Steampunk Goggles for Couples

Making steampunk goggles can be addictive. It really can. You make your first pair and then you want another. So you make them. But no, that's not enough. I mean, these are black, those are brown... these got blue lenses, those got yellow.. And you need them to match your new outfits right? So you're making goggles 24/7 and you're thinking: What am i doing with my life? Well i...just...I'll just finish these goggles and then I'll figure that out. Maybe.

Yeah. And when you are not actually crafting goggles then you're spraying nerf guns, attaching gears on them... At the best you are only fantasising about steampunk.

But i know. That's not why you're here, right? Let's make some GOGGLES, shall we? And why not make two different pairs right away while we're at it? For you and your lady too :)

And for that you will need:

plastic tube from a glue/silicone

2 electrical tapes

superglue

needle & threat

leather

black color spray paint

gears

plastic foil

steel spikes

pencil

silver color - i've used an oil color, but rather use something else since oil colors needs days or sometimes weeks to dry

Well allright.. For the parts that are going onto your eyes and will be wrapped in leather I'm using empty tube from a glue. Quite easy to get component. Especially on construction sites, they'll be more then happy to give you these. But if you don't have it, any tube will do the work (from silicone,pape, ect.)

It's outer diameter is 4,9cm (1.9 inches) - inner is 4,4cm (1.7 inches)

First i you have to cut off the very end, because the edge there is thinner.

Then measure 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) from the end ("X" mark) and next 3 centimeters from that ("I" mark) and cut as you see on the first picture. By the way, those 50° degrees are jjust oriental, it depents on your face what angle to choose. Best to try it first with paper tube or something and what fits you.

So you make your cuts and this will give you two same parts.

Grind edges of them. Not need to be too precise.

Now prepare your leather. I used fake leather. It's color isn't really white, but more like creamy.

You see that i've painted black these parts from a tube. The reason is that the other side of the leather i'm using is quite thin. And because of that the light, especially sunlight, would be going through making it..well just not that nice. It was a weird effect. Painting it black prevents this.

So.. You see the bottom side of the other goggles next to the leather. I just wanted to be clear how to proceed this step. I hope it's more understandable.

Do it exactly as you see on the pictures. You want the leather to overlaps on the bottom of the goggles sligthly to the outside. I english is rusty, you really should just follow the pictures :)

One thing though - when you're cutting the leather around the plastic, you'll need to leave there about 1,5cm (0.6 inches). That's for the side where the "metal ring" is going to. Also we'll be putting a plastic foil (lens) here, so it will be easier when the leather be a little bit longer.

Propably the easiest step. Cut out two strips - 1,5cm (0.6 inches) width, 31cm (12.2 inches) lenght and sew them together. I still don't know how to sew properly, but eh, glue it if you want. Doesn't really matter but this way it looks much better. Try to use a threat that's the same color as your leather. Hey! That rhymes!

Whatever..

..Those ends which are going to goggles i've bend as you can see on the third picture, so it's not that thick.

Then add a buckle and of course do the same again - another two strips, sew. Just instead of adding a buckle cut off corners before sewing.

And you guessed it, glue the other ends onto tubes.

(you see i've already glued "metal" rings to them. Not a good idea, had to remove them, so wait with that)

These ring are simple to make. I used the paper ring from electrical tape. They are 4,4cm (1.7 inches) outer radius, inner is 4cm (1.6 inches) and width is 1,5 cm (0,6 inches)

They fit into those plastic tubes perfectly but we've wrapped those tubes in leather so they don't fit now.

Because of that is best to use an x-acto knife and cut off the edges (1st and 2nd picture).

Then wrap the rings in electrical tape and spraypaint them black (good to clean them before painting to get rid of grease).

* Maybe you might not need to cut off the edges, try these rings how they fit first. Then eventually to that. What matters is thickess of you leather.

Putting those 2 rings together is quite easy. I've used a screw which is 2,5 cm (1 inch) long - and 0,5 or 0,6 cm (0.2 inches) thick. That fits me perfectly but of course you might need longer or shorter. So it's best to try it, maybe ask someone to measure how much you need while you're holding those parts in front of your eyes. Or get a straw and cut it off, try to put it between the rings and cut it more if needed.

Ok let's say you got the right lenght.. now put some superglue at the end of the screw and screw in the nut. Let it dry, then paint it (on these pictures the color is close to copper, but at the end i've painted it black and then silver as the rest "metallic" parts).

Before you're going to glue these two rings and the screw together, you really need both ends as much adhesive as you can. So use a sandpaper for that.

Then cut out a circle on each ring, meaning get rid of the sticky tape, that won't hold it. You need it to be glued to the paper itself and helps a lot when you make the circle really flat.

Now you're ready to glue these rings to the leather wrapped tubes.

* Use superglue on the circle first, kinda impregnate (or fill or what is the right word) the paper to make it very hard and after that glue these three parts together.

I have some old shirts with steel spikes. So i took them off. You can find spikes that can be screwed on but mine are like rivets, i can't really detach these two parts from themselves. This way when i take them off, there's gonna be some fabric. Using a lighter to get rid kinda works, the paint will take care of the rest.

Gears are mostly from an old printer, but there are some from an alarm clock. Use what you have, Gears are gears, and a little diversity is a good thing.

Again before you apply the paint on any part, it's good to make the surface more adhesive, sandpaper it.

Then paint it black (sprayed). When it's dryed, paint all gears and spikes silver. Light taps, so it looks old and used. I've used a needle to hold them down when painting.

Last there are few wires shaped into spiral, can't say too much about that. Made from cca 7,5cm (3 inches) long steel wire.

For lenses use some plastic foils from a paper store. Cut out circles and simply glue them inside. If there are too many holes between the leather and metal ring and light is going throught too much, you can glue a piece of a black cord there.

The only differences between these two goggles is only the color, gears used, decorative wires which are only on the white goggles and those two copper wire coils on the other ones. Those coils very common items in almost every bigger electrical circuit (tv,scanner,pc...). Everything else is made the same way.

So now just put them on and you're ready to go!

Ihope i didn't skip anything, if so let me know...

And as always have a great day guys and keep crafting! :)