#skywardgears

I know it’s hard to find ways to steampunk your life, so here are some items that might help!

How about a carrier bag even the finest airship courier would envy?

Or a new case so that your phone can be dapper too?

“Melody Joy knew things about her family that  nobody else knew and it was her job to preserve that knowledge, but before she could even start her preservation project, her own life took a sharp left turn, turned up a baffling mystery, and carried her on a wild ride through a star-crossed marriage...”

In her first ever paid review, our Explorer, Tara Nebeker, has taken on a genre she doesn’t usually dabble in; Slice-of-life/Romance/cozy mystery. Together with Razz the Ferret of the @smartycatbookreviews team, Miss Nebeker explored the contents of Fool Me Once: A Melody Joy Personal Mystery by Malena Crockett.

Join us as we set out on our first literary expedition through the pages of curious cozy!

New Post has been published on http://www.skywardgears.com/welcome-to-windly-warf/

Welcome to Windly Wharf!

Hey Steamers! You’ve probably noticed it’s been pretty quite over here at SkywardGears. Well, there’s a reason for that. For the past two months, we at SkywardGears have been working tirelessly to make our site easier to use and more available to those on mobile – AND WE SUCCEEDED! Not only is our site now mobile friendly, but we now have an entirely NEW section to explore! Presenting our new product hub – Wares of Windly Warf! Here you can find various product sections such as the Topsail Trading Post, the Cog ‘n’ Quill, and the Stock Pen Station, that will help make it a little easier to bring a little sci-fi punk into your everyday life.

We also want to announce our new association with SmartyCatBookReviews and welcome Razz as one of our guest reviewers for our new Cog ‘n’ Quill Book reviews! You can learn more about her and her fellow Smarty Book Reviewers on their official site as well as tumblr, facebook, and twitter!

Remember, new items and goodies are added monthly so check in often to see what new treasures await you!

New Post has been published on http://www.skywardgears.com/down-for-maintenance/

Down for Maintenance

Hey Steamers!

New Post has been published on http://www.skywardgears.com/installments-updates-and-departure/

Installments, Updates and Departure

Greetings fellow Steamers! We hope your summer has been as eventful as ours. This week, we’re excited to announce the 5′th installment of Reims’s and Hadir’s adventures in Noir City in Sands of Red by Tara E. Nebeker and Ryan Sullivan. As you can see, we’ve also been adding and tweaking SkywardGears just a bit. We now have a new Canes and Walking Sticks page and are now testing our Subscription option and a possible Membership option as well. With them we hope to share announcements, newsletters, articles, tutorials, editorials, products, coupons, etc. as well as bonus content regarding the different contributions and contributors on SkywardGears.

New Post has been published on http://www.skywardgears.com/common-elements-of-steampunk/

Common Elements of Steampunk

Hey Steamers, I found a curious trend with the themes in Steampunk and wonder if anyone else has caught on to these trends? (I’ve sorted them by Era Type along with that era’s Time Frame, so they should be at least kind of in order. )

First you have the Industrial Era type (Time Frame: 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840) which has a bit more edge to it and seems to describe the working class of that era breaking the chains of monotony and turning it into something new! Industrial Era types have a lot in common with the Victorian Era types, though they are considerably rougher and more rugged in appearance.

Next you have the popular you have the Victorian Era type (Time Frame: 1830-1903) with all the trimmings of European high society and a touch of goth and rebellion to show that although they can do the rough-and-tumble, high-flying adventures, they still consider themselves ladies and gentlemen.

After that comes my personal favorite, the American Westward Expansion type (Time Frame: 1807-1912) where Americans young and old reach out towards the west. Here the rubber meets the road as cowboys and outlaws collide, machines are built to work and protect as local townsfolk do their best with the scarce supplies they have in the inhospitable deserts of the American West. If you’ve heard “The Copper War” by The Cog is Dead, this is the era the Copper War would’ve been held. :3

We also have the rare American Civil War type (Time Frame: 1861-1865) which is characterized characterized an era by controversy and strife, honor and the fight for equality. Here the world of the average citizen is thrown into disarray as they fight to determine the evils slavery while trying to preserve the virtues, freedoms and liberties of the republic they had worked so hard to build. I’ve only ever seen one and that was in a photo of a steampunk female Union soldier on a river bank. I would think that Uniforms, Union and Confederate, and new gun concepts are popular in this stream of steampunk. I don’t know though, since I haven’t seen or met many Steamers from this era of history – alternate or not.

Next we have the Gilded Age type (Time Frame: 1865–1918) which puts a lot of emphasis on extravagance and more multicultural steampunk themes. With the horrors of the Civil War behind them, citizens now are striving to get back on their feet and enjoy a surplus of work and opportunity as they rebuild their lives and their country. Immigrants from around the world pour into the US, searching for that opportunity for work and wealth, and add their own cultural flavor to the work of Steampunk. This is where we start seeing the different cultural twists on the common themes of the era.

I know there are MANY more branches of steampunk yet to be mentioned and discovered: Steamers in African Savanna as Europe continues to explore and colonize Africa while introducing Victorian era means, methods, weapons and tools to the African Natives. Then there’s the Ottoman Empire vs. Europe as well as how the Eastern countries of Asia respond to the new developments of Western Culture, Steampower and newfangled “Electricity”. The Native American’s also present a grand opportunity for steampunk-related clothing, steampunk and gadgets in the contest and possible joining of their rituals, traditions and way of life with the European/young American culture as it makes its way even more to the west, bringing their new technologies with them.