Arctic Queen

She's for sale and will make someone else a happy house truck owner :-) Hopefully the name is not indicative of the heating.

I'll add an edit later with with promised information re: glass and vaseline. I'm in a bit of a hurry so I can go out.....

Thanks for your response to yesterday's blip. The dog and Cadillac struck a cord :-)

Edit...

Glass and vaseline method I used the previous two days

Use:
- 3mm thick glass
- cut to something around 120 - 12-130mm square (I've just had some cut at 145 x 150mm)
- sand the edges and corners to blunt the edges

Glass is better than perspex as perspex scratches easily and will mark each time you clean it.

Smear with one of the following:
- vaseline (needs to be thin smear. You'll need to experiment. It's easy to apply too much)
- olive oil (this smear so it's not runny)
- lip gloss
- hair gel
- detergent
- hair spray
- whatever else takes your fancy to try.

Ideas for applying:
- smear in a circle shape with a small clear hole in the middle
- smear leaving a thin clear line across the middle of the glass
- wave shape with clear gaps
- whatever else takes your fancy

How to use your smeared glass:
- hold the glass out in front of your lens
- move is closer to lens or further away depending on what you can see and like
- auto focus through the clear hole in the middle, clear line or whatever shape you've left clear

Try it landscape or portrait. You can even create panoramas. Photoshop merge still manages to successfully stitch through the smears but occasionally you have to join what it can't manage.

Alternative
- attach a cokin filter camera to the front of your camera
- get pieces of glass cut to fit the holder and apply vaseline to this.

If your camera is large and difficult to handle with one hand and glass in the other, this might be an easier option. You still need to smear whatever you apply thinly but you can use manual focus if you need to.

Unlike holding the glass in your hand, you can't change how close/far it is from the camera lens.

Souring glass
I went to a second hand window place and they cut up a broken window for me. ($10NZ for 6 pieces, so dirt cheap). Otherwise you could try:

- a glass merchant
- a picture framer. Ask them to cut off-cuts to the size you need (this might be a good option for the cokin filter holder)

Have fun. I'll be interested to see your results :-)