For as long as I can remember, I’ve always collected things. Rocks, Sea shells, Napkins, Comic books, and even domain names. At one point I owned over 150 domains, some just for fun, others reminders of stories I need to still write. One late night I heard the phrase “naked eye” and it made me wonder, if an eye can be naked, then it also could be clothed. I checked and no one had yet registered the domain “clothedeye” and thus was born this site.
The domain remained dormant for years before I discovered steampunk. On an early date with the woman who would become my wife, I attended a steampunk event in Detroit. I knew very little about it but the aesthetic immediately appealed to me and I threw myself into making an outfit, to impress her.

Over the next week I spent a lot of time at the local hard ware stores and online, buying all sorts of interesting items. My first outing into the steampunk world saw me as a mechanic, with a pair of goggles that I modified myself, and the obsession was born. Something about goggles really resonated with me. I was not impressed with what I was able to find online, it seemed they were all made from the same base pair of welding goggles and not a lot of variety or thought went into them. The date went great and I met and saw a lot of people that inspired me to start making my own goggles. The name Clothed Eye was a perfect fit.

I turned my basement kitchen into a work area and began crafting goggles like a mad man. The first pair sold within a few days of listing them and I was off.

Every item at Clothed Eye is 100% unique and hand crafted by me. I wanted to make eccentric and outlandish items that would stand out among the amazing assortment of steampunk items that I was now in contact with. My basement workshop quickly became overrun with raw materials for crafting, all kinds of various goggles for bases, gears, chains, leather and more. Since that first pair I have gone on to sell internationally, a couple bought three pairs to use in their wedding, and have been featured in a book, The Art of Gothic

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Steampunk for me has become a great outlet for my creative energies. The incredible broadness of what you can make is immensely satisfying as a maker. Our wedding was steampunk themed and I designed/planned almost every aspect of it, from the apothecary jar center pieces to a photo booth that used a telegraph key as the button. I crafted a wrist communicator device that was used for reference in the steampunk comic “Westward” as well as supplying goggles.

My next planned projects are a few guns which is something I haven’t tried yet. I’m looking forward to getting back to crafting and always enjoy seeing what other brilliant people continue to come up with.