STEAMPUNK BUTTERFLY | MELANIE POOLE

Melanie Poole of Montevallo and sister Denise Poole-Cahela are the duo behind Steampunk Butterfly. Melanie’s day job is in the nonprofit sector, and making Steampunk accessories is a great way to relax and step into a fantasy cosplay world. Sister Denise is a retired physician who had the idea to start making jewelry as a way to rehab hand muscles from spinal cord injury after a fall. Creating hats and lamps was a logical continuation of the desire to repurpose cast off materials into useful and functional pieces.

Using vintage watch parts, recycled metals, hand-made textiles  and other materials, we create lamps, jewelry and hats inspired by Victorian-era aesthetics and retro-futuristic Steampunk technology. As artists we are drawn to Steampunk because of its basis on an appreciation for reclaiming something old and making it new again, for cherishing the long-lasting and well-made. It revels in a sense of history, of having been somewhere. Steampunk wears its history on the outside, and we share that.