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Went down to Portland Basin Museum this afternoon for the steampunk event organised by Ashton Steampunks. Proper lovely time with friends.
First proper sunny day of the year as well, felt like everyone was out for it. There was a good atmosphere about the place, people milling about outside, outfits catching the light, that kind of early-year energy where everything feels like it’s waking up again.
It’s not something I’m massively deep into, but I thought I’d pop down and I did really enjoy it. The outfits especially… loads of detail, really polished, all put together so well. You can tell people have put a lot into it, not just in the making but in the character of it as well.
It did get me thinking though…
My Harrowden project crosses over with that world at times maybe, but it’s not really that sci-fi steam-Victorian thing or what you’d call proper steampunk. It leans somewhere else. Less brass and polish, more soot and oil. More working class struggle, industrial folklore than that sort of future-steam world.
More what I’ve started thinking of as sootpunk.
As a bit of a steampunk n00b, I do find myself wondering… where are the mechanics covered in oil, keeping the machines running? Where’s the grime, the noise, the bits that don’t quite work right?
If I ever leaned into that world more, or even dressed up myself, I reckon it’d go in that direction… the Miredweller down in the slums, to the rich inventors and explorers up above the viaduct on Gildspoke Row.
There’s something in that contrast that feels closer to home.
Afterwards I had a wander round the museum itself…
…and ended up finding something I genuinely didn’t expect. Something that links directly back into Harrowden and has quietly inspired a lot of the work I’ve been making. A proper landmark in that world, without me fully realising it.
Honestly, an amazing find (at least to me) that I didn’t even know still existed.
I’ll write more about in my next post!
