How to make Steampunk goggles

All right people, as Halloween is getting closer, today we are going to set out step by step how to create a pair of Steampunk aviator goggles.  A bonus for people that like doing wood/metal working is that these are perfectly functional goggles, I use mine now whenever I am sanding or woodworking.

Step 1: The first thing you need is a foundation, something to build around.  It is much simple to re-imagine an everyday item than to try crafting it all by hand.  I choose to start with a pair of welders goggles which I purchased from amazon for about $8.00

Step 2: Disassemble the goggles, then lightly sand the plastic in preparation for painting.

Step 3: After sanding, paint the plastic with color/style of your choice.  I went with a Rust-oleum tm
Hammered Copper spray paint.

Step 4: using my dremel I bore a set of holes which will allow me to connect the nose-bridge later.

Step 5: Using a piece of leather (bought at Hobby Lobby) draw out and cut the leather for the nose-bridge

Step 6: Using a waxed thread attach the leather nose bridge to the goggle shells, and then run the waxed thread through the bore holes, tying them off at the end.

Step 6: cut two even leather straps adding the connectors of your choice (I went with snap buttons purchased at Hobby Lobby).

Step 7: Technically your goggles are complete at this point.  You may wish to add some additional features to give them some extra style.  I am adding a set of clip-on magnifiers purchased online for about $5.00

 The main items needed to add this feature are a small dowel peg (painted with copper colored paint) for the magnifiers to clip onto, and some copper wire (also found at Hobby Lobby) to connect the dowel peg to the goggles.

VIOLA! You are now the proud owner/creator of a set of functional Steampunk aviator goggles. 

Welcome one and all!

Welcome!

Hello, to everyone.  If you are reading this you have stumbled upon my brand new blog.  I decided it would be fun to have a place were I could share many of the various projects, activities and stories that intrigue me.  I am long lover of history (as well as a full time illustrator) so expect most everything to have a very retro oriented outlook and/or be related to the arts.  Well that is that, lets kick things off!

I thought I would share some of the various non-illustration related art projects on here and so that seems an appropriate place to commence.  For today I'm going to post some of my Steampunk inspired flash drives  that I have made.  Unfortunately I didn't document the process of making these, but as I plan to create a few more I am sure I will get the chance to post a step by step article on here in the future.  

A basic exposition of how I constructed these is as follows.   I first purchased several 8GB San Disk Cruzer Facet flash drives. I prefer these because the are very simplistic in shape and design, offering a good platform from wince to construct our ode to the age of steam.  using a variety of hobby woods (small square dowels and thin variously sized sheets of wood), I measured off, cut and constructed housings for each flash drive to fit in.  I stained the wood and finished them off by glueing a variety of cogs and gears in place (you can find some pieces in the jewelry section of your local hobby and craft story, but the very best options are old watch gears and assembles (flea markets are great places to find such items).  Again I hope you enjoyed checking these out and hopefully I will have time in the near future to write and post a full step by step how to, but at least this gives you a good jumping off point.