Domed Eyecage

For my latest steampunk gas mask I wanted to make an eyepiece that was a domed cage. After considering various ways to build such a thing I settled on what I know best, leather and resin. I began by laser cutting a circle of vegetable tanned leather with cross bars, shown on the left in the picture below.

My goal was to have it shaped like the dome on the right, with the cross bars spaced so that the wearer could still see through them adequately.

I stretched the dampened flat piece of leather in three steps. I began with the wooden knob I had used for forming the ear on Pachydermos, shown above on the left. In my wanderings I had collected the steel fence post ends shown above on the right, one with a higher dome than the other that I used for steps two and three.

Once the leather dried it became rigid, and I molded it in silicone rubber. Here is a photo of the leather original on the left, an unfinished cold cast aluminum casting in the middle, and the finished, polished casting on the right.

And here it is placed into the undyed leather mask.