Overbury Ink

SteamTuesday this week features Shelly Brooks handcrafted jewelry. Inspired by Steampunk, Vintage, Neo Victorian motifs, her creations can be found in on the web and in chosen galleries in Arizona, USA. This week we speak with Shelly as she describes her art and genre.

SHELLY: “Art and its creation has been my life since the tender age of seven when I was enrolled in an oil painting class.  After majoring in Art History during college; I was blessed with the opportunity to work in an art museum in Laguna Beach which was fabulous! However my love affair with the art world did not stop there.

My true passion is creating jewelry. It started about 12 years ago and now consumes my life. Themes in my jewelry explore the dimensions of both art and history itself, traveling through time, inspired by the Victorian Era, Edwardian, Gothic, Romance and Industrial Age. Tinkering with vintage watches, and finding that perfect juxtaposition of old and new is the part of the puzzle that keeps me going. Sometimes I just stare at one of my pieces, until it hits me on how to transform it into a treasured work of art.

The Steampunk genre is an absolute love of mine.  The richness, elegance, romance and the fantasy of a different era is what captures my fancy.  I believe all time travelers dream constantly of another time.  Perhaps one of my lives was located in the late 1800′s or the time of Gatsby.  Oh what fantasies!

My favorite quote:  “Life expands or contracts in direct proportion to one’s courage.”   ~Anaïs Nin

My ultimate creative goal is to inspire and beautify the world with my timeless, Mystic Pieces; providing enjoyment and style for all those who appreciate unique creations.”

Shelly Brooks handcrafted jewelry is inspired by Steampunk, Vintage, Neo Victorian motifs. You can find Shelly’s work on Etsy and on follow her work on Twitter as @mysticpieces

Are you enjoying our SteamTuesday features? Leave a comment! Are you a Steampunk artist / designer / writer / creative who would like to be featured? Let me know!

Steampunk for me was something that I was in love with long before I knew it existed. As a young child I spent many a summer at my grandparents home in St Clair, Michigan. They collected all things antique (mostly from the Victorian Era). Dolls, Clocks, Furniture, Clothes, Jewelry, Knick Knacks, you name it, they had it. We used to visit museums and go to auctions. Yet by the time I was a teenager, I had developed an obsession with the Civil War Era and the time thereafter. My grandmother approached me one day and ask me if I was interested in going to a re-enactment. I enthusiastically replied, “uh, yeah.” She laughed and told me when we went, she was going to introduce me to a woman who would be interested in help us become re-en actors as well. I was so excited and shared many weekends with my grandmother, mother, sisters, and cousins in hoop skirts thereafter.

I didn’t know a thing about Steampunk until I opened my first Etsy shop. It was then that I realized that this traditional style of Jewelry that I was creating (inspired by my grandmothers collection) fit into the steampunk genre . Eccentric and colorful as it may be, this is where I wanted to be, this is who I was. Finally for ONCE in my life, I could relate.

For years I have collected odds n ends from the thrift store, ebay, and directly off the sidewalk. Yet I didn’t start making jewelry until around 6 years ago. I tried stringing my stuff up, but it always broke. So I turned to wire and stuck with it, making beaded chains and wire wrapping stones. Soon after the opening of my Etsy shop, I started to collected watch parts (antique & modern), anything brass, and all kinds of new beads, and chain.

My name is Sarah Hall. I love the arts, my favorite Visual Artist are Roger Dean & Gnemo. I love to read anything related to science fiction, history, music, and medicine. I love rock and roll, punk, garage, and folk music. I can’t tell you that I have a favorite musician or band, because there are too many to love. I love vinyl and love to collect it. I collect rocks, coffee table and art books, cool things from the thrift store, and vintage clothing. I have an awesome husband  named John (who is a musician (bassist) and music collector as well) and we have two amazing kids together.

My Etsy Shop is http://thethriftysparrow.etsy.com soon to be http://spectranova.etsy.com (when I get my Internet back   !!!)

Flickr is where you can find all of my latest Steampunk Works (not yet on etsy) The Spectra Nova (Flickr)

I am a member of the Steampunk Empire ning network

I am on twitter @SpectraNova & @SteamAesthetic#Steam

Are you a Steampunk artist or writer? You can be featured on OverburyInk’s SteamTuesdays – Check the SteamTuesday page and contact us with your info.

WJ Howard is having a virtual blog tour on her blog: W.J. Howard

All About Writers

• Writer Wednesday over at Nicole Hadaway Vampire Blogspot

All About Writing

• Breathe the Surface, Getting to the words that are just below the surface, by Mary Rajotte
• And don’t forget to drop by the Wicked Writer’s Blog, where they’re blogging about query letters this week.

All About Books

For the books category, there is our own interview with Ian LeWinter and Don Richmond from Blank Must Die and our recent review of The Awakening written by Nick Tapalansky.

W. J. Howard is the author of the twitter novel @TheCourierNovel, a CO-WINNER in the 2009 Textnovel Online Fiction Contest.
Read The Courier on Textnovel or at thecouriernovel.com

Art & Design
100+ Old Coca Cola Ads And Posters
This is a wonderful collection of Coke ads dating back to the early 1900′s. Coke’s logo has not changed from it’s inception in the 1890′s, giving it a strong continuity throughout the last 100+ years. From a marketing and advertising viewpoint, it’s fascinating to see how the designs, layouts and focal points of ads have evolved  throughout this time frame. I love how Coke has been described as a “The Ideal Brain Tonic” and “Delicious with Food”. There’s a great triangular bottle carry case design as well. This is well worth the look.

The Ideal Brain Tonic

It’s interesting to see how the trends in current swimwear is returning to older styles, ok, not exactly like Miss Bo-Peep in blue, but more styles of returning to fuller fabric coverups, both for modesty as well as protection from the sun.

Trianglular bottle carry case

Delicious with Food - direct and to the point

Seen this interview? “Getting Personal with Richard Darell (@minervity)

Do you know who Richard Darell is?

Richard Darell

Maybe you recognized him better as:

@Minervity

Kriselle Laran of Bullfrog Media has the word on Richard and his work. Get the full interview here

The Most Creative And Skillful Corporate Web Designs Of All Times

10 Common Mistakes In Logo Design

30 Best Photoshop Abstract Effect Tutorials

60 Photoshop Tutorials for Photo Touch-Ups | Vandelay Design Blog

10 Eye-Catching Professional Free Fonts

24 Modern Mugs and Creative Mug Designs

Soap Not Spray Can: Reverse Graffiti Art.

Society at Large
I’m a big fan of lists, and the weirder the better. Murder? Mayhem? Famous Filth? Bring it on!

20 Most Prolific Serial Killers of All Time

Famous Things Invented by Accident

15 Famously Filthy People From the Pages of History

Comics

X-Men Universe Relationship map
If you have ever read stories from the X-Men Universe, you’ll find a tangled web of relationships, flirtations, obsessions and unrequited yearnings among the plots, intrigues and efforts at world domination. Wolverine has had enough romantic exploits for 2 lifetimes, oh right – he is over 100 years old. This is a detailed  chart with all the relationships spelled out on the dotted line. Who thought comics were simple?

10 Alan Moore Comics You Must Read! (Besides Watchmen)

Alan Moore is a titan in the comic world. This article lists as must reads: The Ballad Of Halo Jones, Captain Britain, The Saga Of Swamp Thing, V For Vendetta, Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?, 1963, From Hell (Jack The Ripper), The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Promethea, Top 10. Definitely a list to refer to if you need to fill in the gaps in your collection.

Environment

Living Root Bridges in India
The people in this part of India have trained the trees to grow into living bridges. The root bridges, some of which are over a hundred feet long, take ten to fifteen years to become fully functional, but they’re extraordinarily strong. Some of the ancient root bridges used daily by the people of the villages around Cherrapunji may be well over five hundred years old.

Eco Gadgets: Solar coffee maker

Solar Coffee Machine

The machine’s battery is charged by solar energy, then used to brew the coffee. I assume you’d have to have a sunny spot on your counter in order for this to work.

Neat, recycle wine bottles into Outdoor Torches

Bottle lights or Molotov Cocktails?

With the blue glass and copper hardware these look very pretty – but one of the comments in the article reads: “…if you fill it with gasoline and throw it it’s a MC. If you fill it with tiki oil, it’s lovely ambient lighting.” I guess it depends on your neighbourhood.

Very Cool: Air traffic in 24 hours Every yellow dot is a plane.

Twitter

11 Simple Twitter Secrets Revealed

Twitter Talkback: What Makes a Quality Tweet?