Sister Steampunk: 2014

SETTING THE STAGE FOR THE STEAMPUNK THEATRE OF YOUR LIFE

STAKE OUT YOUR OWN STEAMPUNK TERRITORY

You may not own a castle. You may be in a rented room with just a cot. Maybe you inhabit a dilapidated squat.

Don't let living in mundane surrounds be a spanner in the cogs.

You too can still steampunk up your living spot.

So one way or another you are living under someone else roof or not in your forever home. Your co habitors are stuck in groove and wont let you go loose. For what ever reason you are halted from going full steam ahead. Don't let that hold you back from keeping a steamier side to your life.

Stage dressing is by its very nature a temporary and ephemeral thing . It can be packed up easily and relocated to the next venue.

Painted Ladies

Anything can be transformed or electrified with a paint design or effect.

The drama of life is merely all mirrors and lighting.

Industrial style & metal tubing furniture creates a theme in any room.

Bamboo & cane suites can be jazzed up with chrome, gold , bronze or brass alchemy - or spray paint .

The appropriate accoutrement are always apropos to creating the mood .

drift off to sleep in the aether

cushions, curtains, clocks, wall coverings

Make sure you have a map to navigate your zeppelins when hunting the giant kraken. All the best aviators have them.

Fancy window dressing will give a final curtain call for the room division, with a shower of applause

Having just the correct chronometer is precision

Sail through your time with a vintage ships clock

or put your life in a box with a alarm clock / radio

Put it up there in neon lights

Even the most miserly tenement slum lord will let one hang wall art.

If you are really lucky you can take liberties and have the full on freedom of artistic expression with an entire wall

trompe 'l'oeil for realistic looking drama

The other option is enlarging some one else's art for a wall mural.

There are businesses that specialise in blowing up photos and other images for full impact.

A genuine vintage theatre backdrop for your main room or own private space.

OR

Impress your guests and render the landlord speechless by creating your own theatrical human Diorama of life.

The Ultimate in Steampunk Protective Gear

The Domestic Apron.

{from and era when women knew their place;}

Aprons have been with us since the beginning of time. It may have been our 1st form of apparel. Until a few generations ago they were an everyday item worn to protect an only set of clothing.

Smock, pinny, pinafore, overall apron; call it what you will, have been with us forever.

Now they are considered by many to be a novelty - but back then patterns were passed around as a woman's social custom. Newspaper and cloth patterns of favour for functionality, practicality of purpose and ornamentation had been passed down through families and neighbourhoods and adapted over time. One apron was often whipped off to cut a pattern from the remnants of the well worn favourite to make the next one.

Long forgotten these garments once undermined by the mass produced market are undergoing a resurgence in popularity for practicality and purely decoration.

Following are a collection of clips from magazines and papers with tips for the frugal housewife to make her own DIY coveralls.

Good women of the past utilised all and any cloth at hand to make their apron. Cotton, curtains, old shirts, frocks, slacks and sacks had their uses. There is nothing to stop one using the same principle here for frugality.