Modern Daguerreotypes

Sally J, aka The Practical Archivist (an Internet acquaintance on two axis -- steampunk and family history technology!) dropped me a note to mention her recent musing on daguerreotypes (and a desire for one of the very steampunk Neverwas Haul) that led to a comment and correspondence from an real life daguerreotypist.

John Danforth loves to hand craft daguerreotypes for people based on existing photos they already have. John says high resolution color digital files work best. Many of his customers choose a favorite wedding photograph to be rendered as a beautiful keepsake.....
Why Daguerreotypes? According to John, there are two main reasons. The first is the incredible detail you get using this process. Anyone lucky enough to have seen a dag knows exactly what he's talking about. The other reason is close to [Sally's] heart: Longevity.

Wow, how cool would that be? Your wedding photo -- or family photo (Ah, the family Brumfield in all it's steampunk glory, hung over the fireplace?) turned into a daguerreotype?

The above picture is a daguerreotype from John's gallery. I love how it mixes the very 19th century Eiffel Tower with the very 21st century Google Maps on a Dell laptop.

Oh, and John is happy to teach you how to make daguerrotypes. If that's above your budget, hunt up the 2nd issue of Craft, which has an article about John's process.

Get the Look: 20,000 Leagues

I'm going to finish out the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza with some ideas on how to get that Victorian future submarine look.

First, my favorite stores for nautical inspired decor are The Brass Binnacle and Newport Nautical Decor. For submarine specific things, check out The Submarine Store.

Ebay, which differs from day to day, often offers scale models of the Nautilus, or plans for making them (would be great framed!) or other surprising things (last week they had a piece of plastic seaweed off of the original DisneyWorld ride).

I've also put together a kaboodle list of things with a submarine or 20,000 feel to them -- highlights of this are a model giant squid and rusty iron floor tiles.

20,000 Leagues Inspired House by saracarl

Submarine Playroom

Whilst researching things for 20,000 Leagues week, I ran across this charming playroom on the Better Homes and Gardens site.





Unlike many of the other rooms we've looked at in the last week, this one is done entirely in paint -- down to the rivets and pipes. If you're not so artistically inclined, you could achieve a similar affect with fish Wallies -- wallpaper "stickers" that are easy to apply.


Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

Three Ring's Nautilus Offices -- an update

I wrote a while ago about the Splendiferous Nautilus Office at 3 Ring Design, what you may not realize is that Because We Can has done a number of follow up posts (with pictures!) since that original popular post.

Some of the new additions to the offices are quite spiffy:

Door Signs

Arches with Medallions

Inlaid Tables

More desks

You can also go read all of Because We Can's blog posts on the Three Rings Office (there are 10 with lots of pictures and schematics).

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

Tom Scherman's Apartment

So you think you'd like a Nautilus inspired home? I'm sorry to disappoint, but someone has already beat you to it.


This was the apartment of Tom Scherman. According to Vulcania Submarine:

Tom was the premier NAUTILUS modeler and one of the movie’s greatest fans. As the story goes, he was “the kid hanging around Disneyland’s LEAGUES exhibit”, who got recognized for his passionate dedication to the movie and his amazing skill as a craftsman. That initial recognition led to a lifelong career that ultimately took Disney’s 20,000 Leagues into areas the movie’s producers never imagined.

Isn't it great?

(Thanks to Peachy Carnehan and the folks over on the Steampunk Forum for pointing this one out.)

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

The Interior of the Nautilus

Captain Nemo's Bedroom

The mythology of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was enhanced by Disney's 1954 movie, and then expanded by 20,000 Leagues rides at the various Disney properties. The one at Disney World is gone, but created such strong fans that there is more than one website dedicated to it.

Captain Nemo's Bathroom

For steampunk home decor, however, we're interested in the interior of the Nautilus, ideally in high quality pictures. For our purposes Les Mystères du Nautilus at Disneyland Paris is the best bet.

Dave, the proprietor of the 20kride.com site, has more pictures than you can imagine, and a handful show the industrial Victorian grand future that we all enjoy.

Map of Vulcania

Salon

There are more and larger pictures on the original site. Also worth a look are the pictures of the Mysterious Island attraction at DisneySea Tokyo and pictures of the 20,000 Leagues exhibit at DisneyLand.

Giant Squid Model! (stay tuned -- later in the week I'm going to tell you where to find one of your own!)

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

Casa Battló

Casa Battló is an Art Nouveau masterpiece in Barcelona, Spain designed by Antoni Gaudi. I stumbled across it while searching flickr for pictures of the Jules Verne House. Flickr member jennyfrisco has a great set of pictures of the house (better than any others I could find online), and describes the first on this way:

"The exterior suggests a fish skeleton, and the whole house has a nautical theme, having been built right in the era when Jules Verne's 20000 leagues under the sea was in great circulation."

I didn't find any other references to 20,000 Leagues in any other descriptions or histories of the house, so I don't know how accurate it is, but keep 20,000 Leagues in mind as you look at these pictures and you'll probably agree with her.


Doesn't this look like the interior of a submarine?

Bedroom Door

Loft Hallway

Another Flickr user, europe_trip2007, describes the house like this:
"Smooth white walls broken only by large, tortoiseshell-like windows. Wrought brass railings, stained lightly by age. Rich lacquered wood doorways in-laid with stained glass that changes colour depending on which side of the door you're standing on...

The white tortoise windows are meant to be like windows you'd find in an underwater house, the likes imagined by Jules Verne and other science fiction authors. The orange glass and brass railing sort of remind one of coral...? At least it did that for me. "





The Casa Battló website has detailed pictures of each room of the house. The Gaudi Gallery has many more pictures. The best article on the house is found in Architecture Week.

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

The Jules Verne House

In France, in the town of Amiens in Picardy, is the home of Jules Verne. This house was occupied by Verne from 1882-1900.

The Winter Garden

I love the checkboard flooring in the winter garden.

Office and Writing Desk

Verne's office has great, rich green wallpaper and curtains. The furniture is pretty great too -- daybed, 2 part desk, globe and lamp.

The above photos are all part of this set. The one below is from this site. Both have many more, so go check it out.

The science fiction mural and the top of the observation tower are recent additions by François Schuiten.

You can also see 360 degree tours of rooms in the house on this website.

Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.

A Birthday Extravaganza: Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues

It's my birthday!

To celebrate, I'm kicking off a week of Jules Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea themed Steampunk Home posts! (My gift to you.)

I've got houses and rooms galore inspired by Verne's 20,000 Leagues (and the ensuing Disney movie and ride), shopping lists of things to build or buy to get that 20,000 Leagues look, and some links to other resources to inspire you.

To go along with our visual feast, here is the whole book, online.

What's that? What could you do to help celebrate? Why don't you drop a short note in the comments to this post -- tell me where you're reading from, perhaps -- to make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Jules Verne Extravaganza Posts (so far):
The Jules Verne House
Casa Battló
Interior of the Nautilus
Tom Scherman's Apartment
Three Ring's Nautilus Offices -- an update
Submarine Playroom
Get the Look

Steampunk Curtains with Embroidered Cogs

Jenbug has another steampunk home craft. She's embroidered curtains with gears. I assume this is based on Tinkergirl's cog embroidery how-to.

I like the combination of rough, natural fabric and the rusty color of the cogs.

More toothbrush holders, much more steampunk

In the comments to the Steampunk Toothbrush holder, Jenbug mentions that she has actually made some of these. A convenient link to her livejournal, and we see pictures of 2!:





I like how she expands on the whole "toothbrush holder" idea into a full blown "bathroom caddy", complete with q-tip holder and floss.

Jen says:
I bought the wooden base from the AC Moore completely plain and unpainted. I stained the wood Golden Oak, painted the outside in titanium gold, then decoupaged the red border with small red squares I cut from paper.

I affixed the test tubes with brass conduit purchased from Skycraft, the glass Qtip holder with copper hanger strap, and the floss with plain old copper wire. The test tubes aren't glued down, they're easily slid in and out from the top. Their rim is what holds them in, and they can easily be removed for cleaning or replacement. Unfortunately the power drill didn't properly fit throught the conduit so I just screwed everything down by hand, except where the hanger strap's connected.

I had the idea to put metallic green beads in the bottoms of the test tubes to create a vivid contrast and for drainage of toothbrush slime, but didn't do it because there was just so much red happening. I tried to decoupage green on the glass jar (which entered my house full of Allessi-brand sundried tomatoes) to create a counterpoint to the red accents and support the green, but I just don't care for how it came out.

Well done, Miss Jenbug.

For more details, go read the full description.

Steampunk Toothbrush Holder

Over on the steamfashion group at livejournal, someone pointed out this lovely craft project:



The how-to is on Instructables.

Paper Curtain Template

The Martha Stewart Halloween Special Issue (I know, I know -- I read these things so you don't have to....) has instructions for creating these elegant paper window curtains (along with a template).

I like this idea -- do it in a Victorian wallpaper or wrapping paper (maybe glue it to cardboard first) and you'd have a very inexpensive and very unique window covering.

Mr Watters' Steampunk Dorm Room

So you think your home is too modern to be steampunk -- no molding, no wood floors? (I know I often do...) How can you get that steampunk vibe when you're not starting with a Victorian house? Well, sure a Victorian infrastructure would help, but as this photo set by Mr. Sam Watters shows us, *any* room can become steampunk -- even a generic institutional dorm room.

The Study

The Cafe and Mantel

Sam says:

I wanted my room this year to take on a victorian/steampunk feel this year, and began to acquire various elements at flea markets and antique fairs. I was planning on a victorian filigree wall stencil, but the administration is cracking down on painting this year. The solution came in the form of some decorative, pre-stained moulding strips and a nice fabric for kind of a framed wallpaper effect.

I like the "necessity breeds invention" solution of framing Victorian fabric. It's a great way to get the rich feel of a Victorian home -- all molding and ornate wallpaper -- without it costing too much (or overwhelming a small room). The "zoning" of his room into a study, a cafe, and a bedroom is also quite clever.

There are 4 more pictures in the flickr photo set.

Now, I have to throw in a few of my ideas into the mix.

The Bedroom -- or it could it be the Parlor?

First, the part of the room with the bed in it, with it's great gold framed portrait, would make a great "parlor." With the addition of a couple of bolsters -- a long one across the length, one on the foot, one at the head, and a nice comforter (preferably red!) -- you'd have a day bed worthy of esteemed guests. (Links are to Target, but I've seen plenty of small pillows and comforters at thrift shops and stores like Ross that would suit a student's budget. Or make a duvet cover with the same fabric that is framed.)

Second, I'd like to see more "young scientist" influence. Victorian by itself is lovely, but I think steampunk is both broader (encompassing art deco and art nouveau) and more specific (focusing on science, technology and fantasy). Mr Watter may not need a pair of goggles hanging on a hook, or have a babbage engine in the corner, but a brass weather station would be a nice touch. Or he could expand on the explorer theme he's started with the maps and globe and add in an airship -- a model or a poster (print your own) -- and a compass (or raygun!). And don't forget a clock! How could it be steampunk without a clock? How about making one out of bike gears?

Thank you Mr Watters, for sharing. (Even if you didn't ask for the brainstorming.... please take no offense at my suggestions, I think your room is lovely as it is.)

(and thank you, Tinkergirl, for sending Sam this way)