2025 Special Guests

With degrees in physics, history, and art, it was perhaps inevitable that Thomas Willeford (aka Lord Archibald "Feathers" Featherstone) would become a steampunk enthusiast. His work blurs the precarious line between art and engineering. He is the author of the critically acclaimed steampunk how-to book "Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos" (McGraw-Hill), and the soon-to-be-published "Steampunk Adventurer's Guide" (McGraw-Hill) and "Cosplaying Lantern City" (McGraw-Hill).

Thomas has been creating unique and beautiful corsets and all manner of striking Steampunk gadgetry for more than 20 years. He and his products have been widely featured on television (MTV, BBC, "Castle", "Oddities"), online (Wired, BoingBoing, Popular Mechanics, Playboy TV), and in print (Art Donovan's "The Art of Steampunk", Morgan Spurlock and Stan Lee's "Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope", Bizarre Magazine, Hustler Magazine, Gothic Beauty Magazine, Marquis Magazine, Leg Show Magazine, Pirates Magazine, DDI Magazine, Culture Asylum Magazine). Satisfied customers include musician Rick Springfield, director David Silverman (The Simpsons), and actresses Patricia Tallman (Babylon 5) and Virginia Hey (Farscape). Thomas also contributed to the design of Alchemy Gothic's "Empire Collection", a line of steampunk jewelry and accessories.

Thomas' artwork has also been featured in numerous museum exhibitions worldwide, including Penn State's "STEAMpunk!", Dr. Grymm's "Steampunk Bizarre", the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation's "Steampunk: Form and Function", and the Ashmolean Museum of the History of Science at Oxford's "Steampunk", "20,000 Leagues" at Patriot Place, and "Mobilis in Mobili" at The Wooster Street Social Club (home of TLC's "NY Ink"). His clockwork spider "Arachnae Mechanica" is currently housed in the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. He is currently a consulting creator of the new steampunk television series "Lantern City", produced by Bruce Boxleitner (Tron, Babylon 5), coming soon.