Overbury Ink

My Wife, Lora and I have a passion for Steampunk and all things Gothic and Neo-Victorian. We own an Etsy shop called London Particulars which is named after the heavy fogs which used to shroud Victorian London, as mentioned by Charles Dickens in Bleak House.


Our shop mainly carries handmade Steampunk Jewelry (by Lora) and my whimsical Neo-Victorian artwork, which is loosely based on Victorian Silhouettes.


I‘m from London and after I met Lora we soon relocated to America. Before leaving England, we spent a lot of time exploring London, the major attractions as well as the less frequented places. We soon discovered London’s secret and often missed history and we took a lot of photographs on these explorations.


Whilst settling into my new home in Seattle, I spent a day idling and browsing through our photographs of London and I found a particularly bewitching shot of Primrose Hill, a place referenced in Mary Poppins, War of the Worlds and a Blur song (For Tomorrow). The landscape was timeless and the image of a gentlemen cycling along on a Penny Farthing, pursuing a cat flying away on balloons soon materialized in my mind’s eye (as it will)…





The Gentlemen on his Penny Farthing is Professor Thistlequick and his cat goes by the name of Happiness. The Professor is in hot pursuit of Happiness after her balloons took her adrift whilst they were out taking the air. Their journey across London is portrayed in a series of seven pictures, including a dash over the gothic splendor of the House of Lords:





Professor Thistlequick is inspired by mad Victorian inventors and whilst the imagery might be more whimsical than a lot of Steampunk art, the novel I’m writing is much darker, with leanings to a more gothic, Dickensian London.


Through our love of all things vintage, strange and bizarre, we were drawn to the burgeoning Steampunk revival and Lora turned her creativity to fashioning Steampunk Jewelry.





Whilst a lot of our Steampunk Designs are unadulterated clockwork pieces, we also likes to add color, a flash of crimson and a dash of deepest blue and whilst the original clockwork mechanisms look beautiful and unique in their own right, it’s nice to compliment them with a hint of color.

The “Cthulhu” necklace, a reference to the fearsome old God from HP Lovecraft’s hugely influential and odd tale “The Call of Cthulhu”. Whilst the tales of HP Lovecraft proceeded the Victorian age, they still conjure the strange and peculiar which ties in with the ethos of London Particulars.

As one of the most unique and beautiful of men’s fashion accessories, Steampunk Cufflinks are one of our biggest sellers. Often purchased for weddings, we always strive for the “perfect match” when pairing our cuff links…a befitting detail on your big day!

The Victorians were known for their fascination with all things occult and esoteric, hence the creation of the Steampunk Scarab necklace. The Egyptians used the symbol of the Scarab (which symbolized rebirth) on a lot of their magical seals and amulets which were used as protection from evil spirits. Whilst we can’t promise our customers protection from evil, every little helps!





I think part of the allure of Steampunk Jewelry is that every piece of clockwork jewelry is completely unique. When you’re hunting for new watch movements and stripping away the old watch covers, you never know what you’re going to find. The people that made vintage watches were true artisans, I really appreciate their craftsmanship and it’s wonderful to think that rather ending up as landfill, these old watches are given a new lease of life, reborn as Steampunk Jewelry.





Steampunk is such a fluid art form, there are no particular rules; you can make whatever you like, the only limit being your imagination. This Steampunk Bee is one of my favorite pieces; I’d love to have a whole hive of them buzzing around the garden!

You can find out more about our Steampunk Jewelry and artwork, by visiting us at:
Etsy shop: LondonParticulars
www.steampunkjewelry.ffxoh.com/
http://professorthistlequick.com/
London Particulars Facebook page
Twitter @Steampunkshoppe