The Steampunk World’s Fair is the world’s largest Steampunk convention, which will be taking place this year in Piscataway from May 17-19 at the Radisson Hotel. The event is a feast for the senses: breasts toppling over leather corsets, accordion players, gentlemen wearing intricate mechanical wings, vendors selling Victorian-era clothing covered in leather and metal. One of the vendors who will be selling her wares this year is Lithia, of Lithia’s Creations.
Rutgers Review: How did you get interested in steampunk?
Lithia: It was…we stumbled on it. I’ve always been doing conventions, for about 20 years now. Dungeons and dragons, star trek, sci fi, and we had a convention where we started seeing people come in…looking a little bit different. So we started asking around and it was steampunk. And about two years ago we came to this event up here and we were hooked. So I started gearing my jewelry more towards fantasy and steampunk.
RR: What is steam punk?
L: Oh gosh don’t ask me that!
RR: It’s the ultimate question!
L: It really is, honestly. I’ll tell you who can answer that. The best person to go ask that is Thomas Willeford and he is “Brute Force”… If you wanna know what steampunk is, he’s probably the best one to tell you…My dad asked me what it was a couple of weeks ago. And I said, “Well Dad, have you ever read Jules Vern?” He goes, “Oh yeah, I read Jules Vern!” And I said, “Well, Jules Vern, Wild Wild West, Van Helsing, you know, pieces from the Victorian period combined with modern era but powered by steam punk, as if it hadn’t evolved.” So you’ll see people with computers on their arms but looking like they’re ready to get in a stagecoach.
We followed Lythia’s advice and sought out Mr. Willeford, owner and designer at Brute Force.
RR: What is steam punk?
Thomas Willeford: There’s a whole bunch of things on line, steampunk is this, steampunk is Victorian science fiction. It’s not. Victorian science fiction is Victorian science fiction. Steampunk is kind of a retelling, it’s an alternative past, not speculative futurism so much. What it really is, to me, is a rebellion against bland technology. You know, even this thing you’re recording me with, it looks like a chunk of plastic, it’s a magic box. When you look at steampunk or even Victorian technology, you can see where the gears turn and the lines of force where everything goes. I think people like that, they can understand it. They can see it works like this instead of the magic that is coming out of this box.
RR: How did you get interested in steampunk?
TW: I got interested in steam punk because I actually am descended from real mad scientists. My grandfather was a chemist for Dupont, my mother was a chemist for Hercules, my uncle is a roboticist, my father was a programmer for autistic learning systems for computers, and I am an artist [laughs] to avoid actually working for a living. I grew up in a big Victorian house and my grandfather would have a little steam engine next to my bed, literally. It had a little generator and it had a tiny little light bulb and that was my night light. So I loved all this stuff from early on. That’s how I got in to it…Also, I have three useless degrees: Physics, History, and Art. So I’m not really qualified for much else BUT steampunk.
His book is Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos: A Makers Guide to Creating Modern Artifacts.
Anon