Where Do You Get Steampunk Jewelry Supplies?

by Bev

Hi, I love this Steampunk style but where can you buy supplies to make the jewellery if you don't have the old gadgets hanging around?

Thanks!

Bev

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Where Do You Get Steampunk Jewelry Supplies?

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Steampunk Jewelry Supplies
by: Rena

Hi Bev,

You can find a variety of cool Steampunk supplies and watch gears / parts on eBay and Etsy.

Also try Ornamentea, Rings and Things and AlphaStamps for steam-style components.

If you have the time, you can also browse through thrift stores, garage sales / yard sales, etc. for odds and ends that can be taken apart to yield some interesting Steampunk jewelry supplies!

For inspiration on how to actually create jewelry from these cool supplies, you can see my page on How to Make Steampunk Jewelry.

And when you've created a piece or two, please share it with us here in the Steampunk Jewelry Gallery! :o)

at Michael's?
by: Glenda Munguia

I had a chance to check out the Industrial Chick line at Michael's recently, and I believe you could find good pieces there. I first read about that line on a blog from a jewelry maker here in Houston. Here is a link where you can find pictures of the kind of items this line has:
http://somethingsublime.typepad.com/something_sublime_from_th/2010/05/introducing-industrial-chic.html

By now I believe the line must hav released to most Michael's stores.

Glenda
http://web.me.com/glenda.munguia/bj

Places to get Gears
by: emgeal

I've been questing to find parts to steampunk a hat of mine and I've stumbled my way through it spending a lot of time being frustrated at how few things have gears in them. I've been working on a limited budget so simply buying gears online wasn't much of a choice.

Everyone knows you can get good gears from old clocks and watches. My first note is that the gears in most watches are teeny tiny unless they are hand wound. Look for a winding mechanism on the side. When they have a winding mechanism there tend to be slightly larger gears. Be careful with them though as the metal that is wound in a spring can unwind quickly and may cut your hand. I've only dealt with one of those so far, but I'm very lucky I didn't hurt myself. The same thing goes for other clocks that do not require a power source; they have wound metal that might be sharp.

One location of gears that surprised me (but shouldn't have) is music boxes. I found this out/realized it when I saw one at a garage sale that was made out of copper. It yielded several nice gears as well as some larger pieces of copper that I cut up to make a feather and some wings. The parts that actually make the music (the comb and the turning part) both look pretty cool as well. Newer music boxes have gears, but they tend to be all plastic so that it is lighter and cheaper to make.

One note of caution is that while you can buy clocks that don’t require batteries at most department stores they will usually have plastic gears to make them lighter. If you don’t mind plastic, or are looking for them for some reason you can also find plastic gears in printers. You’ll need a very small Philips head screwdriver to get it out though. You’ll need that screwdriver for the clocks anyway so you should have one on hand.

At first it might seem like you’ll never find any old clocks for sale at a reasonable price, but just keep looking. Look especially for estate sales.

You might also call your local clock repair shop and tell them you are interested in any broken clock gears, hands, or faces that they are planning on throwing away. You might be able to work some sort of deal out with them.

Overall it might take a while and a lot of work before you find a nice set of gears, but you will eventually and it’s worth it.

Thanks, Glenda and emgeal!
by: Rena

Thank you for pointing us to the Industrial line at Michaels - will have to look for that.

And emgeal, special thanks for all of your great tips for finding gears! The music box source is a stroke of genius - I wouldn't have ever thought of that. Also great idea to let clock repair shops know what you're looking for.

Thanks so much for these great steampunk jewelry supply sources and suggestions!

good source of Steampunk Jewelry Supplies
by: Anonymous

I found this site when looking for watch and clock parts for my steampunk projects www.pizazzbeads.com. They have very unique steampunk items and good prices.

More unique supplies
by: Anonymous

If you're looking for something beyond just gears and watches, you should also check out www.frenzyuniverse.com! They have old vacuum tubes, creepy-cool glass syringes, skeleton keys, temperature gauges, and other random stuff. Better yet, catch them at a convention, where they bring all kinds of weird oddities.

Steampunk Sources
by: Anonymous

Pizzaz Beads has terrible prices. Shop around.
eebeads.com
etsy.com
artfire.com
And when in stock firemountaingems.com has watch parts at the best price I've found.

Good Supplies here
by: Katie

I found this shop on Etsy. http://www.allgearedup.etsy.com Lots of good steampunk supplies and they are all authentic! The ones that you get in Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc. are just reproductions and I wanted real vintage pieces :)

Great Place for Steampunk Supplies
by: Beaderanne

For watch movements, gears, and watch faces, SteamTimeSupplies.etsy.com has great stuff cheap, and if you need something specific, you can request it.

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