Oh my goodness! So many wonderful things! Where do I start??

Maker Faire was a smorgasboard of delights and inspirations, with art colliding with industry with a generous helping of like-minded steampunk glories! I finally got to debut my steampunk corset, shown in the photo, though you can't see the crank-powered lights in the sheepskin trim ('cause it's too light outside). I spent much of the weekend helping my friends at the Neverwas Haul, where we hosted hundreds of lookie-loos and a real wedding on Sunday! No kidding! Another highlight was getting to work on my copper etching project at the faire, on the grass-- before we left for SF I wasn't able to finish the badges I wanted to make for each crew-member, so I brought the pieces along. Mmm, dangerous chemicals in a crazy setting! The good news is that I only splashed a very tiny bit of ferric chloride on the *white skirt* I was wearing, the bad news was that I didn't get to finish the project before it was time to pack up.

I was FLOORED to find that people from the Computer History Museum in Mountain View were there at Maker Faire, since I had just applied for a job there as an assistant to help move their collection in storage! AND even better, they are exhibiting the Babbage Difference Engine for a year, which has been an ongoing inspiration to me in my steampunk imaginings. *SMASH* and her worlds collide!! In fact, when I walked up to talk with them, the docent who was there asked "Are you Lady Ada Lovelace?" (who herself was an ongoing inspiration to Babbage in his frustrated attempts to create his device despite the technological limitations of brass machining in his day, and who is someone I have thought it would be fun to play at Dickens Faire). Yikes! And I thought I had to keep my library stuff separate from my costume&funplay stuff! EEP! Keep your fingers crossed for me and that job-- it feels like the perfect impetus to get up to the Bay Area, it's temporary so I can work on getting something permanent after I get there and settled, and oh by the way, I'm perfectly qualified for it!

I first encountered Abney Park at Maker Faire (a wonderful crew of airship pirates who by the way also play a mean guitar, fiddle, drum, 'n' keyboard). I unfortunately missed their concert there (I stuck myself to the Haul because I was worried someone would mess with the steam boilers or trip over something), but was elated to discover that Abney Park is playing a show at the Edison in downtown LA on May 25! The Edison is a re-worked Victorian power company that has a new lease on life as a nightclub. Lucent Dossier appears to be a regular fixture there-- oh so perfect. So I'll be there, complete with tiny hat! YAAAAAAYYY!!

Abney Park show:
www.abneypark.com
www.edisondowntown.com/tickets/index.php

More photos from Maker Faire:
flickr.com/photos/space...604912042130/
(ps. I love that my boyfriend's a photographer!)