Steam Punk 2

I got the idea for these bracers from a booth at a Renaissance Faire. The ones they had were incredibly well done, but cost more dollars than I was willing to spend. I did pick up a business card, and you can find them on Etsy at BruteForceStudios. My set is quite a bit simpler, but only cost me about $15 to make. The bands are made from vegetable-tanned leather that I had left over from another project. The lower band I painted over with a layer of brown acrylic paint, and the top layer is painted with black acrylic paint.

The typewriter keys I picked up from OrientalTrading, and I sewed them into the bottom layer of the leather, then cut holes in the top layer and pushed them through. The round piece with the map on it is made from a piece of pipe and a cap from the plumbing section at home depot. I cut the threaded end of the pipe off and glued it to the leather. That way the cap piece could be screwed on and off and different lenses and pictures could be dropped in.

I tried out green lenses and clock faces, but I ended up liking the clear color better with the antique map (that is my wife's arm above - I am not quite that scrawny). The bracer I made for her had more of the sacrificial jacket leather used for the bottom layer. I did not like the way that one looked, which is why I did mine the veg-tan leather and gave her the ugly one.

The bracers were held onto the arm using leather laces that I got from Michaels. The two layers of leather were held together with brass plated paper fasteners (I had no idea what these were called and had to do some serious Googling to figure it out).

The goggles were made with the same plumbing fixtures as the bracers (highly recommend PVC for the threaded piece - copper looks cooler but it is a pain to cut, it is heavier, and you are going to paint it anyway). The straps were made from some more straps form the purse that died making the arm piece. the pipe piece is wrapped in leather from the jacket as well (little bit softer around the eyes than PVC, and looks better too).

For the second pair I used a shorter section of PVC pipe (cut right at the end of the threading actually), and glued a piece of the veg-tan leather to it. I was going for more of an aviator look with this, and while they do not look as good in my opinion, they did stay on my face better.

I finished off the costume with a vest and pants from a thrift store, and some boots that I picked up from The Celtic Croft. I also got the rare opportunity to choke my boss, which made it all worthwhile.