Huudi at the VPK House This Week!

Have you heard of the Petri Ruusunen? He makes awesome custom motorbikes and art with a retrofuturism and steampunk aesthetic, maintains the Huudi Museum, and he also has a jewellers shop on Humalistonkatu, Turku, called KultaSarvi.

This week there's an exhibition of his work at the VPK house in Turku, 3rd to 6th November, open from noon to 8 p.m. Entrance is free.

Ready to get retrofuturistic? Okay, here we go. . .

Just look at this one!

Lovely steampunky contraptions.

Read more at http://petriruusunen.fi

Here's a link to a youtube video of the Huudi museum. The website above looks like it's only in Finnish, but it makes for fascinating reading. Their facebook page is in English, though.

A Steampunky Bachelorette Party

      

                    

My friend is getting married in July, and I'm one of the bridesmaids, so of course my co-bridesmaid and I started planning the bachelorette party immediately. After some consideration, we decided to go with a steampunk theme. 

                              

The program featured running away to the circus, brunch and a guided tour of the botanical gardens,  a steampunk photoshoot, a croquet tournament, and dinner and the sauna at my parents' summer house. 

For party favours we made "the language of flowers" cards (picture above) and another set with "Fan Flirtations" on the other side. 

                

                                    I got all the supplies for these at Presento. 

                

For croquet, we split up into two teams. Here are the prizes for the winners. The lollipops and moustache paper clips are from Tiger. 

                

The favour bags and paper plates etc. are from the juhlahumua webshop, which had awesome stuff. 

                                          Here are some props we used for the photoshoot:

For the food we did some themed snacks and drinks before the sauna, then some barbecue for dinner, and themed desserts. 

Here's some pictures of the food:

                            

                              

                                    Kraken rum + Curiosity Cola = The Curious Kraken. 

                              

                              

                               

The inspiration for the gear cookies and chocolate cakes came from the Steampunk Tea Party cookbook.

                                         This is how I made the decorations for the cakes: 

                                

The putty is for making silicone moulds. You mix the two colours, then press any object you want a mould of into the stuff , wait twenty minutes, remove the object, and then let the mould dry overnight. If you want to try making your own moulds, make sure the putty you're using is food safe. 

               

              

 I also got a chance to try my gear cookie cutter. For filled cookies, you can make the base without pressing on the round part of the cutter, and the top part with the cutout.  I ordered it from here. 

                             

                        

                                      I also made this mini top hat for the bride-to-be.

                          

Here are some of the books we read from for the evening's entertainment. They're all from Salakirjat. From the top left, we have The Book of Kissing, Advice for Making Yourself Beautiful, Woman, and How to Conquer Her: The Memoirs of A Gentleman, and How to Become a Bride in Fourteen Days.

I had a great time, and I hope everybody else did, too.  

                        

Steampunk Top Hat

I did a steampunk Alice cosplay for Archipelacon, and tried my hand at making a top hat. It could be better, but I think it turned out ok. The base is one of those angular Lush gift boxes, and the brim I cut out from an old shoe box. I stapled the whole thing together with the fabric, finished the inside with duct tape, and attached it to a headband so it'll stay put. I'm not sure what Grandma would say about my using her antique hat pins for cosplay, but they work, don't they?

Every side is a bit different, to keep things interesting. For the Alice in Wonderland touches I added a Drink Me bottle, a raven charm and black feathers, hatpins, and the 10/6 note. I googled this, and apparently it's the price of the hat, because the Mad Hatter wants to sell it for half a guinea, which is ten shillings and sixpence. This made it quite an expensive piece of headwear, although mine actually cost me nothing as I made it from stuff I had lying around the house.

To finish, here's my favourite poem from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Jabberwocky

BY LEWIS CARROLL

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

      And the mome raths outgrabe. 

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! 

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun 

      The frumious Bandersnatch!” 

He took his vorpal sword in hand; 

      Long time the manxome foe he sought— 

So rested he by the Tumtum tree 

      And stood awhile in thought. 

And, as in uffish thought he stood, 

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, 

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, 

      And burbled as it came! 

One, two! One, two! And through and through 

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! 

He left it dead, and with its head 

      He went galumphing back. 

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? 

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy! 

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” 

      He chortled in his joy. 

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

Internet source http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171647

P.S. Why is a raven like a writing-desk?