More experimentation with FP-100B black and white instant film

Okay, I figured out some more when it comes to working with Fuji's instant film with emulsion lifts. I just lifted an emulsion from FP-100B and put it on my dark blue GameBoy Advance SP. I noticed a few things while I was in the process.

A) It appears that the Fuji emulsion does not "spread out" from absorbing all of the water like Polaroid's emulsions do. This could be pretty useful now that I know it. In theory, I could cut the pictures to the exact proportions of what I am laying the emulsion on. With the Polaroids (like on Ad Astra), it was more of a "Hmmm, maybe this will work..." process, and it usually resulted in far too much emulsion in assorted areas. I kind of suspected this after feeling the Fuji's emulsion when I tried it on the empty can of Diet Coke with Splenda, but even still, it's nice to confirm it.

B) The black and white emulsion is relatively the same as the color - it is completely transparent aside from where the dyes are. The black and white emulsion seems to work well for darker base colors. The picture is slightly more subtle on the GBA SP, but it is there and I think it looks pretty nice.

Once I finish EIP-0001, I'll post it on here - if it shows up on a picture well.

FINALLY the thrift stores are becoming my friends again!!!

I've had somewhat of a dry spell when it comes to finding stuff to slap emulsions onto lately. Not a whole lot has really jumped out at me like the Cabbage Patch Kid head or anything for the last couple of weeks...

THANKFULLY, over lunch today I returned to the Thrift store and found an odd translucent hollow bunny statuette wearing a clear blue vest. There's a little recepticle for a tiny light bulb (from what I can tell, probably nothing larger than that for a Christmas Tree) as well. It's not TOO big, but in all honesty, it fascinated me. First, I'm admitedly a manchild when it comes to bunnies. I'm not sure why, but I just love them. Alot. Second, this piece looked intriguing. The biggest problem I had with some of my more translucent pieces was lack of lumiescence. Look at "20 IF 10 = TRUE GOTO 30" - since it was mostly clear, it didn't show up through the glass as well. Now if I had a light to shine through the piece, it could be more impressive.

Anyways, I decided to grab it during lunch - I needed something new to finish up my tests on Fuji, and really, this sounds like the test for the rest of my film. I've already done it on something with a smooth contour (a Diet Coke with Splenda can), so this will be a chance to do something with a good amount of ... well, nooks, crannies, and the like. Also, its texture is slightly more rough than the can, so it will be a good chance to see how well the Fuji emulsion works with textures. I mean, I'm not 100% sure how it works with texture, but just from the scant work I've done with it thus far, I think it will more than suffice when it comes to the whole "taking on the texture of the receptor" deal.

anyways, I should crash. Take care.

Idea for another piece

Well, I've mulled this idea for a while - I'm thinking of making a new piece. I'll be taking the top shell of a Nintendo Entertainment System and covering it with representations of the Konami Code... As in by a drive through with two up arrows is for the up, up part. Etc. There are only a few problems I can think of with this.

From the prior works I've done, I could fit ~2 pictures lengthwise and ~4 pictures up and down leading to a total maximum of 8 pictures. This could be problematic, as a rough estimate if I use each direction as one picture, I would need 11 pictures, and if I grouped the ups and downs, I could cut that to 9. I think I may be able to go a little further - perhaps combine the B, A... Like in the beginning of "bank" or something?

I really need to get some more Fuji FP-100C. I think that this would work well with the FP-100C. I want to make sure it's color, and I'd like to start off my new prefix with a NES - Sort of fitting, I think. I do need to make a new prefix for the Fuji emulsion lifts - they're markedly different from the Polaroid emulsion lifts. Perhaps "EIP" - "Emulsion Instrumentality Project" fits this next evolution pretty well... That and I have a habit of naming things "* Instrumentality Project" - I can't help it, I'm a nerd.

My latest piece...

I just did this around 2 days ago. I decided to modify the Nintendo DS. I placed emulsion lifts onto the cover of it, and it seems to have worked well.

Recent Acquisitions

I just got these yesterday. On the right is the Brownie Star Flash Camera, manufactured from 1957 to 1965. It uses 127 film as well, so of course I can't quite use it, but again, it's in rather good condition and will look nice.

On the left is the Argus Instant Load 164. This camera I've been having a hard time digging up facts on, but I do know that it uses 127 film as well. Hence I'm not going to be using it often.

The whole camera bag cost me $3.

I also found a Polaroid 215 in a pretty nice case along with flashbulbs and a flash. The Polaroid is in great shape... The cover is in wonderful shape, the rollers looked well, and all in all, it is in great shape. Especially given the price of $3.00, this is probably one of the best buys to date.

Now check out the bulb - if ya look closely you can see the magnesium still in the bulb itself. Sure, there were just 4 bulbs in there, so I can't quite use them too often, but I must admit I'm curious as to how it all works.

Polaroid LandCamera 440

Here's the Polaroid LandCamera 440 that I picked up for $10 at another thrift store. It was manufactured from 1971-1976. As with the other Polaroids, it uses that 4.5 volt battery that's somewhat hard to come by.

While cosmeticly, it was in pretty good shape aside from a "Property of Duneland School District" plate, one could tell it was used by students. The contacts for the battery were rather crusty with corrosion, and the rollers didn't look like they've been cleaned once.

Emulsion Lifts

This is one of the 7 Emulsion Lifts I've done. I worked really hard on these - this is one of my favorites. I could go into working on emulsion lifts, but that's a bit involved. This piece is "Mossfungus" - sort of going into my thoughts about not being able to have kids.

This one has one of the longer titles I've used. "20 IF 10=TRUE GOTO 30"

This piece is titled "Obsolescence." I found the Disc camera at a thrift store.

This one, I found the cabbage patch kid head at a thrift store, and decided I wanted to make this piece as creepy and unsettling as I could. I think I succeeded.

This last one was difficult to make - it took me around 30ish hours to just lay the emulsions on. I titled this one "Ad Astra." The hard part was getting them to lay flat. Good news is that the polaroid emulsions are working out fairly well with being protected from UV. Ultraviolet light tends to fade emulsions really quickly.