My Journey into Steampunk

Steampunk top hat for El Gallo. This is one of the pieces I created specifically for the tour.

Notice the distressed Tarot cards "The Lovers" and "The Moon"... sneaky I know.

After returning from tour this winter I busied myself with costume crafts for Nebraska Theatre Caravan's steampunk tour of Fantasticks! It was quite a quick education of the culture of steampunk, but I loved creating pieces that one may see in a futuristic past. 

I had heard of steampunk before but I wasn't quite sure how the name came to be. I was watching Oddities: San Francisco whilst running recently and they had a lovely steampunk gentleman on. It was so interesting to see and learn about the genre and culture outside of a theatre setting. Watching shows such as Oddities allows me to better understand the history and modern connotations of things that I could potentially or have used in my costuming. 

Creating technologies that would exist today but look as if a crazy inventor (Belle's father Maurice comes to mind although he's not in the right era) conceived the gadgets is very entertaining. I've had a blast creating and refurbishing all these gadgets and accessories for the tour. Projects like these remind me how much I love what I do and could not possibly have done something else. 

Armour from the original production I refurbished for this spring's tour. I love the "wrist watch" incorporated into the arm.

Question of the Post

Steampunk applies to more that just clothing. I've seen everything from steampunk computers to glasses. What would you like to see in a steampunk fashion? What would you want in this futuristic past?