craftlog

I saw someone do a Polaroid transfer on Crafters Coast to Coast the other day. That show is seriously bad for me to watch. I found myself shopping for glass-fusing kilns the other night. Anyway, back to Polaroid transfers, it looked so easy on the show. All she did was peel the sheet off too soon, then let the emulsion or whatever soften over steam for a few minutes before slapping it down on some paper. Yeah, yeah, you need a specific type of camera and film. Well, my i-zone camera says Polaroid on it, and, oh yeah, here’s a packet of expired sticker film. Great.

So, it’s no surprise that I couldn’t get this to work. Maybe there is a way to do it, but it seems to be unknown to Google. I tried a few things. Most variations shared the first few steps: take the picture, let it develop (or not, tried that too), cut the edges off, and let sit in warm water until the layers soften up.

i-zone film seems to be made up of at least 3 layers. They will be stuck to each other in different ways depending on whether the picture is developed or not. There is a backing layer, an emulsion or something layer, and a thin plastic/acetate layer. Right when you take the picture, the emulsion layer seems to be stuck to the back. If you cut the edges off, you can easily pull the acetate away. The emulsion won’t come off unless you douse it in hot water. More to the point, no picture develops. If you let the picture develop before cutting the edges off, the emulsion seems to stick to the acetate. It requires soaking to get the layers apart. The emulsion layer is fragile. You can rub it off really easily. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get it to stick to anything. I would smoosh it on the paper, and then try to peel the acetate off, only to get an icky gray mess. I wrecked four or five pictures and gave up.

If you happen to know of a way to get i-zone film to transfer, please email me.