About two months ago, Earl commissioned me to make him a ceramic camera. Here is the result. It is made of stoneware, fired to 1,300 degrees C. (2,350 F.) It has a matte black glaze on the inside. I did a post-firing application of 23 K gold leaf on it as well. Overall, it measures h 22.5 x w 20 x 20.5 cm. on the outside.

Steve

It's designed to take a 4 x 5 inch piece of photo paper. The negative holder on the inside is made from three strips of black weather stripping.

This view shows the camera with the pinhole cover removed.

Here is a detail showing some of the texture, glaze and gold leaf.

This is a test image from the camera.

150 sec. exp. on a 4 x 5 in. paper neg.

Steve, that is a beautiful camera. Earl is a lucky guy.

Very nice.

What do you do for tripod mounts...oversize hole & adhesive after firing?

M

Gorgeous camera.   YOU are an artist!

That's a beauty, Steve.  The test shot looks really good, also.  Have fun with it, Earl!

Quoted from murrayatuptowngallery

What do you do for tripod mounts...oversize hole & adhesive after firing?

M

For cameras like this I have a piece of 3/4 in. plywood, about 9 in. wide and 8 in. deep that has a 1/4 by 20 T-nut inset for the tripod connection. The camera simply sits on top of the plywood platform, and it can be tilted up or down about 30 degrees. The image of the lawn chairs above was made with the camera on this kind of mount.

BTW, step by step instructions for making a camera like this are available here:
http://www.potterymaking.org/techniques/MayJune0502.pdf
It's a 30 MB pdf file of a magazine article.

Steve

What marvelous idea you two had, and what a marvelous object of art to take pictures with. Definitely this deserves a WOW in bold 36. delio

'Gravity-assisted friction mount'.  

Thank you, Steve, for the elegance and artistry with which you have elevated the humble art of pinhole camera making. I'm sure a collection of these cameras would look striking just sitting on the shelf as decor.

Now if you could figure out how to make that ceramic tripod...!

This is art to obtain  art. Incredible work Esteve, your works enchant me, thanks

This is a piece of art

I can't wait to hold this beautiful object in my hands. It looks like it is time to invest in a changing bag. I hope that I can get over my reluctance to take this lovely piece of art out in public - while it will look great on display, it must be used in order to fulfil its destiny.

Thank you, Steve, for your contributions to two worlds - those of photography and hand-made ceramics. You are a master of both.