TotusMel, the creator of one of my go-to steampunk design sitesm TotusMel's Wunderkammer informed me that the fantastic leather Steampunk masks are really made by a Ukrainian collective of artists and and not just one person as we had always assumed. I assumed the artist didn't seek much press for himself because he let his work speak for himself and speak it did.
As someone who loves the process of design I found this story to be fascinating and I thank her for sending it to me. This is a tribute to a man who found his niche in a subgenre of cosplay but one that is explosive with imagination. I think it's cool that his vision was powerful enough to survive his death. Isn't that real immortality or as close as we get to it in our realities?
Many steampunk fans are familiar with the name Bob Basset and associate it with crazy wonderful leather and brass masks. What some don't realize however, is that Bob Basset is not an individual, but rather a group of leather workers in the Ukraine.
Brothers Oleg (top photo) and Sergey (second photo) Petrov had worked in leather since the 1980's, but only years later got serious with the establishment of Bob Basset. Soon they were working with several associates (between three and seven at any given time) making beautiful steampunk masks, bags, and other leather accessories, which they sell primarily on eBay under the name zvenig.
Sadly, Oleg died suddenly in April 2011 of cardiac arrest, but the other talented leather craftsmen have continued on. Their workshop is in the town of Kharkiv, Ukraine, about 30 miles from the Russian border.
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