Overbury Ink

Pamela Quevedo is the artisan behind the beautiful TotusMel Tats on Etsyworks. Her style leans towards the dark, gothic, steampunk and Neo Victorian – yet also appeals to a wider audience. Pamela was looking for something different from her knitting and crocheting – when she discovered needle tatting, and TotusMel Tats was born.





She started using vintage patterns. She improved and improvised on them with edgings, and starting creating new designs from scratch. The fashion world as well as customers requests provide fresh inspiration. It was such a request for a lace mask that started her entire mask line.





The ankle corsets and several other pieces were created as challenges.



From intricate masquerade masks to lace spats, jewelry and more, Pamela’s shop has some breathtaking pieces.





Pamela also provides needle tatting tutorials on her library of tutorials at Instructables and videos


find her work on Etsy shop
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Follow TotusMel Tats on facebook
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Twitter
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her blogs on tatting blogs on tatting
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and ‘different finds’ on TotusMels Wunderkammer blog
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Do you have a steampunk or neo-victorian interest you’d like to see featured? Contact us and let us know.

I was raised in Michigan. My older brother was a great influence on me. He was really wrapped up in the fantasy and sci-fi world with just a bit of horror. He was also an artist and a writer. He babysat me much of the time and I watched him draw and tried to do what he did and this is basically how I learned to draw. Aside from that, I’ve always wanted to be a writer but have always been a bit self conscious of that writing and my storytelling, so I actually turned to my art as a way to tell those stories without that self consciousness. As I’ve grown older I’ve been slowly incorporating the two together and trying to give it my own style.



When I was younger I found myself being put into certain niches that limited my audience, so now that I’m older I prefer to just tell people I’m a fantasy artist when they ask what genre I fit into. Then I try to explain to them how beautiful and incredible this world of steampunk and neo-victorian is and how while this is my art style as of late, it’s also my personal aesthetic.



My home, the events I go to, all the way to my circle of friends, we just sort of live this style, lost to this older world. To represent myself I took one of my fictional characters, Etta Diem (an eccentric and slightly supernatural type of character who might fit in a Lovecraft meets Jules Vern world), and used her to represent my art shop as well as to kind of have fun hiding behind a larger than life character that represents everything I like about this genre. And she represents my work well. She’s an example that every idea or piece of art I do represents a story. This is why I like steampunk so much, there is so much wonderful storytelling.

I am taking part in an international art competition called Artprize (artprize.org) for three weeks at the end of Sept through the beginning of October. Our seven artist group is working under the title Cirque Acirca (circus out of time) based on the story that there was a collection of circus/carnival folk moving about a steampunk world in their airship, which crashes. From the remnants of this crash they create a massive steampunk/neo-victorian circus/carnival.



A large portion of the art is based on my work and my partner Myke Amend’s. Our exhibit space covers the space of a football field and literally is a giant steampunk circus. We have performers of all variety in theme, we have art displays, a mural that covers the entire floor of the exhibit and a massive exhibit of our steampunk world across the back of the exhibit that Myke and I are painting.



We also have vendor space and a games midway and fortune telling booths, etc. We had a Ben Stiller movie shoot here and two of our artists worked on set designs. The movie donated their entire sets to us to create this thing –although I’m not allowed to tell anyone about it yet ….. so we’re excited. This has been my major project for the last month and I’m trying to promote it, especially to get steampunk people/costume folk to come to the event. I have a bunch of revamped art on there for Circus Posters I would love to see used too. visit: Cirque Acirca


Links for Etta Diem
Etta Diem’s Attic Shoppe
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Etta Diem’s Etsy Attic Shoppe
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etta diem on Twitter

Bethalynne Bajema:
http://www.bajema.com
http://www.bethalynnebajema.com
http://www.bethalynnebajema.com/sepiastains –this is my tarot card site, my largest current project
http://www.facebook.com/bethalynnebajema

Atrophy is an upcoming Sci-Fi Action Adventure film by Imminent Entertainment, directed by Jason Slingerland with steampunk elements. The art department is constructing several steampunk props and weapons including a mechanical arm, a steam powered harpoon gun and a covered wagon. Today we share a behinds the scenes interview with the production designer and lead prop builder Rob Couch. He sheds some light on the building of the costume arm piece worn by one of the villains.





Matt Prior is an average family man with average family problems. Until one morning, when he awakens to find himself in a dangerous new world. With his family nowhere to be found, Matt ventures into this strange and untamed land, hoping to find a way to get back home. Along the way he meets two scavengers who offer to help, but can they be trusted? Soon Matt finds himself pursued by rampaging marauders, a rag-tag army led by a madman, and an infernal steam-powered machine that will stop at nothing to destroy him. Can Matt survive these dangers and find a way home?


Rob Couch: Prop building is a new thing for me. I’ve always been the kind of person who likes building stuff, but working on this picture was the first time I’ve ever had to put something together for a reason. This script called for a steam-powered exoskeletal arm which would enhance the character’s strength. So, having had no experience, I started by looking for photos online of what other people had built. Why reinvent the wheel, right?


My goal was to find ideas and structures that I could try to copy or rebuild to fit the needs of our film. But what I found was the difference between a cool costume and a good film prop. Everything I could find online was merely a costume. Elbow and shoulder joints had big shiny gears on them, but they didn’t move. Nothing really looked functional. It all just looked cool. Cool is great for a costume, but it’s not enough for a movie prop. My arm had to look like it could actually work. That meant I would have to figure it out on my own.





My next step was sketches. I drew a lot of them. Most of them were bad. Almost none of them look like the finished product. But that was an important step for me to be able to visualize the joints, think about how pieces might overlap, discover places where I might cheat, and then step back and really analyze the sizes and shapes I’m putting together. Throughout this design process, I was also talking with the director and the costume designers. A lot. It helped me immensely to talk out ideas with the director and get a good idea of what he wanted to see on the screen. Likewise, seeing the sketches for the character’s wardrobe, and talking about design motifs and colors really helped me make sure I was building something that would feel at home in the world we are creating.


But finally I had to start putting pieces together. And since this is a production with a pretty limited budget, I had to be very creative. The director and I spent a lot of time at hardware stores and junk stores to find inexpensive and interesting bits of things. When I had amassed big boxes of random stuff, I got started. Still, I had to monitor myself. I knew the most fun part would be detailing it in the end. The hardest part would be to assemble a solid foundation that looked functional. But that was the most important part, so I made myself start there.





The main forearm cylinder is built around a couple PVC toilet flanges and some large fittings. That came together pretty quick. But I’d bought those pieces in advance for that specific purpose. Thanks to the sketches I’d drawn, and a lot of time spent in the plumbing section of my local Home Depot, I knew what I wanted to do. From there I moved on to the elbow joint.


I’d planned to build that joint out of sheet metal strips, then attach a couple sprockets from a bike wheel, connected to each other by a length of bike chain. I got about halfway through fabricating that only to realize that it wasn’t going to work. I had a very bulky and powerful looking forearm. The thin sprockets and chain looked too weak and fragile by comparison. So I had to scrap it. In that moment I realized the importance of stepping away from the project periodically to look at the whole thing critically, and not focus on one small section at a time.


On a whim I tore apart a couple old toy robots I had in my attic. They were full of plastic gears and belts, and I hoped I might be able to find some nice detail parts. But I ended up pulling out a big bulky looking piece with a nice pivot built right in. After chopping it down at both ends I had my elbow, as well as my upper arm. The last piece to add was a big PVC pipe cap for a shoulder guard, and the main structure of my arm was finished.


Once all the detail work was done (actual time about 2 months of evenings and weekends from start to finish), I turned the arm over to a local artist (James Newman, also acting in the film) to do the paint job. We talked for a couple hours about what material each piece of the arm might be made from, what kinds of colors we like together, and different finishes and textures. He worked on it for a few weeks, and turned in what I think is a truly spectacular result. The arm ended up looking 10 times better than I expected it to. We were so happy with it that we asked him to paint all of our props and stunt weapons.


So that’s the story of building what I now call #418, the steampunk arm. It’s just one of several big props we’re putting together for Atrophy. Unfortunately, I am not authorized at this time to disclose any more. Still, someone’s got to build that infernal steam-powered machine mentioned in the synopsis…”


Find movie updates on the Atrophy blog : atrophythemovie.com
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Follow director Jason Slingerland on Twitter
Jason Slingerland is the Writer and Director of Atrophy. He also serves as one of the film’s Executive Producers
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What about goggles?
Goggles are often encountered in steampunk clothing and imagery, creating the misleading impression that they are somehow fundamental to the “steampunk look.” However, this does not mean that all steampunk outfits include goggles. Accessories such as scarves, driving coats, ray guns, aprons and overalls, goggles are a piece of fashion that can help give life to a steampunk world. Unique and creative goggles can be found worn by the airship aviator, inventor, scientist and explorer. Hans Meier is a creator of some of these custom made models.





“The Victorian esthetic, attracts me to Steampunk to some degree. But I think what attracts me most, is the merger of old and new. Things that we think of as modern technology, computers, submarines, things like that, built with Victorian era ability. Along with the inserting of fantastical technology, Time Machines, Aether Travel…it makes for a wonderful mishmash of old and new, modern and antique. I’ve always loved combining era’s. One of my favorite movies (not Steampunk at all) is ‘A Knights Tale’.





I like to make things that function, primarily. If it has a light, it should light, gears should move (at the very least), triggers should pull and cause something to happen. Everything I make functions to some extent. I can’t just glue a gear onto something and call it Steampunk, or cobble bits and pieces together. There are some really cool looking items out there, but I always feel a little let down if the trigger on the gun doesn’t move, and it make noise, or shoot a dart. But that’s me.





In 2008 I stumbled across the music of Abney Park. I was immediately enthralled by it and commenced to drag all my friends along with me. To my surprise I found out that they were a local Seattle Band, and, that they were even going to be having a show in town, a few months away. I found that it was customary for people to dress up to attend the shows. My friends and I, being costumers mostly, were readily able to put together Victorian (or pseudo-Victorian) garb. What we lacked, were goggles. It had been many years since I was even remotely able to be creative, and with joyous emails, I informed all my friends that were going to the show, that, I would provide them with goggles to wear, for the evening. And with that, began a journey that has taken me from Seattle to New Jersey, and many other places. A journey that I didn’t, couldn’t, foresee on that fateful night.





When I started making goggles and guns for the public, I figured I would sell one or two a month, on ETSY. I also decided that I would go to some of the, now forming, Steampunk conventions. With every convention I attended I realized I would have to increase my production….and then I went wholesale. To my (giggling) amazement, my goggles are now found on a number of different websites, not just my own. I have a number of vendors that carry them, and have even been able to add a few store-fronts, even one in San Francisco.





I still do Steampunk conventions now and then, with March and April of next year looking very busy with Wild Wild West Con in Tucson, Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition in Santa Clara and The Oklahoma Steampunk Exhibition in Oklahoma City, along with whatever orders will come in for the vendors and stores. It’s been an interesting ride, and I’ll hang on to it as long as I can. You can find me and my creations at http://www.phfactor.ws , yeah… I know…I tried for a .com or .net, but that was the only domain left with my name…

Find Hans on:
Facebook
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twitter

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Are you a Steampunk Artist? Writer? Designer? I want to feature you on SteamTuesday! Leave a comment for me to get back to you.
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“Arthur has made his existence as a vampire bearable for over three hundred years by immersing himself in blood and debauchery. Aboard an airship gala, he meets Avalon, an aspiring vampire slayer who sparks fire into Arthur’s shriveled heart. Together they try to solve the mystery of several horrendous murders. Cultures clash and pressures rise in this sexy Steampunk Romance.”


Steampunk is sexy. It just is. Goggled highwaymen and heroes committing audacious acts of bravado, adventuresome girls in torn lace, are the stuff of great fantasy and epic adventure. Then corsets, ribbed with iron and concealed weapons. And if the corset isn’t hot enough, put a bold woman in it and give her a revolver. The women of steampunk are not interested in parlours and scones: they have inventions to finish, terrain to cross, or men to save.


Arthur is a 350 year old Vampire, who was a 15 year old teenager when he became a vampire. Arthur is lonely, bored and has forgotten much of his humanity. He knows how to charm, and is accepted in the high-society circles of the British elite. He kills without remorse. His morals are long gone. He plots which person will be seduced and killed in advance. He is arrogant and judgmental. When he was mortal, he was the brother of King Henry VIII, and lover of Catherine, before he died and she became Queen. Arthur is still bitter over Catherine’s death. His days seducing older women is just a game to him.


He accepts a gala invitation to ride in a dirigible and meets Avalon, who to him looks like his Catherine reincarnated. She refuses his flirtations, which just makes him want her more. He declares himself in love with Avalon right from his first meeting with her, and is determined to have her. He tries to appeal to her intellectual side and ingratiate himself by appearing to help with her vampire hunting and murder solving.


Grey puts solid effort into blending British society with steampunk styled inventions and gadgets that the vampire slaying team would need, very reminicent of James Bond. The plot was quick moving and its surprises towards the end. The sex scenes are explicit and have some gruesome elements – which you would like to expect from an immoral, jaded vampire. Mystery, suspense, adventure, horror, and romance, appealing to both urban fantasy as well as paranormal romance fans.

About O.M.Grey

“O. M. Grey currently lives in Texas with her husband. She holds both a BA and MA in British Literature. Although she doesn’t have a drop of British blood in her veins, she claims that her entire heart is British. As an amateur Anglophile, her dreams of the dark streets of London have finally found their home on the pages of her books.

She prefers to live in the cobwebbed corners of her dark mind writing paranormal romance with a Steampunk twist.

When she’s not writing, she’s reading or tending the garden or drinking a hot cup of tea.

Just two drops, please.”


You can find Avalon Revisited through O.M. Grey’s blog: Caught in the Cogs and we can stay tuned for a longer, sexier, bloodier version of Avalon Revisited!

Follow her on Twitter: @omgrey
Fan her on Facebook and catch up on her latest contest giveaway for the release of the new short story OF ÆTHER AND ÆON up on KINDLE.

Role Playing Games are something that have not yet been explored on OverburyInk. Recently the link for the free PDF RPG: Lady Blackbird gained popularity. As it is described as Steampunk, it is something that SteamTuesday needs to explore. If you’ve had a change to play this game, we’d love to hear your comments. I felt I needed some more perspective in evaluating this game, as it’s been a long time since I’ve had a change to enjoy some fun RPG. I consulted my Tech Support, who happens to have an extensive GM background, and compared this experience against my own novice impressions.


Released in 2009, Lady Blackbird is, for a tabletop RPG adventure for 2-6 people. It contains a slate of interesting characters, a marvelous world design, and a very workable game system. The rules are simple, easy to grasp and encourage role-playing. Perfect for a ready game of 1-6 sessions or more.


It claims to be a “steampunk adventure,” and although the term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used— often in Victorian era England, this is a sort of air/space fantasy, making the characters a sort of Space travelling Steampunks. There is magic and sorcery involved as well. The Owl itself is described as powered by a “Tri-Valve Reciprocal Steam Drive. It takes place in a “solar system” consisting of small planetoids with air between them. Skyships push through the void, filled with air pirates and monstrous sky squid.


The scenario is that Lady Blackbird (Natasha Syri), a noble of the Imperium has fled an arranged marriage to be with her lover, the pirate king Uriah Flint. She hired the smuggler skyship Owl, but it has been captured by the Imperial cruiser Hand of Sorrow. She, her minions, and the Owl’s crew are now taken captive and held in the cruiser’s brig. The players take the roles of the imprisoned characters.


The game system itself is a variant of the dice pool used in many “story games”. Dice are rolled only for key conflicts, more dice are added if you use traits, tags, or character “keys”. Although not mentioned in the player’s sheets: it is a 6 sided die.
The gaming structure has removed complicated combat rules and focuses on the storyline instead. Whereas some RPG use elaborate rules to govern confrontation and combat scenarios, this game simplifies fighting down to an action & consequence sequence.


There is lots of room for role playing and character development in this game. It is very open to interpretation, allowing the players and GM to develop the story in all kinds of directions. Very little of the storyline is actually laid out, the GM needs to fill in most of the actions between key events.


Sequels to the story have been developed since it’s original release. John Harper over on “The Mighty Atom” blog has a post that has collected a few of them:
Age of Sail
By Richard Lacy. A re-skinning of LB for the age of tall ships and piracy in the Caribbean.
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ALIEN SURVIVOR
By Will Hindmarch. A survival-horror sci-fi adventure, using the LB system as the core.
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The Bloody Forks of the Ohio
By Jason Morningstar. The kickoff of the French and Indian war.
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Darkening Skies
By Chris Sakkas. A true sequel to Lady Blackbird, this is Chapter Two in the Tales from the Wild Blue Yonder.
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What is This Thing Called Steampunk Anyway? is the question Matthew Delman asks in his blog: Free the Princess. It’s a question that is shared in this forum as well, as we explore the aesthetic in its myriad of faces.


Matthew answers his own question: “Steampunk, in its most simple definition, is a type of fiction that places contemporary technology in the Victorian Era with Coal (and thus Steam) as the primary power source instead of Gas or Electricity.” With this definition in mind, Matthew deepened the scope of his blog and shares with us the insights he has gained.


“Free the Princess was never meant to be a resource for Steampunk background. The first post — on July 17, 2009 — set out the mission statement of the first 9 months for the blog to be an avenue where I’d share my research and thoughts about writing. I’d seen a few writers use their blogs as vehicles to educate people on the subject matter they used to write their books — Gary Corby’s “A dead man fell from the sky …” is all about Classical Athens, for example — and I loved the idea of doing that so much that I decided to do the same with Steampunk technology.

I had to start with technology because, well, I’m a techno-nut for lack of a better descriptor. Of course, when you grow up as the youngest child of a Mechanical Engineer, you learn how to build things and all sorts of fun technological tricks fairly early. I blame my love of educating people on having a Teacher for a mother, by the way (my mother will tell you she had nothing to do with it, of course).

So there I am, writing more and more about Steampunk and the associated technology. I realized, after a comment from one of my blog readers, that writing the posts about writing were actually becoming harder to do on a regular basis. The tipping point came when one reader suggested I write a non-fiction primer on the background information needed to write a Steampunk story. I’d already done a bunch of research, and I could see how codifying everything would make writers’ and creators’ lives a whole lot easier.

Thus Free the Princess was reborn as a “practical literary guide to Steampunk.” My original focus on Steampunk tech has now expanded to include, well, pretty much every darn scrap of information I can find about the Victorian Age. The whole point of the blog now is to share as much of that with my readers as possible.

I call it a “practical literary guide” because I don’t discuss what does and does not constitute a Steampunk novel. My aim is merely to share what I think you might maybe, sort of, kind of possibly need to know in order to write a historically viable Steampunk story set between 1800 and 1920. If you’re writing a fantasy-world Steampunk tale, then by all means feel free to crib from my notes to flavor your world. That’s what the blog is there for after all.

As to other projects, well there’s also the speaking engagement I have at Upstate Steampunk in Greenville, South Carolina this fall, and Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders, my brand-spanking-new Steampunk literary magazine. Oh yes, and don’t forget the half-dozen Steampunk novels I have kicking around in my skull.

But feel free to give me a shout if you want something covered on Free the Princess; I am always, and I do mean always, looking for ideas of areas to cover.
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Links:

http://www.matthewdelman.com

Free the Princess: http://freetheprincess.blogspot.com

Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders: http://www.doctorfantastiques.com

Are you a Steampunk Artist? Writer? Designer? I want to feature you on SteamTuesday! Leave a comment for me to get back to you.
Did you like this feature? “Like” it on Facebook! Share it with your friends – support the creative community.
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This weeks blog tour:
OM Grey’s Caught in the Cogs feature:
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It’s still Canuk Steampunk month at the Steampunk Scholar’s blog. Read up on: Gaslight Dogs
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Mary Sew, from Germany, runs her own Steampunk Sunday blog feature, but we are pleased to include it on SteamTuesday: http://www.mistyillusions.org
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In April of 2008 I started to make rings just for fun after Catherine (My better half) learned how to make simple wire rings. Since then I spent several hours every day perfecting and developing my own technique to create an original design. I quickly started to make very retro-futurist styles of rings. At that time I quit my job to live on my jewelry full-time. Since then I have had over 1900 sales on ETSY and also had the chance to see my work featured at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford during the first Major Steampunk art Exhibition.





One day a friend told me what I was doing was Steampunk. I researched the subject and quickly fell in love with this culture. I always liked Steampunk but I didn’t know there was a name for it. What attracts me the most about Steampunk is the Aesthetics. Because it is a relatively new style of science fiction and it is not widely known, you can let your imagination create almost anything. There is a lot of space for creativity within the Steampunk genre.





Because I didn’t know about Steampunk when I first started and I had no influence from other Artist, I used my own imagination to create a unique style within the Steampunk genre. I imagined what people would wear in a Steampunk Era and what would match well with the Steampunk outfits I saw people wearing across the web. By combining the mechanical and organic shapes with antiqued metals, brass and copper, I invented my vision of what Steampunk Jewelry would look like.





I was born in 1976 in Montreal. My family was French Canadian until I was orphaned at 12 years old. I was adopted into the family of close friends, of Spanish and French background. In my new family my French father is a Painter and teacher, one of my brothers is a musician, the other a computer analyst director and my Spanish mother the manager of a coffee shop for several years. What they all have in common is the passion they put in what they do and I have learned a lot from each of them.




Since I was young I always been interested in Fantasy, Dungeon and Dragons and Science Fiction. I mixed my passion for D&D and Steampunk together to make one of my most popular pieces: my Steampunk Beholder Robot, which was featured on BoingBoing and also displayed the Oxford Steampunk Exhibition.



I always been of an artistic nature. Most of the time I drew monsters and dragons but I also learned Origami. I sang in a punk band with my brother and I also used to play bass guitar.





I also traveled a lot and it is during my journeys that I learned photography. I had one of my recent pictures of Big Ben UK featured in a travel guide and I also was featured on a photography website: The Incredible Steampunk Jewelry Photography of Daniel Proulx





My work experience went from Working in a Banana Plantation in Australia to School manager and teaching in Japan to Travel agent, working Finance and finally a Jewelry designer.





Each of my rings are One of a Kind pieces. Eventually I developed new techniques that allowed me to widen my collection. I went from very Industrial designs to something that represent the Victorian side of Steampunk. Such as this Bracelet with Czech Glass and the Necklaces with Glass Jewel.





One of Daniel’s rings was worn by Claudia in the 2nd episode of Warehouse 13 ! and is seen in the SyFy clip from Allison Scagliotti:
Do It With Style! – Warehouse 13 : Allison Scagliotti’s Video Blog: Allison gives you a peek into what makes up Claudia’s personal style.



A few recent accomplishments:
21 May 2009 – Steampunk D&D Beholder sculpture featured on BoingBoing.com
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13 October 2009 – Participation in The first Steampunk Exhibition to be held at a Major Museum ,The Museum of the History of Science Oxford UK
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14 January 2010 – The Incredible Steampunk Jewelry Photography of Daniel Proulx www.lightstalking.com
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20 February 2010 – Article about Steampunk in the Montreal Gazette Newspaper


Upcoming Events and Features:
31 July 2010 – Vending at the Grand Picnic Victorien Montreal
14 to 22 august – Vending at Hot Air Balloons festival – International de Montgolfieres – Saint -Jean-sur-Richelieu.
27 to 29 August – Guest at FanExpo Canada . Steampunk Meet-and-Greet Soiree at the Royal York Library Bar , participation in the “Steampunk 101” panel
and more … http://www.fanexpocanada.com/
Feature in 1000 Steampunk Inspiration Book


Links :
Etsy : http://www.etsy.com/shop/CatherinetteRings
Facebook Page : http://tinyurl.com/facebooksteampunk
Blog : http://steampunkrings.blogspot.com/
DeviantArt : http://catherinetterings.deviantart.com/
Twitter : http://twitter.com/steampunkrings
Flickr : http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielproulx/
Artfire : http://www.artfire.com/users/CatherinetteRings

Are you a Steampunk Artist? Writer? Designer? I want to feature you on SteamTuesday! Leave a comment for me to get back to you.
Did you like this feature? “Like” it on Facebook! Share it with your friends – support handmade art.
–
This weeks blog tour:
OM Grey’s Caught in the Cogs feature: Among the Ruins
–
It’s still Canuck Steampunk month over at the Steampunk Scholar’s blog: Whitechapel Gods

Myke Amend is an Illustrator, engraver, and painter of strange weird-fiction and pulp-inspired works, combining a strange brand of pop surrealism, fantastic realism combined with landscape styles drawn from the 1800′s era American Artists movement.





His illustrations have been published in, or as covers for Weird Tales Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Gatehouse Gazette, Kilter Magazine, the art collection “Gothic Art Now” (and two more upcoming collections yet to be disclosed).





Myke has commissioned artworks for many names in Steampunk Music, Entertainment, and Literature including Dexter Palmer, The Pickled Brothers Sideshow, Vernian Process, and Captain Robert of Abney Park.





Myke has also been featured in many popular online resources such as IO9, Elfwood, Dark Roasted Blend, WarrenEllis.com, Fantasy Art Magazine, Lines and Colors, and Brass Goggles.





About my work:

I seek to present a great amount of activity, drama, and even chaos, in the most tranquil and serene settings -and through hidden imagery both large and small, I aim for each piece to present something new to each viewer with each and every viewing.





My goal is not only to present a scene, but to place the viewer within the scene, and to provide them with many interesting new worlds within worlds to explore. Of late, my most common vehicle for this sort of exploration has been airships. I hope to round out this series this year, to complete a table-top book this year called “Airships and Tentacles”. My reasoning for this mix includes my love for the sea and ocean life, as well as for old maritime paintings; My surreal fantasy/horror blend is heavily inspired by old pulp fiction, weird tales, and tales of terror from a number of 1800s-era writers in the field, such as H.P. Lovecraft, Robert W. Chambers, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley. I am also inspired by classic tales of exploration, adventure, and human ingenuity from authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and of course Jules Verne.





My primary inspiration for the airships series however, is my dream of seeing the human race lean towards a more fuel-efficient and eco-friendly means of travel and shipping. It may be hard for most of the US to bring back the sort of relaxed travel that train-lines once offered, we were foolish to ever have sacrificed such a valuable network, and doubly so to not have an abundance of light rails in between, around, and within our larger cities. The difference in fuel needed per-pound to move people and freight by train, vs. that used for semis, is astounding.





Airships, not relying on the rebuilding of this infrastructure, are good solution for the mean time; This, especially now that we have reached the age where not only can their engines be fueled by algae, but the balloons themselves could possibly even be lifted by bio hydrogen.





I suppose I could try to do my part for the world, as an artist, by pointing fingers at the oil industry, and spotlighting the horror that humanity creates for itself; Okay, I actually have, many times… but such works, they do not look good in most people’s living rooms; Such works are also rarely featured on any site worth mention for fear of polarizing one’s reader base. I have found that it is better to try my best to leave others inspired by the idea and the notion, to put the possibility or at least the dream into visible, sharable form, and to hope my fascination infects others.

Links:

MykeAmend.com
Ettadiem.Etsy.com
TheMiskatonicArchive.com
Facebook.com/mykeamend
Twitter.com/Mykeamend
Flickr.com/Photos/MykeAmend
MykeAmend.DeviantArt.com
MykeAmend.Livejournal.com
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Are you a Steampunk artist or writer? Be featured on SteamTuesdays – Contact us with your info. Got a Steampunk Blog? Join the tour!
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This week’s Steampunk Blog tour:

O.M.Grey’s Caught in the Cogs Steampunk Spotlight
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Join Mike Perschon for his Steampunk discussions on The Steampunk Scholar
July is Canuk Steampunk month – Starclimber
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On Steamed: The Steampunk Novel Diary: Why Steampunk?? by Author Marie-Claude Bourque

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Matthew Delman at Free The Princess.com -Your resource on Steampunk background — history, science, culture, and more:
Messr Delman’s Aetheric Linkapalooza

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Veronique Chevalier is AKA The “Weird VAL” of Dark Cabaret. Being gonged off the premiere season of America’s Got Talent was irrefutable proof that the mainstream were not yet ready for her gifts.





Veronique is a journalist; social activist; record producer, lyricist; parodist; visual artist; model, former ballet dancer. She is reputed to be the long-lost great-granddaughter of a certain famous Frenchman who was a star of stage and screen… (Maurice Chevalier)





Veronique is a unparalleled Parodist; a Steampunk Chanteuse, and Spooky Polkanista, who has been described as a campy incarnation of Edith Piaf from a parallel universe – the one in which her parents are Jim Morrison, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and her godparents are Lucille Ball and Weird Al.





As a self-proclaimed “Mad Sonictist,” she takes maniacal pleasure in combining previously unrelated musical forms into new, unholy combinations. She vows to leave no genre unadulterated in her quest to create the ultimate Sonic Frankenstein…





“I especially appreciate under-the-radar and/or quirky talents…I am very proud of my benefit project, a recording and live show Cabaret4Choice which highlights the complexity of reproductive freedom…I conceptualized and produced ‘Polka Haunt Us: A Spook-tacular Compilation’ which was an Official Selection on The 51st Annual Grammy Ballot, & is sure to become a perennial Halloween classic, and am currently writing an original Steampunk Opera..(See links to ‘The Many Websites Of Veronique’ in the right-hand sidebar of my blog).”

Album Lyrics


Veronique is proud to be part of Gilded Age Records, the world’s only artist collective focused on musician’s combining old world aesthetics and sounds with current genres of music.
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Steampunk/Cabaret/Swing/Ragtime/Gypsy-Punk/Neo-Classical/Martial-Industrial/Darkwave/Post-Punk/etc.


Chevalier will be appearing July 11th, 2010 at:

* * The Steampunk Bizarre, Hartford, CT,

The “Internet Date” video will premiere on Sunday, July 11th, 2010, at The Second Annual Steampunk Bizarre, at ArtSpace in Hartford, Connecticut, and will be available on YouTube one week after the live premiere. The Steampunk Bizarre, curated by Joey Marsocci, and presented by DrGrymmLaboratories.net, is a week-long exhibition, running July 9th – 16th, exploring various aspects of Steampunk, which is a term that has been coined for “The Scholar’s Science Fiction.”


The Steampunk Bizarre Exhibit will be alive with sights and sounds of ingenious and strange contraptions set in a themed atmosphere. Dr. Grymm’s EXPERIMENT is to bring together 23 international artists, some from the Steampunk community, some professional artists trying their hand at Steampunk for the first time.

Chevalier, is the only performance artist who has been invited to participate in The Steampunk Bizarre, and in addition to screening the “Internet Date” video, she has written two song new parodies and a spoken word piece entitled “I Am Steampunk” that she will perform live.

Highlights of the exhibition will be filmed for a documentary by Neurotic Films, tentatively entitled “I Am Steampunk: The Making Of A Bizarre World,” which will premiere in the Fall of 2010.


More Appearances:
* * The League Of Temporal Adventurers First Society Gala, San Diego, July 24th, 2010
* * Seattle Steamcon II, November 19th-21st, 2010
* * Wild Wild West Con, Tucson, AZ, March 2011 (Opening for Abney Park)
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Find Veronique:
http://WeirdVal.com
http://MySpace.com/VeroniqueChevalier
http://twitter.com/VeroniqueCheVAL
http://www.gildedagerecords.com
http://www.somedaylounge.com/performers/Veronique_Chevalier
http://PolkaHaunt.Us
http://MySpace.com/PolkaHauntUs
http://twitter.com/PolkaHauntUs
http://www.youtube.com/user/VeroniqueChevalier
http://steampunk.ning.com/profile/VeroniqueChevalier

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This week’s Steampunk Blog tour:

O.M.Grey’s Caught in the Cogs Steampunk Spotlight: Lovechild Boudoir
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Join Mike Perschon for his Steampunk discussions on The Steampunk Scholar
July is Canuk Steampunk month – Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
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On Steamed: The Steampunk Novel Diary: Why Steampunk?? by Author Marie-Claude Bourque

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Matthew Delman at Free The Princess.com -Your resource on Steampunk background — history, science, culture, and more:
Locomotives in Steampunk Society