At Orycon last weekend, three of the winning entries were steampunk. I apologize for not having the names of the others, but the child’s winner was very cute


and the winning entry in the group category is part of the crew of the Andoria.
I am quite proud to say that I was the grand prize winner with Widget the automaton.

You can see a few other photos that my husband took here.

Orycon was fun. We took a few pics. Go and see the rest of helix90’s photos of the weekend.

If you are planning on spending Thanksgiving weekend at Orycon, consider coming to the three panels they have me speaking on.


Sat Nov 28 11:00:am Steampunk: Victorian marvels of science fantastic
Discuss and learn about the marvelous world of steampunk. What's new and what's classic in books, movies, art, toys and even music!

Sat Nov 28 12:00:pm Intro to Steampunk
Introduction to Steampunk costuming and weaponry


Sat Nov 28 1:00:pm Punk/Cyberpunk/Goth
Turning counterculture into mainstream.

Domestic Bliss Inc. set up a wonderful photo shoot at Orycon, that they called a “STEAMPUNK Time Machine.”
There are some great images. I was very impressed by their work and the staging. Go and check out the gallery.

(apologies for cross postings)

Hilights:
• Lots of steampunk costuming!
• Our Steampunk panel went well
• The Steampunk Meet & Greet was quite fun
• Domestic Bliss Photography at the meet & greet were wonderful. I think I have another idea for Steamcon.
• Having two of the hotel maids squeal in delight when they saw me as the Steam Queen of Hearts.
• I had one very enthusiastic woman tell me that I really should have won the masquerade. *blush* I only got three votes though. Oh well.
• Nice con t-shirt design
• Finding the exact tights I was looking for in the dealer’s room
• The hotel sports bar. Yes, really. The staff is great. The music is good and the drinks are good. I ignore the televisions. I will miss that place now that the con is moving.
• Seeing friends and catching up, which is always great.
• Getting to hit Gustav’s for fondue and beer sausage on the way to the con!


Lowlights:
• Worst DJ evar! Figure out your damn sound levels moron! My ear drums nearly ruptured when you began Rasputin!
• Configuration for the room for the dance still sucks
• Masquerade was slightly better but still flawed
• Getting asked if I was supposed to be Boy George when wearing my Steampunk Lolita outfit (Mundanes are weird)
• Having my heart necklace break when I took it off. I have the worst luck with heart jewelry.
• Miserable headache on Friday night.

Since we didn't have any big goals for the con, it was okay. We found ourselves fairly low energy for most of it. If not, we might have been a bit bored. Most cons are what you make them though. We have some pics which I will get around to editing soon.

Just a reminder that if you are going to be at Orycon this weekend there are a couple of steampunk events you should catch:

Saturday noon-1pm PANEL: Steampunk fashion and culture: Portland Room

Saturday 10:00pm-midnight Steampunk Meet 'n Greet: Salon A

helix90 and I will be there promoting the con, so come say "Hi!"

Wow, that went by quickly! We drove down on Thursday night in the a rainstorm. It gave me a huge headache and I managed to not pack my Aleve. M got the last 2 packets from the front desk and I managed to shake it. The rain kept up most of the weekend however making me glad we didn’t need to go out much.

I tend to not expect much from this con. I usually just enjoy the nightlife and don’t try to hit panels or programming. Considering how confused the program book and pocket program were that might have been a good thing this year. The hotel had remodeled and it looked nice but there were some major issues, including the broken elevators and a psycho heating/cooling system. The staff was trying to compensate for the elevator issues and took us up in the freight elevators on occasion. We trooped down from the 9th floor more than once. Our room was either way too warm or too cold and then trying to compensate for whichever it had been before. The fan was almost always blowing warm or cold air. The damn duvet was way too heavy when the heat was on.

The masquerade was an unmitigated fiasco. It’s time was listed in the programming, but upon showing up no one knew what was going on or how it worked. I found out on Sunday that they had expected us to dance in the brightly lit ballroom and get awards for that as well as costuming. Too bad no one was doing any of that or seemed to be aware of it. The configuration of the ballroom left a lot to be desired as well. It was an awkward obstacle course. We did managed to dance quite a bit over the weekend attended the one decent party on occasion and spent time in the bar with good people.

On Friday night we wore our new black and silver pirate outfits. M got tons of compliments on his coat and I got lots of attention for my three dollar shiny chrome silver press on nails. They only lasted about an hour and a half before I was just too tired of dealing with them. I may use them again for a photo shoot but not when trying to party in costume. I also want to add a better hat and maybe a wig to this outfit. I discovered that I need more silver pirate bling. All of mine seems to be gold.

On Saturday night I wore my Pirate Queen of Hearts, sort of fusing two of my favorite themes. Somehow with the pillbox pirate hat I embellished it also had a strange 1940’s pinup girl look. Unfortunately the black coat I borrowed from M’s closet was too bulky to really work well. One of my bracelets tried to shed two stones but I managed to find them in my sleeve. I got a fabulous red rhinestone heart bracelet at Lloyd’s Center that day though, and on the way home from the con I found some great red rhinestone heart hair clips to add, so I think I’ll work on doing this outfit again with a few adjustments.

The con was once again giving out hall costume awards, which I think is a great idea. This year they had a pirate theme although I also managed to get on with Cthulu on it. Their badges were portrait orientation, so our ribbons were useless and we didn’t bother giving any out.

All in all it was a fun weekend, but it by way too fast. Maybe I’m just getting too old.

helix90 and I drove down to Orycon on Friday morning. We hit Powell’s and Spartacus to do a little shopping first. I found a cute little black velvet dress and a few accessories at Spartacus. It’s always a dangerous place to go. Since we are still in the process of unpacking stuff at the condo, I didn’t pack much in the way of costuming (and couldn’t find some of what I wanted to pack), so I wore the new dress on Friday night. It was very popular. The con seemed a bit small, but we had fun. We grabbed a table in the bar and one by one added more tables onto it as folks dropped by. The dance was good and there a few parties as well. The pirate party went on both nights and was by far the most successful. They had good decorations and quite a few rum drinks although when they ran out of it on Saturday night, you know what everyone was saying. They occasionally had a sing-along for “Frigging in the Rigging” complete with lyric sheets to help us out.

There is some sort of pirate group trying to assimilate everyone in fandom. I had heard a friend mention it. They use the word “yum” as their catch word. He is “Cabinboy Yum”. One girl handing out gum was “Bubble Yum”. One of their women girls drunkenly accosted me and was upset that my badge didn’t have the requisite word on it. “You need to be one of our pirates!” she complained loudly.
“Honey, I was captain of a pirate ship before you were even born.” I replied.
“Bullshit!” she yelled. I handed her my id. She blinked in disbelief. I didn’t need to resort to digging up our fiction from the day. It’s so cute when the youngsters think they invented the wheel. Heh.

The one costume I did bring along was Onyx, the space pirate. It’s a new costume that is mostly cannibalized from several others. I forgot to bring a few of the pieces I wanted like the acid green goggles with biohazard symbols on them. Oh well. Also, Orycon is a weaponless convention, so she felt kind of naked without her weapons. The costume seemed to be well received anyway. I was told it was “badass!” and “the best costume I’ve seen this year”. I felt it was incomplete, but I guess I’m too picky. I got a hall costume award and one vote in the masquerade contest, although I wasn’t an official contestant. This year they tried to go a bit further with their masquerade concept and incorporate a little more traditional stage presentation into it. I’d critique it further, but I didn’t actual watch or participate. If anyone else knows more, I’d love to hear a critique. I was very annoyed with the scheduling of a concert between the masquerade and the dance in the same venue. The dance couldn’t begin until 11:00, and the chairs were left set up audience-style. It was an entirely ridiculous idea.

Despite still recuperating from the vacation, I had a pretty good time. It was good to see the few folks there that I knew. I spread the word of the convention costume Flickr group whenever possible. I’ll need to make up cards by the next con. I picked up a pair of special effects contacts for my Norwescon costume. Lots more work to do on that one.

My Orycon report ( Cut for length )