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: