Wednesday 20 June 2012

Goggles!

As I wrote earlier, I've just made myself a brand new pair of goggles! Because it was ridiculously easy and cheap, I thought I'd share the process here, so that others may take inspiration from it! :)

Firstly, I equipped myself with two empty cans of Redbull, mainly because these are aproximately 5 cm in diameter, so if you find other cans of the same size, they will most likely do. Using a nail buff, I removed the colour from the can, before painting the bottom with a brassy colour. I used Citadel (GW) paints, which demands a few layers, but most hobby paints should work. I left them over night to be sure they had dried properly. Next, I cut the painted bottom of the can off, making sure it was approximately an inch high, and them moved on to cutting a hole in the bottom. I now had the frame of the goggles.


I dug out some old leather I had lying around and cut out what was to be the "cuffs", the nose bridge and the straps. I also found small buckle to use for the straps. Sewing the all together, I next fitted the frames into the cuffs and added the "lenses", basically two sircles cut out from a sheet of transparent acetate.


Using a sharp hobby scalpel, I cut four small slits along the ridge of the frame, and stuck a tiny vintage brass coloured paper brad, using it's "arms" to keep the lens in place. And that's it! Goggles done!




Delightful Distractions

Work has been half killing my social life these last few months, but with my first ever Collective Bargaining safely behind me (it's been quite the crash course in negotiations), I can finally take the time to appreciate that summer is indeed a-comin'! I see baby birds almost every day, still poofy and fluffy, watching their mum fetch food for them, and everywhere there's green. Suddenly having some spare time, I managed to go for a weekend trip to Copenhagen with Rik and some friends, as well as a one-day larp with ridiculous hats (at least mine was), men in tights and chivalrous behaviour! This weekend, I also managed to persuade Rik to venture out with me in the pouring rain to go to the annual Medieval Marked (Oslo Middelalderfestival), which proved to be a delightfully costly affair! I am now the proud owner of a new leather belt pouch, leather water bottle, to tiny wooden boxes (perfect for larp), and a pair of perfectly awesome pointy shoes!



After a sufficient amount of trudging, we went to the Dubliner for some food and drink, and were later joined by a bunch of delightful people, amongst them lovely Frøydis, Solgave, Branna and Tathariel. It ended in songs, laughter and merriment! ^_^

Now, however, with Desucon right around the corner and the larp Christianus Sextus in September only a few months away, Steampunk is constantly on my mind, and I can't stop myself from thinking "how could I steampunkify this" about almost everything. My basic outfit for the larp is more or less finished, having just made a pair of light blue canvas jodhpurs, and will be tested out at Desucon the coming weekend. I'm still collecting old looking tools (I haz a monkey wrench!) for my tool belt, and an aviators cap and new steampunkish boots are also on the list, but they're not top priority (yet). I have been making a pair of goggles, and I dare say, for the minimal amount of money I spent on the equipment, and never having made goggles before, I'm quite proud! Here they are:


Monday 2 April 2012

Spring Awakening

Winter sent my writing into hibernation, but with the passing of the Vernal Equinox and the unexpectedly early spring weather, the inspiration to sit down and type has come dripping back. It’s been a winter of many big changes. We’ve settled into the new flat quite comfortably and it feels like home. I’ve been shanghaied into running for union rep at work and thus sent to a lot of courses for training, which has both been fun and enlightening and utterly exhausting. But most important of all was the news that Rik was getting a permanent contract for his position at work, which means the safety of knowing that he’ll have a job next year as well. It’s been a long road to get there, but he’s been hard working and patient, never giving up, and to finally be able to reap the benefits of all his labour meant the world to us both!

So, 2012 had a flying start and it only seems to be getting better! In September, Rik and I are going to a Steampunk larp at Røros and we've already started hoarding gear. This weekend a pair of lovely old spectacles bought on eBay turned up in the mail for Rik. They came in a delightfully worn leather case and look perfect!








For myself, I've ordered a carpenter's belt in leather for all my tools, but the coolest thing I've managed to get hold of is this gorgeous portable 78 rpm record player!


And I didn't pay a penny for it either! Someone had dumped it in the electronic equipment dumpster at work, and I couldn't bare to see such a beauty just be tossed away like that, so I rescued it out from among the many worn keyboards, broken printers and dusty cables and claimed it for my own.


Here's a video of it playing the (slightly damaged) record that was accompanying it inside the box:



Inside the box, I also found three adorable little tins full of needle tips:






Like Counting Crows sing, it's been a long December and there's reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last. :)

What's the coolest thing you've ever found?