Category Archives: Uncategorized

Love … It’s Complicated

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I was working on this snow globe, with a beautiful iridescent heart, bouncing on a tightly coiled brass wire spring, and all kinds of tiny machinery holding it together: connecting this side to that side, propping it up and keeping it in place, building a fence to protect and support the strong but breakable glass heart.

During this marathon workshop time I reached a stopping point, and I went out to have an iced coffee with a friend. I described the snow globe to her in detail, saying that I couldn’t decide between calling it “Love – It’s Not That Hard” and “Love – It’s Complicated.”

She looked at me like I was a little nuts and said firmly, “Love … It’s Complicated.”

And so this snow globe was named.

Love may be complicated sometimes, but it sure is a wonderful and beautiful thing. A little steampunk pizazz, maybe a little lop-sided just like real life.  Sometimes when things are shaken up, it’s even prettier in the chaos, and when the dust settles, you can see everything clearly. True in snow globes, true in real life.

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Circular Logic steampunk snow globe

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One definition of Circular Logic is restating your premise in a different way and thinking it’s the answer … and after a lot of trial and error, this is certainly true of this piece. It appears to go round and round, but always begins and ends in the same place it started. The conclusion is the same as the premise.

I got a little obsessed making this tiny curious invention, with all its layers of machinery. When I was working on it, I had to set an alarm to remind me to leave the workshop, stretch my legs, eat something. I even set an alarm to prompt when it was time to go to sleep. But I’d be in the middle of making some connection, or finding the perfect component, and I’d reset the alarm for another hour, then another. It was the opposite of the snooze button, wanting to stay awake and see the gears evolve, how the connections worked, spin the tiny wheel.

As you can see from the photo, the finished sculpture was about two inches wide, and less than 3 inches tall when finished.

Placed inside the four-inch glass globe and magnified with liquid and shakeable metallic dust, the tiny assemblage looks larger. The base of the waterglobe is wrapped in leather, and finished with an assemblage of gears and levers, along with an engraved plate proclaiming “Circular Logic.”

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A Little Money

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Recently, an artist friend said to me, “I just want to make a little money.”

The idea for this custom waterglobe / snow globe took that comment literally. There’s a tiny cash register, with steampunk detailing in the brass bands and tiny hardware, gear-tipped register handle, and tiny people sitting, standing and resting on the machine. But when you shake this globe, not only is there metallic glitter, but there are tiny dollar signs and tiny dollar bills swirling in the liquid when shaken.

Because, you know, it’s fun to make a little money.

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Snow Globe for Sacramento Steampunk Society

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It probably doesn’t make much sense on the surface, that I would correspond with members of the Sacramento Steampunk Society whom I had never met – living in Denver and all, as I do. But I had discovered this group when I was looking for steampunk events near where my family members live, and it was such an active and friendly group, I eavesdropped on their facebook page a while, and felt as though I knew these people. They seem to enjoy each other and have so many activities! If you live in northern California and like all things steampunk, I suggest you look them up.

Well, next thing you know, I’ve got a steampunk artshow in San Jose (and members of the SSS were quite involved in putting Clockwork Alchemy together). Then I read a comment by the effervescent Alexander Watt Babbage that set my creative energy on “high.” All he said was, it sure would be nice if we had a piece of steampunk art or sculpture at our group table at the Con.

Oh, I do love a challenge.

I felt my snowglobes (about 6″ tall and 4″ wide) were too small to make an impact on a busy table with buttons, brochures, ribbons and photos, but it occurred to me to make the base larger to give the snow globe more presence. I contacted the elusive snowglobe engineer (he who solves all problems snowgobe-related), and described what I wanted: a double base, supported with metal columns, and the snow globe riding above.

He produced this as a starting point:

Unfinished snow globe structure for Sacramento Steampunk Society.

It was structurally perfect, but needed … something. I knew the support hardware would be new, but the shiny silver was jarring. As I was trying to figure out what to do to soften the color, possibly taping off some parts, and spray painting it matte gold, I happened serendipitously across a post and tutorial from Epbot, describing how to patina just about anything with the right layers of paint.

Epbot: How to Paint a Faux Copper Patina

Perfect timing!

So I tried it on shiny “fresh from the hardware store” silver bolts, using layers of hand-applied acrylics and the improvement to the supports was immediate. It looked great.

We used the Sacramento Steampunk Society’s logo and the SSS group photo inside the snowglobe (logo design courtesy Chance Von Bekke), added riveted leather straps with gears and timepieces, to work with the dark and mysterious logo, featuring a steampunk airship hovering over the California State Capitol.

Sacramento Steampunk Society original graphic, courtesy Chance Von Bekke

Next, we created a scene in the space between the upper and lower base, using tiny historical (with artistic liberties) figures. That scene includes a ray-gun-packing proper lady, a man relaxing in a time machine who looks suspiciously like Mr. Babbage in his Saturday cap, a traveler with a jetpack and a neo-Victorian couple conversing, both hiding weapons behind their backs. Here’s the finished piece, which also includes the Society’s motto on four separate brass plates wrapping each side of the base. Adding a jetpack to a figure just over 1-inch tall made me positively giddy.

Here’s a close up of the scene in the space between the two base pieces. You can see the tiny jetpack, and if you look closely, there’s a Victrola playing as well.  (And note the nicely patina’d supports – Thanks again, Epbot!):

What was totally fun was to see how many times the globe itself appeared in people’s photos of the Society’s information table over a four-day Memorial weekend.  Sweet!

Clara Blackheart photo

Chance Von Bekke photo

Chance Von Bekke photo

Chance Von Bekke photo

Clara Blackheart photo

Chance Von Bekke photo

Pros and Cons (Please Shake!)

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It was my pleasure to be invited to show my steampunk snowglobes, whimsical waterglobes and curious inventions over the Memorial Day weekend in San Jose, California as part of the Vendor’s Bazaar for Clockwork Alchemy.

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I’m a newbie to “cons” — some of us lead sheltered lives! I was just out in my workshop, making stuff & sometimes glueing my fingers together, while apparently this entire WORLD of interesting people was out there making costumes and developing unique characters to share. I mean: oh, my goodness! There are some cool, clever and talented folks out there!

So … Clockwork Alchemy was a unique steampunk part of a larger Con, Fanime.  Here’s a little about that:

FanimeCon is Northern California’s largest anime convention. Packed with videos, costumes, music, games, parties, tournaments, panels, and guests from around the world, this annual celebration of Japanese art and popular culture entertains a colorful spectrum of fans and friends.

Anyone who registered for one con, could attend either one or both – there was so much going on they had two locations and shuttles between them. Which means, in addition to seeing steampunk attenders, now and then, we’d get a visitor clearly dressed for the other Con – maybe a Hello Kitty Darth Vader, or a Dr. Who devotee. I was enthralled to see how much love and attention to detail when into everyone’s attire.

Of course, few artists such as myself who were showing at the steampunk-themed Clockwork Alchemy con did not wander off to the convention center to see the goings-on over there: we mostly stayed put with our art. Plus, I was too excited to hear the responses people had with the snow globes, which are very interactive. And, I had to be there to say, 100 times a day “PLEASE shake the snow globes.” Because we have been trained not to touch art, and so many people looked wistfully at the globes, but were hesitant to touch.  We had this sign posted to encourage folks — you have to shake the interior and see the shimmering metallic dust swirl and settle to completely enjoy the snow globe and waterglobe experience.

Seriously, what’s the worst that could happen? You could drop it and it would break. Alas! Sparkles happen! And the next thing is, I’d scoop up the parts and fix it. Trust me: there’s barely a sculpture that I didn’t drop myself while it was being made. They are pretty sturdy.

Glass, on the other hand, is not sturdy, and will break. This is not the end of the world, nor necessarily the end of your snowglobe – most glass can be repaired (if the glass is a standard size, as these are.) I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, but we did have one remarkable incident … The author and illustrator of the excellent book, Boilerplate, were at the table next to us. As guests of honor, they were coming and going a bit, doing panels and interviews. Late on day four, they knew they wouldn’t be back to the table due to an obligation and packed up, and invited us — Camryn Forrest Designs — to spread out the snow globes to their empty table. While I was doing this, I managed to DROP A SNOW GLOBE. Yes, I did. Slipped right out of my hand when I was carelessly moving two at once. And just like a slow-motion movie, I saw it tumble out of my hand, bounce off the cushioned seat of the hotel chair, and hit the carpeted floor. I honestly thought I heard a collective gasp around me from the other artists.

Waited for the cracking sound and the leaking liquid on the floor. And … nothing happened. Nothing. The snowglobe did not break. (It was this one, for the record, a beautiful model of a Tesla Coil.)

I’ve broken a few snowglobes in my days, but this one survived the fall. I sort of wish there was a youtube video of my face as it happened: first, I would have been talking and not paying attention to what I was doing, then the realization that it was slipping out of my hands, the fear as I scrambled to catch it, the sadness as I realized it had dropped on the floor, the anticipation of seeing broken glass and leaking liquid, the perplexed look when it didn’t happen, the wonder when I picked it up and discovered: this snowglobe just bounced.  But again, don’t try this at home!

Just to be super-duper sure, we decided not to sell that snow globe at the convention, but brought it back home to Colorado. If it hasn’t leaked in the next week, I am going to say it’s just a miracle. But so far, not a drop of liquid, no bubble has appeared atop the globe, so somehow the seal held. Whew!

In addition to the good people from Boilerplate, we were treated to neighbors on our other side of the booth in Tinkertart. Not only do they create fun steampunk jewelry, one of them takes pretty great photos to show you what the Con looked like from inside the Artists Bazaar. I had promised myself I wouldn’t buy everyone else’s art, but I was so tempted! The straw fascinators at Strawbenders had me .. fascinated! But I held back and came home with the same hats I brought with me. Sigh. Next time.

One of the cool things about Clockwork Alchemy (and there were many), was the Telegraph Office. If you got a message to someone at the Con, and knew generally where they were, you could have a free telegram sent. I mean, young men in dashing hats, marching into our area and yelling “Telegram, Telegram for Camryn Forrest.” (Thank you to Alexander Watt Babbage for that thrill!)  So, we sent a telegram to our very young friend at Tinkertart, and that was a thrill for us, since he certainly wasn’t expecting anyone to call out his name at a Con.

Here are a few photos to show you more about Clockwork Alchemy.

Photo by Chance Von Bekke, “Always” glass heart steampunk snowglobe by Camryn Forrest Designs

 To see the “Always” iridescent heart steampunk water globe in studio lighting, click here.

Camryn Forrest with Chance Von Bekke at Clockwork Alchemy Artisans Bazaar, May 2012

“Ray Gun One” custom steampunk snowglobe, photograph by Chance Von Bekke

“Wheel Life” custom steampunk snowglobe, by Camryn Forrest Designs, photograph by Chance Von Bekke at Clockwork Alchemy, May 2012

Visitors to Camryn Forrest Designs booth at Clockwork Alchemy shake a custom steampunk waterglobe/snowglobe. May 2012. Photo by Sophia StClair.

Camryn Forrest Designs at Clockwork Alchemy, May 2012

Camryn Forrest Designs at Clockwork Alchemy. May 2012.

Those of you who know the story behind the dark glasses ? …. shshshsh!

 

Steampunk Snow Globes

Camryn Forrest Designs steampunk snowglobes at Clockwork Alchemy, San Jose California. Robert Heynan/Tinkertart photo.

 Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

Uncharted Skies – custom waterglobe

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Uncharted. Where no hot-air balloon has gone. To a place we’ve never been before…

This little sculpture and I spent a LOT of time together. Several months to be exact. Back and forth, refining, starting over, refining again. I wanted the rich metal colors to come through in the balloon itself: copper, bronze, antique gold, all a little weathered as though it had been through clouds, and storms, and who knows! … perhaps a hurricane or two. The contrast of the weathered metal colors and the crisp white base with black marbling are striking, making the metallic detail of the tiny balloon more visible.

The balloon itself is just over an inch tall, and the basket and support chains make it a little over 2 inches, touching on the wisps that might be an ocean creature or the tendril of a windswept cloud, the froth circling an oceanic sinkhole — or if this is a space-traveling ship, it could be the Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros for you astronomy types. 

A ship’s wheel, an anchor, and weights all drape the sides of the balloon basket. When shaken, the balloon and basket are caught in a fog of shimmering white iridescent dust, slowly settling to reveal the tendrils below.

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For anyone who thinks: have I seen this snowglobe before? Perhaps you are thinking of “Rough Sailing” — a steampunk’d original snowglobe which I posted a few days ago. While I worked on the two, off and on, over the same period of time, they are not the same. More like fraternal twins, perhaps. There are many differences between the two globes, notably, “Sailing” has an airship with bright antique gold metal masts drifting below the balloon, and this one, “Uncharted Skies,” has a woven metal basket and a finer gauge of bronze chain connecting the two pieces. Two similar but very different modes of travel.

Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.