So, here’s a wee update as to some of what I’ve been making, and most of it has been group projects.

Krista Brennan, a friend of a friend, residing in Australia, is an insanely talented illustrator who borrowed some of my photographs as reference for a handful of breathtaking watercolor and ink pieces. Everyone should chuck money and cookies at her for being so darned awesome with the art.

This one is of Willow, using this image from a show we managed for reference.

Chris and Bergen, from a photo I took for their engagement.

And yours truly, from a self-portrait. I am in love with the hairdo and the tentacles.

A year ago, I also donated some images to the recently-released Steampunk Style Jewelry: Victorian, Fantasy, and Mechanical Necklaces, Bracelets, and Earrings by Jean Campbell. I haven’t received a copy of the book yet, but the Amazon preview stokes my faith that it will be a fine publication (and I get a shout-out on the back cover! yes!).

More fun collaboration to come in the new year. 2010 will be my craziest yet. Happy holidays.

]]> http://exoskeletoncabaret.com/2009/12/27/collaborations/feed/ 2 http://exoskeletoncabaret.com/2009/11/13/steampunk-fashion-at-spws/ http://exoskeletoncabaret.com/2009/11/13/steampunk-fashion-at-spws/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:43:48 +0000 libby http://exoskeletoncabaret.com/?p=260 So much steampunk we’re bleedin’ oil!

I’ve started my fashion column over at Jake von Slatt’s Steampunk Workshop. Have a look-see if you’ve a moment! I may begin cross-posting some content from here to there and back again, but this time I’m gonna make ya go look.

Thank you!

Jeff VanderMeer and I have been in contact for a number of months regarding the following project. I do hope you’ll considering contributing as well. We’ll hopefully be publishing some of my photography in the book.

THE STEAMPUNK BIBLE WANTS YOU!
Noted Archivist Seeks Steampunks to Index

World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer’s The Steampunk Bible, published by Abrams Image, will provide a comprehensive and lavish overview of all aspects of Steampunk, in text and pictures. Research for this momentous and globe-spanning project includes the compilation of a comprehensive Archive of, and Index to, everything and everyone Steampunk and Steampunk-Related. This Archive will be made public online, and you also might be contacted about appearing in the book.

If you would like a website or blog link, book or brick-and-mortar establishment, to be considered for the archive, please send the relevant information to Master Archivist S.J. Chambers (steampunkbible at gmail dot com) or to The Steampunk Bible, c/o Jeff VanderMeer, POB 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315 USA. Make sure to include a short paragraph describing your submission and your complete contact information. Although the Master Archivist’s extensive list of ongoing clockwork projects makes it impossible to guarantee a reply, you may be sure she will give each missive intense scrutiny. As part of a Larger Study, please consider including Your Personal Definition of Steampunk with your email message or snail mail parcel. Rest assured, the Master Archivist and her minions are also out in the World, actively seeking Steampunks for the greater glory of the Archive.

Annnnd, the included photo is of the illustrious maker Jake von Slatt, from a shoot we did Monday! Jake was here for Steamcon, and we spent a good portion of the event in the hotel bar, plotting over whiskey. I am pleased to announce that I will be joining the Steampunk Workshop as a fashion correspondent. Expect some bloggity over there within the first bit of November!

Thanks.

Allegra says:

After a lengthy struggle and much holding of heads, we are delighted to finally be able to announce the release of Issue #6 of Steampunk Magazine – The Pre-Industrial Revolution. With the final part of John Reppion’s ‘Doppler and the Madness Engine’; a look at the Romantics and what they did for us; alchemy; Luddites; corsets; sculpture; windmills; poetry; and Victorian martial arts, it’s our biggest issue to date.

As ever, Issue #6 can be downloaded from our website, or alternatively you can get your hands on your very own hard-copy through the order page on Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness.

I had only a small part in this issue (grammar/spelling/punctuation nazi), but I am very proud of it. Go have a look!

FILAMENT Magazine And The Erection Dilemma

The beautifully-produced London-based magazine FILAMENT has a problem.

Explicit images of women are available at any newsagent, but Filament, the world’s only magazine featuring male pictorials designed for the female gaze, is finding itself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to printing explicit images of men.

Filament only prints explicit images when these are of high photographic and erotic quality, and clearly designed for women – we won’t ever be putting hard cocks on every page. The problem is, all the printers that a small, independent magazine like Filament can afford have said they won’t print images of the male of the species in a state of obvious arousal. Reasons given include that printing these images may cause offence to ’women’s groups’.

If they can sell another 300 copies of FILAMENT #1, they’ll have the money to switch to a printer that isn’t terrified of the cock, and then they can

make history and print (we’re pretty sure) the first explicit male pictorial in a British women’s magazine.

Link to the fundraising page. And, here, a link to the purchase page. Obviously, click around the site and have a nose at it. I thought it was a lovely object, and I know Niki enjoyed looking at it, although there was, to her taste, a distinct lack of morbidly obese beardy men with all their hair burned off.

I’ve posted before about this magazine, one with whom I am directly affiliated (I’ve been sharing my food photos and helping Suraya with layout). It boggles my mind how easy it is for malecentric print media to disembody women (in a rather nasty and unwholesome way), but when a feminist indie wants to respectifully objectify and dismember male images, it gets shot out of the sky. So, give us a hand, if you will. I’m sure I can help with the beardy dudes on fire.

Thanks.

Today seems like a good day to hide in the kitchen.

I just finished making the butter you see in the lower right corner of the image. When I mentioned on Twitter than I was headed into the kitchen to prepare handmade butter, I received a number of comments saying I’d taken the DIY a little too far (Thanks, Dmitri–love you too ) . But homemade butter isn’t fancy or hard to make! All you need is:

+ 2 cups (1 pint) heavy whipping cream, chilled (I splurged on fancy cream from the Pike Place Market dairy)
+ Pinch salt

And a glass mason jar with a good lid, which you should chill in the freezer or fridge for a little while prior to filling it with the cream and a marble (or something else small and food-safe to use as an agitator–I used a little plastic egg). As a kid, when I made butter at home with my mom, we used an antique glass churn with a mess of gears attached to wooden paddles that’s been in the family for 150 years, but a jar works fine.

Take out every ounce of loneliness, aggression, and sheer unbridled hatred you possess on your cold, cruel jar of cream (read: shake that bastard). After 15-25 minutes of bashing that cream about, you’ll find it has become chunky and buttery. If your cream refuses to cooperate, you can finish the churning process in a blender (I set mine on “stir” and “low” and it literally took two good pulses to create butter action).

Once you have solid and liquid, strain the liquid off, which is tasty buttermilk (see my measuring cup in the photo) that you can drink or save in the fridge for baking. Then, pour cold water over the solid so it’s covered, and drain it off through a strainer. You’ll want to keep doing this until you get clear water as result of straining the butter.

After your butter has had a bath, press all of the remaining liquid out of it with a wooden spoon (any buttermilk left behind can go rancid and ruin it), add salt and/or spices (I recommend various kinds of sea salt, chives, dill, garlic, curry, etc.) and pack it into a container. Chill that sucker in the fridge and serve it on fresh bread. SO GOOD.

[Heirloom tomato came from the Local Roots Farm CSA. I'm not a big tomato fan but it was just too pretty not to photograph.]

Featuring everything from emergency welding to a very special guest essay by Bruce Sterling, it is available…on our downloads page, and can also be purchased, as ever, through Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness.

Magpie, Allegra, and I are extremely giddy about this issue. It is stuffed to the gills with dangerous DIY projects, motivating editorials, and delicate (as a doorknob) humor. I contributed an interview with the Chronabelle Crew, a gang of sharp young steamers I had the pleasure of meeting at last year’s Bay Area Maker Faire.

Take a gander at the free download, and do pick up your own analog copy for reading late at night in the bathtub, too. Many thanks!

I needed an instant gratification project last evening whilst I did a massive amount of laundry, so I tore a huge strip of raw muslin out of my fabric stash and made this ratty little neck warmer. The cloth was once upon a time part of the battered curtains we draped about ANACHROTECHNOFETISHISM (art show I did last fall). I ragstitched huge pleats and messy pintucks into the fraying muslin, and added three or four lines of turquoise machine embroidery. The collar is gathered with a long running stitch I hand-sewed using metallic copper floss, and ties in the back with a pair of long, fat, black satin ribbons.

I’m not sure if I should keep it because I know my bright red hair color will rub off on the creamy muslin, tinting bits of it pink, and over time I wager the nice antique effect will be lost in bright stains. So, perhaps I ought to give this tattered friend away to a good home. Either way, it’s a sweet prototype for projects to come.

[619 Western, 1917. Photo by Calvin F.Todd.]

619 was designed in 1910 and is one of the largest studio enclaves on the West Coast and contains workspace for 2-D and 3-D artists. Starfish is Angel Ceballos, Marc17, Bloodengel, and soon, me. We participate in the monthly first-Thursday Pioneer Square Art Walk, which is the largest citywide.

I gripped a shoot for Angel at the studio on Saturday, and having now spent some time in the space, I’m very eager to begin photographing there. The building has a ton of character–fragile windows, internal exposed brick, crusty hardwood floors, and a creeky antique elevator with manual doors and day-glo paint. I have not had access to much in the way of studio space in the past (which has prohibited much portraiture since I moved to Washington), and I tend to shoot images in ambient light and found locations, so having dedicated workspace should prove to be both a blessing and a challenge.

I already have some ideas for shoots, but I am always looking for models in the Seattle area. Please let me a message in the comments if you’d like to come play someday!

So, now is your final chance to view the installation at Suite 100, and your last opportunity to take a morsel of this presentation with you. Items by any of the 13 participants may be purchased online via the aforementioned website or snatched away in person.

Thanks to everyone who supported this endeavor! Hopefully, this will be just the first of many gallery shows and events of note in Seattle.