How To Make Steampunk Goggles

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Steampunk goggles: the perfect gift for any occasion — birthdays, anniversaries, whatever.

A simple present that says, I care enough to want to protect your eyes from gas explosions, zombie claws, and wayward automatons.

Or maybe you simply want a pair for your  steampunk costume–that’s certainly why I set out to make mine (seen in the photo right).

The best part of these “brass goggles” is that making them is cheap (<$20 if you spend wisely) and easy (unless you’re clumsy like me–then it just takes a little extra care).

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1. First off, you need a pair of welding goggles.  You can buy them at a Home Depot, or it’s very cheap and easy to buy them from Amazon (that’s what I did!)

2. I also bought a little clip-on lens thingy.

3. Next, I bought the cheapest silver and gold spray paint I could find. (I went to Wal-Mart; I’m sure you can find something comparable elsewhere.)

4. I took apart the goggles by separating the rubbery mask from the plastic lens-part.  I covered the actual lenses in tape, cut the tape so that it was the exact size of the lenses, and then I spray-painted.  Yay!

Note: SPRAY LIGHTLY.  Too much spray paint and the goggles will turn sticky like glue.  I learned this the hard way and had to start over when my first pair still hadn’t “dried” after 5 days.  If you spray just enough to cover the plastic, then it should dry well enough for handling within a few hours.

5. While all that was drying on the back porch, I went to a local thrift store and bought a narrow, leather belt.  I made sure it was the same width as the strap on the goggles.

6. I cut the belt into three parts, making sure that the buckle-portion and holed-portion were (when buckled together) long enough to fit around my head.


7. Next, you want to get your hands on some cool embellishments–be they gears, chains, keys, cool charms, whatever.

I went into my old supply of Legos (yes, I still have my Legos; don’t laugh) and found some fun critters: scorpions, octopuses, spiders, etc.  I spray painted those silver and gold.


Note: I used the scorpion for the goggles, and the other critters came into play in other steampunk gear.

8. With the paint now dry, I reassembled the goggles.  Be careful–the paint will stay kinda sticky for the first few hours.  But by the next day, it should be completely dry and not coming off on your fingers.


9.  Now it’s time to superglue on your various embellishments.  I decided to go simple for the goggles, so all I added was a single scorpion right in the center.


10. Finally, I slid the leather belt into the strap holders, snapped on the lens thingy, and KAPOW!


Mission Accomplished: Steampunk Goggles Complete

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You tell me: Would you ever make a pair of steampunk goggles?  If so, would you add/change anything?

♦ DON’T FORGET to check out my Leviathan giveaway and my A Great and Terrible Beauty giveaway (which are both still running and open internationally). ♦