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.

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

A unique find for certain – but a working gear calling card, made of paper – I just love it. It’s already made of brass and leather in my mind. Let me know if you make one and I’ll post it.

Things – Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

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.

USB keys come in every theme imaginable. There’s something from every pop culture icon, to steampunk to gizmos, to classic to kitsch. Right now I’m hung up on the foodie themes and there’s some funky stuff.

As a Montrealer, I can’t decide if it should be St Viateur or Fairmount bagels- but that would be a cool promo item.

Bagel

Cabbage

Cakes Slices

Layered Cakes

Fresh Clam

Only looks fresh Sushi

Hot Chili Pepper

It's not delivery

Chicken Wings and Bacon Wraps

I should really start a post that focus’s on bacon themed items…

You need a closer look at the bacon

Just in case you were looking for that perfect unique gift, I read this on Random Good Stuff today:

Bone Ring

“The couple’s cells will be grown at Guy’s Hospital and finished bone tissue will be taken to a studio at the Royal College of Art to be used in the design of a pair of rings. Following consultation with the couple, the bone will be combined with traditional precious metals so that each has a ring made with the tissue of their partner.”

Finding that little something special for someone who is difficult to shop for can be a challenge – but I think I’ll draw the line where surgery needs to be performed.

I appreciate a macabre edge to the unusual as much (or maybe a little more than) the next guy, but I can just hear Grandma’s voice when I bring home this little trinket:

“Look at my engagement ring, Nana”
“That looks like your Uncle Carl”