History ain’t what it used to be! Steampunks mash up the past and present while looking to the future. Altered History and Alternate Histories are two websites that have fun scrambling the past.

Captain Kit Kaboom (aka Abbey Manalli of Milwaukee, WI) designed Altered History to be “a world that never quite existed. This is a world of airships and trains, steamships and submarines.”

The site has buttons, postcards and stickers for the travelers of the yesteryear that never was.

It also has patches and bronze pins for the explorers and mechanics of the fleet.

Alternate Histories at Etsy.com offers prints with incongruities. Pittsburgh, PA artist Matthew Buccholz (via New York and Arizona) presents a world “Where the Past Comes Monstrously to Life.”

Dinosaurs roam a young America. Zombies and monsters feature in old cartography. Giant robots and Godzilla threaten a familiar city (hint: it’s not Tokyo).

Take the alternate route.

Go to Steampunk Chicago events or local cons and you will undoubtedly see the merchandise table of Jeff Platt and Dawn Przybylski, Highwind Steamworks. They craft jewelry, leatherwork, goggles and other steampunk gear. You can also visit their Etsy Shop.

To find out a little more about them, I e-mailed them questions separately and have fashioned together their answers.

SPC: What is your role at Highwind Steamworks?

Jeff: “I do the leatherwork, prop pieces, and the more industrial looking pieces as well as the men’s accessories.”

Dawn: “I design and make most of the jewelry and handknits and set up for shows. I give my input on Jeff’s leather creations, and he on mine, our stuff is really a collaboration between the two of us.”

Jeff: “When we go to a show or convention, we’re both right there, usually taking turns selling or “hawking” in the aisle.”

SPC: Where do you find inspiration?

Jeff: “I find inspiration all over the place. Movies, art, literature, television, video games, antiques, whatever. Just taking a new bit of machinery apart to see its guts sometime inspires me to a new vision for a piece. I find if I try to hard to come up with something new, it’s usually a failed process. I let my eyes unfocus and try to imagine what something could be as I look at it, or let me brain storm over the pieces we have and see what things naturally want to be.”

Dawn: “I am unable to sit down to make one thing at a time. I will often take over the whole dining room table and spread out and there will be partially finished pieces of jewelry all around me. I love to play with all the parts putting them together and taking them apart again, when suddenly I will get an idea to combine different colors and shapes and I will drop what I’m working on to start something else. I always finish everything around me, but it might take me a while! The knitting is a little different, I love to use vintage Victorian knitting patterns and I am partial to patterns from nature such as leaves, trees and plants- I’m really excited because I recently discovered some gorgeous shawl patterns that have intricate roses and daffodils incorporated into them- like nothing I have ever seen before!”

SPC: How do you balance business and marriage?

Dawn: “Easy, the work room is the living room, when one of us is making things the other is usually in the room and we can talk and hang out. We know we can’t really work at the same table so when he is doing leather goods I sit on the couch and knit (or what have you). The only issue I have is when he forgets to warn me when he is about to hit rivets with the hammer- its REALLY loud, I jump every time!”

Jeff: “It’s actually a lot easier than some would think. We like spending time around the living room designing and building and making items together. We like to show off our pieces to each other first and get feedback from each other. Even though we have incredibly different creative processes, Dawn’s a planner and I’m a little more haphazard, we have learned when to not bother each other about our ideas and when to ask for help. On the business side, since I usually have more time, I usually handle the details after we’ve discussed what we want to do.”

SPC: Have you had a favorite piece (or one of great pride) that you were reluctant to sell?

Jeff: “I’ve had a number of pieces, large and small that I’ve thought, ‘if that doesn’t sell in a month, it’s mine!’ Sadly, or fortunately, those pieces always seem to go quickly. I had a particular pair of goggles that I fell in love with when I made them, and the gears I used for embellishment were truly one of a kind. Of course they sold, and I won’t be able to make them again. Usually though, if something is truly a favorite I must have, we call it a prototype and keep it, to be used as a basis for other pieces.”

Dawn: “There was one necklace that I made back when we first started, It was a long necklace that had a huge pennyfarthing pendant and rose quartz elements to it. I loved this necklace and would often wear it while at shows… you know… to ‘advertize.’ LOL. I was very close to just keeping it when we sold it at a show. Sad. But not really. Now if there is something I really like, I just make more than one!”

SPC: What separates Highwind Steamworks from other vendors?

Dawn: “Us! I think that our natural friendliness and forthrightness makes us stand apart as well as the fact that we are more than just vendors in the scene. We are socially part of it, too. People come to our booth sometime just to talk and hang out with us and we go out to events that we aren’t vending because we genuinely enjoy the scene and the people in it!”

Jeff: “Truly, everything we make is something that comes out of our own minds and hands. We may purchase some new parts and findings, but the rest has been found, scrounged, and searched to find unique bits that we can make things from. Nothing we do or sell is outsourced or purchased in bulk. When you stop by our booth, or find our Etsy site, you are dealing with us, not with a third-party. And we truly feel a part of the community. If there’s an event we can attend, we do, vending or not. There’s an old joke, “Never trust a bald barber”, which goes along with my belief that you just shouldn’t by steampunk goods from someone who isn’t a steampunk.”

SPC: Where does the “Highwind” come from?

Jeff: “I traced my early appreciation for the aesthetic to the Final Fantasy video game series, I wanted to pay homage to that in our name. So Highwind come directly from Final Fantasy 7.”

Dawn: “The Highwind is Cid’s airship, of course! Cid is a character out of the Final Fantasy game franchise. Every game has had a Cid and every Cid has had an airship. The day I told Jeff that Final Fantasy has stylistic elements of steampunk (and he subsequently decided steampunk was the best thing he had ever heard of), he became Dr. Cid and I became Madame Lockheart of the Highwind.”

SPC: Bonus Question: When did you know it was love?

Dawn: “From first sight. However, I would have to say staying up all night three days after we had met to watch the entirety of The Stand (the made for TV mini series). Don’t know why but we clicked from the very start.”

Jeff: “I knew it the moment I saw her, sitting in my then girlfriend’s dorm room playing cards. I remember opening the door, walking in and seeing Dawn sitting there, and the first words in my head were ‘Oh crap, this is going to be a problem.’ Of course it wasn’t in the long run, and we have been together ever since!”

Look for this delightful couple to be vending at our next event: Gearbox Fantastique II, April 14th, at Reggie’s Rock Club. See the calendar for more information!

It goes without saying that steampunk has a unique relationship with history, both re-imagining it,  appreciating it and disseminating it.  Thusly, it should come as no surprise that those who play a part in keeping various aspects of history alive also find themselves attracted to the steampunk movement.

Thus it was that Pleasant Home found us.  You may already know about our summer series we’ve been holding at this fine estate, what you may not know is some of the further details.

Pleasant Home is a landmark, early Prairie Style mansion that was designed by architect George Maher, a man who designed well over 40 buildings throughout Chicagoland, many of which are now registered as historic.  But it was millionaire banker, John W. Farson, who built it.  The original estate boasted gardens, coach houses and a fountain.  The house itself also had a ballroom, game rooms and even an outdoor stage… on the roof.

It was quite the party place, but, unfortunately, Mr. Farson died in 1910, heralding an end to the local revelries.

What’s funny about this, is that was when it got interesting.  in 1911 Herbert Mills, of Mill’s Novelty Company, purchased the mansion and spread throughout it his whimsical and marvelous inventions, most of which were coin operated amusement machines that, for a nickel or a dime, would play music (on real instruments) or offer any number of games.  To add an additional bit of “steampunkery” to it all, it was shortly after the Worlds’ Columbian Exposition of 1893 that young Mills built the first coin-operated automatic slot machine that would eventually lead to Mills’s penny arcades becoming institutions of turn of the century America.

 In 1939, ten years after Herbert’s death, the family sold the house to the Oak Park Park District, who still owns and operates it today.  Today you can attend a variety of events and shows here as well as get tours of the home.  Not only that but you can also join us for Watch Chains & Lace, our monthly summer event, which just happens to be happening this Sunday, August 28th.

For more information check out Pleasant Home’s webpage, and while you’re there, feel free to donate, and support.

As the steampunk aesthetic continues to grow beyond fashion, music, conventions and modded gadgets and computers. A passion for antiques, clocks, taxidermy and oddities can quickly grow to encompass ones surroundings as well.

True, the above photo is not a picture from our apartment or the shoot, though what I would do for that couch and wallpaper!

TimeOut Chicago’s Jessica Herman has flattered us dearly by allowing us to grace their newest issue as well as giving us a lovely write up on their webpage along with fantastic photography by Erica Gannett.  I will say that I am quite proud of the things I’ve brought to the apartment, but most of the praise should go to Kenzie, who has a true eye for detail and placement.

If anything, I hope the article inspires all people from the curious masses to pioneers of industry to perhaps take a cue and veer away from plastics, bright colors and boring shapes and instead adopt an aesthetic at once organic and  embracing of the industrial.   If you look around, you can see it’s already begun.

We here at Steampunk Chicago, are proud and honored to be part of that.

You can check out the article at TimeOut Chicago here, and the Huffington Post also grabbed it.

Best,

The Lord Baron

The Lord Baron & KL Outside of the Bernadine Stillman Inn where they stayed.

I first went to Galena many years ago, having heard stories about it’s exceptional beauty and European style.  Upon arrival I was not disappointed and since then I’ve returned many times and even made a number of local friends.  Just this December my lady, KL and I decided to venture to Galena and spend a couple of days there.  For the adventurous steampunker, it’s an experience I highly suggest as there are innumerable antique and specialty shops and a noteworthy 85% of the town is on the national historic registry.  The Main Street strip is considered one of the best main streets in America and features such goods as locally made hot sauces, mid-west vinted fruit and central European style wines, brass jewelry, gourmand goods and a great variety of fantastic restaurants.  We ate at One Eleven Main ourselves.

One of the many ubiquitous pieces of taxidermy that sprinkle Galena. Also, hot sauce from Galena Canning Company!

Kenzie wanders through one of the many shops that carry just about everything.

A corner of an antique store. The other side is full of antique cameras.

Doubly, the town is abundant with bed and breakfasts, most are done up in a decidedly Victorian motif. Few are below $150/night (if you go on off days, Sundays – Wednesdays you can often find rooms for as low as $75).  And of course, being bed and breakfasts they feature a variety of ammenities.  One of the other fantastic things about Galena is it’s scenery.

Just before reaching Jo Davies’ Country if you are traveling from the east, you immediately begin to note that the land becomes increasingly hilly.  This is known as the Driftless region and sports vast valleys and dramatic ridges that can be as high as 1,000 feet or more above sea-level.  For the plains of the mid-west, this is quite the unusual find.

Kenzie curls her hair in front of the sink. It was next to our bed, quite traditional indeed!

Unfortunately one cannot take home everything they see in Galena.

Galena itself sports a very old-world style with old houses and narrow streets.  Even more so, the town exists along the banks of the Galena River which has caused the downtown to be built up on a near 45 degree angle going westward. A good explorer can literally take the stairs from one block west to another.  Our good friend Ryan Dies for instance, lives on the second floor of a building on Main Street but also has access from the next street west via descending stairs as each street is essentially four stories or more above the next!

The downtown slopes dramatic downward to the Galena River.

One of the random pieces of amazing that are all about Ryan's apartment.

Virtually every place you walk into in Galena has antique furniture.

All in all our stay in Galena was wonderfully relaxing while still being quite adventrous.  I would suggest Galena to any steampunker, mid-western or not, if they are looking to get away for a weekend and not break the bank.  Doubly, we found that traversing the streets in our steampunk outfits (which is essentially the only clothing we brought… and pretty much own) caused no derision but instead loads of compliments and even a few tourists asking to get their picture with us.

Our buddy Ryan licking up some snow... and standing on one of the steeply angled streets.

For more information check out Galena’s Official Website.  Also, feel free to visit The Galena Canning Company for some of the best hot sauce in the world.  One Eleven Main is a fantastic local dining experience.  The Bernadine Stillman Inn is where we were shown wonderful hospitality.  Galena Cellars has some great mid-western wine.  Visit our friend’s website Brassologie for all your brass piece needs.

Best!
-The Lord Baron