Don't Let Long Sleeves...

...get in the way of your adventures. New in the Adornments for Tarts shop - Zephyr Sleeve Garters.

(Image courtesy of Photomato)
The inventor tinkers away in his dusty workshop, deep into the night, sculpting fine wood, gleaming brass and supple leather into arcane treasures for amusement and edification. With nimble fingers and piercing eyes he sees the potential in a pile of mismatched parts, senses the adventures that await if he can just craft that perfect apparatus to help unfold his fortunes....

Suitable for both dashing gents and audacious ladies, Zephyr Sleeve Garters are made of dupioni silk, and there are five colors of garters available to match any ensemble - scarlet red, pewter silver, bronze gold, mahogany brown, and ebony black.

And yes, that's my much-adored and dapper husband Stache above, by his kinetic contraption, the Hennepin Crawler, at the Maker Faire.

Thanks to fellow Steam Teamer and brilliant goggle-maker BoilerGoth for inspiring the title of this dispatch.

Giveaway at the Wunderkammer!

Most of my dear readers will be familiar with the lovely TotusMel's addictive daily Etsy finds blog the Wunderkammer ~ finds for those of us with dark and decadent tendencies, that is.

TotusMel covers a spectrum of drool-worthy goodies, with a new batch of four every day. Past favorite collections include Necking, Top Hats, and the intoxicatingly odd Gas.

But the glorious news is this - just yesterday, she started a giveaway contest to celebrate a new blog design by the multi-talented Industrial Fairytale, with incredible prizes contributed by past featurees on the blog. A gift certificate to Adornments for Tarts is included with grand company like Tom Banwell, WinonaCookie, and ZKitten. The more people enter the contest, the more wonderful goodies are unlocked, so start spreading the news. If we get up to 175 entrants, this amazing custom bustle-skirt by CrescentWench will be added to the treasure-pile.

You like free goodies, don't you? Tally ho! Rules are here.

Love at the Maker Faire

You may have noticed my conspicuous absence in the last week or two... I have not been negligent, dear readers, but in a frenzy of activity ending in last weekend's glorious Maker Faire. This post will be doubly long to make up for it!

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
I was vending my Adornments for Tarts as part of the Steam Team, in the Carnivale Mechanique area of the Faire. The crowds, the wind, and the long days not-withstanding, my experience at the Faire was incredible. I'm still exhausted, but it was worth it, to be part of the single most concentrated gathering of creative, gorgeous, and debaucherous mad-people short of Burning Man.

Photo by Bonnie Burton
Being delighted by some of my beloved Etsy Steam Teamers for the first time in the flesh - TotusMel, AlliesAdornments, and Clockwork Crow - and reuniting with old friends - Nullalux, Industrial Fairytale, Tom Banwell, and 19Moons - was glorious, though admittedly we were so busy we hardly had time for chatting... Nullalux in particular was juggling like mad to take care of all the mail-in items.

Photo by Pip R. Lagenta
I was really excited to see everyone's work in person, particularly Tom's Pachydermos Gas Mask.

Photo by Bonnie Burton
The weekend was filled with those kinds of magical peak moments that happen when you're in bliss... Drinking Irish coffee in the shadow of the Neverwas Haul with her brave and tireless crew, and then careening about on the little trolley...

Photo by Jake Von Slatt
Following the Golden Mean Snail Car and her brilliant gang of vagabonds from bar to bar in the sleepy suburban town, in full costume, confusing and delighting the locals...

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
Meeting some of my brilliant friends from the Interwebs in the flesh, most notably Molly "Porkshanks" Friedrich in her showstopping costumes...

Photo by Rich Dahlgren
...the resplendent Libby Bulloff, whose outfit on Sunday nearly made my heart explode with joy... shown here with Qais Fulton of Ectomo fame, who I failed entirely to meet...

Photo by David Dowling
...a beaming Tom Sepe and his splendid Whirlygig Emoto...

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
...and beautiful Theremina of Coilhouse ~ who stole my heart and serenaded the crowd with her antique Stroh violin, perched atop the Hennepin Crawler... she played violin for the beautiful dancers of Deshret, as well.

Photo by Jake Von Slatt
Another giddy moment was having my portrait drawn by the talented and sparklingly beautiful Suzanne Forbes...

Original Art by Suzanne Forbes
And of course, watching my beloved Krank-Boom-Clank boys ride through the hordes of people on the Crawler, getting cheers everywhere they went.

Photo by Shel and Nate
And amidst all that madness, I still found time for drinking beer with the Boiler Bar crew under the propane glow of art by the Flaming Lotus Girls...

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
And not to forget kissin' on my beloved Stache.

Photo by Sassy Monkey Media
Beautiful new friends and treasured longtime ones, your creativity and passion filled my heart to the brim this weekend. I fell in love all over again with the ragtag band of tinkerers, costumers, musicians, artists, and freaks that I call my community. This is a love letter dedicated to YOU.

Goggles of Eternal Revealing

I has them! And not a moment too soon... it's nearly the New Year, a perfect time for divining intervention.

Made, of course, by the enchanting crypto-historian Fyriel of OrpheusAlchemy ~ these are spectactularly amazing. Who else but Fyriel wouldn't even blink when I requested "Gypsy Art Nouveau Industrial Victorian" goggles?

Details that make me warm inside: Arcane symbols and silver curlicues all over!

A nameplate special for me on the leather strap... and a special antique key to some unknown door to the soul...

I had the joy of meeting Fyriel while she was sporting her full warlock costume at the Steampunk Convention, in which she found interwebs fame.

Visit her shop on Etsy for more breathtaking treasures to delight and mystify you!

Bits and Bobs

I always loved Brit colloquialisms like "bits and bobs" or "I'm well chuffed." In fact, I may single-handedly try to bring "chuffed" into the American lexicon. Who's with me?

On to the bits. First, a tease - new designs are coming for Adornments for Tarts, at last. I received some exciting bundles in the mail - new raw silk, new velvet ribbons. And there's also a winter special in the shop - free pair of earrings with the purchase of a collar!

Also, my last post on my love of cephalopods helped inspire a new group blog from select members of the Etsy Steam Team. Come visit the Cephalopod Tea Party - a blog dedicated to a love of tentacled sea creatures! We plan to scour the inter-webs for all things octopus-ish, squidly, and tentacled for your enjoyment.

And there you can find treats like this outfit. Someone beat me to making my long-desired tentacle corset...

Found via BoingBoing, from this treasure trove of fabulous couture.

In other exciting interwebs fame news, I had an image featured on Theremina's drgblz blog, where LOLs meet airships - yay for ridiculously juvenile internet memes!

Finally, in the how-many-social-networking-sites-can-Choklit-frequent category, you can now find me on Twitter and on Facebook. If you must.

Adornments In the Flesh

The Steampunk Convention already seems so far away. But as promised, here are a few reflections from the trenches.

The best part, no contest, was meeting some of my fellow members of the Etsy Steam Team in person. I was thrilled to see Industrial Fairytale again, and to meet Emily of Theriaca Fina and Kathleen from Figments for the first time, among others. We were all floored by Fyriel of Orpheus Alchemy - who spent the whole weekend in the most amazingly beautiful arcane bird-creature costume I've ever seen. More on Fyriel here.

I had trimmed out my table with small indulgences, causing more than one person to laugh at my predilection towards excess and lushness - going down the row - feather plumes, silk garters, and dark chocolate... musts for any well-stocked boudoir, I say.

My stripey black-and-silver corset by Louise Black finally had its debut, and I had a beautiful vacuum tube necklace by Libby of Exoskeleton Cabaret hand-delivered to me by the dashing Nathaniel of Abney Park, as he is a dear friend and neighbor of Libby's. It all came together for my Victorian Gilded Bat costume.

I did miss the Abney Park show in order to dash home for my own, where Baby Seal Club opened for Mutaytor, and then proceeded to dance our hearts out until 3am.

Back to the convention Sunday morning, bedraggled but in good spirits. I had the pleasure of meeting some lovely people - like amazing artist Suzanne Forbes, and fellow Steampunk burner Miranda V, who has promised future adventures and debauchery.

The exposure was well worth it, and the Steam Team had a moment of fame last week when the Make Blog posted about us, complete with shop links and a picture!

All in all, a splendid time, if a wee bit exhausting.

Sweetness of Home

The weekend's events were beautiful chaos, and I'll have a full report soon. In the meantime, I just wanted to share what felt like the most beautiful sight in the world when I finally got home last night from Steampowered, and three full days under florescent overhead lighting ~ this little corner of my workshop, where my love Stache had put flowers for me.

It's so very good to be home. Now I am off to sleep, since I must wake up extra early to VOTE!

Weekend Warrioress

The fast-approaching Halloween weekend is going to be madness.

First off, I'll be vending Adornments for Tarts lovelies at Steampowered, the Steampunk Convention, with my mates from the Etsy Steam Team. I'll be there all three days - October 31st, and November 1st & 2nd.

But wait! You may be wondering - doesn't Baby Seal Club open for Mutaytor at the Cirque du Sebastopol on Saturday night?

Your post-apocalyptic craftista siren is keeping impossibly busy, as ever. I'll be sneaking out of the SteamCon on Saturday night to run home and sing my heart out, and then back the next morning to keep selling my work. Sigh.

Picture from our show at the San Francisco Burning Man Decompression, courtesy of 94114photo.

Red Letter Day

Yesterday was an unusually lovely day for me. Not only was I recognized with an award at work, which was wonderful, but an interview with me was published on the Steam Team blog! Thanks to Hyla for letting me wax poetic about my work.

Here's me basking in my fleeting Interwebs glory. Actually, it's technically me basking in Burning Man glory, but, you know, basking is basking.

And as if that weren't enough, last night we had the pure joy overload of seeing David Byrne in concert, from the second row. Suffice to say, it was a wondrous performance, and served only to confirm to me that the man is a genius. Everyone should acquire his newest album, and soon. The only thing that could have made it better is if he had played "Burning Down the House" accompanied by the Extra Action Marching Band, which I hear he did at the San Francisco show.

And this weekend, Baby Seal Club plays at Decompression, closing out the Circus Stage. Should be brilliant, and with any luck, we'll cross paths with Fou Fou Ha and the Golden Mean again.

I Made The Team!

...the Etsy Steampunk Team, that is...

And it kind of feels like suddenly being part of the varsity cheering squad I so purposefully avoided in high school, except the "cheerleaders" are all smart, hip, crafty counterculture types. This is no small thing, lovely readers. I'm in with the in-crowd now. These people are seriously talented, and seriously organized. And they welcomed me with open arms despite the fact that my adornments are more Neo-Victorian, looking over flirtatiously at Steampunk.

Here's just a wee sampler of some of the beautiful things made by my fellow Steam Teamers: Clockwork Green Pendant by Heterodyne, Steampunk Gold Lace Cuffs by GrandmaWasAFloozy, The Adventures of Captain Octavio collage by WinonaCookie, Widow's Weeds brooch by slvrlily and TotusMel, WWII Spat Corset by velvetmechanism, and Nautilus Necklace by ClockworkCrow.


Not only do they have a blog, a Flickr group, a mySpace page, and a web site, but there are also incredibly active, and addicting, private discussion Forums.

So I'm meeting new people, and getting new inspiration, and suddenly I have friends on Etsy! And they like to talk about all the same things I like to talk about! This is a very good thing.

Be still my heart!