My steampunk home projects
I have finally taken pics of the things I made recently and put them on flickr.
I've been really interested in the steampunk motif and have sort of realized I was moving in that direction anyway: four years ago I wanted to fill my house with 'Victorian Mad-Scientist stuff' but wasn't sure where or how to do it. Now I do, and I'm embarking on an adventure into a world of brass and coppertones, away from the grays and blacks of my youth. Well not too far away. More like a day trip away.
I'm not much in the camera department and if I knew where my manual was this'd be sorted already. Anyway. . .
On with the show.
Here's the curtain, as much as I could fit in. No, it isn't horizontal, I'm just incredibly lazy right now.
It's about seven by three feet. I used canvas colored duck cloth which I stained a bit with tea; I wanted it to look as much like old sailcloth as possible, since that seems to be a predominant theme, and the color schemes tend to hover around browns and golds especially, thus the colors of the thread I picked.
I got the idea to embroider some cogs on it from a post in the Brass Goggles projects suggestion list, although the girl's on there turned out a lot more even than mine. Then right as I was finishing it some guy in one of the steampunk forums went on a rant about how useless it was to put gears on things as a design motif, especially when it involves taking apart clocks and using pieces to do it, unless those gears are actually functional. So that immediately made me feel like I was a world class tool, since I am not some kind of clockwork-devising genius, and I felt bad for a day or so. Then I got back on the horse and finished the thing, because it's my curtain, I think it looks cool, and we are each entitled to our own opinion. Like Bruce Wayne's father said, 'We fall so we learn to get back up.' That guy can eat it.
A detail of the brown cogs, and the curtain rod which I got on sale at Joanne's for 14.99. The cogs were done in such a way that the gearteeth fit together, which was a happy accident. I realized it would be very easy for me to descend into a madness of protactors and graph paper to make sure they were PERFECTLY ENGINEERED, and decided to keep things light and low-stress. In retrospect I wish I had done them a bit more realistically, with rust on them and such. Ah well, lesson for another day!
A detail of the golden cogset. I think it looks sort of compass-like, which is a good thing for my next project, the curtains.
A super-closeup so you can see all the stitches. It was actually kind of soothing just sitting there and doing it by hand. It's got me thinking of more projects to do, like the bedroom curtains.
Here're the rings holding it up, cunningly made little things. I bought an extra bag to use on a costume project, I thought they'd work well in place of grommets or as a 'holster' type thing. They were totally on sale too.
The fat, dumpy, lumpy little ottoman I made over the weekend. I got the notion from an Instructable, and made a few changes to make it a bit more interesting visually. I might stuff it a bit more so that it doesn't look so sad and misshapen. . . you can see a bit of the belt I made out of vinyl, buckles and grommets on the left side.
Detail of the belt. I realized if it was a real belt the rivets I hammered on would be covered up, so I just let the end hang loose.
And now, after all the sewing and cutting and stitching and stuffing and hammering and staining, it's beertime.
Thanks for the look, and please let me know what you think!
I am my own worst critic and have a tendency to judge myself too harshly, and I'd appreciate any thoughts y'all have on improvements or constructive criticism.
I've been really interested in the steampunk motif and have sort of realized I was moving in that direction anyway: four years ago I wanted to fill my house with 'Victorian Mad-Scientist stuff' but wasn't sure where or how to do it. Now I do, and I'm embarking on an adventure into a world of brass and coppertones, away from the grays and blacks of my youth. Well not too far away. More like a day trip away.
I'm not much in the camera department and if I knew where my manual was this'd be sorted already. Anyway. . .
On with the show.
Here's the curtain, as much as I could fit in. No, it isn't horizontal, I'm just incredibly lazy right now.
It's about seven by three feet. I used canvas colored duck cloth which I stained a bit with tea; I wanted it to look as much like old sailcloth as possible, since that seems to be a predominant theme, and the color schemes tend to hover around browns and golds especially, thus the colors of the thread I picked.
I got the idea to embroider some cogs on it from a post in the Brass Goggles projects suggestion list, although the girl's on there turned out a lot more even than mine. Then right as I was finishing it some guy in one of the steampunk forums went on a rant about how useless it was to put gears on things as a design motif, especially when it involves taking apart clocks and using pieces to do it, unless those gears are actually functional. So that immediately made me feel like I was a world class tool, since I am not some kind of clockwork-devising genius, and I felt bad for a day or so. Then I got back on the horse and finished the thing, because it's my curtain, I think it looks cool, and we are each entitled to our own opinion. Like Bruce Wayne's father said, 'We fall so we learn to get back up.' That guy can eat it.
A detail of the brown cogs, and the curtain rod which I got on sale at Joanne's for 14.99. The cogs were done in such a way that the gearteeth fit together, which was a happy accident. I realized it would be very easy for me to descend into a madness of protactors and graph paper to make sure they were PERFECTLY ENGINEERED, and decided to keep things light and low-stress. In retrospect I wish I had done them a bit more realistically, with rust on them and such. Ah well, lesson for another day!
A detail of the golden cogset. I think it looks sort of compass-like, which is a good thing for my next project, the curtains.
A super-closeup so you can see all the stitches. It was actually kind of soothing just sitting there and doing it by hand. It's got me thinking of more projects to do, like the bedroom curtains.
Here're the rings holding it up, cunningly made little things. I bought an extra bag to use on a costume project, I thought they'd work well in place of grommets or as a 'holster' type thing. They were totally on sale too.
The fat, dumpy, lumpy little ottoman I made over the weekend. I got the notion from an Instructable, and made a few changes to make it a bit more interesting visually. I might stuff it a bit more so that it doesn't look so sad and misshapen. . . you can see a bit of the belt I made out of vinyl, buckles and grommets on the left side.
Detail of the belt. I realized if it was a real belt the rivets I hammered on would be covered up, so I just let the end hang loose.
And now, after all the sewing and cutting and stitching and stuffing and hammering and staining, it's beertime.
Thanks for the look, and please let me know what you think!
I am my own worst critic and have a tendency to judge myself too harshly, and I'd appreciate any thoughts y'all have on improvements or constructive criticism.