The Anatomy of a Camera

The Anatomy of a Camera

I was recently commissioned to make a fused glass camera, and thought it would be a great opportunity to share the making process with you. To give people an insight into the process of making fused glass.

It starts with a source of inspiration, in this case the end result needs to look like what it is, IE: a Leica Camera, so the image above was found through a Google search, (i'm claiming no credit for the design of the camera, this is what the client wanted)

Deconstruct the image.

Once the design has been finalized we selected the colour palette, then I used Coral draw (computer program) to deconstruct the camera, separating it into basic shapes, and determining how to layer up the glass, this is an important stage, with many factors to consider, how the layers are going to effect each other when fired, whilst constructing in a way to reduce the number of firings. 

Whilst glass can be fired multiple times, the more you fire the more susceptible to devit, the glass becomes.

I ended up with 5 firings, because I split the paint firing in two, at a push it could have been done in three.

First Firing: FULL

As the final piece was to be wall mounted I wanted a solid base so full fused to pieces of Cream Opaque together.

Second Firing: CONTOUR

The hand cut camera pieces are assembled on the fused base and contour fused, the lens was also contour fused separately, and tack fused on in the next firing, I decided on this course for two reasons, firstly I wanted to try a couple of variations on the lens, secondly fusing the lens on in the contour fuse ran the risk of  distorting the base layer of the camera, as the added weight of the lens fusing down, would spread the crisp lines of the camera.

Third Firing: TACK

The Lens is tack Fused onto the piece.

Fourth Firing: PAINT

The final stage was painting in the detail, using traditional glass painting techniques.

Another option would have been to use high fire glass paint such as Glassline or Viquid, but, in my opinion you don't have as much control over those as you do traditional paints, I can achieve a wider variety of effects with Reusche paints. Plus it's what i'm used to and comfortable in using.

Fifth and final firing: PAINT

The final firing was another paint firing, at a lower temperature for the white glass paint, and a little more black, and ta-da! The camera is finished. 

It was an incredibly fun project to work on, and shows you really can produce anything in this versatile medium! All you need is careful planning and a solid knowledge of what glass does at different forming temperatures. So what will you commission next?????