PORT ANGELES — North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center students are working on creations for a Steampunk Social Art and Culinary show later this month.
The free Steampunk Social, which will feature the works of the commercial art and culinary students, will be from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, in the main lobby of the skills center, 905 W. Ninth St.
Costumes will be encouraged but not required. Student artists will be in costume as they talk about their work.
Visitors can have photos taken, participate in a silent auction and buy Halloween pumpkins decorated in the mode of “steampunk,” a Victorian society theme with a science fiction twist.
The commercial arts program taught by Melissa Klein and culinary arts teacher Denise Dahll are collaborating with other programs at the skill center for the show, which will include mini-murals by teams of students in the commercial arts program and faux steampunk cakes and refreshments from the culinary arts program.
Inspiration
“At first, when I looked at the samples of steampunk food, I wasn’t inspired,” Dahll said.
“I mean, what could I do, make cog-shaped cookies?
“Then I got the idea to decorate faux cakes. We’re going to have snacks, of course, but we’ll show our real skill with these cakes.”
The Glowing Unicorns, a team made up of Cheyenne Johnson, Chris Clay, Troy Nicolaysen, Haylee Yockey and Josh Finch, constantly debated as they created their artwork.
“We endlessly changed our whole picture, slashing old ideas for new ones and changing details,” the team said.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a student team consisting of Robert Simpson, Valora Bain, Destiny Walter-Spencer and Calvin Hilt, designed a flying train combined with gears and Victorian scrolling.
Team Sisterhood created a steampunk wedding.
“For our concept, we liked the idea of having a couple to show the integration of the mechanical and human aspects of steampunk,” according to the team composed of Rachel Catterson, Marin Williamson, Taeh Johnson and Emilee Spoon.
The wedding is in a forest of metals and gears, and the groom is an automaton while the bride is a person.
“This shows both facets of the genre,” the team said.
