Monday 27 February 2012

What is Steampunk?

Source Wikipedia :

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history and speculative ficton that came into prominence during the 1980s and the early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used - usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West" era United States - that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often features anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style and art. This technology includes such fictional machines as those found in the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne or the contemporary authors Philip Pullman, Scott Westerfield and China Mieville.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air-airships, analog computers or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical Engine.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk"style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

(read more on the steampunk page of wikipedia)


On some websites about steampunk I found the following qoutations :

Steampunk is how the people in the Victorian Era envisioned the future.

Just because you paint something bronze and glue some gears on it, doesn't make it steampunk.


What does that mean for our crafting projects?

The stuff we make on this crafting site isn't steampunk according to the description above.
They're not clever mechanical devices and they're not made in the Victioran style which is connected with the steampunk mechanics.

However, we are very much inspired by all the awesome steampunk projects you can find on google.
For us, it doesn't really matter if it counts as real steampunk or not, as long as we enjoy ourselfs with the crafting!

And who knows where our crafting journey will lead us!

Steampunk Computer
source : google
http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?46682-steampunk

Steampunk Guitar
source : google
http://1800recycling.com/2011/06/incredible-steampunk-recycling-guitars/

Steampunk Horse
source : google
http://www.afun9.com/29/steampunk-horse-design.html

Sunday 26 February 2012

Steampunk or Vintage?

I wanted to try out a new idea for a crafting technique using foam to create shaped layers on an object.

In this case I used a simple jewellery box and, inspired by steampunk examples online, tried to give it a vintage/steampunk look.

This is what happend :

This is the original simple jewellery box I used.
(€ 1,99 @ Action)




I bought the cheapest foam I could find to cut out pieces and glued it onto the box. (€ 0,99 for 16 pieces @ Zeeman)

Unfortunatly I forgot to make pictures of the process untill my husband spray-painted the whole box in a dark-red colour for me.

The back of the box.
The side of the box.

The top of the box.


using the Scorched Brown Citadel paint.

First I dry-painted the lower layer ,


After that I dry-painted the top layer in the Dwarven Bronze Citadel paint.
The top of the box.
The back of the box.
The inside of the box.



I finished of the bottom of the box with some light beige velvet.
As a finishing touch I glued a "spider-web" on the front of the box,
also dry-painted in Dwarven Bronze.


I don't know if you could really call this Steampunk or even Vintage.
I guess we can just call it Dee's Style!

Whatever you call it, I'm very pleased with the result and I can't wait to give it a nice spot in my new crafting-room!


Saturday 25 February 2012

NERF GUN ~ STRIKEFIRE.

A Steampunk transformation.

About a year ago my husband bought a Nerf-gun, just for fun.

Now, while I'm busy with my crafting, he finally had the inspiration to transform it into a steampunk-style gun.

This is the original design of the Nerf -Strikefire.
The most important part of taking apart a gun is making sure you remember how to assemble it again!
The bigger the gun, the more parts it has. This specific gun is relatively  easy to assemble. 
Once it was taken apart he spray-painted all the different parts  in a  flat black varnish.
After that he assembled all the pieces back together and started with the first step of dry-painting.
He used a Coffee Brown acrylic paint for the first layer.


This is what it looked like after the second step in dry-painting.
For this technique he used Citadel paint (also used for Warhammer) in the colours : Shining Gold, Scorched Brown,  Dwarf Bronze and Boltgun Metal.
He also glued a small piece of tube on top of the gun to serve as a gun sight.  
As a finishing touch I made a small chain with 2 charms which are symbolic for ; Angelic Justice.


I think it looks awesome!
He was able to transform the gun and keep the ability to use it.

Fun Fact :
In the victorian-time there was a gun company with the name New England Rifle Foundry
So, when you leave the NERF logo on the gun, it's not even completely inappropiate!

The next project I'm going to make a blog about is ;
A jewellery box turning Steampunk or Vintage?

Thursday 23 February 2012


A present for my sister in law.

What do you give to a beautiful woman?

A home-made jewellery box with a necklace inside might just be a good idea!

I started with a clean wooden "book" which I painted to make it look old. After that I glued some cut-outs from gears to the front and cut some angelwings out of different kinds of chipboard. The wings are only glued on the bottom part which is hidden by the little heart. This way the wings are not touching the box itself.
Here's a picture of the book standing open. 
I've glued some dark-red velvet on the inside for the more luxury effect of the jewellery box. The tiny silver dots on the sides are magnets which work as a lock when u close the box.
And offcours, a birthday card is included!
Beautiful women have no Age!
I've put the card inside. After that I bought a necklace and put the little giftbox from the shop underneath the card.  I don't have a picture of the necklace, maybe I'll add one later on.
 So, that's it, my first finished project of 2012!

I'm having a hard time finding real gears to use on the different projects.
I'm hoping this problem will be solved soon because I do believe the real ones will look better then the paper cut-outs I'm using right now.
And maybe someday I'll have the money to buy an Big Shot Die Cut Machine! Time to start saving!

The next project I'm going to make a blog about is one of my husbands.
He's converting a NERF-GUN into a steampunk-style gun and its looking good!
Welcome!

I'm Dee and today I'll start my very first blog about crafting.

After spending a few weeks browsing the internet for crafting inspiration and reading lots of blogs from other crafters I decided its time to start my own.

The name of my blog "Draconis Workshop" is inspired by our other hobby "Larpschool Draconis". A lot of the projects will be for the use of the larpschool.
For more information check out our website www.larpschool.com

I'm very curious about other people's opinions about the different projects my husband and I come up with.

I hope you'll enjoy!