The Steam Wench's Salon: Steampunking a Brochure Display: Part 1 of Creating a Steampunk Group Promo Table

As I mentioned in a previous post, one day, I suddenly realized I was running a local steampunk group. I had also just been invited to have a promotional table for steampunk at a local fantasy-oriented Christmas Craft Fair, the Imaginarius Fantasticus. It took me about a week to realize, whoops, I need to do more than just show up in costume with a smile, and talk to people. They were going to give me a table, and I was going to be there for two 7-hour days. I needed a display. I needed promotional literature. I needed something to PUT the promotional literature in. Yikes.

I decided to create a brochure, (which took forever to write, and I will discuss that in a later post). Then I had to think about a display for the brochure.

Fortunately for me, I had picked up a small cabinet at a Salvation Army store over the summer. It was a small Bombay Company piece, with some dings, and was a bit busted.

I remembered it, and pulled it out. I decided not to worry about the dings. Now it just needed some tricking out to steampunk it.

Firstly, I tackled the front. I simply unscrewed the small brass knobs, centred small gears over the holes, and rescrewed the knobs back on, which nicely held the gears in place.

When closed, it looked like this:

Next, since the cabinet would mostly be open while on display, was to trick out the inside.

I decided to use vintage photographs, which I bought in an antique shop in Quebec City, to decorate the inside of the two doors. So that I wouldn't damage the images by permanently affixing them, I used old pocketwatch faces as fasteners. I made small pencil marks on the inside of the door noting the watchface placement, where I wanted the photo to be, and where the glue would have to go to provide a "pocket" for the photo. I then used E6000 adhesive, spread on both the pocketwatch faces and the door, to affix them. I held each one firmly in place, let them dry, and then carefully tucked the vintage photos into the non-glued portion. On one side, I decided to add a key decoration, from a scrapbooking set.

The final step was to fill the cabinet and set it up at the event. Pamphlets (and candy canes for children - and adults - who asked nicely) went in the back section, postcards for our sponsors, Plush (a local shop which sells crafts and allow us to use their back workroom for our craft meets) went into the next section down (with a hidden piece of styrofoam tucked on the bottom so they were placed well), and then I placed our business cards, my cards for the Steam Wench's Salon, and themed Christmas freebies of gift tags with Victorian & Edwardian images. Here is an image of it all set up, with some decorative holly, at the Faire.