engrained

i’ve been out of town for while, but i finally got a chance to build some cameras and it feels fantastic to be back to work!  i found some really inspiring books and i can’t wait to build them all out.

“Life is short and Art long;
the occasion instant, decision
difficult, experiment perilous.”
~ Hippocrates

I just finished a great custom camera using a very sturdy old leather bound version of Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations.”   I used gold knobs for the first time and I have to say that it makes the camera look very…. distinguished. I also made it VERY wide angle and would love to see how its pictures come out.

I’m very pleased with “The Loyalty of Hester Hope” pinhole camera – it came out beautifully.  I’m becoming more and more fond of using smaller books for my cameras!  This one unfortunately will not be going on etsy for sale, at least not right away.  It is going off Philadelphia to spend some time at Anthropologie and may or may not be returning.

I was running low on books that inspired me so I went shopping this morning and got some GREAT finds.  So hard to decide which one to start with! I also picked up this awesome 8mm motion camera – needs a little fixin’ but I’ll get it working.

I just finished this camera this morning and I’m very happy with the cheerful colors, not to mention the adorable little feet.

I needed some color today so I decided to go bright blue and orange.  I love it.  I can’t wait to get the straps and knobs on tomorrow!

I love the texture of this book!  It was so beautiful I couldn’t resist buying it and making a camera out of it.  It’s a little smaller than most of the books I work with and I think it’ll be easy to toss in a bag and go out to take photos.  I’m not so sure the square magnetic shutter was the right for this book, but the dark wood looks fantastic with the texture of the cover.  I also used my new rosewood and pearl knobs which are soooooo beautiful.

The response to my cameras has been incredibly surprising!  I’m working hard to keep them coming and it looks like I’m going to be making another one today!  My book & box stash has dwindled and I only have a few to choose from.  It may be time for a shopping trip today to find more goodies.

I thought I would post a few process photos from one of my more recent cameras.  Almost everything is done from scratch – building out boxes, carving the reels, etc, all the while designing what I want the camera to look like.  With this camera I was really excited about the leather with the super textured cover of the book.

I ordinarily try to make decisions about what I want the book to look like and how the shutter will work before I start so that I can carry that aesthetic throughout the camera.

I don’t have pictures of building out the shutter, but this one is wood and leather with a fantastically strong magnet embedded so that it holds itself to pinhole – works like a charm.

Hand carving the reels!

After I made the first shutter, I decided I didn’t like the look with all the leather and built a new one using the circle I had cut out of the book cover.