Is there such a thing? I've pondered just exactly what to call my style before, it's clearly a melding of styles, a hint of steampunk, a dash of industrial, and just enough reality for good measure, does that make it surreal or a cyborg? Wouldn't it be cool to come up with a unique name? Either way, it is clearly unique and surprising and I have to admit I am having fun!
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| Steampunk Crow Pendant |
The background of steampunk is that it evolved out of cyberpunk in 1970's literature then moved onto everything from art to jewelry to film, to a whole subculture that exists today. The basic theme of steampunk is of an alternate time line that split off (and pretty stuck in) the late Victorian period/early 1900's. This alternate time line is very much based on the steam engine and early flight but invention was rampant! So you have Victorian era clothing with a sense of aviator style and some pretty awesome sci-fi for good measure.
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| Steampunk Butterfly Pendant |
Steampunk inventions are generally entirely mechanical, not organic in any way. You might imagine that most steampunk paraphernalia are fairly vacant of vibrant color. There is a clear difference between what I'm making and the traditional steampunk aesthetic so I've been sitting back waiting to be called out by some serious steampunkers about me calling my stuff steampunk, and I couldn't argue with them.
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| Steampunk Hummingbird Pendant |
Recently I had my first Daily Deviation on DeviantArt and was able to interact with a lot of folks about my pieces. One comment was that it looked more like a "mechanical creature rather than a creature made of mechanics". Yes! That's the advantage of working with polymer clay, I do get to add a sense of reality to it. It's not all mechanics. Another realization is that's why I get to add color and it works, because that piece of a real critter is there.
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| Steampunk Gingerbread Dude |
I got a lot of comments about how they had never thought those colors belonged or would work in steampunk but it worked with mine. Hundreds of comments, not a single call out, I thought that rocked! One of the big Steampunk Facebook pages even posted my shop to their wall. It was like a stamp of approval that what I was doing was OK with the steampunkers, what a relief!
So someone may come along at some point and try to put a name to what I'm doing, and that's fine, I'll call it what ever I want though, and I'm gonna roll with it!
Don't forget to look for steampunk jewelry and other stuff in my online shop!
