Upcycle Broken Eyeglasses Into a Personalized Map Keychain
Whilst in lockdown I've been having a good sort out of my junk. As part of this process I decided to tackle that kitchen drawer that you stuff small things in. The things that you pick up around the house that you think are useful but don't need them now. Amoung the many keys, batteries, elastic bands and old corks I found some old broken eyeglasses. Why they were in there I don't know as no one in my family wears glasses.
Instead of throwing them out I decided to use them to make some personalized map keychains. I've printed maps on rocks before to make personalized keychains which were very popular, so I knew that this was a good idea.
To make these fun keychains the first thing you need to do is to remove the arms of the glasses. This is normally done with a small screw on the side.
To remove the nose band betwen the lenses I used a rotary tool. The bit where the nose pad sat had handy metal loop which I kept intact for fixing the keyring to the glasses.
If you don't have this metal loop on your glasses with a diamond tiped drill bit you can drill a hole through the lense and use a o-ring to fix the key ring to the lense.
Next, I found an old road map of one of my favourite places. I then placed the lense over the map and drew around it.
I then cut out this piece of map and using Mod Podge I pasted the map to the underside of the lense face side up.
Once the map had dried. I simply used some sandpaper to remove any bits of map hanging over the frame.
I had such fun making these keychains I made some as necklaces using a leather thong and some vintage world maps. To see these and to download world map templates visit the blog post link at the end.
You can also use old eyeglasses to make some lovely vintage Chrismtas ornaments.
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What a spectacular idea! Love it ❤️❤️❤️
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🤣 Thank you, they are fun to make.
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Or you can donate old eyeglasses to charity. They go to third world countries for people who can otherwise not see properly.
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Yes that is a good idea. But they don’t want broken ones they just bin those. 😊
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Frequently asked questions
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Does this only work on wire frames?
Wouldn't the glass break? Dont think the modge podge is a strong enough stabilizer.