Tea & Automatons

Diana Vick's corner of the interweb

Norwescon: Eggs, Tentacles and Steampunk

As I try to recuperate and unpack from Norwescon, I will take a quick break to write up a review.  As usual, it all went by much too quickly.  The main goal for the weekend was to promote Steamcon III, so the Steamcon lobby table was our main focus.  A scant couple of weeks before the con, I came up with a crazy idea to draw more folks to the table, the Golden Egg-stravaganza!  Essentially a bunch of candy, badge ribbons and mystery prizes in gold colored eggs.  Each egg was a one dollar donation.  I didn’t have much time to find the prizes, but I used some Steamcon stickers, buttons and such as well as a few little compasses, dirigibles, hot air balloons and little octopi.  We also gave away four full Steamcon III memberships, which really delighted their recipients.  The eggs were very popular.  Too popular!  I realized that we would sell out completely on Friday morning, so I put half of them aside for Saturday.  We still sold out before noon each day.  Live and learn.  I am already plotting for next year.

Nemo's Daughter

As another ploy to draw attention to Steamcon III, I dressed in somewhat 20,000 Leagues regalia.  My Saturday outfit was Nemo’s daughter as an admiral with a little bit of the sea in her blood as it were.  It was quite well received.  I participated in the Under the Sea fashion show, which was very creative.

On Saturday night, I did a second version of Widget the automaton.  The lightning goggles and makeup were a huge hit.

I had about five panels, almost all on steampunk or related themes.  Despite having done this for so long, I am always learning more about steampunk.  I want to say thanks to Lou Anders of Pyr for some great insights and stating that Sherlock Holmes is not steampunk.  One of my favorite people, Claire Hummel was on many of my panels as well and she is always a fount of new information and good insights.

Social anthropologist, James Carrott followed me around to my panels to record the discourse in preparation for a dinner at the Dahlia Lounge on Sunday hosted by Brian David Johnson, the futurist at Intel.  Brian’s goal was to gather steampunk “luminaries” to discuss steampunk with an eye toward what we could add to future technology.  The dinner was lovely and the discussions quite lively.  The Foglios, Paul Guinan, Anina Bennett, Kevin Steil, Claire Hummel, Thomas Becker, Jordan Bodewell, Marshal Hunter, R. “Martin” Armstrong and myself along with James and Brian discussed steampunk past, present and future while the cameras rolled.  I confess to being quite intrigued by what may come of this.  If nothing else, hanging out with James and Brian during the convention, was very entertaining and thought provoking.  Thanks to both of you!

It was a marvelous but exhausting weekend.  You can see the photos my darling husband took on Flickr.com.

Widget the automaton and Steam Wench

My Steampunk Archetypes Book Is Now Available!

For the past few years I have been dressing up in steampunk attire for events and gatherings.  I enjoy it immensely and try to be as creative as I can.    When I first got started I found it immensely helpful to imagine a few steampunk archetypes and think about what they would wear.  Since then I have been writing and lecturing about that topic.  Since I had so many photos, I decided to take advantage of the current print on demand services and make a little book on the topic as well.  You can preview and purchase a copy here. I hope you find it entertaining.

Going to Norwescon on Easter weekend?

Then you’ll want to check out my panels:

“Steampunk Art” Thursday   8pm Cascade 13

Is Steampunk art only for costuming and cool outfits and gadgets? No, we say! Come meet some artists to see how they use Steampunk influences and styles in their artwork!

“The Best of Steampunk Then and Now” Thursday   9pm Cascade 9

Steampunk is the combination of what the past is and what it means, and what the future is and what it means; like Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where a 1950’s nuclear submarine shows up in an 1880’s fictional world.  What are the steampunk classics and what new fiction is driving it forward?

“Dieselpunk and Retro Futurism” Friday   6pm    Cascade 8

What is it, why and how you too can build your own jet pack, or at least look like you could.

“Twisting History” Saturday   10am      Cascade 8

History need not be dry and dusty. Certainly Steampunk has taught us that it can be fun and greasy! Learn to take a historical period and give it just the pinch or nudge it needs to set off a whole new fresh interpretation of ideas in fun ways, from tropical Tudor, kente cloth kimonos, Halloween houppelandes, Asian Regency, and many more. Blow the dust of the musty history books and let’s have some fun!

“Multi-Cultural Steampunk” Saturday   4pm  Cascade 13

The Victorian era happened everywhere, not just England. Come get some ideas on how to make your Steamy-wear a bit more exotic.

Also, a bit of fun at the Steamcon fan table:

Photographic Evidence Sought

Me at Norwescon 1986

Since the early 1980’s, I’ve been attending science fiction/fantasy conventions.  I began doing some costuming and really enjoyed it.  I didn’t own a camera, so I almost never got shots of my outfits.  Once in a while a friend would take a picture and give me a copy, but for the most part those images are lost in time.  This is not to say there were no pictures taken of me.  Many people would take my picture, but back in those dark days, there was very little chance I would ever get to see them.  As time went on, I would be a bit more diligent and try to get contact info, but it was still film and there was processing and a lot more hassle and expense.

Eventually we had the internet.  After a convention, I might do a few searches to see if people had put up their pictures and maybe, just maybe, there might be an image of me or my friends  that I would get to see.  It was very tedious.  I’d usually have to wade through a million pics of them having breakfast with friends and other things that were of no interest to me.  I really only wanted to see the costume shots.  Few people did any sorting and filing in the beginning.   A few places began to do galleries of costume pics from their convention, which was great.  They usually only focused on the masquerade entrants, but it was a start.

Once digital pictures were more prevalent, the photos online really took off.  No scanning required!  There were so many photo album sites that it was a hassle to search for them and then go through them.  When I first found Flickr.com, I was ecstatic.  A searchable online group of galleries!  Huzzah!  It was truly useful.  You could set up your own galleries and share your photos.  You could also set up groups and invite others to add theirs to the group pool.  I made a group called “Science fiction/fantasy convention costumes” to try and encourage participation.  I was thrilled when one person did actually go and scan in some old masquerade photos from the 80’s.  That was exactly the sort of thing I had dreamt of seeing.

I handed out cards to photographers suggesting they add their photos to the group so others could find their pictures too.  Unfortunately, most of the hard core photographers already had their own sites and didn’t want to take the time to put them up elsewhere.   I can understand that, but I still encouraged them to at least put a link to their sites in the appropriate group.  A lot of the younger folks did join in the fun and we had quite a boom.

Now the trouble is that convention groups like Dragoncon have way too many pictures for anyone to sort through.  In fact, you cannot look at the beginning of the group for long because Flickr limits how many pages you can search back through.

Me at Chicon 1983

Tagging photos with the type of costume or name of the character would help this immensely, but most people can’t be bothered to take the time to put more than the name of the convention on theirs.  In some cases the sheer amount of work it would require is daunting.  Even worse are the people who tag an entire group of photos with multiple tags, so the word “zombie” will bring up every photo they took in the batch that contains the zombie pic.  Frankly this practice is less than useless.  Sometimes, the photographer allows others to tag his work, but not always.  Recently, Flickr added the “add a person” function which allows you to tag the person if they are one of your contacts.  It’s great but only if you already know them and have them in your contacts.

I just tried to wade through photos from Emerald City Comic Con, but I found it has become a herculean chore.  Due to the ease of digital photography almost no one even bothers to edit out bad photos, leading to a sea of similar images.  Or they just add every photo; A hundred pics from the same panel of James Marsters speaking.   I know that my picture was taken many times, but the only one I saw was my husband’s.

So, we’ve gone from one lone photo we might really want to see being hidden in someone’s photo album in their basement to it being like a proverbial needle in a haystack.  I am not sure which is worse.  Famine or feast.

I make this plea to you dear reader, if you have some photos from days gone by of science fiction/fantasy convention costumes, consider scanning them and adding them to my Flickr.com group. I am sure someone would truly love to see them.  And if you are one of the many happy Flickr users already, please consider tagging your photos thoroughly and correctly so that the person who so nicely posed for you, might someday get to enjoy them.

An interview and randomness

My friend Kevin asked if he could interview me about Steamcon and steampunk in general.  The first part is here.

Victoria Steampunk Exposition - Bengal Lounge

The picture above is from the Victoria Steampunk Exposition.  I borrowed a friend’s gun.  When asked if it was a tiger hunting gun, I replied “I guess it is now”.  The tiger looks like he might be plotting revenge.

I am working on my wardrobe for Dragoncon.  I am doing one panel on the alt history track about costuming for women, so I guess I’d best have some spiffy costumes.  I promise pictures when I return.  I’m sure there will be lots of wonderful steampunk outfits there to get photos of as well.  So, back to work.

Lost Trunk!

Me with the Suffragette for the last time.

Over Memorial Day weekend, my husband and I attended The World Steampunk Expo in Dearborn MI.  It was very nice.  I gave four talks about various topics, so I had a good amount of my gear with me, including some of my gun mods.  We shipped a box and two trunks back to Seattle at the end of the convention, but somehow Fed Ex managed to lose one of the trunks.  As luck or Murphy would have it, this trunk contained two of my gun mods, including the one I am the most proud of.  I have worked with them to try and find the trunk, but to no avail.  I would ask that if you see this gun, the Suffragette, please let me know.  I would really like to get it back.  I know this is an enormous long shot, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask.  The rest of the contents of this trunk are in this  Flickr gallery.  I am trying to replace as much as I can, but most of it will be impossible.  I am devastated by this loss.  What’s worse, I am having a hard time planning our trip to Dragoncon now that I don’t trust shipping methods and I have never trusted the airlines.  Boots, hats, and props are all difficult things to transport.    There just isn’t any way we can take enough time to drive from Seattle to Atlanta.  These are the woes of a traveling steampunk.  I am sure at least some of you can relate.

Exhibition Hall

Victoria Steampunk Exhibition

Chris Garcia has an online steampunk magazine called Exhibition Hall, that has been steaming along for  awhile now.  He asked me to do a review of the two conventions that I attended in May, Victoria Steampunk Exhibition and The World Steam Expo, since he was unable to attend himself.  So rather than repost the exact same reviews here, why don’t you go check out Chris’ endeavors.  I recommend going and reading the back issues as well.  I did the cover of issue #8.

This past week has been a whirlwind of steampunk excitement for me.  Friday I attended the clock unveiling at the MOHAI, for the new works we helped to raise the funds for.  Saturday and Sunday, I ran a table to promote Steamcon at the Little Red Studio’s Erotic Steampunk Event.  The weather was abnormally warm for our region, so it was a task to find appropriate steampunk wear, but I persevered.  I’ll have pictures of the events and outfits up soon.

May is steampunk month…well for me anyway

Oh my, May is looking very busy indeed. I have a steampunk event almost every weekend. And I am speaking at all of them. And then of course there is the costuming…! My favorite part!  Now my husband is muttering something about brier patches. Heh. Yes, it’s going to be a very long and fun month.   Click on the links to find out more about any of the events.  I hope to see some of you there!

• May 2nd – May Steamcon Organizational Meeting
• May 8th – Steampunk University and Film Festival
• May 22-23 – Victoria Steam Expo
• May 28-31 – World Steam Expo

DNBS CD Release Party

On April 17th, my husband and I and several friends attended the Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society’s CD release party at the Vogue, a local night club.  It was to be a steampunk themed costume night and I am always up for those.  Attendance was good, but the number of folks in costume was small.  The band had a table and was selling their CDs.  The music was good so we danced and made a night of it.   My husband took photos of anyone dressed up, who was willing to be photographed.   A little after midnight, Dizzy, of DNBS came up to run the costume contest.  The best female costume category had about six or seven contestants, the largest turnout.  A couple of outfits were on the verge of not really being steampunk, but one was so definitely, beyond a doubt not steampunk.  I often try to think up what to use as an example of ludicrously NOT steampunk and now I have my poster child.   She was a tall Twiggy clone in an orange and purple mini dress complete with knee high black go-go boots.  I’m not sure what she thought was going on, but she was definitely in the wrong place.  When it came time to select winners, they did the one thing I absolutely hate about costume contests in bars.  Voting  by applause.  So the person with the most friends wins.  How is that a costume contest?  Half the time you can’t even tell which one gets the most applause.  My fabulously dressed

Winner for best female steampunk costume

friend Claire Hummel, won with her enormous bustle, causing Dizzy to say “I like big bustles and I cannot lie.”  Another friend Andrew Wilson wonfor best dressed male, and I think it was mainly for his pith helmet.  His outfit is from a large costuming group, who are the crew of the airship Andoria, if memory serves, so I have seen it before many times.  The best accoutrement or oddity category only had two participants, me and another girl.  She had a crystal pendant that she called “crystal machinery”.  I feel good back stories are at the heart of good steampunk costuming so I greatly approved.  I had a monocular in a holster and a brass compass.  Rather than ask for applause, Dizzy decided to call it a tie.  That was fine with us.  I got their latest CD, fittingly called Accoutrements and Oddities as a prize.  It was a good night if not as well represented as I might have hoped.  Any excuse to dress up works for me.

You can go and view the rest of the photos here.

Emerald City Comic Con 2010

Emerald City Comic Con was bigger and better than ever.  Last year, I shared a corner of a booth with friends, and it was alright, fun even but less than lucrative.  Getting a space in artist’s alley didn’t seem like a great idea at the time, but I took a chance.  This year, while I still didn’t make a lot of money, I made back my investment, which is a start.  I was worried that my art isn’t really the kind of thing that ECCC attendees are looking for.  I don’t draw superheroes.  I don’t draw renditions of other people’s characters, preferring to do my own thing.  But my whimsically dressed up anthropomorphics seem to appeal to folks.  I got my share of fans, and some were downright exuberant about it.  It was heartening.  I dressed both days in steampunk attire and it got lots of notice, which I used to promote my convention, Steamcon II.   For the most part, I’d say it was a success on a personal level and very fun.  Much thanks to Pell for helping me with the booth since my husband was needed elsewhere.

In the two days worth of sitting the booth, I had a few rather odd and/or wonderful moments.  I was asked to sign a guy’s cell phone.  I signed a lot of other things as well, but they were to be expected.  The phone was a unique thing to sign.  I talked to a lot of young people, mostly girls about my art.  One old friend brought his daughter and we chatted about what I do and what she might do in the future.  She was quite enchanted, I think.  Another man stood with his little daughter for a long time looking, and then said “You see.  If you keep drawing, you can do this someday.”  She nodded.  He went on to say “Do you see how pretty she is?  You will be that pretty too.”   *blush* I guess I’m a role model.   Who knew?

I got my picture in the Seattle Weekly slideshow for the con.  And there’s this nice shot of me on Saturday from a fan.  So maybe spandex isn’t necessary to get noticed?  I’ve already got my table for next year.  Can’t wait!

About The Author

Diana Vick

I am an illustrator, writer, costumer and steampunk enthusiast.
I have done illustration for comic books, animation and collectible card games such as Magic the Gathering and Legend of the Five Rings. Currently, I do art for my own line of cards and gifts in my Zazzle shop.