Assignment 3 - Project 6 - Stage 4 - Final Piece - Steampunk Book Cover - part one - prep

(DISPLAY PIECE)
(NOTE: SENT UNMOUNTED DUE TO SIZE/WEIGHT)

I love Steampunk art. All those gears and cogs, rusty metal, chains and things that go clunk are quite magical. I think perhaps it reminds me of Mousetrap for grown-ups (which was my favourite board game)!
So for my personal piece I decided to produce a journal cover, styled in the steampunk tradition.
Steampunk is Victorian-esque, Art Nouveau, mechanical, past and future, science fiction, copper pipe, keys, cogs, clocks and timepieces, valves, gears, leather and, of course, steam-powered! Here are a couple of visual mind-maps I put together when coming up with ideas for my project.

From these I pulled the following images as the basis for my piece.

I found an old wallpaper sample book (a bit larger than A3 size) with really sturdy board covers and a strong cord handle. I think I can re-use the fasteners that held the pages in place, which will be great for storing sketches and journal material (the spine is about 8cm deep!).

I raided my stash for a good range of Steampunk colours, materials, shapes and textures. I included an eclectic range of fabrics, threads and yarns.

I also added lots of interesting "found objects" - coins, straws, mesh, bottle caps, rivets, wire and a couple of old cds.

I sketched out a rough idea of the shapes I wanted to create with some notes on how to replicate them.

Coming soon - part two - assembly.....