Reddit reviews The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes

i looked into this a while back, and the closest I got were these two books:

http://www.amazon.com/Primitive-Photography-Making-Cameras-Calotypes/dp/0240804619/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Alternative-Photographic-Processes/dp/1418073725/

the former is exactly what you need, and has a chapter dedicated to from scratch lens building. if you look around, there's a guy on reddit, i forget what the thread was called, but he posted a lens he made him self, slapped onto a mount for his DSLR. you could ask him how he did it, if you're not keen on going all the way with building a camera of your own.

i couldn't afford them then, and it's too much of a side project to invest in now. but maybe you'll have better luck. i've been dying to just get a good look at these two, but i'm halfway across the world and there's no way I know of to get them for myself besides mailing it, which would cost more than the book. some things just aren't meant to be i suppose.

god speed.

You can get some use out of it with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Alternative-Photographic-Processes/dp/1418073725