Marcus G. Meets the Black Bunny...

...and here is the result!

Marcus G Photography

Tauruscat: Electronics

We are hard at work on the electronics of the helmet. Here is a peak into the guts of it.

Sgt. Stubbs, Lab Assistant

My latest steampunk project, Professor Tauruscat's Dream Helmet, will be on display at the Museum of Curiosities, part of the 2011 Nova Albion Steampunk Exhibition.

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.

Respirator Workshop at Nova Albion

In less than a month Nova Albion, this year's northern California steampunk convention will be taking place in Santa Clara, March 25 - 27.

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.

Tauruscat: Front Plate Finished

Here is the front plate stained and antiqued and in place on the front of the helmet. The colors look better now, don't they? And the URF does not stand out as an anachronism.

Tauruscat: Front Plate

My son Erin is designing the electronic components of Professor Tauruscat's helmet, and has included an ultrasonic range finder as a switch for the lights. I am mounting this on the front of the helmet. It works by sending out an ultrasonic beam that measures how far away the object in front of it is. Depending on the distance it signals the Arduino to perform a certain sequence of lighting the LEDs.

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 URF switch will allow me to wave my hand in front of the helmet and activate the blinking lights.

The Cape Revisited

Last March I posted about my top hat being purchased for the NBC show The Cape. Well, last Sunday in episode three Kozmo it appeared in the hands and on the head of magician character Max Malini.

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.

Useless triva: Keith David, who plays the character of Max and is pictured above, also played the father in There's Something About Mary. His wife's character was played by Markie Post with whom I went to high school.

Tauruscat: All Hooked Up

I have taken my replica of Professor Tauruscat's dream helmet from the shelf and dusted it off. Although it has been six months since I last worked on it, I have a good excuse. I've been busy! My leatherwork has been much in demand——and I am grateful for that——to the point of where my wife and I are making a living from it. Huzzah!

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.

For those of you who may have missed the beginning of this saga (or forgotten due to it being almost a year ago) you may read it here from the beginning.

Why I Make Steampunk Gas Masks

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.

A Steamier Raygun Holster

When I created the Raughnold Raygun almost two years ago I made a holster for it with sort of a Buck Rogers look. Futuristic, but not particularly steampunk. Along with gears and goggles, rayguns have become an iconic part of the steampunk atavistic reality, and I started thinking recently how I would like to construct an alternate holster with a steamier look to it.

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.

Looking for a Steampunk Art Book?

Well then you're in luck! Or will be in 2011. Just since May of this year I've been asked by six different authors/editors/publishers to include photos of my steamy gas masks, helmets, etc. in their publications. Six! Next year is shaping up to be a banner year for steampunk art books.

Here are several of them:

The Art of Steampunk: Extraordinary Devices and Ingenious Contraptions from the Leading Artists of the Steampunk Movement

Steampunk: Victorian Futurism

1,000 Steampunk Creations: Neo-Victorian Fashion, Gear, and Art

The Steampunk Bible: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Imaginary Airships, Corsets and Goggles, Mad Scientists, and Strange Literature

Raven Mask as Fine Art

Kathrin Longhurst of Seaforth, New South Wales, Australia was kind enough to share a painting she did of my raven mask. Cool, eh?

Respirator #4 with Canisters

Last month I started on respirator #4, then had to set it aside while I filled all the Halloween mask orders coming in.


I have at last had time to get back to it. I redesigned the ventilation holes, and constucted the canister, making it smaller than my previous respirator. Pictured above is the undyed leather mask and canister prototype.


Here is the respirator assembled (except for the straps) and dyed and antiqued. I'm hoping to be able to retail this piece for under $100.

Lois Lane: Dominatrix

More TV news. On the CW's Smallville (the story of a young Clark Kent), Erica Durance plays the role of Lois Lane. When Lois goes undercover as a dominatrix in order to get a story, she chooses my violet Swirly mask as part of her disguise.

I don't know if I should feel pleased or insulted! This scene unfolds on the episode titled "Supergirl", season 10 episode 3, and can be watched on hulu.com.

Black Rabbit Mask in Vogue Paris

My Rabbit mask in black leather is featured in the October 2010 issue of Vogue Paris magazine in an article entitled Bal Masqué.

Photo by Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott. Modeled by Mariacarla Boscono.