Wednesday, February 8, 2017

I WANT IT! Steampunk Artifacts

When I win the lottery, I'll make sure my friends and family are well taken care of. I'll spend my days making people's GoFundMe dreams come true. And I'll buy everything in Will Rockwell's shop. Not necessarily in that order.

Will calls his creations (and his store) "Steampunk Artifacts," and I can't think of any more apt description, except to just call them art. His pieces are even used as props in the upcoming ABC show about time travel, Time After Time.

Lets start small. These USB flash drives are tiny pieces of working art. Made of decorated and etched brass, they even light up:

Brass Steampunk USB Flash drive memory stick Brass Steampunk USB Flash drive memory stick with Divers Helmet

Those are cool, but they won't put a dent in my hypothetical lotto winnings. Lets go bigger, or in this case, deeper. Window on the Deep is the name of this awesome art piece that brings deep sea life to your living room. It's a brass porthole mounted on an iron bulkhead next to a rusted pipe and brass steam gauge. A digital picture frame in the porthole plays looped footage of swimming fish:

Steampunk Under Water Deep Sea Porthole

And then there's the Magic Window. It's designed to look like a 19th century magical image projector. It even comes with an Android tablet that fits neatly inside the device, passively amplifying the picture and sound through a magnifier and a brass horn  for a super unique, old-timey feel. Here's a video of the Magic Window in action.

Magic Window Steampunk ipad/tablet amplifier Magic Window Steampunk ipad/tablet amplifier

Those are great! But they aren't even as Steampunky as Will Rockwell's work gets. Take his Steam Powered Computer Hard Drive for example:

Steampunk Computer Hard Drive with Smoke Steampunk Computer Hard Drive with Smoke

It's actually a case that holds your external hard drive, but appears to be powering your computer via moving drive wheel and shaft, service light, and oh yeah, it also generates smoke as it works. Pulling a brass surge lever sends an extra huge puff of smoke out of the brass stack. Seriously. This video is cued up to the action, and it's the coolest thing you'll see today:



I don't know how to play the guitar, but I would take lessons just to play Rockwell's Steampunk electric guitar, The Thunderer. If that Bengal is for sale, I'll take her, too.

Steampunk Electric Guitar by Will Rockwell Steampunk Electric Guitar by Will Rockwell

Finally, the Orion Sphere 2.0 (and the Orion Lumia), actual props from ABC's Time After Time that use high intensity LEDs to provide a fluid display of color that never repeats. They are Rockwell's researched interpretation of Thomas Wilfred's famous Lumia boxes.

Orion Sphere, Will Rockwell's Steampunk Lumia Box/Lamp Will Rockwell's Orion Lumia prop/lamp Lumia box

What does that even mean? Watch:



A nosy peek into Steampunk Artifacts' past sales reveals awesome one-of-a-kind creations no longer available (but something similar can be commissioned). There's the Sousaphone Passive Amplifier (which amplifies music from a smart phone) and the Morning Glory Iphone Victrola:

Will Rockwell's Sousaphone Passive Amplifier for smart phones Will Rockwell's Morning Glory Iphone Victrola

Or the Iphone 3D Stereoscope Viewer:

Will Rockwell's iphone 3D Stereoscope Viewer

One day soon I'll hit that lotto jackpot. But in the meantime, I can't help but be jealous of all the lucky owners of these beautiful things. Clicking through each sold listing like, "I WANT IT!" Will Rockwell's Steampunk Artifacts on Etsy

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