A few months ago, GeekMom Brigid listed some cool steampunk apps for your iPhone. But what if you want your smartphone itself look like some delightfully intricate steampunk device ?
Rejoice, for you’re not alone! Actually, there’s an amazing amount of steampunk smartphone arts and crafts. So many that I began to wonder about that.
Is it only because steampunk geeks are often tech gadget geeks in the same time ?
Is it because even steampunk geeks need smartphones and the plain, sober, quite cold look of our favorite high-tech device is frustrating for their/our tastes ?
Is it because smartphones (tablets, laptops, whatever) are such a great new field for art a creative person cannot ignore them ?
Anyway, here are a few steampunk smartphones gadgets I found especially beautiful, or original, or useful.
Skins
The easiest and cheapest way to customize your smartphone/tablet/laptop/MP3 or whatever gadget you may possess is probably the wonderful and diverse GelaSkins. They offer, of course, a steampunk model.
Cases
Among the smartphone cases, I was most convinced by C Westbrook Designs (San Francisco) creations, available in eight colors (charcoal black, snowy white, rose pink, fiery red, rusty red, royal violet, forest green and denim blue). The rusty red version is probably the most canonic steampunk. You may visit their shop on Etsy.
Kadisbel’s cases on Zazzle are also quite cool. They’re built in hard plastic and covered with printed fabric. The shop claim that’s “pleasing to the touch, lightweight and durable” but I find difficult to imagine the actual aspect of it.
You might also like Steampunky’s designs on Cafe Press.
Docks
Among the phone docks, you’ll certainly be impressed by the “hand-Sculpted (and hand painted) iRetrofone Base” by Scott Freeland. Of course, it’s really expensive. But amazing, too: at the same time a functional iPhone dock, an old phone’s look for nostalgia, and a steampunk design for style. You may visit their shop on Etsy and admire the beautiful Steampunk Black & Gold model shown at the beginning of this post.
Do-it-yourself
If you’re a crafty person, you may try to make your own, such as Catbones on DeviantArt, who simply explains:
I altered my old leather Belkin iPhone case. Brass and plastic clockwork parts, insulated wire, cardboard, plastic, wood glue, superglue, enamel and metal cream paint.
Wow! I’m not that gifted! Are you?
And if you don’t own a smartphone ?
You still can wear such cool designs on a t-shirt! They proudly claim that “artist Kevin Tong captures the invention of daVinci, the imagination of H.G. Wells, and the brilliance of Jonathan Ive in this Exploded Phone drawing,” which is probably a bit overstated, but the t-shirt is undoubtedly cool.
