shwetanarayan:

woh-battameez:

shwetanarayan:

And done!
So this is my attempt at a steampunk Indian character.  I was irritated into it by bad depictions of Western-aesthetic-pretty Indian Girlies in fake saris. Her hair is partly “inspired” by the Indian-rapunzels, because like Battameez, I cannot imagine an Indian woman with that much hair left unbraided. 

I’ve tentatively named her Amrita Bai, but that’s probably not period-accurate so it’s subject to change as I do more research.  Her family’s from Tamilnadu, & are Vishwakarma caste (specifically metalsmiths, I assume), but they moved to one of the forts under Shivaji’s control, and she’s training under a mechanical artificer there.  — All subject to change as I do more research.  (Plz do tell me if this is faily somehow…)

Real saris are hard.  And group-specific; this is a Tamil-brahmin 9-yard sari, and probably not quite period accurate but I’m not sure how it’d be different.  No blouse, because this is from my no-British-Raj alternate India. I haven’t actually worn a 9-yard sari myself, so I’m not at all sure I have the folds right on this one.  But I did get input from my mother, who has. 

Anyway ya know what’s not hard?  Making her skin dark.  I find that dark skin is so much easier to get looking human rather than zombie than pale skin is, so extra wtf to those whitewashers who say it’s haaaard.

And now I run off to the doctor.

OH MY GOD SHWETA THIS IS PERFECT. CAN I WRITE FIC TO GO ALONG WITH IT. OH MY GOD *BREATHLESS* 

:D

But, ontological question, if you write fic of my original character before I manage to write my story about her, which one is the fic?

(I want to run thoughts about that story by you if that’s okay sometime btw, not that I’m well enough to write yet but hey! Apparently I’m well enough to draw again, which is HUGE, so maybe soon!)

ETA: Name and sari do need more work — they are not caste-period accurate (hmm, must chew this over) 

BUT OH MY GOD. 

Yeah the earliest sari reference I could find is early 1900s, which is of course way too late.  But *something* like it seems eminently practical for engineering work.  Must make use of university libraries. & problem with Tamil names that are actually period will be getting Anglophones to parse them at all - but that is also true for those foreign Maharashtrans XD So her name could get shortened, as mine & my brother’s did, because these northerners can’t pronounce proper Tamil names only (I was Shwetambari, he was Saratchandra, we became Sharad & Shweta).

btw I invented the changeable-size wrench because the pipe wrench is a) Western and b) not invented yet XD 

steampunkd:

Steampunk Octopus - Portal 2010 cover by ~ninjagirl

Steampunk Octopus for Portal 2010 Literary Magazine cover. I’m still pretty proud of this, and since I haven’t posted forever, thought this would be a good way to get back into it.

I need to Art more.

fatelovestomesswithme:

Steampunk House by ~haunted-tower

i’m pretty sure that house is about to eat something.

steampunkd:

“otto’s sweet ride”

by brian kesinger

The super awesome Jaymee has interviewed me as part of her Steampunk POC series! In it I talk about being POC steampunk in Australia, Malaysia, and the possibilities for steampunk set in Australia. You can read the interview on Silver Goggles. Thanks to Jaymee for interviewing me! 

iechofour:

Environment by ~Priss-nqm

steampunkd:

“walkies for otto”

by brian kesinger

lavenderanddeadthings:

Jack And Sally - “The Nightmare Before Christmas” is the last one. (Caption was too long)

wildunicornherd:

Jess Nevins urges steampunks to expand their historical horizons, citing intriguing facts like

• Zeppelin pirates are a staple of steampunk, but nautical pirates were a reality in the waters of Southeast Asia. Notable among these were the female pirates, from Zheng Yi Sao and Cai Qian in the beginning of the 19th century to Lo Hon Cho and Lai Choi San in the early part of the 20th century. These women were captains and admirals, commanding dozens of ships and leading them into battle from the front, gaining reputations as fierce fighters. According to a contemporary Chinese account Cai Qian Ma even commanded ships with crews of niangzijun, “women warriors.”

and

• From the mid-17th century through the 1920s Chinese novels translated into Mongolian were in huge demand in Mongolia, and there was a flourishing trade in them. But the problem for the Mongolian bookbuyers and booksellers was not only the bidding wars which would break out with Russian, Mongolian, and Chinese buyers, but that getting the manuscripts back to Mongolia to sell was difficult because of the very real chance that those transporting the books would be attacked on the way back by bandits wanting to get the manuscripts and sell them for themselves. This resulted in decades of adventurous Mongolian book traders as skilled with sword and gun as they were at selling books.

Zheng Yi Cao is my faaavourite

booksbeforebedtime:

Steampunk Sesame Street!

i love the muppets so, so much, but why are there so rarely ladies?