Photo by David Bedno
Photo by Arandale 
Demonstrating how the helmet works will be the professor's able lab assistant, Sgt. Stubbs (pictured above), on whom the professor has relied for many years.
I will be teaching a hands-on workshop in which participants will begin construction of a leather respirator, very much like the Excursionist pictured. The only difference is that most of the rivets will be replaced with hand stitching so that everyone can be working on it at the same time.
Cost of the workshop is $20 to cover materials, and everything is included except for stain (for the leather and canisters) and contact cement. The Excursionist sells at my Etsy shop for $125. Such a deal! The schedule for workshops has not yet been announced.
The URF is shown above at the bottom center, and will be press fit into the acrylic mount on the right, than inserted into the leather plate that is shown being stitched together.
I constructed the mount to incorporate the URF into a Victorian looking plate so that it would not look out of place. The leather and mount still need to be antiqued.
The only problem being poor Max is wearing it backwards! The seam shouldn't be in the front. Later in the episode the Russian villain Gregor Molotov poses as Max by wearing his coat and hat. He also has the hat on backwards! Watch the full episode here.
In my last missive on the helmet I had completed the insulators which attach to the crest, seen in the photo above. Next step was to cut the crest trim out of 2-3 oz leather and attach it to the bottom of the crest.
Here is the bottom view when the trim is mostly screwed in place. I then set the crest in place and bolted it to the leather helmet.
At that point I could attach the connecting hoses to both the insulators on the crest and the sensors all around the helmet.
Finally I can see what this crazy helmet is going to look like. Now a few blinking lights to give it life, and some aether collectors on the back to power it, and I'll be wearing it proudly to the Nova Albion con coming in March.
A gas mask is a piece of equipment worn on the face whose purpose is to purify the air being breathed. While it is fundamentally functional it becomes part of the costume as it dramatically alters the appearance of the wearer. This can be perceived by the viewer as either terrifying—as one resembles a monster—or humorous—as one becomes a silly clown.
Modern gas masks are made of synthetic rubber, but historical gas masks—first made in the late nineteenth century—were constructed primarily of leather with metal fittings. In a dystopian steampunk world which might have been, there is greater unregulated industrialization and unexplained disasters, resulting in gross pollution of the air. This in turn leads to ordinary folk wearing gas masks on a regular basis.
As a steampunk artist, my creative challenge is to imagine what this equipment might have looked like. I like to combine the terrifying with the silly so as to invoke curiosity and wonder. The antiqued leatherwork looks like it came from the nineteenth century, but the form of the masks—which might resemble a rhinoceros or an elephant—are pure fantasy.
Original leather holster
The one element that I came up with to accomplish this was to add straps and buckles. Above is my concept sketch.
And here is a full-size paper mock up.
Next I began playing around with how a single piece of leather could incorporate straps that interwove, like clasped fingers.
Here is the pattern I worked out in a heavy paper, before committing the design to leather.
After a few minor alterations I fashioned it in leather. I decided it still needed some changes, including lengthening the straps, and adding a reinforcement around the belt loop opening.
Here then is my final design.
And here is the back view, showing the interlocking straps.
Here are several of them:1,000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear, and Art
