Steampunk Accessories: 20 Projects to Help You Nail the Style, from Goggles to Mobile Phone Cases, Gauntlets and Jewellery

Steampunk enthusiasts love accessories, and none better than those they can craft and style themselves. The 20 projects included here are easy to make and readily customized with personal details and keepsakes - they range from the everyday and accessible to the slightly more elaborate for the committed steampunker.

Nicola Teadman is a model-maker, and has worked for theatre, television and film, including the Harry Potter films. Sarah Skeate is an illustrator, and also works in publishing. So it's hardly surprising that when the two come together to write a book, that the end result is pretty, atmospheric, well written and theatrical. Opening up this book feels a little like stepping into a scene from Sherlock Holmes, or Lyra's Oxford in Northern Lights. It has a feeling of exploration, adventure, and history. As you look through the projects, you see rivets, cogs, and clock hands, and all those details that add that theatrical fantasy twist, that turns the projects from historical to steampunk. The book has the charm of a bygone era with some of the pages tinted cream and brown to replicate the signs of ageing paper. The backgrounds are decorated with victorian style illustrations, showing people in victorian dress, inventions from an industrial age, steam engines, flying machines, stop watches and cogs. The book begins with the usual introduction, followed by helpful sections that cover Materials and Techniques. There is a comprehensive list of tools, and a short explanation of how they are used, suggestions on how to source materials, as well as instructions on Adhesives and Gluing, and Working with Leather. I found these sections to be incredibly informative and thorough, covering a good seven pages. No assumptions are made about the reader's knowledge or ability, every detail has been considered, even things as simple as correctly opening and closing jump rings, as well as maybe less commonly used skills, such as using liver of sulphur, eyelets and rivets, and dying leather. Although the book can appear quite text heavy in places, the layout is clear and tidy. It uses a red dashed line as a decorative sewing themed visual aid, to both separate boxes of text containing lists, and tips, and to lead the eye around and across the page. There are twenty projects to fulfill including items for men as well as women, with some demanding more time and effort than others. They include a variety of accessories including jewellery, millinery, gauntlets, fob watches and goggles, all with a wonderful combination of vintage style and mechanical elements. With the exception of the brooch, and fob watch projects, all the projects start with a full page colour photo of the finished item being modelled, which also acts as the project title page. This is followed by a detailed, red diagram of the item with some additional notes, and a list of the things that you will need. Some of the more complex items do appear to have very long lists, but don't let that deter you, as not only is every little tiny item listed, such as jump rings, but it also includes all of the tools that you will use. The instructions for each project are written step-by-step, with accompanying numbered diagrams, at a glance some of them appear a bit long, continuing over several pages, but they are clear and very precise. It also often points out what not to do or things that may go wrong, so you can feel confident and reassured that you have been forewarned of any potential mishaps. I thought the illustrations across the background may be distracting, being so close to the diagrams, but this didn't turn out to be the case, as they only sit behind a small amount of text, and are kept clear of the diagrams. The illustrations are also much lighter, so fade easily behind the rest of the elements on the page. In truth, the book would lack the same atmosphere and drama if it wasn't so highly decorated. At the back of the book there are templates, which provide you with line drawings to scan, print and cut out for shapes. They also give you the vintage imagery used within some of the projects, such as an image of a compass for the Leather Phone Case. --ukhandmade 30th June 2012