steampunk | Jade Belly Dance

How to make a simple steampunk gun for an awesome dance!

Some lovely friends of mine run a steampunk festival in Dorrigo, NSW. Previously I have performed at it and this year I brought a few other dancers to join me. Despite battling nasty coughs, we all had a marvellous time doing some fusion dance pieces. We steampunked our costumes a bit (this year had a gypsy theme) and decided to add a steampunk touch to a shaabi dance with some guns worn on our thighs… we then did a bit of a Charlie’s Angels thing. It got some giggles 😉

Anyway, it was a new years resolution of mine to get better at using video. I am still a way off yet but here is my first attempt at a ‘how to’ video. It is instructions on a super easy steampunk for a cap gun to make something suitable for a dance performance. I had to make 4 guns and (surprisingly) for such a simple concept there was a bit of trial and error before I got a good effect, so I thought I would share the knowledge to save anyone else doing the same thing some time.

Before performance pose 😉 photo by Evonne Clough

The main learning points were:-

Make sure your metallic paint is metallic !!
Undercoat in an opaque light colour before using silver and gold acrylic (could be white, cream, or whatever you have handy).
I made some fake cogs to save money and show you how to do it in the video.
Beware of modern watches!
Superglue is not strong enough for cap guns but I found something that works.

If you found the video useful, please like and share.

Have you ever made a how to video? Or maybe danced for a steampunk event? Please tell me about it below.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie

A few months ago a friend asked me if I could belly dance at their Steampunk festival in Dorrigo (NSW Australia).
I happily agreed as I had been mulling over a robotic dolls dance ever since their last event. Not exactly a traditional belly dance theme I know, but I just had to give it a go. I got my good friends Tess and Max to join in and we managed to shock, entertain and even scare our viewers!

Success! (evil laugh)

Unfortunately we didn’t get much in the way of good photos and footage but here is a snap shot of us on the night. It doesn’t include our puppet master (Max) but you get the idea. It was a lot of fun.