sllɐqǝʎǝʎzznɟ

Not sure if it was a big mistake agreeing to help a friend ‘dress up’ a La Sardina as a present for one of her friends. While I was toying with a few ideas on ‘dressing up’ the camera, she told me that the design has to be elegant. Huh? Elegant? That’s something I will have some problem creating! She told me that she trusts what I can come up with (crazy?!) and so I agreed and went on toying with some ‘elegant’ ideas. Hahaha! Knowing myself … I’ll go crazy with some ideas … stray from the original idea etc etc and definitely will end up doing something a little different from planned. I told her I’ll work on a La Sardina instead of the usual Holga/Diana because I find the La Sardina to be more suitable to be given an elegant design. Psst … I don’t think my design turned out any elegant but ermm … that’s the best I can do. 😛

The STARDUST La Sardina!

It took me a couple of months before I started work because I was busy with everything in life … including spending lots of free time giving Fitzand’s bedroom a facelift. I picked up the materials I wanted to work with (for the camera) along the way when I was sourcing for stuffs to ‘dress up’ Fitzand’s room.

After a couple of sleepless nights … here it is … my Stardust La Sardina!

Inspired by the 60s, the disco ball and some craziness in me …

I did send some photos of the camera still under ‘dressing up’ stage … maybe it was like 30% done … to a couple of friends. The first comment I got from Noreen was … “That’s so not you!”. Hahaha! Yeah … I told her I felt the same the moment I started working on it but it was too late to turn back then … I had to force myself to finish it. Not sure if the receipient will like it … or faint when seeing it … it was a ‘do or die’ ‘take it or leave it’ situation then. Muwahahaha! So sorry … uncle Ndroo has a bad attitude. 😛

I was struggling with placing the red ‘glass’ tiles on the front of the camera because I didn’t check out the instructions on how to disassemble the DIY La Sardina! All thanks to Noreen who showed me the links (Lomography website) on how I could remove some parts of the camera to make the work easier. Phew!

Oh … I also discovered that the newer sets of La Sardina we buy now … are of version 2! What’s the difference from the original one? It is just that this newer version … you can no longer turn the lens barrel and collapse it. No big deal though … as it doesn’t really get any much compact when you collapse the lens thingie. The reason I was told (about this change) is that lots of people tend to forget to extend the lens before shooting and thus result in many horror stories when they collected the rolls from the lab.

It wasn’t easy … and frustrating … for my fat old fingers to work with these little stuffs like the ‘glass’ tiles and glitters. To make things worse … I was only free to work on the camera around midnight on certain days only. It was a big ‘phew!!!’ when I finally completed it and now all I can do is pray that the receipient will like it.

I think I went a little too crazy with the glitters! Hahaha!

It was only just now before taking my family out for dinner that I shot these in a rush. I really don’t wanna spend any more time on this Stardust … and thought I might as well take some quick snaps of it … pack it up … and forget about it. 😀 You might see some fingerprints on the little mirror stars … as I was too lazy to do any wiping before shooting. 😛

Another tough part was … cutting the piece of (purple) leather to cover up the sides. The top part was a big challenge as I do not have proper tools to cut out the holes for parts like the film counter.

Look hard and you will see fingerprints! 

Finally I dug out the black box that my X-Pro1 came in … and now the Stardust La Sardina is packed nicely in a black box … ready to be passed to the new owner next week.

It might not be elegant but I’m hoping it won’t be too ‘eLIANgant’. Hahaha! I’m sure some of the locals here will get the joke. No???!! Oh nevermind!

Fitzand walked into the room just now and saw the camera. He asked if I could give it to him. I told him this is more suitable for girls and I’ll make him a cooler one someday. Me and my big mouth! He replied ‘Okay … Daddy … you make me a Power Ranger camera. Okay?’. I have just completed doing up his Power Ranger themed room last week … and now a camera??? I’ll just go sleep on it and give him an answer in the morning (or the next morning … or the next). I swore not to dress up any camera based on other people’s theme or requirements after doing Stardust … but for my little boss … I just might make an exception!