Bokeh blah blah....

One fine December day, when I saw that my Flickr contact Satya!!! posted a pic taken through his lensbaby... I wanted a similar pic too!
As always, I lacked funds and all, so a few months later, decided to make this little attachment in the homemade holga-esq lens that I had made a few weeks earlier.

So how does it work?
The shape of the bokeh is the shape of the aperture. So, if the aperture is hexagonal, the bokeh is hexagonal... and if the shape of the aperture is heart shaped, or star shaped... then, the bokeh is a heart or a star respectively... Thanks to Ashwin for the simple explanation, which got me thinking and eventually come up with this...

How did I do it?
I took my holga/Lens baby (homemade) and on the inside of the lens, placed a circular cutout of black tinted paper with a cutout in the desired shape in the centre of the disc...
so, the aperture (opening for light) is between the glass and the sensor, nearer the glass rather than the sensor, and not floating about...

A little observation:
for objects close by, the bokeh formed is inverted... eg: if you place the heart straight on the lens, on the image, the bokeh of the shape of the heart appears inverted.
... so, place the aperture shape upside down if the shape is not symmetrical and the object is very near...
So, there... I have custom bokeh... for almost no cost... except for the 8 bucks I spent on the fresh sheet of black tinted paper, of which I hardly used about 1/50th...
I'm now going to experiment with more shapes, types of bokeh shots with this lens. Wow! Just when I was despairing that i have finally run out of ideas... It couldn't have come at a better time...
try this, have fun, experiment and do post in your feedback if any...

PS: Music facilitated the making of this ... so don't forget... put of your fav music full blast!