Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Sourcing a prism for a camera lucida

So this little exercise records my attempts at recreating a camera lucida for a budding artist. I was inspired to do this after briefly sponsoring the NeoLucida kickstarter project (link). Unfortunately the price point for shipment to Europe was quite high; shipping costs accounting for a large part. But the idea stayed and so I figured I could source the central element locally. A small glass prism. Sounds simple (that's what Oisin said)... The essential design elements as below (from Wikipedia)


Thus began a small voyage of discovery as I sought to uncover who, in Ireland, has the skills and tools, to work with glass.

Some remaining possibilities:
  • Blackrock Glass, a local glassier known for custom cutting glass shelves and the like (link
  • Jerpoint Glass, an artisan glass studio in Kilkenny (link)
  • Karl Harron Studio in Strangford (link)
  • The Glass Society of Ireland (link)
  • and perhaps other artisans through Craft Ireland (link)


Out of consideration.
  • Dublin Crystal (link)? No, they source their stock from international suppliers, they only cut and engrave in Dublin.
  • Heritage Crystal in Waterford (link)? Similar story except they do blow glass and cut it into crystal but the production director wasn't interested in doing anything bespoke like this.
  • Scholer Crystal from Austria? One of Europe's biggest contract crystal products producers (link) but they don't really do bespoke.