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[–] 75 points 10 months ago (15 children)

I have a tangentially related thing. I got big into steampunk decades ago when it was still young. Back then, it was a maker culture, a loosely defined idea of cogs and boilers that gave you a fun little world to practice your craft in. It wasn't just form, it was function. Hammering brass to make functional goggles, learning the Victorian techniques to whalebone corsets, clockwork to accomplish something we only do now with variable controllers.

Now I look for my people and I find a rusting husk of I knew. Gone are the color and texture, replaced by brown on brown in cotton and leather. Where once gears and cogs were carved to spin and move, now they serve only to be glued to cheap accessories. The gleaming promises of brass and copper and steel, userped by soulless luster of plastics.

We should Never have let the world in.

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  • [–] 50 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Steampunk then: What if we combined real Victorian craftsmanship and tech with imagined advanced machines.

    Steampunk now: What if I glued two plastic gears to a cheap vinyl corset.

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (5 children)

    Maybe you could help a new generation learn the value of intentional steampunk :) bring some of the passion back to the hobby, as it sounds like many just accept it as presented. Share it as a "when I got into this, we made this shit" and how you did it. I might be wrong, but I'm weirdly confident you'll eventually find a cross section of steampunks that would be interested in the creative element

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  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    It's not quite the same as you describe, but I do carry the tenets of that old steampunk to my modern crafts. Right now I'm making an electric hurdy gurdy cello out of a broken guitar, a kitchen mixer, and 3d printed models of my own construction. If steampunk taught me anything it's that anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I love that you didn't give up the complex creations. Unlike the other commenter I have no idea what a hurdy gurdy is, but I can appreciate the value of overmaking stuff. Glad to hear that you didn't let the capitalisation of steampunk kill your passion 😊

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