100% hand-made hologram

(I have been making holograms using silver halide emulsions for quite some time. I had wanted to make a "hand-made" hologram a looong time ago. Out of curiousity. Ngayon ko lang na-fulfill. Hmm.. it's basically very simple and e.a.s.y. Anyone can do it.)

..It's a very hot morning and Im roaming around the city trying to find a piece of flat dark glass. I dont intend to buy. I want to get a piece for f.r.e.e. This one store owned buy a chinese said they dont have a stock for that kind of glass. Ows? Maybe they're not willing to give me a piece for f.r.e.e. Luckily this one guy in the next store gave me an awesome piece from a scrap.

Next stop I went to a school supply store and shop for a cheap mechanical divider, the one with two sharp end points. This time I have to shell a ghastly P45.00.

Well, basically I have now a complete ingredients to make a HOLOGRAM. The first time I made a hologram, it cost me about P12,000. Basically holograms are made by lasers, photographic films, and chemical developers. I have made laser holograms before and it was NOT easy. But this time a hologram I intend to make is 100% hand-made. A.K.A. made only buy hand!! I would have to scratch the interference pattern from a 2D object on a dark glass using a divider. Basically you will just have to point the other end of the divider to your object and scratch the other end on the glass surface creating an arc. (images from http://www.amasci.com)

and create a pattern that look something like this.. (the object is the letter V)

The more lines you scratched, the better the result.

For the whole afternoon I've done nothing but scratching, scratching, and scratching. I spray painted the glass on the other side and leave it to dry. Not 1 minute later one of my officemate, having NO idea what Im doing, accidentaly dropped my scratched glass and broke it in half!!! I almost kill the bastard!! Luckily the scratched portion were intact. Phew.

I had to wait until our weekly friday meeting ended before I was able to test my work on an overhead projector (sunlight would be enough but it's cloudy today). Yipppee.. it was a success!! The "V" figure floats majestically behind the glass!! I immediately called my colleagues and boasted what I have done. They we're all amazed. They're all eager to know how I did it. All I gave them was a silly grin. Nyeknyeknyek. I promised them I would explain the whole thing on our scientific conference next week. =)

(I forgot to bring my digital camera.. I'll post the pictures of my first hand-made hologram later.)