (yes, I’m a librarian, and I LOVE Wikipedia!):

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction and speculative fiction, frequently featuring elements of fantasy, that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage‘s Analytical engine); these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or with a presumption of functionality.

Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical “steampunk” style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

Anyone who knows me knows this is right up my alley. I think that someone who is into Steampunk is also someone who appreciates Doctor Who and maybe even Sherlock Holmes, and we all know how I feel about them! Sigh…

I started to play a round with resin a few weeks ago.  I had seen things people made and thought they looked pretty neat.  While I like the final outcome of resin pieces, I have found that for me, who is a very immediate kind of person, this waiting for days to get my pieces finished is killing me.  I want to wear what I’m making NOW, not in three days…  I found that the two equal part, low odor resin and hardener works the best for me.  I tried the super smelly resin that you drop a few drops of hardener into, and it just didn’t work for me.  All of the stuff I made came out sticky/tacky, no matter how much hardener I used.  It could be a temperature thing.  It’s been pretty chilly in Northern Illinois, and our landlord only recently turned the boiler back on for us.  I don’t know.  If/when I run out of the two part, I’ll go back to using the smelly stuff.

I’ve been busy making pins and magnets with the resin.  Todd took apart an old computer CPU he had, and we took out some of the parts to use.  I also found a bunch of reproduction stuff in the scrapbooking aisles of craft stores.

Another medium I started to use (as of yesterday) is polymer clay.  I like this stuff!  You can create colorful and fun items, bake it, let it cool, and there it is!  Ready for me to do with what I want.  I had never worked with polymer clay.  I got the book Steampunkery by Christi Friesen at the library, and I decided to give it a whirl.

My Steampunkesque craft projects are below.

Steampunk Resin Pin Creations

Mother’s Day Pin for My Mom

Dunno why, but this reminds me of the Australian Flag

Purple Punk Pin

Love Pin

Steampunk Polymer Clay Creations

Murdoch (He glows in the dark!)

Murdoch’s Behind

Betty Beetle

Sisal the Steampunk Slug (He glows, too!)

Sisal’s Behind