"I'm Not Steampunk"

I'm Not Steampunk is a piece with an argument baked into its name.

Sean gets the comparison constantly. His work uses antique brass, vintage hardware, Victorian-era lamp fittings, exposed mechanical detail. Of course it reads steampunk to people who don't know what they're looking at. But steampunk is a design choice. Random Brass is a constraint. Sean doesn't build these pieces to look a certain way — he builds them with what lamp parts allow, and what lamp parts allow is what you see here.

This is the piece that started the motorcycle collection. Sean built it in about 18 hours — the fastest he's ever finished a piece, start to finish — and by the time it was done, he already had three more motorcycles taking shape in his head. The spiraled handlebar scrollwork, the polished brass tank, the wheels, the headlamp assembly at the front. All lamp parts, all antique, all assembled without solder.

That last part matters: choosing not to solder makes every joint a fit problem. Every piece has to sit exactly where it belongs, held by the geometry of the parts themselves. Soldering would have made the build easier. Sean doesn't build easier.

It's also the first Random Brass piece that exists first as a sculpture and second as a lamp. Everything before this was a functional light source that happened to look like something. I'm Not Steampunk is the other way around — the sculpture is the point. The light is the bonus.

It's one of Sean's favorites. He doesn't say that about many of them.

Hand-carved reclaimed wood base with live bark edge. Fully functional lamp. One of a kind, like everything else.

The reclaimed wood base of this piece was sourced from Natural Kinships, a small family-owned mill in Bend, Oregon. The family — a father and two sons — fell trees themselves, mill them at their own shop, and turn them into countertops, tabletops, and live-edge slabs. Sean has worked with them for years; over time, they began setting aside cuts specifically suited to his work. Every Natural Kinships base carries a piece of that story.