Those of you viewing the site in IE6 may have noticed some very ugly looking gray boxes around some of the images on the site since the redesign. This was caused by how IE6 handles transparent images…in short, it doesn’t play nicely with them. I had held off on posting new content to the site in fear that I might lose it while tinkering with things and trying to fix this issue, but I’ve finally done it!

Or rather, Chris Van Patten has done it. Chris is a kind soul who came across my plea for assistance and, being a kind person, helped me fix it (it took him all of two seconds). Chris is a WordPress wiz and has very affordable rates if any of you are in need of coding or design assistance and you can feel free to learn more about him on his website (and feel free to mention where you heard about him).

Note: This was not any sort of paid posting…I just really appreciate the help he has given me on this issue that has plagued the new design for some time and wanted to show him a little link love.

First, thank you for the mention and link on LiveJournal, its always interesting to see where my traffic is coming from.

Second, to address renireligion’s curiosity as to whether I will ever consider adding other auction site listings to BuySteampunk.com, well, that is a complicated question to answer. (more…)

Every now and then I receive an email from someone who has created something truly unique that they wish to share with the world.  Often times, I get a load of crap (hey, I call them like I see them).  This time, I got a submission that is meant for loads of crap.

Introducing the steampunk toilet, created by Patrick Brawley.  Despite my poor attempt at an opening joke, this is definitely in the upper end of the submissions I have received.  Of course, I couldn’t just blindly post this…I had to find out what possibly inspired Patrick to create such a thing.  Well, it turns out he was replacing his 1954 Standard toilet and couldn’t stand to part with it.  So, after some lots of scavening and hunting around on eBay (I wonder if he found any of the steampunk parts through my site) he came up with this glorious and, most importanly, FULLY FUNCTIONAL steampunk toilet.  And did I mention that it has freaking laser-aiming assist for night time use?  Toilets with freaking laser beams!

According to Patrick, the gorgeous wooden calculators of Andy Aaron served as the primary source of inspiration for this project, and I think they make a nice set.  Now you can crunch numbers while on the can to ensure your water pressure is right!

Well, I would be a big tease if I didn’t show you this baby in action.  The video below explains it all and there are a couple nice pictures below that as well.

CGSociety just ran a computer-generated art contest with the steampunk theme and the results are in!  Wow–there are few things more fascinating to me than when an artistic communitity dedicates their skill to a theme that I think is so cool and this is no exception.

Check out all the winners here.

If you are a regular visitor, you may have noticed things have changed around here over the last couple of days.  That is because I am currently in the process of releasing a COMPLETE redesign of the site.

Here’s what it means for you:

• Same main categories (clothing, goggles, jewelry, etc.) but now I have the ability to add sub-categories under each to let you get more specific in your search
• New Featured Listings section in the upper right that will house crafts of note from specific crafters and once things are running smoothly, I will open this section for paid listings as well so you can advertise your own wares
• Adding a forum
• Moving the blog portion of the site front and center–it used to be buried and this will help make you aware of the latest happenings
• AMAZING new visual design thanks to my incredibly talented designer Sam, plus its all in Wordpress now versus individual HTML pages
• A LOT more updates…I’ve been holding a lot of post ideas in reserve until the new site was live because I didn’t want to cause any issues with transferring the old posts but once things are finalized, expect a lot more content added on a regular basis

So, that’s all great stuff, however I need to ask you a favor.  Please be patient over the next few days as I get final tweaks in place.  There are several known bugs that are being fixed (such as the gray boxes in IE and the broken category pages) and I have a day job, so this can’t all be fixed overnight unfortunately.  Just be patient and don’t give up on things–they WILL be fixed!

Please be sure to leave any comments regarding the design in this post–thanks!

That crafty lot over at WETA (fine makers of such things as oh…I dunno, Lord of the Rings?) are at it again. They’ve recently expanded Dr. Grordbort’s product line to include a miniaturized version of the practically sold out Goliathon 83. The good news is that this one is actually within the realm of affordability by mere mortals at only $49!

Its a limited edition run of 900, with 400 signed versions that were sold out at Comic Con just recently.

If you are interested in purchasing this fine piece of craftsmanship, their order page is here. If you’re not already familiar with Dr. Grordbort’s “Infallible Aether Oscillators & Other Marvelous Contraptions”, then you’ve been living in a hole and need to get your introduction with their “commercials” that they created for these products–take my word for it, they’re hilarious and have have the production values of the crew that brought you some of the best CGI that has yet been seen in movies.

Keep up the great work WETA!

I just received an email from a crafter named Geoffrey who let me know that his latest steampunk watch creation is available for sale!

Click the image to be taken to the listing. Last I checked it was in the $50’s with about a days left of time to vote. If you miss out on this auction though, the good news is that Geoffrey let me in on a little secret…he plans to make more of his crafts available to purchase! Also, don’t worry about buying from him, he has a 100% feedback rating.

Apparently there was a steampunk blog carnival which I was unaware of.  However while reviewing today’s traffic, I noticed a couple hits from a site called MyDisguises.com and low and behold it listed this site!  Thanks guys!  They have a nice listing of steampunk links there to look at and the concept for the blog will surely be of interest to you steam fashion hounds.

A Japanese craftsman named Haruo Suekichi, has finally agreed to sell some of his fantastic steampunk watches that originally gained fame after a gallery of them was posted online last year. He’s selling two glorious steampunk men’s watches, and two steampunk women’s watches in a partnership with Chief magazine. Quite expensive at $1200 and $800 respectively but wow…seriously…wow.

One of the things that attracts me to steampunk (and I’m sure others as well) is the intricacies of the details. While the overall form is nice, the little steampunk refinements that he’s made to this such as the etched faces or the storage compartment are simply brilliant. What fan of steampunk doesn’t like little hidden compartments?!

While the price is a bit much for me personally, I think it reflects the quality of the workmanship. This isn’t something he pieced together in a weekend and the purchaser of such a fine work of art knows it. There’s definitely something to be said for wearing something that was hand-crafted and completely unique in the world.

Purchasing info and more pictures can be found here.  You can also read a fascinating interview with the craftsman here where he talks about his watches.

Male Watch:

Female Watch:

Looks like Flickr user Lockwasher would be right at home in the steampunk community. Just look at the quality of these things! Simply gorgeous. Some of them have more of a steampunk feel than others but overall I’d consider the batch perfect for anybodies steampunk collection.

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