Tag Archives: Week 2

Alice, analysis, Jewlery, Steampunk, Week 2

14 Square for Luck

June 8, 2013 Bethany Leave a comment

Fairly simple Steampunk Alice influenced pendant in copper, brass, and bronze, with silver card diamond.

Copper wire wrap and decorated gear connect the sprocket gear, the red diamond, and the Chinese coin. A leather cord runs through an additional gear to hang the piece. I started with a green piece left from one I made the other day but the red is better for my mood today. The possibility of something different, of something better, of creating working wonders from available material and style appeals to the sentiment of the day. Steampunk is cathartic. It is the feel, the concepts, the art, the style, the work itself, the act and image of creation that give you strength and focus. Creating and building something electrical or computerized may be neat but it doesn’t feel like creation, it isn’t beautiful in itself. I love working on motorcycles, engines, and mechanical things; Steampunk offers a similar but more aesthetic catharsis. The style and aesthetic reaches a different part of you than the modern engines and electronics. IT is related to why we work on old motorcycles, vintage gearing, mechanicals, and aesthetic have an elegant practicality with unnecessary beauty in a modern view. Is it really unnecessary though? What part of us and the world is not being reached? Would the world be as disposable if we still strove to touch those parts of a person with the simple and the elaborate, bringing out the beauty in each function?

Alice, Jewlery, Steampunk, Week 2

Steampunk Alice Prototype (13)

June 7, 2013 Bethany 2 Comments

Today’s piece feels like one of the 24 hour Rogue-like competitions in a way. I am happy with the piece but it is rather a prototype awaiting the equipment I don’t have yet. I envision the gears mounted through posts in a rivet-like format to spin and mess properly in multiple layers with a brass or wood back-plate. Again, this is a mixed metal pendant I designed beginning with the key and the large ornate gear-like piece in the back. The hanging loop is a copper wrapped steel ring, the gears are bronze, brass, pewter, and copper I think. the pearl is not attached, it hangs above. The card markings are silver. I didn’t have just the gear I wanted for the space left of the lock and it looked better without what I tried.

The lock, key, card marks, and the lines reminded me of Alice for some reason.

As I work on these pieces with short time, I am pleased as much by the ideas and plans I develop as the pieces I create in the moment. I am developing a real plan for a direction in some areas of the art. I am also starting to see more ways to incorporate my ideas into the motorcycles as we build them.

Alice, Found Object, Jewlery, Steampunk, Week 2

Alice, Alice Quite Contrary

June 6, 2013 Bethany 2 Comments

Jewelry, gears, hearts, cards, metal, and wood – the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.

As I work I begin to see that I really want to make gears and models and such. I want to try and make the from both wood and metal. The idea of wooden gears and functioning mechanicals using them fascinates me.

The jewelry trend continued another day today. Meant to be a pendant, it could actually be an earring as well, it began with an earring. At this point is probably obvious that my husband and I tend to own and wear earrings in singles and unmatched sets. Creating jewelry from random bits and broken jewelry began with my mother and I sitting on the bed talking. When she would get to sick to be up, we all gathered at her bed to play or talk. Mom and I would make stuff and do projects. We also did stories, made games, sang, and drew. As I got older, she loved I would make her furniture or jewelry out of bits left over from special places, jobs, and people involved in our lives. This has heavily influenced my art and work and blends beautifully with steampunk genre creation.

Simple pendant in mixed metals using sprocket gear, metal plate, and a heart from a card deck

Enjoy one more Steampunk Alice piece, this one fairly simple.

Alice, Found Object, Jewlery, Steampunk, Week 2

Day 11 Steampunk Jewelry

June 5, 2013 Bethany Leave a comment

I made this using an old pin of my mother's and an earring I think was my sister's with some new gears and things. — I made this using an old pin of my mother’s and an earring I think was my sister’s with some new gears and things.

Steampunk Jewelry time again! I love actually making things. I got home very late today but had new bits to work with. I made two pieces because I fell behind a bit in having to turn yesterday’s into a two part delayed project. I did get some metallic paint on the way home though.

I almost have a story in mind these inspired, maybe later in the week it will be a full idea.

This earring was made with the last piece of the earing I used pieces of several days ago, gears, a Chinese coin, and bits of the earring used in the Pin today. — This earring was made with the last piece of the earring I used pieces of several days ago, gears, a Chinese coin, and bits of the earring used in the Pin today.

To the left is a Steampunk Alice Pin. Again, I used bits of broken, old jewelry; removed and added things. The bow was my mothers so I didn’t want to hide it. I used a Chinese coin, same one as in the earring to the right. The gear also sort of reminds me of a steering wheel or wheel, so it has several things in common with the earring.

To the right is a Steampunk Travel Earring. I had a piece left from what I made the other day, some new bits, and an idea. I was thinking of the Victorian love of bringing things home from around the world and the influences you see in the design. I love travel and have been a lot of places, so this appeals to me. I used the Chinese coin and the passport to represent travel and the chime to represent the places you enjoy, and the gears and bits to represent the airships and travel machinery in my mind.

Alice, cat furniture, Paint, pencil, Steampunk, Week 2

Kitty Corner Steampunk Thoughts

June 4, 2013 Bethany Leave a comment

Working all day and then coming home to do stuff here before I can start my project makes working on painting a tad difficult to finish in one day. Given that I must be up at 4 am, I am going to stop this project for a part two, to be continued tomorrow. I am posting the work as it stands now. I finished the drawing, if I had considered, I would have done more detail in pencil and made it 2 separate projects. Live and learn today, I shall remember next time. Another point is that I really need to find the rest of my brushes before I can continue the details and repair what the wrong brushes blurred.

This is done in Acrylic only because I forgot to prep the canvas before drawing. I am also considering how to make oil one day projects, because I do not like the wet on wet technique. When completed, this will be a 2 aspect piece. It is a Steampunk cat corner and a Steampunk art display with Alice influence. I find Alice and Dr. Who both go remarkably well in Steampunk design, a fortuitous discovery for a Whovian. I am fascinated to see what other subjects and themes go well in the Steampunk genre.

Part of1 Steampunk Kitty Corner. Notice the clock, hat, cards, and gears from various regions of Alice. — Part of 1 Steampunk Kitty Corner. Notice the clock, hat, cards, and gears from various regions of Alice.

Today I also realized that although I am fine with them on the computer and in physical art, I actually hate drawing many basic gears. I love them in art though. I am testing to see the ones I actually like to draw, and began to see differences.

The colors obviously will be different as layers go on, but you can see I went with a fairly basic color scheme, there will be some obvious touches like purple on the hat and red in the cards. Wood floor and details also. I do not have metallic paint so am working on the gears. Victorian aesthetic is great, the lines are excellent, but I like Edwardian better because there is a better color sense to the actual period design. Too many colors at a time in Victorian, although most Steampunk design does seem to lessen that. Also, too many patterns for my taste. It is part of the overdone feel but for me detracts from the design. I prefer use of luxurious materials, and excess detail or functions to excess colors and patterns. Somewhere in there is a line in Steampunk, but as I have previously discussed, that depends on the sub-genre of Steampunk. I find myself working in several of the sub-genre as I go. I like different tones for different things and days.

furniture, Gallifreyan, Steampunk, Week 2

The Box with no Name – Steampunk Trials

June 3, 2013 Bethany 2 Comments

More Steampunk furniture. Yes I like designing and building furniture, I also currently lack what I need for models, jewelry, and a lot of physical art forms. I do want to paint more though. This one was done entirely in Google Sketch-up. I drew each component except the small clock, I just liked it and it was marked free source. I don’t have many materials in the program yet and haven’t found my pro version, so it didn’t have a few things I am unsure if I can do in the standard version. I’m learning.

This piece is a Steampunk worktable, full 3-d model. If you look at the 3 views, some of the details you will see are 2 perpetual motion machines, 2 clocks, quite a few drawers, some almost Galifreyan symbols, and a variety of woods and Brass, copper materials. Gears connect from one side to the other inside the piece and power the perpetual motion machines.

notice the clock, and the perpetual motion machine on top.

notice the extendable fan table, one on opposite side as well.

You can see the interior gears and perpetual motion machines as well as most drawers.

good shot of brass top, the perpetual motion machine, and the fan tables.

Frankly, this piece grew entirely organically, there was no plan. I was drawing components to have them for future use and just started drawing.

Anyone know how to change the timezone on your WordPress account?

Alice, cat furniture, GIMP, pencil, Steampunk, Week 2

Steampunk Desk to share with Feline Companion

June 2, 2013 Bethany 2 Comments

This desk was a remarkable pain, GIMP crashed 5 times and my file was lost each time. Working on this version, I saved steps and am going to upload them as I talk also. I began with a sketch as I usually do of a steampunk desk with places for cats to play and sleep. The enclosed area is designed to open for them or storage as needed. The following is the original sketch I worked from.

I have Photoshop installed but no plugins and having never used it, I was to tired to use it instead of GIMP…GIMP was not friendly.I began the color stages with simple materials.The brass desk was too bare so I began to work. This is where things went bad. I did 5 versions beyond this, each entirely different, and I was each time unable to recreate what I had done. I had separated floor and wall, redrawn the entire sketch in GIMP with the trackball and was finishing up when I lost my first one. The following was my next step that survived. As you can see, I am patterning the desk and attempting to add shadows and depth. This was my third one that survived but my 4th design. After the next crash, I quickly did another and decided the program was shutting down, I was too tired to focus and the day is over.I like the idea and the base concept. I really liked my first and third pieces today, and am honestly too tired to judge the final one that I began the post with. I did leave a little Alice influence in with the clock and red carpeting but might add more if I did another version…not sure.