Step 2: Building my own Steampunk Helmet

Over the course of a week, I gathered a variety of trash and plastic pieces such as pieces of vacuum cleaners, plastic tubes, art materials and painting equipment. The pictures show a few, but not all pieces I gathered. Among the not shown things are test tubes, a hygrometer and many many very small nails, screws and pins.

With all the pieces available I started experimenting about the final design of the helmet. My goals at this point were to give the helmet a clear outlook that reminds of vintage deep-sea divers o nthe one hand and to mix it with some mystical, futuristic elements on the other hand.

To achieve this design I planned to:

• Close the little vents of the helmet (except a few on the sides) to have a clean deep-sea helmet look.
• The original visor looked too futuristic from today´s perspective. To make it look more suitable for a  Steampunk design the visor needed to be less sharp, have less corners and its design should rather follow the needs of a diving helmet, namely be smaller and rounder.
• Many Rivets to hold the helmet together, one of the characteristics of machines and metal works during the Victorian era.

Beyond these basic goals, I wanted to add some mystical elements, to give the helmet and its owner a more distinct character.

At this point of the project, I was not completely clear about how to achieve this, but wanted to include some mystical fluids that would seem to be necessary for the owner to survive.

The last picture shows the end of this stage. I glued a plastic box for paint which I cut into shape to the helmet and a tube to visibly connect whatever is going on in the box with whoever is under the helmet.