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Sometimes when working on a project you have to give up on an idea with which you fell in love. Partly as a jab, and partly because it was perfect, I pitched the idea to Justin Spinelli, of Luxe Wheelworks, for a design that incorporated the setting of a Swarovski crystal into the skewer lever for his custom built wheels. How Luxe would that have been?

Anyway, after a few changes we came up with the current version, which just came back from the shop. This lever is swiss milled out of 6061 aluminum, then anodized black, and then laser etched with the Luxe logo on both sides.

The lever replaces the stock plastic lever on the Joy Tech skewer system. Rims for your rims. Available on Luxe Wheelworks stock in-house builds soon.

This post details not a specific project, but one of the most important decisions that I have made recently concerning direction, work, and process. About two years ago I started working with a local eyewear company to help them develop a new production frame. I tried hard to learn everything that I could about the process, but at the end of the project I had a lot of questions. For the last year or so since that project ended, I have found myself more and more interested in this industry, perhaps because there is so little information about process and because manufacturing techniques are so guarded. A few months ago, I decided to take the plunge and start to assemble a better working knowledge of the process of designing and fabricating glasses frames, more specifically cellulose acetate plastic frames.

I’m not trying to specialize into this industry, but by acquiring a “strip-built canoe” or “ship in a bottle” type project, I will attempt to be more connected to the process of refining an art/skill instead of working on projects solely towards the goal of completion. I am not going to stop designing other devices and products, but this project will hopefully be in the background, slowly maturing. This is the first pair of sunglasses that I have designed and made from scratch. The frame is made from vintage Mazzuchelli tortoise shell acetate, and the lenses are custom cut plano 6-base CR-39 plastic.