Friday fashion

Buy Brian Kesinger's steampunk mouse T-shirt design from welovefine.com. Congratulations to Brian on winning the first ever Star Wars T-shirt design competition!

Stephenson's locomotive

My calendar tells me that on this day in 1814, George Stephenson successfully demonstrated his steam locomotive. And the world changed...

Map of the Future embroidery

With the embroidery for the Map of the Future visual journal cover complete, today I have rinsed the whole piece of fabric in lukewarm water to remove the water-soluble fabric marker, and spread it out to dry. Because it's linen, I won't let it dry completely before I iron it, pressing from the back on a soft towel so as not to flatten the stitches. There's just a little more preparation (which I'll discuss in detail in the pattern that will soon be available from my etsy store*), and then it will be time to assemble the cover and put it on the visual journal.

* If you'd like to be informed when the pattern is available, simply sign up for the newsletter in the sidebar. I'll email you when a new pattern is available, and I promise I won't contact you for any other sales or marketing.

Friday fashion parade

Chanel can always be relied on to have a steampunk element in the collection (Karl Lagerfeld often dresses like a time traveller). The gauntlets and Peter Pan collar on this outfit, for example, give a simple black velvet dress a touch of steampunk. Click on the photo to see the whole Autumn 2012 collection for more inspiration.

Decorating the landscape

The embroidery for the Map of the Future visual journal cover is almost done. I've used fairly simple embroidery stitches, and kept details to a minimum: waterways, major roads, parks and bushland. I'm tempted to add signposts to my favourite cafés, bookshops and cinemas, but I might find that the map is complicated enough by the time I've finished all the little French knot trees.

There will be instructions in the pattern detailing which colours and stitches I used, including photographs showing how to do the embroidery stitches. Keep an eye out here on my blog, or sign up in the sidebar to receive an email when the pattern is available in my etsy store.

Morlocks... er, more locks

A trip to my local hardware store yielded this bonanza of fancy brass catches, hinges and hasp-and-staple locks, one of which will be perfect for the Map of the Future journal cover, while the others will come in handy as decorations for belts, bags and other steampunk accessories in the future.

Map of the future

I'm making a cover for my visual journal that will feature an embroidered map of my local area. The first step is to cut the fabric slightly larger than the finished size of the cover (so that it can be held in an embroidery hoop), then mark the outlines of the map design using a water-soluble fabric marker. Here's a tip: if you make a mistake with the marker, simply redraw the line then use a cotton bud (Q-tip) dipped in a drop of water to remove the unwanted line.
The water-soluble marker will fade with time, because of the moisture in the air and on your skin as you handle the fabric. So begin by stitching the major outlines and shapes on the fabric and leave the other details for later.
Please keep coming back to this blog to see more progress on my Map of the Future and, eventually, to find out when the pattern will be available from my etsy store. Or sign up for my newsletter in the sidebar to get a free pattern and an email whenever a new design is available.

Cucumbers

Today I want to talk about cucumbers. My family and friends know that, like Dr Samuel Johnson, I think, "A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing." I'm not a fan of the modern, supermarket cucumber with its tough, bitter skin and watery, tasteless flesh and would much prefer to throw it out than add it to a salad.

When I was a child in Papua New Guinea, the cucumbers we bought at the roadside markets or from meris who brought them around in bilums were golden and round, and so sweet that I would eat them like apples. Pliny the Elder apparently reported: "We find it stated, also, by the ancient Greek writers, that the cucumber ought to be propagated from seed that has been steeped a couple of days in milk and honey, this method having the effect of rendering them all the sweeter to the taste." Not sure how that would work, but I wish it did!

Dr Johnson's contemporary, Jonathan Swift, found a use for the maligned vegetable in the research of the Grand Academy visited by Lemuel Gulliver:

The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me "to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers." I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to see them.

 Sunbeams from cucumbers? Might as well find some use for them.

Tattoo you

I'm a bit ambivalent about tattoos. On one hand, I love them as a form of self-expression; on the other hand, I'm a bit scared by the fact that, once you've got one, you can't change it... ever. As a bit of a fashion butterfly, changing my tastes from one season to the next, I can't imagine ever being certain enough of a particular passion or image to have it permanently imprinted on my skin.

What I do like about tattoos is the thought behind them: people who have them almost always have stories to tell about why they chose them and which image they chose. I particularly like the kind of tattoos where it looks as though the skin has been peeled back to reveal the inner workings of the arm (or leg, or abdomen). My very favourite was one I briefly considered getting for myself, pictured here (I always knew I had a book in me!) -- click the image to see more of this artist's work.

There are a bunch of great steampunk-style tattoos out there, including ones where the skin is peeled back to reveal cogs, pistons and pulleys. But if, like me, you're too much of a wimp to get something permanently etched into your skin, take a look at Victoria Welch's Steampunk Henna Designs and go down the temporary tattoo path.

Visual journal cover

I've decided that the next project I want to make is a cover for my visual journal, which is an A5-size, spiral-bound visual art diary. I looked for some inspiring examples and stuck the images in the very visual journal, as you can see at left.

Inspired by the book of historic maps I read this week, I decided to make a linen cover with an embroidered map design. I like the idea of an inset compass or clock, as in the third image. I also really, really want to keep my ideas and thoughts private with a solid lock (which was what triggered yesterday's image search).

Please keep coming back to this blog over the next week or two to see the progress I'm making on my journal cover and, of course, I'll write a pattern and instructions so that you can make one for yourself. If you sign up for my newsletter in the sidebar, I'll make sure you don't miss out on a copy of the pattern when it's ready.

Lovely locks

Humans have been locking up their precious things since time immemorial; the first lock was probably a stone placed in front of a niche in a cave. These days, many things are secured by electronic locks with PINs or remote controls.

You can't go past a good, old-fashioned mechanical lock for strength and beauty, though. Here are a few examples I found online: just gorgeous!  (Click on the pictures to go to the source.)

Miss Molly's mainchauffers

I've finally chosen a more imaginative name for the frilly wrist warmers I've been knitting over the past couple of weeks: Miss Molly's Mainchauffers (that's an approximately French translation of "handwarmers"). With their delicate lacy frills, they deserve a romantic epithet.

The good news is that the pattern to knit these gloves yourself is now available at my etsy store for just $5.00. If you'd like to find out more about my patterns and designs, please sign up for my newsletter in the sidebar. The newsletter goes out whenever a new pattern is available.

To the ends of the earth

My partner has recently acquired a couple of new books that might be of interest to steampunk afficionados. The one pictured, To the Ends of the Earth: 100 Maps that Changed the World (Harper Collins, 2006) is a beautifully illustrated history of cartography from Babylonian clay tablets to 21st-century interactive virtual maps.

Looking at the maps of past ages makes me nostalgic for times when the world was still there to be explored; when dragons and sea monsters might feasibly have lurked behind the next mountain range or in the depths of a vast and uncharted sea. These days, with cameras everywhere accumulating data and satellites giving precise locations of everything on Earth, some of the magic is gone.

As author Jeremy Harwood says:

The electronic linking of such maps to other maps means that the amount of information that can be accessed is almost limitless. The availability of downloadable map data also means that today's mapmakers are spoilt for choice. Put at its simplest, provided that they possess the necessary software and skills, everyone who wants to can be a mapmaker.

Steampunk Melody

It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and my friends bought me this fantastic T-shirt. For those of you not familiar with Sanrio characters, this little rabbit is a friend of Hello Kitty, and her name is My Melody. Obviously, she's always been a favourite of mine... and now even more so, because she's been Steampunked! (Google "Steampunk Melody" to find out where you can buy the T-shirt for yourself.)

Blocking the lacy frill

When you've finished knitting the wrist warmers, you need to block them to even out the fabric. The easiest way is to dampen them with lukewarm water, then pull them onto your hands for a minute to stretch them (gently!) to the right shape. While they are still wet, carefully roll up the glove sections, then lay the frill out as flat as possible on a towel or other absorbent surface. Tease the edge of the frill flat with your fingers and leave it to dry completely.

Once the frill is dry, unroll the glove parts and lay the gloves out flat to ensure that the glove parts are completely dry too. The pattern will soon be available at my etsy store; sign up to the newsletter in the sidebar and I'll let you know when it's ready.

Orreries

I've always wanted an orrery. Perhaps not exactly like Aughra's orrery in The Dark Crystal (for a start, where would I put it?) but I'm fascinated by the idea of a mechanical representation of celestial motion.

Did you know: 

• That it was called an orrery after the Earl of Orrery commissioned a mechanical planetarium as a gift for his son in the early 18th century?
• That you can make your own orrery from such mundane materials as Meccano and LEGO?
• That you can buy your own working orrery, designed and made by Brian Greig, who created the gorgeous Tellurion at Sydney Observatory?

Knitting the wrist warmers

Here's the progress on my frilly wrist warmers. The wrist warmers are knitted all in one, including the lacy frill. After you've knitted the wrist part, you make extra stitches for the frill and place them on stitch holders until you've finished knitting the glove.

Keep knitting in the round, then turn the work at the end of a row and work flat in stocking stitch (knit one row, purl one row) to create the thumb hole.

The pattern for these wrist warmers is almost ready, and when it is I'll be selling it in my etsy store. Keep your eye on this blog to find out when it's available, or sign up to my newsletter using the form in the sidebar and I'll email you when it's ready. As a bonus, if you sign up to the newsletter I'll send you the pattern for the Urban Explorer's Kit Bag for free!

Girlpower

This great project was proposed on Kickstarter earlier this year, with a target of $4000 to publish the first in a series of steampunk detective fiction novels for girls. As the funds raised exceeded the budget and eventually reached an amazing $90,000, the author has promised a series of four books, with all sorts of extras thrown in. Check out the proposal video below, and see if–like me–you can't wait for them to be published.