Why goggles

I do make other things, although it may not seem that way now, perusing my site and gallery. I'm just focusing on them now, hoarding back other items to spring on the world at the right moment, when they last expect it.
So why on earth did I start off with goggles as my primary focus? There is some logic in my madness (albeit some madness in my logic).
When I sort of discovered steampunk for the first time, it was wonderful. There's nothing like finding out that disparate interests and focuses are actually crystallized into a bizarre subculture which not only has a name, but members who don't think you are insane for loving clockworks and corsets. It's a good little community for me, and when you find something like this, you look for that icon to hone in on.
I'll admit. I only have the vaguest idea why that icon has become goggles for steampunkers-aerialists keeping bugs out of their lashes and mad scientists aside, it's sort of a bizarre token. But a pair of goggles shows you're "steampunk" better than any other item. Personally, I went in a week's time from barely ever thinking about goggles, to desperately needing a pair to have a happy life.
But there were so few places that had decent pairs! I wasn't about to spraypaint plastic. If goggles are indeed the hallmark of a steampunk, having cheap, bad goggles shows that you're just a bad steampunker. I needed the real deal--leather, brass.
It took me almost a month to make my first two pairs. (One went to an online friend.) Goggles are sort of a microcosm of costuming-you can put personality into them and give the idea of a character in a small space. I loved making them, and started selling them.