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:
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!
