My terribly clever wife Liz circumvented my impending mid-life crisis when she bought me a penny-farthing bike for my 40^th birthday. She knew that it would be an affordable substitute for a Ferrari or Porsche.  As the Chicago seasons rapidly change, the time for bringing the hiwheel out of winter storage is nigh.

She bought it from Rideable Bicycle Replicas. They shipped the pieces to her at work and she had the good staff at Rapid Transit Cylceshop assemble it. I have been informed that pretty much all of the staff took it out for a test ride, you know, just to be sure everything worked.

It’s great fun to ride! Passers-by wave and announce, “Hey! Bike guy!” with a jolly gleam in the eye. The public reaction is one of merriment, to which I carefully tip my hat and offer, “Good day!”

However, there are certain details that separate it from the usual bike ride. It is fixed-gear, with the pedals directly connected to the wheel. You can’t break and you can’t coast. On a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo, I had to walk the bike over the Chicago River along Webster. The hilliness on either side of Ashland was unpedalable. I’ve avoided Damen north of the Vienna Beef Hot Dog factory for fear of a coronary on the bridge. My choice of destinations tends to be limited.

I also have to accessorize for my rides. Of course, I enjoy being steampunked out for the occasion. Unfortunately, I tend to throw caution to the wind. As much as I know that I should wear a helmet, it just doesn’t match. A bowler looks much better, but it doesn’t offer the same sort of cranial protection.  For security, I also use a Fabric Horse u-lock holster, but this necessitates trousers with a belt. My Frontier Classics with suspenders or morning suit with the adjustable waist do not allow the convenience.

My apologies, but if you see me riding, I will not let you try it. You will break it. This happens every time. Accustomed to standard bikes, you will try to start pedaling. The wheel will not move and you will wrench the handlebars out of place. I will have to take it to Rapid Transit to have it readjusted (again). To take off, it is necessary to glide along the bike and let your feet to catch up with the moving pedals.  Maneuvering will be odd. You will use a lot more upper body strength for steering. My shoulders usually ache a bit after the first few seasonal trips. Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy offers excellent advice on riding a penny farthing in The Affected Provincial’s Companion, Volume One.

Now I must tip my hat to you. Good day!

Yikes! Pothole!

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!

In lieu of the review of Hellblinki’s “These Bubbles Come from Ants” that I was asked to write, it seemed worthwhile to discuss the bonds that exist within the steampunk community.

Back at June’s Polyphonic Panorama at Chicago’s Abbey Pub, we were graced by the presence of Hellblinki and the midway marvel Sanjula Vamana. In the dim light of the dance floor, he discreetly introduced his manhood (i.e. whipped out his pierced tallywhacker). He fastened it to a chair and spun about like a dervish. A veritable chair-nado of the crotch.

But this would not be quite so wond’rous if the very same Hellblinki did not have a song called “Sanjula’s Junk” on the album that appears on this very aether-page! It’s a bouncy little ditty with some old-timey, voh-de-oh-doh vocals.

The dance at the show was an example of mutual benefit. Artists supporting artists! The object of affection and tribute offered his own tribute to the merry-makers.

As a community, let us celebrate each other and our talents. Support independent artists like Hellblinki, Sanjula and the Chicagoans who made their dance possible.

“A topper is a topper and you can’t top that.” -Roger Miller, “The Hat”

It’s a shame to see so many Chicago heads emblazoned with the logo of a sports team. Baseball teams show regional boundaries. Football provides a unifying ursine presence. Would that the City of Big Shoulders show a little more pride atop its noggin? Fortunately, there are milliners to provide the service.

Cassel Goorin began selling hats in Pittsburgh in 1895. His sons moved the business to San Francisco in 1949. Now the Goorin Brothers have Chicago stores in Lakeview and Wicker Park. Lady or Gent, you can’t go wrong with their Heritage Collection.  Tina Flapper is a very fine cloche, and her sisters are also diesel-punk evocative. The Flying Private and White Rabbit are timely variations on the top hat.

Hats Plus offers an extremely wide variety of toppers. Colors and styles abound at this Portage Park shop at the Irving Park/Milwaukee/Cicero six corners. Prices are generally quite reasonable. If you’re looking for a hat you can use for modification (adding gears, moving clock parts, or a hand-cranked lamp), turn the Milwaukee corner and visit Fantasy Headquarters. Hats and costumes abound. Just avoid rolling your eyes at the steampunk display.

The Oakton Street Antique Center in Elk Grove, IL,  has a pretty good selection of Victorian or Edwardian styled ladies’ and men’s hats at reasonable prices and in good condition. Shabbier hats could use a good home, too. You can fix or mod a hat with some damage (and a lower price) and give it a new life!

If you’re going to mod or make, Hobby Lobby has a small selection of doll hats that can be used for tiny top hats and fascinators. They range from toppers to wide-brimmed (for a doll) straw hats. Add some clock hands, damask ribbon, fabric or an assortment of  the steampunk themed accoutrements that they have started carrying. The hats are as easy to sew through as sewing a button. Grab a hot glue gun, watch a YouTube tutorial and with a little practice you can come up with some unique designs.

If you want to up the ante, take a millinery class. They are available at Eia Millinery Design, The Fashion Design Departments at the College of DuPage, Columbia College, Illinois Institute of Art and the International Academy of Design & Technology.

(by Joe Mason and Renee J. Knowles Lebbing)

Come one, come all to Chicago, for this Saturday June 4, we have an extra-ordinary event! Presenting, the Polyphonic Panorama! A night filled with steampunk and vaudeville music, steampunk fashion, pirate humor, fantastic Steampunk art, jewelry and more!

The Abbey Pub! 8pm!

Come hear the fantastic sounds of Frenchy and the Punk, Helblinki Sextet, Curtis Eller, Eliza Rickman and Duenow!

See the pirate madness what is Thee Bluebeard!

If you were at the World Steam Expo, consider this an encore performance and a kickstart to a Chicago summer of Steampunk!

Read more about the Polyphonic Panorama and see our entire Calendar of events at our events listing!

See you there!