Welcome back for part two in our chat with with Ave Rose, who was one of the ten contestants on Steampunk’d, from GSN, the Game Show Network. Steampunk’d is the first steampunk reality show to be broadcast on cable television.
Read part one here.
Airship Ambassador: Viewers of the show know that you were eliminated in the seventh episode, but let’s start at the very beginning of the process. How did you first hear about the show and the opportunity to actually be on it?
Ave Rose: Many of my fans kept emailing me an advertisement looking for steampunk creators. The first one I received was back in February. I ignored them at first because I am not very competitive.
Plus I was extremely busy. I didn’t have a single weekend without a major deadline from October-April. Then in mid-April I finally had time to go through all my emails and saw that people were still sending me this advertisement. Almost as a joke to myself I applied. But then they called me back that afternoon!
AA: Apparently, your friends weren’t wrong! What was your interest or motivation then to be on the show?
AR: The weird thing is I have a good friend named Cig Neutron who was on season 7 of Face Off. The whole time he was on the show I kept having dreams every night that I was on my own reality competition. I would wake up thinking to myself, that’s silly. There’s no such competition for my type of skills set.
So that was part of my motivation, just the fact that a competition even exists that would really challenge my specific skills. It was almost too weird of a coincidence to pass up.
Then when things got real and I had to have serious motivation it switched to two parts. The first would be to win the money to help my family in the Philippines as they are all very in need. The second is to show the world who I am and what I can do.
AA: Pop Magnet was the casting company chosen by Pink Sneakers, the production company, to find candidates for the show. What can you share with us about the interview process that you went through with them?
AR: We had a challenge audition where we had 6 hours to pick out a normal household item and to steampunk it out. We were each giving a number that we picked out of a bag to see who could pick their item first, as there was just a junk pile to choose from. I was shocked with what people came up with… honestly as adorable as some of that stuff was… I felt strange about the difference in skills. There was obviously a huge difference. The difference between arts & crafts and fine art.
AA: What was your item and what did you do with it?
AR: I chose and old phone. I attached the dial pad to the side of a wooden box. I added a coyote skull, with gears in its eyes and rubies. I put it under an acrylic oval dome and wrapped it with clock chain.
On top of the box I put the headset. Coming out both the ear piece and the mouth piece were two butterflies. One was permanently in resting position and one would move up and down and flap its wings when cranked.
I called this “Death Phone”. The two butterflies representing different states of death. One resting and one soaring. Both butterflies still being beautiful. I was pretty disappointed when the steampunk facebook page starting posting our challenge pieces because when they finally posted a photo of mine, it was warped. And they actually removed it after just a few hours. Weird and annoying.
AA: Once you were selected in the final ten to appear on the show, what preparations did you have to make before you left for Los Angeles? What were you leaving behind or had to put on hold while you were away for filming?
AR: The first thing I did was teach myself how to rivet leather. Then I decided to make sure I had a fabulous outfit to wear for each elimination if I lasted that long.
I had less than two weeks so I actually made an outfit a day including accessories, hats, etc. I even planned out a different work outfit for each day.
There were plenty of sleepless nights. Unfortunately I had to cancel several art shows and conventions I had coming up. Hopefully now that they know, I’m forgiven. Lol.
AA: Without giving spoilers, what interesting things might viewers see in the episodes you were in?
AR: Unfortunately as we are now at the halfway point the one thing I notice is that not everything I made is being shown. So who knows what they will be showing in the upcoming episodes.
AA: That’s too bad, it would have been great to see what else you came up with. What are some memorable moments you had during filming?
AR: I am a trained opera singer. In episode 4 I actually sing an aria to Karianne and Charles when I found out what happened to their mothers. I was inspired by both of their beautiful paintings of the cherry blossom trees from episode 3. I sang them a 1 min Japanese aria called sakura “cherry blossom”. It’s too bad they didn’t show that. It was such a bonding moment.
AA: What are some factors that you had in common with the other contestants or set you apart?
AR: We all got along so well either right away or eventually when given the chance to work together. Except, with Morgan. I tried to play nice with her in episode 3 and it back fired big time. Besides her, it was awesome getting the chance to work with the people I did.
It’s time to break in our chat with Ave.
Join us next time when she talks about being on the show and the return home.
Keep up to date with Ave’s latest news on her website.
Also, check out her exhibit page at The Steampunk Museum.
Airship Ambassador 