Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Newsletter #00045

So as you all know, Monday is Brad's night for newsletters (and yes I know this is late Tuesday night, not even Monday). This week however, he asked me to switch with him and I agreed, so watch out for a newsletter from Brad coming to you all on Friday. Anyways, I was thinking of things to write, and sort of drawing a blank on such short notice, and then I had an idea. So this is going to be something kinda (ok totally) new, and even Brad didn't know it was going to be happening.

To go along with my previous steampunk-inspired post way back when, I have a special guest writer here for you tonight. Please welcome Lauren Piantedosi! I decided that it might be kinda cool to have someone other than myself write something for you guys, as sort of an elaboration on a topic I brought up before. So tonight she is gonna show you some of the ways in which steampunk has inspired her.

Its cool- promise.

(Note from Kasey: below the pictures I've added the original website links so you can visit them and make the pictures bigger.)

Hi I’m Lauren, a friend of Kasey, a reader of the newsletters, and most importantly for this night’s letter, an avid steampunk -appreciator. It was some months ago, that while on one of my countless journeys through the many areas of Deviantart.com, I stumbled upon something miraculous. Now, this is not a rare occurrence in the land of Deviantart because it is more or less magical there. Still, this was special. I’m not quite sure how I ended up there but I can only believe that it was through divine intervention. With my own eyes, I beheld one of the universe’s most sacred marriages: watch parts and beads.

Can you hear an orchestra playing when you look at this? Don’t be scared, we all do.

http://gweyeni.deviantart.com/art/Rose-Garden-115532730

This beautiful piece that you have the pleasure to be viewing is one of the many works of the talented Gweyeni of Deviantart.com fame. Entitled, Rose Garden, this necklace is what convinced me that I needed to learn how to create steampunk jewelry. For if I could not, life would never be complete.
In addition to Rose Garden I was equally inspired by some of her other works.

http://gweyeni.deviantart.com/art/Aqua-Daisy-117640506

Absolutely breathtaking right? Well, I, at least, was blown away.

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=21631861


So swept up was I in this new dream to learn this awesome art, I immediately started searching for watch gears, plates, and parts. At first I felt like I should crack open a couple of watches, myself, to see what would happen. However, I had mildly forgotten that watches are no longer made with gears and instead use a very efficient and durable, though rather uninteresting, electronic chip. So I went to other sources until the day came when I finally acquired my very own watch gears. Next stop in my quest would be in retrieving beads.

I don’t think the majority of people are aware at how great beads really are, and believe me they are. For starters, there is a world of ‘beaders’ out there with enormous talent. There are also more beads and types of beads than the mind can possibly comprehend. Well maybe it can, but I wouldn’t try it. To fully grasp how crazily cool the world of beads can be, I recommend looking up bead creations and checking out websites like artbeads.com and fusionbeads.com. Trust me, you will not be disappointed. Wires and weaves and loops and clasps! There is so much out there!

But I am getting off track (as I did in real life for that matter.) The point of this quest of mine was not beads, although they are very much quest-worthy. The point was steampunk creations. So I will leave you tonight with this segment from the illustrious Steampunk Magazine, and hopefully it will get you in the proper mood to make some steampunk-magic of your own.

“BEFORE THE age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.
Even if we had to make it all up.”

Alright guys, Kasey again. Hope you all enjoyed that, because I definitely did. I'm not as artistic in the physical, making jewelry and art type of way that Lauren is so I thought it would be cool to get someone else's perspective on something I think is extremely cool. Anyways, that's all for this week. Comment and show Lauren some love!

June 23-2009
-By Lauren Piantedosi

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