SteamPunk Archives

Kinetic Sculpture Race 2016 – Arcata

Good weather caused a nice turnout for Kinetic Sculpture Race 2016. The race starts in Arcata at noon, every Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and continues through the sand dunes, and down Dead Man’s Drop. Saturday, it’s into the bay in Eureka, and on Sunday, racing to the finish line in Ferndale.

Dragonass. I remember a very similar dragon made of styrofoam from many years ago. I wonder if they used the same base?

Planet 9, sponsored by Pierson’s Building Center. Move over Whirled Peas, there’s a new spinner in town and it’s awesome. The raised clouds casting shadows on the planet were an awesome touch. It spins slowly. I can’t explain the cats.

Lost Coast Brewery steampunk shark. We’ve seen it before, but that’s ok. It’s a crowd pleaser, despite being barely seaworthy.

Atomic Funguys. The Funguys really went all in on the neon this year.

Humdinger. The pilot was playing a trumpet.

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. You can always tell who the race officials are by the number of bribes they have pinned to their shirts. Bringing a table along proved a convenient decision when a bureaucrat showed up with a stack of paperwork.P-awesome. This has to have been the most barked at sculpture in the race.

Lava Rocks. It looks like a comfortable place to sport a cool mohawk.

Kinetic Sculpture Race 2015 Arcata-Ferndale

Memorial Day once again brings the Kinetic Sculpture Race to Humboldt.

Traditionally, the race begins on the Arcata Plaza with the noon siren. Due to the dismantling of the fire house, the siren had to be carted in and manually started, which happened 15 minutes late, and the mishaps didn’t stop there.

There were a lot of racers dealing with new art or equipment, and some big newcomers.

This zombie pink elephant was exactly what I like to see in the race. It was original, attention grabbing, and gave the impression that an equal measure of attention had been given to both art and machine.

I don’t say this often, but this steampunk shark was such a well polished design that I would welcome seeing it back without much alteration in future years. As much as I like to see new stuff, I hate to see something like this scrapped in the name of progress. The tophats of the riders even popped open to reveal shark teeth.

I think this butterfly was the first catastrophic casualty. It only made it a few blocks before breaking down and calling it a day, which is unfortunate. Better luck next year.

This Blue whale skeleton was just shy of life size, and it was their first time on the course after traveling all the way from Sacramento. Things were looking good until they hit a crosswind that broke the head loose.

The couple on the right are getting married at the finish line, so turning back was not an option. Half an hour later they had it back together and were back in the race, though they had to repeat the whole procedure again later.

These guys boldly went until about Dead Man’s Drop before they broke down and spent the night on the wrong side of the bridge.

As always, Kinetic officials were everywhere, looking for infractions and heavily laden with bribes.

This Borg was apparently finding plenty of culture to assimilate.

SteamPunk Guns

SteamPunk guns aren’t just something to hang over your mantle for decoration. The weapon pictured above is a fully functional Nerf gun created by Etsy seller faustus70. Alas, it is already sold, but there is really nothing stopping you from making your own customized SteamPunk gear out of some beloved item and stuff you have lying around the garage. Faustus70 made his gun out of planks from an old chair and hand cut aluminum strapping. A bit of sanding, painting, and artificial weathering, and a masterpiece is born.

My only criticism of the piece is that I think rivets would normally be centered on the planks, rather than between them. It’s important to get these things right, because hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side.

This one may be gone, but last I checked, he still makes such things and sells them at quite a reasonable price at his Etsy store here.

Chain Clock

I don’t know what it is about clocks, but they are a magnet for innovative designers. I love the simplicity of this device, which is made from a gear and a bicycle chain with copper digits. I think it would be fun to make a clock under this principle with scoops on the numbers. Put the bottom of the chain in a basin with ball bearings or some other scoopable which would ring the hour when they fall from the top.

via: Unicahome

Steampunk Lamps | Frank Buchwald

steampunk-lamp_Buchwald

The artist who created these lights , Frank Buchwald, has a design trait I commonly see among the greatest of machine oriented designers: He doesn’t so much see himself as an artist creating art, but as evolving the design of an object to the point where the form becomes inseparable from the the function without becoming a slave to it; a state morre often seen in nature than machine.

SteamPunk Computer Mods

The above SteamPunk computer casemod was commissioned as a giveaway for a new computer game. Jake of all Trades did a great job of it. I’vc seen quite a few SteamPunk computer cases go by recently, but this was the best. I wonder if it is water cooled?

Update: The above SteamPunk Flash Drive was a one of a kind piece. I hope this inspires a wave of flash drives.

Update: Click the above mechanical flash drive to see its construction.

There’s even a company that makes steampunk skins for phones and Kindles.

I’ll update this post, and keep an eye on my Steampunk and Atompunk tags.