Well I’ve got the new scanner up and running and I must say I’m really pleased with it so far. It scans MUCH faster than anything else I’ve ever had, about 10 seconds give or take from warmup to pic on the page! PLUS it just plugs in to the USB port, so as well as being very portable (cos it’s very small as well) it doesn’t need a separate power supply and therefore uses less power. One or two of the 3d collages were a bit tricky – and it didn’t scan in my lace chokers all that well, as the attachments were so three dimensional that some of the lace blurred in the background. But then, that’s what the camera is for. It’s done a good job on the cards and most of the collages, and one or two bits of jewellery that I was playing around with scanning didn’t come out too bad either.  It does seem to go out of focus really quickly though, so if it’s not flat on the scanner glass you don’t have much distance before it’s gone all fuzzy. That said, it’s super fast and does what I need it to.

Here’s a sample:

You can see that the stick bit of the stickpin is out of focus, so it doesn’t have to be that far away from the glass to become blurry. I don’t think it matters in this case, but it’s just something to bear in mind.

I’m just editing the others that I’ve scanned in of the cards and collages, and then they’ll be appearing in the emporium.

By the way, the scanner’s a Canon CanoScan LiDE 210, and I got it for a pretty good price  from Amazon:

I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying to categorise all the steampunk clipart in the imaginarium. It’s probably me but I can’t work out how to make it work properly. I can get a list of categories (eg cogs, corsets, etc) but when you click on it, you just get the whole list, so I’ve decided to leave it for the time being and concentrate on the emporium.

I have got the categories sorted for that and now just have to get some items up. So watch this space as the shop will be up and running very shortly.

The new Imaginarium is up and running at last! I am gradually adding more and more free steampunk clipart and vintage artwork for you to download. You will have to log in, but all clipart downloads are free and simple. Once you’ve signed in, all you need to do is click on the artwork thumbnail, and voila, it downloads automatically to your pc. And I guarantee that I’ll never pass your details on to anyone else, and there’ll be no spam.

Some of the images are too small to generate thumbnails from, so I’m afraid the descriptions will have to suffice. Currently the ones not showing are a series of small illustrations of cogs, like the one above, which you can use to make up more complex pictures, a small picture of a guy in a topee (below), and a small page of old advertisements. All nice steampunk images, or just useful if you’re doing vintage or shabby chic style collages, cards or general artwork

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On reflection I thought the shop idea might be too complicated for the free downloads, although there will be some of my artwork available for download in the shop once I get the scans/photos sorted and the shop ready to go. There will be a small charge for my own collages which you can download, but then again you will be able to use them as often as you like for your own steampunk cards or whatever. I will also get my little collage canvases up in the shop as well once I can get some good photos of them.These will be available for sale, and you will receive the unique artwork in the post.