STEAMPUNK GEAR & ACCESSORIESClick the any of the images below to see a larger view.

"Ubiquitous Goggles"
The easiest accessory of all for steampunk is a set of goggles. Yes, it is so ubiquitous that it is a cliché. Simple, or complex, it is to steampunk like wearing a pair of mouse ears is to visiting Disneyland. Most of us love the goggles in spite of what some critics condescendingly snark. Thaddeus did a few simple modifications to our goggles. In both cases, a discarded mini leather belt was recut, and sewn or gromitted into a new strap to replace the distinctly modern elastic bands that come with these things followed by a little paint here and there to give it the "brass goggles" look. To pile cliché upon cliché, a few watch parts were added to Thaddeus's goggles, and then he "rediscovered" some old holograms of watches he had, and sandwiched them in between the lenses to give them a fairly unique look. As Prof. Penelope's interest is in ancient Egypt, her goggles received a different treatment--with decorative Eyes of Horus.
"Wireless Portable Telegraph"
If Bell hadn't developed the telephone, I suspect that Marconi and Tesla would have created wireless telegraphs instead of the radio. This is Thaddeus' first attempt at a steampunk prop. An old shorted-out tabletop radio was gutted (the parts were reused in other projects), slightly refurbished, and kitted out as a crank-operated wireless telegraph with handy carrying strap. A key from an old Morse code training set was fitted onto a leather "bracer", and a set of crystal headphones completed the setup. Lesson learned: Do not have so many dangling wires from your props!
"Electrostatic Gun"
This is Thaddeus's second attempt at making steampunk props. This began life as a translucent purple water pistol. What a difference some copper and bronze spray paint, some contact paper, and a couple of odds and ends make! Buck Rogers goes steampunk.... The odds and ends are a piece of copper wire from a thermostat, a toy kaledescope lens, and an old "Autolite" capacitor that Thaddeus found in the crawlspace of our house.
"Reality Engine"
Built for DragonCon 2010. Thaddeus decided that the wireless telegraph was a little too much trouble to carry around--it encumbered one hand, and kept getting knocked into things. The Reality Engine didn't start with much more than a plan to make "somthing with pipes" that was low-cost, lightweight and didn't interfere with taking pictures and wouldn't constantly bump into tables in the dealers' rooms. It isn't a great prop in and of itself (that's what you get when you build without a plan), but Thaddeus experimented with several tricks to simulate "the real things". Copper pipe? Too expensive. Copper spray paint and some 1/4" dowel rods work great with a handful of stray copper elbows found in a junk box under the house. Real brass gauges lend a lot of authenticity, but are darn heavy, hard to come by, and tend to be expensive when you do find them ("unless you know this guy"). Brass-tone steel peanut butter jar lids and a little patient effort with Microsoft WordArt will give you any type of gauge with any type of scale you want. A little time with an Xacto blade and some discarded clear plastic packaging will yield an indicator of any size or shape that seems appropriate for your gauge. A few dabs of acrylic paint will provide the finishing touch. Cost: $0.00. Weight: less than 1 oz. I actually have some old wooden kegs formerly used for aging whiskey that would have made a great tank. Unfortunately they are HEAVY. This tank is two large plastic jars, cut so one fit inside the other, then painted copper. I took some wood-grained contact paper cut into strips to make the "insulating jacket, carefully placed to keep the copper "bands" exposed. This is an idea I got a couple of years ago when I wanted to disquise a Home Depot "Bubba Keg" as a wooden keg. The disguise was a lighter shade of contact paper cut in strips and some black electrical tape for the bands. It had dozens of people doing double takes once they got within less than 5 feet.