Steampunk at 35?

So I am 35 years old, and some people ask me if I am ever going to stop with the whole subculture thing and just be normal.  Some days I wish I could.  I just dont see the world "normal" ; I am very steampunk, in the way I see history as it could have been, and can imagen a better future from that. Then I attempt to figure out from the point we are now, how to get to that better future, from the point of divergence. Yes, that is how my odd, creative, and eclectic brain works.  Even if I can never get the whole world to that better point, maybe, just maybe, I can get my little corner of the world closer to it...

As a teen and young twenty something year old, I dreamed of having a safe house where people could come to learn, have safe haven, and grow in the Lord. And I did started down that path, with a lovely 2-story Victorian house, but, alas, it was not to last.  I lost the house, but I gained a wonderful Husband out of the adventure!

While I no longer dream of a large safe house, I do try to make my dwelling a safe haven to all I know with open hospitality.  I host tea parties, coffee fellowships, prayer gatherings, and just fun meals for friends, family, and others.  My Subculture Ministry, Clockwork Cross Outreach, travels with me wherever I am now.  While this has been a long rocky road to get to this point, I am happy just being me!

Take joy in your own journey of discovery, and be willing to never stop looking outside of the box, for as Morticia Addams would say, "What is normal for the spider, is chaos for the fly!"

~ Michelle  

9 years of Steampunk...

I have been floating in the Steampunk world for about 9 years now, though I was more leaning to it even in my Gothic days.  My journey has been a long winding one beginning knowing only my beloved Jules Verne and HG Wells, and discovering Nikola Tesla along the way.  The path began in the heart of Chicago's uptown, snaked through the Desert Southwest, and today finds me deep in the woodlands of Kentucky.

Antiques, old Victorian sci-fi and fiction, gears and clockwork, bronze, brass, and copper.... What is it about steampunk that keeps me so in love with it?  For me it is the fact that Steampunk is a haven for my creative self, a refuge in the craziness of this world, a place to say what could have been, and from looking at those could have beens, seeing what might be in the future.  It is a place where my faith meets science fiction meets awesome friends, and we create magic together!

 I don't know what my future holds, whether it will be years in Kentucky or returning to the Desert Southwest.  I don't know how long my service will be aboard the Airship Caduceus, but I am honored to serve among my fellow Steampunks here in Kentucky.  I pray that Clockwork Cross Outreach continues to grow, and aid others along the way.  I am just honored to have found my people among both the Goths and Steampunk, and trust we together can make a big difference in this world.

~ Michelle

Steampunk Colors I

As I have been exploring this past year in the world of Steampunk, one thing that keeps coming up is all the colors that one has to work with within the world of Victorian culture.   Besides the many shades of metal, rust, and browns, there are many vibrant colors to mix into one's world.  Below is a sample listing of colors I have discovered, though there may be many more.
 
Browns

• Rockwood Brown 
• Fairfax Brown
• Rockwood Medium Brown
• Rockwood Dark Brown
• Copper
• Bronze
• Rust
• Terra Cotta
• Golden Oak
• Wingate
• Jorgenson Manor
• Earth
• Straw
• Vanilla
• Fawn
• Manilla
• Light Stone
• Biscuit 
• Leather
• Toffee
• Chocolette
• Taupe
• Jute Brown
• Butternut
• Harvester
• True Penny
• Tea
• Light Tea
• Turkish Coffee
• Brandywine 
• Chateau Brown
• Sepia
• Mummy Brown
• Van Dyke Brown
•  Umber 

Blacks/Grays

• Onyx
• Stone
• Pewter 
• Light Pewter
• Nightingale Gray
• Tricorn Black
• Mineral Deposit
• Foothills
• Request Gray
• Carbon Black
• Dark Sky
• Dovetail
• Steal
• Iron
• Cast Iron
• French Gray
• Light French Gray
• Silver Mist
• Intellectual Gray
• Gray Owl
• Dorian Gray
• Dunster House Gray
• Strawbridge Manor
• Preston Gray
• Falmouth Gray

Greens

• Rockwood Jade
• Green Grass
• Leaf Green
• Pine Green
• Evergreen
• Dawkins Green
• Brewster Green
• Rockwood Dark Green
• Drab
• Sage Green
• Chrome Green
• Hunt Club
• Shamrock Green
• Lucky Green
• Julep
• Billards Green
• Corner Pub
• Teal
• Envy
• Oz Green
• Green Olive
• Leapfrog
• Parakeet
• Peacock Green
• Rockwood Sash Green\

There are so many more colors, that I will have to come back and list more later, but that is what I have found in Browns, Blacks, Grays, and Greens thus far!  

Enjoy! 

Let me know if you have any thoughts, ideas or pictures of projects, I love to hear from everyone! 

  

~  Michelle