So, the holidays are upon us. Thanksgiving is past, Hanukkah is half over, and the Christmas shopping frenzy has begun. So, it behooves us to look at how some of the Steampunk aesthetic can make its way into our festivities and the best starting point, in my opinion, is snowflakes.
First, they are not holiday-specific, but just wintery, so they are more universal than some other seasonal symbols. Second, they kind of incorporate the Steampunk aesthetic already. Think about it. Each one is its own creation, rather than being mass produced. Okay, technically they are produced en masse — more so than some of us would like — but each of is unique, getting its exact structure from the idiosyncrasies of temperature, pressure, humidity, etc. at its time of creation. Each snowflake is a one-off, rather than being stamped out of a mold. In addition, they are intricate and complex, certainly more so than one would imagine is necessary, which can also be said of many Steampunk contraptions. Third, let’s me honest here. The step from snowflake shape to gear shape is very small indeed, so it lends itself well as a stand-in for one of Steampunk’s stalwart design elements.
Folding and cutting paper snowflakes was always a fun tradition in my house growing up. And, as with anything, someone one the Internet has taken a simple pastime and turned it into an artform. The artist here is Tesh, who created this impressive Steampunk paper snowflake and is even kind enough to give instructions on how to do it: