As I mention on my general craft blog, we just got back from attending the Nightmare Machine Paranormal Steampunk Convention in Jefferson Texas. It was organized by the Steampunk Illumination Society. I heard they were having a silent auction to raise money for the nonprofit organization and their plans to fund acquiring a building to host events, so I offered up a tabistry top hat and some "beer goggles" to help the cause.
The top hat was an experiment. I plan to make one for a friend of ours in the near future, but wanted to get the shape right before making his. I think it turned out pretty close to what I wanted, except that I found I need to make it a wee bit larger.
The goggles were really fun to put together. I tried to use mostly parts from cans on them. The eye pieces are, of course, can tops from Miller Lite. I liked the gold tops to go with the gold rivets I had.
I punched out the mouth opening to see through and put in lenses made of green plastic bottle that is held in with the bottom of the can.
All of this is riveted to the leather sides. I used a wide can tab to attach the strap to the sides. It worked perfectly.
Then, I used another can tab and a short piece of wire to make the buckle in back. Most of the leather was scrap from my mans leather hats.
Above is a close up of the can tab buckle. I got a little bit of shoe polish on the buckle, as you can see. But it rubs off of aluminum pretty easy.
They did really well at the auction. Though we auctioned them separately, they both got to stay together when they went home with some new friends we met while there that came over from Shreveport Louisiana. Great family. I hope the hat and goggles provide as much enjoyment for them as they were for me in making them. Besides making two more possible top hats, I plan to experiment on the goggle idea again in the future, as well.
BTW, I also made a quick monocle out of an aluminum bottle. I talk about that more on my general crafting blog (mieljolie.blogspot.com). Thanks for stoppin' in!
