Saturday, June 23, 2012

Saturday Steam 6/23/12

Let's start this week's roundup with an argument in favor of my starting a doll collection:

 Eeee! So beautiful! (Posted by the artist maddierose90804 almost exactly a year ago.)

Seriously, though, the custom doll world scares me. I can see myself getting sucked in and losing all my money in a heartbeat.

Btw, I stumbled across that doll while looking for the source for this one Kati B. sent in:




This steampunk Barbie has flooded Pinterest, and I can't find the original source for the life of me. Anyone know? (Even the watermark didn't help!) The detail is just mind-boggling, isn't it? I want all these doll outfits in MY size!

[UPDATE: Yay, the commenters found it! See more pics from Izolda Frozenhouse here on Flickr. Thanks, guys!] [UPDATE UPDATE: Looks like that Flickr account has since been removed. Sorry, guys.]

And since I'm in a steamy dress-up kinda mood now, here's another fun paper doll program that Lizzy found:

You can play it on the artist's DeviantArt page here - and be sure to kiss your next ten minutes goodbye. ;)


I'm digging this fun airship sculpture by Stephan J. Smith:

"Papier-mache and repurposed metal, plastic, wood and cardstock. Finish painted in acrylic. Approximately 18″ long, 6″ wide and 10″ tall. Weighs less than 2 lbs and hangs by two embedded wire eyes at top of sculpture." 
(Found via DudeCraft)  

It's for sale, too - only $130! Not bad for all that hand-crafted goodness.

Or, for us crafty types, Stephan has a DIY kit so you can make your own:

The kit is $20, and comes with everything in the inset picture - wooden stand not included. Hmm... I bet one of these would look awesome over my steampunk Christmas tree this year...


Oh! Remember Sarafina, the high-schooler who asked for advice on putting together a steampunk prom dress? Well, I'VE GOT PICTURES!

Her mom Stefani sent these in. Due to travel and another school event on the same weekend, the families had to get these two ready in a hotel with really bright bedspreads:

D'aww. Aren't they adorably dapper? I like how his vest co-ordinates with her dress. And see how Sarafina pinned her skirts, and got some great boots, and chose a pretty jewel-tone dress? [swelling with pride] To quote Sean Connery: "SCHTEAMY." (Ok, that's less a quote and more how he'd sound saying "steamy," but whatevs.) 

Also, check the hair!

Nice! 

I mean, it'd be even BETTER with teeny tiny top hat, but I'm not complaining. Great work, Sarafina and Stefani and Sarafina's date! I hope you guys had a fabulous prom!


Melanie R. had a great idea for some easy and steamy wall art: She purchased several technical drawings from Vintage Internet Patents and then framed 'em up all purdy:

These two are Edison's light bulb and Smith's microscope, but Melanie also has Tesla's steam engine and Goedike's printing press. Perfect for a home office or budding mad scientist!

The prints are $7.50 each, or you can download the .pdfs and print them yourself (perhaps on old book pages? Hmm?) for $2.99. There are lots of categories to browse through, too. Here's one from "Transportation:"


"Sullivan Flying Machine"


Or, if you've got a slightly (ok, hugely) larger art budget, check out these AMAZING steampunk sculptures Scott K. sent in:


 Jessica Joslin  uses found objects and metal to craft these slightly creepy and utterly charming art pieces. My favorite is Lazarus the bat here, but Cooper the owl is equally impressive:

Hit the link up there to see more Jessica's work.



Seen something steamy? As always, share the goodness with me on FB, Twitter, or e-mail! (And if you're a Pinterest addict, I even have a steampunk board you can check out.)

20 comments:

  1. That first picture of the first doll? Totally thought it was a person. Incredible job.

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  2. Wow, Sarafina looks totally fabulous, and so does her date! Way to go, guys. Love all the steamy goodness and you've got me thinking I need to do a little steampunk in my own house. Love it :)

    Will be thinking about you all week as you prepare for your doctor's appointment. You can do it, and things will be so much better afterwards!

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  3. Good job Sarafina!

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  4. You can also go to vintage-reprints.com for lots of great vintage patents. I haven't gotten any yet, but I will eventually.

    I first heard of steampunk from Epbot--thanks! The more I see, the more I realize it's the perfect blend of my secret loves of girly Victorian and geeky sci-fi. Add some fantasy elements in there . . . and I just had a vision of steampunk fairies. I'm going to have to look into that!

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  5. The "Steampunk Barbie" is actually a custom Tonner brand doll (so a slightly bigger scale, Tonner dolls are 16" tall) wearing a custom outfit by "Frozenhouse" on Flickr. There are more pictures from the outfit designer here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/izolda_hotimskaya/6847057476/in/photostream/

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  6. My favorite doll maker is Marina B of Enchanted Dolls. Be careful- you can lose all sense of time in her galleries! Here's one you might like- Cinderella

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  7. I think this may be the source of the Steampunk doll. The doll is a Tonner Tyler and the outfit is by Izolda Frozenhouse:
    Blog: Izolda Frozenhouse's Blog & Flickr stream

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  8. Hope you're having a better day today, Jen!

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  9. There's a steampunk fantasy roleplaying game called Skyborn that's been out for a few months that is really cool. I haven't suggested it before because I'd only played a trial, and had some technical issues, but they seem to be all fixed now and I bought the game today. It's great fun! Here is a link to it on the developer's website Dancing Dragon Games, although I bought it through Big Fish Games.

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  10. A co-worker brought some of her Korean dolls into work last week - they look really similar to the first doll in your post.

    They were so amazing with eyelashes and incredibly realistic faces! And all the body parts are held together with magnets so that arms and legs and hands can be chosen separately! Of course, this also means that wings can be attached between the arms and shoulders!

    They were really cool and I can see how it can easily become an addiction! She even made some really great clothes for them too.

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  11. Well, there goes my surprise, I found this same thing and I was going to link it for you. *sigh*

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  12. I am utterly in love with Cooper the owl! <3

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  13. Did you go to Jessica Joplin's website? WOW! www.jessicajoplin.com You can buy prints and a book of her work too!

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  14. Thank you for sharing the link to the vintage patent prints! I've been trying to replace/redo the art in my steampunk living room with something more subtle, and those may be perfect. Especially given that I DO have a "mad scientist" boyfriend! Maybe I should line the back of a shadowbox with a Stirling engine print, then put our small Stirlings in the box in front of it. Hm.... Thanks for getting my gears turning, so to speak.

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  15. I have to admit that I hadn't known what steampunk was until I joined your blog, but I have to tell ya....I was missing a lot of cool stuff!!! This stuff is FANTASTIC!

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  16. That's so weird, I was just thinking about buying that Tonner outfit. There was one for sale (without the doll) recently on eBay. I didn't end up getting it because I didn't think it would fit my rather busty MSD ABJD girl. I'm not sure it would get around her hips and boobies.

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  17. If you do a Google search for "Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office" you can get lots of cool patent drawings for free, if you are a decent photo-editor. They are on Google Books. I found it while doing research on an old patent. I had to do some 'print screen' and editing of the pictures, but the drawings are very cool (although sometimes small). Would be perfect if you were making a collage!

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  18. The stand for that airship kit looks like one of those banana hangers that you find at the kitchen supply shops.

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  19. If you are looking for free patent drawings, you can go to Google Patents. It doesn't look different from regular Google, but if you enter an inventor or invention name, you can find some pretty cool stuff. On the left side you can restrict it by filing or issue date, so you can make sure you are only looking at old patents. They are mostly in PDF, and you can download the PDFs for free then print the drawings pages. As far as I know Google Patents mostly has U.S. patents.

    Ex: http://www.google.com/patents/US1648630?printsec=drawing&dq=dirigible&ei=tYPsT-nXHML10gGi5uzHBQ#v=onepage&q=dirigible&f=false

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  20. Hey Jen,

    I thought you should know that Izolda Frozenhouse has apparently deleted his/her Flickr account.

    When I clicked on the link, I was taken to a Flickr page with a message that the account was no longer active. So, you may want to take the link down.

    Also, @Jen (June 23, 7:17pm), the same thing I wrote above applies to the two links you proved for Izolda Frozenhouse. Both the blog and Flickr account has been taken down.

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