Tag Archives: custom waterglobe

A Little Money

by

0

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

Pros and Cons (Please Shake!)

by

0

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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

by

2

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

They Will Always Find You – (tip of the hat to M.C. Escher)

by

0

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Gravity is SO over-rated.

My first attempts at stairways involved figuring out how to break the perspectives forced on us so gracelessly by gravity, and create a tiny world that would have made M. C. Escher proud.

Not that I’ve been there, done that, because I enjoy the results, but I decided to branch out. Escher tended to use similar looking people marching endless up and down stairs. And I had a thought: what else would be cool if gravity was random and up/down could be different for each participant? What if you took the staircase idea and made it a little more science fiction?

So I give you this custom snowglobe, with a twist on Escher’s drawings: “They Will Always Find You.”

In the interior of the globe, wrapped in floating gold dust, “They Will Always Find You” — massive robots scour the twisting stairways looking for someone. We’ve seen the movies, we’ve read the books; it rarely ends with the smart but plucky human outsmarting the robots for long. Once in a while (War of the Worlds maybe), if you sit really still, they might pass you by. But then a sneeze or a cough, or the stair squeaks, and … “They Will Always Find You.”

Since the original sculpture is only 2.75 tall, I’m showing you the insert piece and three angles of the finished waterglobe.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Dreaming of Paris waterglobe

by

1

DreamParis1I have a friend who told me that she is always dreaming of Paris, which inspired this sculpture, made more of Paris dreams, than Paris reality.

This is not the Paris captured in so many souvenir snow domes, this is the Paris in my dreams. When I see the Eiffel tower, I just think: if they’d only made TWO of them, they could have created an awesome Ferris wheel.

Sure there’s some logistics involved there, and getting the building permit for a second tower would be difficult, to say the least. If they’d only thought of that at the time, but Ferris wheels had not yet been invented. and the tower was built in 1887-1889, while the Ferris wheel was introduced at the 1893 world fair. (Now for some truly deep and deliberate trivia, one of the FIRST SNOW GLOBES ever documented was from 1889, and it contained a model of the Eiffel tower. Nikola Tesla built his first radio station in 1894. Blows my mind.  (What does Tesla have to do with this? It’s simple: I never avoid an opportunity to mention him. He is a contemporary of the Eiffel Tower, and the Ferris Wheel. One would have needed Tesla to figure out how to power the Twin Eiffel Ferris Wheel, or look for a really large hamster. So there.)

Back to Dreaming of Paris, the snowglobe. Since it appears unlikely that anyone is going to build a second Eiffel tower soon, I decided to build it here in a manageable scale — less than two inches wide, and less than 3 inches tall. It has a tiny Ferris wheel between two models of the Eiffel Tower, carrying buckets of metallic flowers made of watch parts, gears and re-purposed jewelry. The base is embellished with brass filigree ornamentation, in my imagined style of turn-of-the-last century Paris. Brass plate engraved with “Dreaming of Paris” is affixed to the base. A dusting of gold will swirl through the sculpture when the globe is shaken.

Custom waterglobe (snowglobe) with 2.5″ tall Ferris Wheel made of the Eiffel Tower and carrying baskets of metal flowers.

 DreamParis3  DreamParis2 DreamParis1

DreamParisdetail

 

dreamingofparis

Depths of Repair … underwater Ferris Wheel waterglobe

by

0

I don’t like riding Ferris Wheels, but I sure like making them.

There is something so satisfying about building a tiny contraption that spins around.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I was looking at the cross-section of a conch shell and thought “hey, that would make a cool Ferris wheel contraption.” As I went about happily making a carnival ride out of seashells and parts of a sunken ship, I wondered, “who would MAKE such a ride?” and then, “who would keep it running?”

So I added an octopus arm, with confident tentacles wielding a tiny wrench. The first person who heard a description asked me how people would know that the octupus was a benevolent and helpful sort, who was fixing the Ferris Wheel, and not dismantling it. This dilemma had not occurred to me.

And that is how it got its name: Depths of Repair.

So there is no doubt, the tentacles belong to a Repair-Opus and not a Dismantle-Opus.