Whether you enjoy them for the sake of convenience or as an offbeat fashion trend, goggles featuring specialty or prescription lenses are a precious commodity. If you have had trouble finding the lenses you want in the goggle design you need, create your own goggles by converting prescription or sunglasses lenses into homemade goggles. This basic project can be purely practical, or you can decorate your goggles for a fashion statement reminiscent of Steampunk or vintage styles.
Things You'll Need:
- Craft Knife
- Eyeglasses
- Leather Straps, 1/2-Inch Wide
- Epoxy
- 1/4-Inch Diameter Rubber Tubing
- Floppy Sheet Leather Strip, 4 Inches By 24 Inches
- White Makeup Pencil
Remove the lenses from the frame. Gently bend the metal around the lenses, pressing the lenses themselves with your thumbs until they pop out.
Place the lenses on the strip of leather and trace them in makeup pencil to outline the eye holes. Position the lenses in the center of the leather strip, spacing them about an inch apart (adjust for personal comfort according to what you like in goggles). Cut out the holes you traced using the craft knife, cutting inside the tracing lines to ensure that the lenses themselves are slightly bigger than the holes.
Fit each lens with a rim of rubber tubing. Line the outside edges of the lenses with epoxy glue (take care to keep the glue from dripping or smearing into the center of the lenses) and wrap the glued area with rubber tubing. Do one lens at a time so that you can hold the rubber in place until the epoxy sets.
Attach the lenses to the leather. Apply glue to the edges of the outside of the holes on the side of the leather you want to be the inside of the goggles. Lay the lenses on top of this with the flat sides down and rubber ridged sides up. Let set and cure.
Trim the leather around the lenses to fit your face. Press the leather to your face with the lenses lined up around your eyes, as you'll wear them. Use the makeup pencil to mark the areas you want to trim to make them fit the style and comfort you want. Remove the goggles from your face and trim them with scissors.
Fit the leather with straps. Cut vertical slits on the ends of the leather eyepiece. Thread leather strapping through these and secure with one knot on each side. Tie this to your head to secure the goggles when wearing.
Writer Bio
Ryan Voss is a freelance writer/blogger and artist/graphic designer from Fort Collins, Colorado. His areas of specialty are current events, politics and the martial and fine arts. He has been freelancing in a variety of creative fields since 2005.
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