Tag Archives: curious invention

Tesla Mends a Broken Heart (snow globe)

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One of my favorite scientists talked to me about Nikola Tesla a few years ago, saying that if he’d had the support and resources, he could have done amazing things.
In fact, we have no idea what he might have accomplished under other circumstances.

It got me thinking. Along with developing transmission of wireless communication, sharing free energy and maybe weapons of mass destruction, could Tesla mend a broken heart?

Tesla Mends Side 2 2014

In this snow globe, a tiny Tesla is dwarfed by his machinery, including an interior liquid and sparkle-filled tube wearing the mending heart. Shake it, and the water fills with crisp gold shimmers, much like the unseen energy Tesla believed was all around us.

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All designs and images copyright (c) 2014 Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado.

Airship Cadillac – In a Realm All Its Own

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In the late 1950s, Cadillacs were sometimes sold with the slogan, “In a Realm all its own.” Cadillacs are often associated with mystery, imagination, elegance, luxury and power. Sort of like Steampunk, wouldn’t you say?

Interior Detail, Airship Cadillac waterglobe, Camryn Forrest Designs 2013The Fleetwood, with its exaggerated tail-fins and over the top detailing epitomized the luxury car; you didn’t just run an errand in a Cadillac, you had an adventure.

Someone asked me why we see sailing ships suspended so often under steampunk fantasy airships — and rather than come up with a good answer, I drifted off and started thinking of other modes of transportation that might get the job done just as well or better than a sailing ship. Assuming we’ve created an entirely new power source for the grand airship (and we no longer need to depend on wind power for extra ooomph!), the new improved airship should be able to carry just about anything. Hey, I’ve seen Back to the Future more than once, and I know these things are possible.

I figure you could take a caddy, and fly it to the moon if you wanted. To the stars. What does make me wistful is wondering if I could see what happens when “Airship Cadillac” meets “Flight of the Warrior Rhino” — look out. That Rhino is just looking for a battle these days. There’s a story being written and I’m not there to witness the cliffhanger.

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And you know what kind of airship I might work on next? An Airstream Trailer under a Zeppelin. A to Z, why not?

Airship Cadillac: One of a kind custom 5-inch snow globe (water globe) with tiny airship and gold 1957 Cadillac suspended below for the ride. When shaken, the liquid-filled interior shimmers with gold dust, giving the impression of a jump into hyper-speed. All designs and images Copyright (c) Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado 2013.

Oil and Water – or, Oil Well That Ends Well

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Ooooh! It was a dark and stormy night. Mystery snow globe. A Black Snowstorm. A riddle: What’s thick and black and swirling with potential?

Oil Well that Ends Well, custom snow globe by Camryn Forrest Designs 2013  What? A steam-powered oil derrick? Isn’t that a contradiction, she asked, in a concerned voice.  Or, maybe it’s deiselpunk, she offered helpfully.

It’s both, it’s neither, it’s not meant to be political commentary. It was just a passing thought — like asking a human to program a computer which will soon replace its job.

Was steam ever asked to help find the oil that would fuel combustible engines?

If you are looking for reality, you might have to look a little further down the road. Maybe even a different road. Steampunk is a fantasy bred of rethinking the past to create an alternate future; it’s not real life. And neither are steam-powered oil derricks. But I was enchanted with the idea of mixing it up, you know: Oil and Water.

From the land of pleasant contradictions and happy contrasts (with a sidetrip to the village of groan-able puns), I give you: Oil Well that Ends Well.

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Oil Well That Ends Well, custom snow globe with miniature oil derrick “curious invention” in deep black sooty dust (when shaken) by Camryn Forrest Designs 2013. All designs and images copyright (c) 2013 Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado.

Steampunk My Ride

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Take one BIG-wheeled vintage bicycle and add a rider, gears, chains and mysterious mechanical modifications and you have a unique means of transportation, or as we like to call it: “Steampunk My Ride.”

Obviously, if BIG is good, then BIGGER is BETTER, so this Penny Farthing bike just kept getting modified until the rider seems nearly an afterthought. (This seems a bit like modern technology, where the Internet seems to think it can function without any human interference sometimes, we’re SUCH a bother to higher intelligence.)

One of a kind (ooak) water globe (or snow globe) featuring a modified “penny farthing” or old-fashioned big wheeled bicycle and tiny rider. When shaken, the interior sculpture shimmers with copper and metallic-colored micro-dust, which sparkles and slowly settles on the scene. The base is finished with a wrapped leather-look strip embellished with a swirl of brass rivets, mimicking the movement of the wheels and gears on the bike.

All designs and images are copyright (c) 2013 Camryn Forrest Designs, Denver, Colorado.

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Proto-Droid – the robot of parts unknown

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I like this little guy. He’s a droid of sorts, a robot made of leftover parts. Maybe a prototype: still figuring out where everything goes.

Weren’t the first real robots much the same: a little bit of this, and cut that shorter, file that off over there, and weld this to that … and there you have it.

Function, not form: he’s less concerned with movie-star looks than what he can do.

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Shake his snow globe and his world is electric with a shower of sparkling gold possibilities.