DIY Steampunk Goggles

Hey everybody, welcome to a very special steampunk edition of Transformation Tuesday! I’m in love with steampunk and have recently started making steampunk costumes and accessories for myself.

“What is steampunk?” you ask. According to Wikipedia, “Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery, especially in a setting inspired by industrialized Western civilization during the 19th century. Therefore, steampunk works are often set in an alternate history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or American “Wild West”, in a post-apocalyptic future during which steam power has regained mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.”

Basically, if you’ve seen “Wild Wild West” with Will Smith, it’s kind of that style.

I don’t know…has anyone seen this movie?

Steampunk was also made famous by the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. If I had to describe steampunk in six words, it would be: Alternate Victorian universe powered by steam. There’s a whole lot more to the genre, but hopefully I’ve scraped the surface in terms of what it is. Seriously, just Google “steampunk” and you can see some amazing outfits that people have made. Which brings me to the transformation of the day.

A lot of people implement goggles into their steampunk outfits, so I wanted to make a pair of my own. I actually had a few people ask me how I made them, so I wanted to post a mini-tutorial of it.

I started with a pair of black plastic welders goggles. I’m pretty sure you can get these at nearly any hardware store, however I actually found the cheapest pair from Staples – crazy, right?

I dis-assembled the goggles and threw away the elastic band and ball chain “nose piece.” I then spray painted the eye pieces with a base coat of brown spray paint.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the painting process (I was just so excited to make them!), but I painted the circular part with gold acrylic paint and the base of the eye pieces with some watered down black acrylic paint. I then used some scrap leather to  make straps for the goggles and then added some gold chain link for the nose piece (the part that keeps the two eyepieces together). Last but not least, I added some bronze filigrees to each side. And….voila!

These were my first real steampunk accessory that I made, and I think they’re so fun! I even started making a pair for my husband too!

Have you heard of steampunk before? What would you put on your steampunk goggles?