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I was browsing Etsy the other day, and I noticed someone selling "steampunk communicators". As in Star Trek TOS flip communicators. Which looked pretty neat, but they were display only. No working parts.
"Well, that's kind of silly," I said to myself. "How hard could it be to take a cheap Bluetooth earpiece and make a steampunk version that actually worked with your cell phone?"
One $20 Best Buy purchase later, I started to find out.
( Details, pics, etc )
...I think I overshot steampunk entirely and ended up in ancient Greece. Or maybe it's Elvish? Either way, I'm not complaining. I'm quite happy, in fact. It's definitely too heavy to wear without the ear loop now, but it's comfortable enough otherwise. The Bluetooth connectivity isn't noticeably impacted by the metal plate, either. It is, as they say, fully functional.
I'm going to have to set up an Etsy store tomorrow and see what I can sell these for. Now that I have the plate template and techniques down, cranking them out will be fairly easy. The patina will be a bit different on each, and I want to play with more faceplate decorations. A geometric one, one with gears, maybe a finger printish one? And I could always do custom ones as well. I also have some ideas for a much fancier Bluetooth hack, but I doubt I could get the price-point down low enough to really sell those.
"Well, that's kind of silly," I said to myself. "How hard could it be to take a cheap Bluetooth earpiece and make a steampunk version that actually worked with your cell phone?"
One $20 Best Buy purchase later, I started to find out.
( Details, pics, etc )
...I think I overshot steampunk entirely and ended up in ancient Greece. Or maybe it's Elvish? Either way, I'm not complaining. I'm quite happy, in fact. It's definitely too heavy to wear without the ear loop now, but it's comfortable enough otherwise. The Bluetooth connectivity isn't noticeably impacted by the metal plate, either. It is, as they say, fully functional.
I'm going to have to set up an Etsy store tomorrow and see what I can sell these for. Now that I have the plate template and techniques down, cranking them out will be fairly easy. The patina will be a bit different on each, and I want to play with more faceplate decorations. A geometric one, one with gears, maybe a finger printish one? And I could always do custom ones as well. I also have some ideas for a much fancier Bluetooth hack, but I doubt I could get the price-point down low enough to really sell those.