Guide to steampunk: part 2 - ladies clothing

When putting together a costume (either steampunk or cosplay) I always find it really helpful to split it up into little bits to make it easier to make and organise.

I also make sure I find lots of photos from the internet to draw inspiration from and to use as references:

 

 

 

All credit to the photographers/models.

 

So, looking at the photos above, lets split the basic steampunk ladies outfit down into its different parts and deal with them separately.

 

Firstly, the skirt. As you can see above, there are lots of different varieties of vintage/steampunk skirts out there! A general ebay search for vintage or victorian clothing is a good place to start. There is a lot of custom made steampunk clothing out there (especially on ebay), however this is quite expensive and best avoided if on a budget.

 

Ebay searching generally requires a good amount of luck, and I was extremely lucky in finding this awesome skirt:

 

The skirt is about mid calf length and made of two layers - a satiny underskirt and black lace overskirt. The lace is shorter giving it a lovely Victorian look to it!

 

Obviously if you were wearing an aviator/pirate/engineer themed outfit you might prefer to wear trousers (as I did for my first steampunk outfit). Mine were dark brown leather (and remarkably cheap for their quality), but any sort of dark coloured trousers would do. Its important to go for materials and styles which fit the steampunk theme.

 

 

 

Next, the top! Normally this consists of two parts - a blouse or shirt and then a corset. The corset is the most difficult, in my opinion, as they can be quite expensive and its hard to find one on ebay that is suitably steampunky. Nevertheless, they can be found if you're lucky! Underbust corset/belt type things are usually the cheapest and easiest to find.

 

I didnt want to wear my corset for the ball as its a bit too gothic. This lead to a dilemma, as my white ruffle blouse really could do with something on top of it to get the layering right...

 

My current solution is to use a black studded waistcoat, which I bought a while ago at Matalan but have never really put into a steampunk outfit before. The only problem with this is I may get too warm at the ball and have to take it off, so I may need a belt or something as a back up plan.

 

 

The blouse is relatively simple, as they can be found quite cheaply and easily both on the internet and in shops. If you prefer, a normal white/black/brown shirt will do over one with ruffles.

 

Shoes! I'm wearing my long black heeled boots as they look suitably steampunky. Anything leather looking is good, especially with buckles.

 

Heres a picture of my finished costume!

 

 





So now I have all my clothing sorted... but what about accessories? (goggles, jewellery, gloves, etc) Well, I'll be blogging about that later on, after I've covered mens clothing.

 

Also, I feel I should point out that steampunk, as with all fashions, comes in many different forms and styles. The guide above is a basic outline for a sort of standard steampunk costume, but a simple google search will reveal so many different variations on the theme!

 

 

Sorry for the bad picture quality, but this was one of my favourite costumes from Goth Weekend last year - a dress with a clockwork key sticking out of the back. The only limit is really your imagination!  

 

I hope you found that helpful... feel free to ask me any questions!

Becky x

 

 

The bat cardiovascular system!

My physiology homework:
'Find a recent paper (last 5 years) related to the function of the cardiovascular system, avoiding reviews; that you will present to the group next week'

In order to make this slightly more interesting, I'm blogging about my topic.

You may recall last time I blogged I mentioned my EPQ on bat wings... well, as part of that EPQ I wrote a very brief summary of adaptations in the bat cardiovascular system for powered flight. I didnt really understand much of it at the time, and as it only made up a few small paragraphs in the report I didnt include much detail. After posting the blog a few days ago I reread my EPQ, leading to my decision now to try to improve my knowledge on this topic.

So.... my findings for my EPQ were basically that: the bats heart is very large relative to its body size, with smaller cardiac muscle fibres than for other mammals. This allows more fibres to be compacted into a smaller volume. The venous system (veins) is also different from other mammals as if acts as a storage reservoir for blood, and contains special shunts to help control blood flow. The storage reservoir could have a function in heat regulation during flight or hibernation.

My research paper is entitled 'Application of local heat induces capillary recruitment in the Pallid bat wing'.

If the dilation of the arteries is inhibited by a blockade of a protein called NO synthase, the blood flow through the wing still increases when heat is applied. The aims of the study were to see if this is due to the capillaries.

Bats were trained to remain resting in a box while the heat was applied, and various pieces of equipment were used to take measurements.
There were three main experiments carried out, and each one was tested both with and without the pharmacological blockade.

1. The first aimed to measure the response of the arterioles to local heat, by finding out the blood vessel diameter and the red blood cell velocities
The results from this experiment confirmed the previously known results by showing that the blockade prevented any dilation through the arterioles. The blood flow in the wing, however, continued to increase despite this.

2. The second measured capillary perfusion (ie how many capillaries were in use). With heating, the number of capillaries in use increased, and this was unaffected by the blockade.

3. The final one measured the activity of structures called precapillary sphincters (which basically open and close to allow blood through the capillary or not). Similarly to experiment 2, the sphincters stayed open for longer and were unaffected by the blockade.

The results showed that capillary recruitment is induced by local heat, and this is independant of the blockade of the substances. The mechanisms through which this acts are currently unknown, but the results suggest some interesting potential causes.

The techniques have been suggested to be of some use to humans, with possible uses for diagnosis of diabetes and kidney failure.

All credit to the authors of the paper: Widmer RJ, Stewart RH, Young MF, Laurinec JE, Laine GA, Quick CM. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17332157 

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Messel Shales

I love the Messel Shales. Have I not mentioned this before?

How silly of me... anyway, yeah. The Messel Shales are one of those incredible palaeontology discoveries that crop up a lot in recent fossil finds. Messel is of particular interest to moi as it is well known for its well preserved bat fossils.

The Messel Shales are located in Germany, and palaeontologists believe it was once a deep lake with a lack of oxygen at the bottom. This meant it did not contain the normal bacteria for decomposition as other lakes, resulting in beautifully preserved fossils. Examples include an ancestor of the woodpecker with detailed tail feathers and insects still retaining their original colour pigments. There have been many discoveries of bat fossils here, most with their wings folded back as if they were diving or falling out of mid-air.

This is my own replica fossil bat, Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon. The original is shown above.

I did some calculations of wing morphology for my replica as part of my EPQ, and my findings showed it to have wings typical of insectivorous bats. This suggests it was a slow flyer which hunted close to the forest floor, with slow flight but high manoeuvrability in midair. This low flight speed may have made it particularly vulnerable to the poisonous gases from the lake (explained below).

Analysis of the geology of the lake has helped to understand why the fossil bats looked this way. It has been suggested that if carbon dioxide accumulated in the oxygen deficient water at the bottom and was then mixed with the normal water above, a large volume of poisonous gas would suddenly be released. This occurred at Lake Nyos in Cameroon, 1986, when carbon dioxide was released from the lake and killed over 1700 people. The similarities in the geology of the two lakes have lead scientists to believe Messel was similar, especially the presence of siderite at both (which is thought to indicate the presence of carbon-dioxide in lakes). Also, 50 million years ago the Messel Shales were situated on top of an active fault line, which suggests a cause for the mixing of the two types of water.

More fossils!




Jewelled wing beetle. The preservation of coloured pigments in fossils is really really rare.


Ida! (I hope you've all heard of this one, it got a lot of media attention). This is presumed to be representative of one of the missing links in the early evolution of primates.


Frogs.



Leptictidium, as featured on BBCs Walking With Beasts (I may talk about this more in a later post... essentially, this programme was one of the things that got me interested in palaeontology when I was little. Also, Mesozoic fauna gets too much attention! Cenozoic animals are interesting too!)

The BBC programme featured the Messel fauna in its first episode, focusing on the Eocene. This period of the Earth's history occurred after the extinction of the dinosaurs, and is the time when the major mammal groups diversified. At this time, the apex predators were things like Gastornis, below:



...and also Ambulocetus:



Believe it or not, this is one of the early ancestors of cetaceans like whales and dolphins. Mesonychids (hoofed predators) such as Andrewsarchus (the largest land predator to exist... I may blog about it later, its awesome) are also theorised to be related to them...

Messel also had giant ants, 5.5cm long.


 Its funny that pretty much everything in this post could be the subject of its own separate, much longer blog post!

... why am I posting this? I really have no idea. Hope you found it vaguely interesting.

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Guide to steampunk: Part 1 - what is steampunk?

One of our Christmas balls has a steampunky kind of Victorian theme, and a few of my uni friends have been asking me if I would help them put together an outfit. Hence this series of blog posts, where I will be covering a bit about steampunk as a subculture and as a fashion style.

I hope you find it helpful and mildly interesting! (Disclaimer: there are people who know way more about this stuff than I do. I do not claim to know everything. Rather, this is what I do know, and I hope it is helpful to those of you who are curious about the genre)
 
First up: What is steampunk?

To put it simply, steampunk is a genre of sci-fi. One of the main features, as the name suggests, is the use of steam power, but any Victorian cultural aspects can also be a part. What I really love about steampunk is its subtle blend of past, present and future.

The father of steampunk is considered to be Jules Verne, but here are a few other examples of steampunk books and authors:




The books are characterised by mixing past and future technology in a steam powered world. The genre has expanded since then and has now developed into styles of fashion and music.

This is my current favourite steampunk song, by the infamous Abney Park: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjRGYE6brQY 
I suppose I would describe the music as a mixture of rock and folk, but like all of steampunk there is no solid definiton!
Other steampunk musicians are Vernian Process, The Men Who Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, the Clockwork Dolls.... the list goes on. http://www.listal.com/list/steampunk-music
Apparently there is some discussion over this, but I would also consider Emilie Autumn to be steampunky.


Theres even steampunk anime. This one is called Last Exile, and its very good. Heres an awesome AMV (anime music video) for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoQH1vBNdEg

Also, as you hopefully saw, the recent Paralympics Closing Ceremony had a very steampunk theme to it.







So.... Victorian. Industrial. Mad science. Cogs, gears, fire, machinery. Steampunk breaks down genre boundaries and merges various distinct styles together, and nowhere is this more noticeable than in the fashion.

Steampunk fashion, the basics.

Steampunk is a subtle blend of Victorian style and aesthetics with elements of futuristic technology. Bearing that in mind, the fashion style should primarily reflect that Victorian element. Colours are generally browns and blacks, although all colours can be incorporated into an outfit - within reason, that is. Obviously a pink frilly skirt is not appropriate.  

One of the things that I consider to be important about steampunk fashion is choosing items appropriate for a theme.
Let me explain: say I chose (as I have done in the past), to base my steampunk outfit on an aviator/pirate theme. Would a pirate really wear a long skirt and tight corset, complete with hat and fascinator? Obviously there is some interpretation around a theme (I wore a corset for my aviator costume, but I didnt wear a lacy one, if you see what I mean) but in general this is a good thing to bear in mind. This is a lot more applicable to women than men.

This rule can be (if you want) slightly bent when goggles come into play. Goggles have become the universal steampunk symbol, and tend to be incorporated into any outfit no matter the theme. I will certainly be wearing my goggles to the ball! More on the importance of googles when I talk about accessories.  

As I continue this blog series I'll be updating you all on my progress on the costume. Currently I have two ideas, which depend on how much time I have with work and the contents of the as-yet-unexplored Cambridge vintage shops. The first is just to rewear my Goth Weekend outfit, but I'm hoping not to do this if I dont have to. The second is to go in a more lady-like outfit. My plan is to find a skirt (or long dress), and then rewear my ruffle necked white blouse on top (no need if I find a dress). My accessories will be partially reused (as I have no jewellery making stuff with me so cannot update it), but I'll be going more aristocratic than aviator and mixing a few new things in as well. I wont be wearing any of the 'heavy' steampunk accessories such as weaponry or utility belts.

Also I have to bear in mind that Im probably taking this way too seriously and no one else there will be dressed up in a Victorian style. The ball's theme is more Gothic Victorian than steampunk, so I dont want to go too over the top.

Thats all for now! I hope you find the series interesting and helpful, I'll be covering men and womens fashion, accessories and jewellery, as well as some ideas on how to integrate the style into normal everyday wear.

I shall leave you with this marvellous steampunk name generator: http://oobleck.org/steam/ enjoy!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

University!

I've started at uni! Its fantastic, but pretty damn manic. I have to fit 12 hours of lectures, 12 hours of practicals and 4 hours of supervisions into one week! And on top of that in each 1 hour supervision I'm normally set an essay which will take around 5 hours (if not more) to complete. And then theres practical write ups, revising lecture notes..... AAAAAARRRGGGHHHH IM GOING TO GO INSANE.

So the blog isnt going to be updated anywhere near as often as I'd like! I'm sorry about that!

Heres a bit of an update while I have a few spare minutes (shock horror), just sharing a few things about uni life.

 

 Punting! Its so much fun! If you ever come down by Cambridge, you definitely need to give it a go!

 

This shop offers free samples of fudge, so we had to start a new tradition: matriculation fudge. We also did matriculation McDonalds, which was pretty surreal in gowns.

Plenty of Harry Potter photo opportunities.

General matriculation madness.
(Oh, I probably should have explained sooner. Matriculation is like graduation, but before you start. Its an Oxbridge/Durham thing)

My new mug! Behold its awesomeness!

Using the whole range of opinions in my first Evolution and Behaviour essay.

 

My Dad bought me this! Its a graze box, and you get 4 different types of snacks. In mine I've got salsa mexicanos (little biscuits with salsa), natural vanilla seeds (mixed with sunflower seeds), festival fruits (pear, apple, plums and blackcurrants) and after dinner mint (sultanas, chocolate, almonds). How lovely is that?? They all look so nice, I dont know where to start.... www.graze.com is the website on the box, if you wanted to send your own as a gift.

Aaaand finally, an update on my Genesis Rhapsodos earrings, all of which are now reserved!

Because I wont be able to get any more of the beads, this means this item is now unavailable for the forseeable future. If you still would like one, please do get in contact with me and then if one of the other potential buyers cancels on me I can tell you!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Off to university!

I go to uni tomorrow! I'm dead excited, but a little nervous too!

Commissions and sales are now closed. See my previous blog post for the details, but if theres something you want I'm more than happy to reserve it for you, provided its not already been sold in the shop.

Here are a few new pairs of earrings I've made:

 

These are made from miracle beads strung in a chain. I wanted to use ear hooks but I'd run out so had to use studs instead.

 

When wearing earrings, do you prefer studs or hooks? 

 

 Secondly, two lovely pieces of shell hung on wire with acrylic shell beads. My camera whitewashed this picture, sorry, the shell beads have a lovely streak of bluey green running across them which is a lot brighter than you can see here!

A few purchases for university:

Found this on ebay, its supposedly a limited edition Square Enix product. Whether it is or not I dont know (it does look authentic, but I dont know enough to judge), and I dont really care, because its awesome.

 

I couldnt find a decent bag to take to lectures anywhere, so I bought a cheap plain one and decorated it with lots of badges. Again, my camera kind of ruined this picture and you cant read the Game of Thrones badges (which are the best, especially the House Stark one). I bought those badges in Waterstones for £4.99, which was a bit expensive, and I got House Baratheon, Stark, Tully and Greyjoy. I'm very tempted to go back and get the other pack, which was Targaryen, Lannister, Arryn and a picture of the Iron Throne.
The other badges are mostly steampunk or random ones I bought at the Nemacon Artists Alley, and a few from David and Goliath (I love that shop).

 

Apparently my face when I saw this jumper in H+M was priceless! I just had to buy it...

Puppy love!!! Her name is Poppy and she's very mischievous but I love her to pieces. Here she is investigating the camera.

Have you all gone to university yet? What did you get up to in Freshers Week?

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x

Jewellery reshuffle

Hello all!

As I go off to university within the week I've placed a few of my items up for sale at a local shop.

If you're interested in any of them, let me know asap and I will ring the shop to ask them to put them aside for when I get back. This means there is the possibility they may have sold before you reserve them, and I wont be able to organise postage and packaging until December when I'm back at home.

 

This goes for all my other jewellery too - I wont be able to sort out payment or postage until I return home. You can still reserve anything you like by getting in contact with me (providing its not already been sold or reserved) and I'll get in touch when I'm home and things are up and running again! 

 Also, I recently learned that my local bead shop is closing down :( I went back to the shop today to stock up on the beads which I use a lot of, and there shouldnt be too much of a problem for most of my jewellery.

The only problem is my Genesis Rhapsodos earring, which uses a bead which I have only been able to find there. Until I find a replacement, these earrings are limited edition. I have three left, and two have already been reserved over deviantart, so if you want the last one get in contact asap!

 

 All commissions will be closing on Wednesday! Sales will still be available, to a certain extent. I can reserve an item for you, but I will not be able to organise shipping until December (because I'll be at the other side of the country to my jewellery). Due to the very high workload of my course I have decided not to take my pliers/wire/other jewellery making stuff down for the first term, but I may change my mind at Christmas depending on how things go.

However, I still have a few pairs of earrings to post about and a newish pendant to put up for sale. There is also a good bead shop in Cambridge so expect some new and wonderful things at Christmas!

Even if the morrow is barren of promises, nothing shall forestall my return...

Becky x