Search for Steampunk on Etsy and you'll find almost 70,000 results . . . and 6.5 million on Google. To help put this cool trend in perspective, searches for "silver jewelry" net a little over 2,800 results on Etsy and 6,440,000 on Google—or 60,000 less than Steampunk.
What is Steampunk, anyway?
Steampunk gets its name from a time or "world" where steam power was used, typically the Victorian era and the 1800s. It was a romantic time full of arts and beauty but also full of discovery and new technology, like the invention of steam power. The Steampunk movement aims to combine those two feelings. Though it seems like a hot new idea, the term was actually coined in the 1980s and the work that led to the creation of the term (books, movies, even art) is even older—from the 1960s and '70s. A large part of the trend's popularity comes from science-fiction writing that was set in the steam age of Victorian England.
Simply put, Steampunk is industrial and mechanical "stuff" with an elaborate and romantic—albeit incongruous—Victorian twist. Good examples seen on Wikipedia include "coal-powered flying boats, ornate submarines, and Victorian dialogue." Like I said, incongruous! But interesting.
