Steampunk Samurai, Ronins front cuirass

The Japanese Samurai, as I am sure you may know by now, are a people and a culture in which I respect greatly. Then we have a new phenomenon, a phenomenon that is taking over a large section of the cosplay and art community, we all know this phenomenon as Steampunk. We see it everywhere, but in the art community it is but a genre. A genre that not every artist respects, although they accept its essence none the less. I wanted to show others by the construction of this armor that I was trying to achieve something very specific by the creation of it. I want to display to other artists what each piece represents and why I chose to carve the details that I did. I believe that there are certain criteria that give something direction. Art needs boundaries and rules so that it may achieve a certain feel. "Steampunk" in many cases, can be abused.

What I am trying to say is that I have seen many suits of Steampunk armor which lose certain qualities along the way, what many of them lack is a solid and sound direction. Art is like poetry, there are many forms of poetry. Each form follows a list of rules. Steampunk is like the "free verse" poetry of the art world, there is no rules and there is no specific guidelines. Without direction and boundaries, without rules and guidelines, there is only chaos. Therefore, many artists have difficulty creating direction in the piece itself. It ends up becoming a smorgasbord of trinkets, gears, and fittings. It is suppose to accentuate the "Victorian" element. To me, Victorian stands for classy along with elegant, the curves are both smooth and sleek. It is difficult to grasp that effect when there is so much going on in some cases.

I chose my genre (Steampunk). I chose my direction and spin (Japanese Samurai) Now I will follow traditional guidelines so that I may stay true to myself and stay true to my direction. This way my Artwork can have the ability to follow a genre "and" branch off with in a certain set of perimeters to then become truly unique. I am to follow three types of guidelines in order to reach my overall goal. Use but not abuse the Steampunk genre, stay classy and elegant, stay traditional Japanese. As long as I follow the path that I have created in my mind. It will be another inspirational piece of Artwork.

10 and 12oz multi layered vegetable tanned leather with industrial copper saddle rivets and copper/brass plate are what holds this classy yet unique set of Samurai armor together. Many hours were put into hand tooling the raw leather and hammer forming the copper to appeal to the theme of this armor. A large amount of care and consideration went into every detail of this armor, not only with the intricate tooling but with care, patience, and attention to detail that this theme deserved. The color of this armor had to be very special, so I decided to use 5 individual color dyes with the leather to really bring out depth in each piece. Its almost as if the armor changes colors as it moves. When it stands away from the light, the armor is a crisp dark brown. When in the light, what appears is a combination of light and dark browns over a black night sky with red and gold accented demons and coy fish. These two creatures symbolize the good and evil or the yin hang philosophy. This was one of the fundamental themes of this armor.

My theme for this piece was simple. I would incorporate the spiritual world of a Samurai with the industrial world of Steampunk. Simple right? I thought so to. My way-point was Traditional Japanese, industrial steampunk age, Victorian n classy, good n evil, and all while staying functional and tough. If you will notice, the left side of the armor is covered in fierce ONI ( demons), while the right side of the armor boasts beautiful yet tranquil coy fish. Onyx stones over gear settings peer out from the eyes of each creature.

I encourage everyone to check out the details that I carefully and considerately put into the entire suit of armor. Thank you.