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<\/a><\/p>\nI came to this because there just weren’t any one set of frames that I was happy with out of the thousands that my optometrist had in stock. \u00a0I had in mind a pair of classic round lenses, but I just couldn’t find much in the way of classic anymore. \u00a0So, I just had to take matters into my own hands.<\/p>\n
These are the fourth pair of glasses made, but the first pair to be what I would call complete, or lens ready. \u00a0These aren’t MY new glasses, but it does have aspects that I was looking for in a pair of frames.<\/p>\n
I wanted them to have a large enough lens that you don’t see the edges of the frame in my line of vision, with enough room to let my eyes dart around without having to move my head to see the\u00a0rear-view\u00a0mirror. \u00a0But not so large that it would give the 80’s Sally Jesse Raphael a run for the money.<\/p>\n
I also do not like nose pads. \u00a0I wanted the weight of the lenses to be better distributed across the bridge of my nose, not hitting a preasure point to the side that makes me nose raw and painful by the end of the day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I also wanted the ear wires to wrap around my ears somewhat, so that they just don’t rest on one spot on top of my ears all day.<\/p>\n These are sterling silver, with\u00a0faceted\u00a0citrines\u00a0tube-set\u00a0into the temple pieces. \u00a0I worked in some of my floral, woodsy vines onto the frames and arms. \u00a0These are all hand forged, fabricated.<\/p>\n The\u00a0biggest\u00a0challenges were figuring out how to make the channel wire that holds the lenses, and the engineering of the hinges. \u00a0I will have to post a tutorial on how to pull this wire, and it was the help of a Facebook group called Eyeglasses by Jewellers<\/a>\u00a0that I found the best way to do this. \u00a0I had tried a few ways unsuccessfully, but pulling a strip through a half-round drawplate like you would a tube through a tube drawplate was the best technique.<\/p>\n The hinges were a bit trickier, as there is so much torque placed on the hinge and they have to stop the arms from folding all of the way forward. \u00a0It has to be a tough hinge, strong, but light. \u00a0I’m not sure what to call this hinge, but the tube-setting works with the forged half-round stop to give a snap in place when they are fully opened and hold them there. \u00a0But, with just a little extra tug, they easily close, with enough room for even the thickest of lenses set in them.<\/p>\n A lessor obstacle was making them very hard, to prevent them from easily bending, denting, or warping from wear. \u00a0But, the wrap-around\u00a0ear-wires\u00a0had to be sort of soft enough to allow the wearer to bend them to fit in comfort. \u00a0They will harden in time, but initially the metal needs to be annealed to make fitting to comfort an easy task. \u00a0So, I hardened them in the kiln, and annealed the wires with a torch, but not to a full dead soft metal, just enough to make the thinner parts softer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n