Brass might not see common use outside of very specific functions, but the metal has recently gained popularity as a material for fantasy décor. An article on the Providence Journal website dated October 11, 2014 details how the metal figures prominently in “steampunk” designs. Steampunk originally started as a literary and pop culture genre, but has since evolved into an aesthetic of its own, as this article helpfully points out:
Imagine technological design inspired not by the sleek, minimalist aesthetic of, say, Apple, but by the Victorian age of industry and invention. Picture lots of brass, copper and iron, gears, valves, tubes, gauges and pipes, with everything powered by steam.
That’s steampunk, which started out in the literary world as a subgenre of science fiction and has since evolved to include furniture, sculpture, fashion, jewelry, film, TV, music and art. Think of it as a place where past, present and future collide.
Bruce Rosenbaum and his wife, Melanie, have a design company called ModVic, which stands for Modern Victorian, and own a 1901 “steampunk house” in Sharon, Mass. (The house is currently for sale.)
“It’s a re-imagination of history,” he said of steampunk. “What if the Victorian age and the digital age had merged?”
Pop culture can be a surprising source of inspiration for manufacturers, and the steampunk movement is only one of many followings with specific design aesthetics. Of course, fabricators and producers of fantasy décor will want to use authentic materials in order to please their discriminating, pop culture-savvy customers. Those who choose to produce steampunk items will need things such as high quality brass sheet metal to create Victorian-inspired clockwork masterpieces and the like.
While brass is an iconic metal in steampunk aesthetics, it can be tricky to work with. There are many alloys possible with brass, and it takes considerable know-how to produce such metals with consistency. Manufacturers and fabricators might want to source their materials from reputable brass suppliers such as Rotax Metals so that they do not have to create their own metals from scrap. It certainly helps to get in touch with a supplier that already has brass that has been prepared into easy-to-work-with shapes and dimensions to save on time and manufacturing costs.
(Source: Steampunk is place where past, present, future collide, providencejournal.com, Dated Oct. 11, 2014)
