Lens Crafter: A Chicago Artisan's Spectacular Glasses

When Scott Urban damaged his glasses during an ill-fated break-dancing 
attempt, he had a choice: purchase a new pair, or craft his own. “I thought I’d make a pair of wooden frames,” he says, “because I hate shopping.”

Urban, the 27-year-old founder of Urban Spectacles of Wood, a Chicago-based bespoke-eyewear purveyor, has been handmaking custom frames ever since, using such exotic materials as bicycle brake levers, ebony gabon wood, turquoise and Hawaiian curly koa.

He’s transformed microbrew bottles into “beergoggles” with a smart beveled edge around the eye, like the base of a longneck. And he’s developed a line of Record Specs—pieces of vinyl stacked and laminated together with a finish that shows off the grooves. “One girl searched for an album that would glow under a black light,” Urban says. “Another person wanted white vinyl. And there’s a hologram pair that I did.”

Custom frames take about two weeks to make and start at about $550, though Urban accepts trade: “Musicians can write my name into one of their songs and I’ll give them a pair,” he says, laughing. “But it has to be the big guys, none of those little MySpace kids.”

Visit Urban Spectables of Wood at UrbanSpectacles.com.