Color changing glasses frames

Okay, technically the glasses themselves do not change color, they have removable/reversible frame toppers that attach via magnets. But in practical terms, I was commissioned to make these so that a drag queen could surprise the audience with the color change, and it's a snappier title, so that's what I'm going with.

I am delighted that I had the opportunity to make some custom glasses toppers for a drag performer, adding magnets and making frame toppers to give the illusion of the glasses changing color.

 

Full process video:

 

Prototype 1 

First step: dremel some holes and glue in magnets

 

This project was a first for me, so I did a fair amount of material testing to prototype before modifying the final glasses frames. If you're trying this at home, read the glue labels! Not every superglue out there will bind metal to plastic, but that glue does exist. 

 For the toppers, some materials like paper and balsa wood didn’t work out well, but thin chipboard like cereal boxes and thin plastic sheets like binder material were more successful.

Failed materials

Successful – chipboard

Successful – plastic

 

Prototype 2

For my second round of prototyping I used more layers of material to hide the magnets on both sides. Both the chipboard and the plastic were flexible, but it was harder to get paint to stick to the plastic. I tested on both sheet plastic and my prototype frames and tried out lacquer, PlastiDip, spray paint, automotive paint, and nail polish, and did a stress test to see if it held up. Boxes, bags, and backstage are not gentle places for accessories and I wanted this to be ready for that. 

Generally the nail polish is the most successful coating, although it’s hard to be patient and paint thin layers. Where I was not patient enough it dried unevenly or the pressure of the magnet attachment caused a dent. On balance, though, chipboard painted with white gesso and then coated with nail polish was my best bet. The chipboard is flexible and durable, and the nail polish makes it water resistant, shiny, and easy to make minor touchups if needed.

 

Final products 

It was a bit of a challenge to get the shape of the final toppers exactly right because the frames didn’t lie flat on the scanner. This also meant that coating a material like paper in resin wasn’t a great idea even if it had worked in the prototype phase because I wanted to make these reversible and cured resin will break before it bends.

I ended up making two final sets of magnet-enhanced frames and toppers, although I accidentally put one of the magnets in the wrong way so the topper on that set isn’t reversible. So one set has two colors available, the original black and additional red, while the other set has three colors available, the original brown tortoiseshell plus a vivid pink and a bright cyan.