Emulsion Lifts

I've been having a bit of a play with emulsion lifts recently.  As with so many processes there are conflicting bits of advice and/or opinions out there, but it's actually pretty simple.  I'll write it all up for the Handbook but first I'll try and give an overview of what I actually tried and what worked - and what didn't!

Overview: What is an emulsion lift?

An early experiment with Fuji FP100-C. crinkly edges are optional!

'Peel-apart' instant films such as Polaroid, Impossible Project and Fuji consist of a negative* sheet, a sachet of chemistry and a receptor sheet. One the negative has been exposed, pulling it out of the film pack spreads the chemistry over the surface, which is in contact with the receptor sheet. The image is formed as a thin, plastic-like emulsion which sticks to the receptor sheet and makes the print.  If you take the finished instant print and put it into very hot water, the emulsion layer will lift off. It can then be re-attached to another substrate. The image can be distorted or wrinkled in the process, or a textured, coloured or reflective substrate can be used, altering the appearance.
*The negative can be post-processed and used too!  See below.

You will need:
A small heatproof tray or dish to hold water at a temperature of 100C or so (so NOT a plastic developing dish! - A small Pyrex dish or other ovenproof cookery container is ideal.

A clean soft bristled paintbrush.
tweezers (metal)

A kettle full of water

Scissors

Substrate material. This can be almost anything. I used different art papers for my experiments but try whatever you have around.

PVA glue or 'Gel Medium'. - Technically this is optional but it depends on your substrate. PVA is standard white glue sold in art shops, builders merchants etc. Gel Medium is more specific, being used as a modifier for acrylic paints. 'Liquitex" is the brand I've been recommended. It comes in gloss, matt or semigloss types. (more on this later.)

A source of instant film images. I have built a couple of Polaroid backs for my 5x4 Wista and my quarter plate Thornton Pickard, but you can use a back for a college medium format camera or buy a cheap old Polaroid on Ebay (NB: you need one which will take TYPE 100 size film and you shouldn't have to spend more than £10). The last option is to buy a 'Daylab' instant film slide copier which allows you to copy transparencies and allows you to make editions of prints, but you need to make the 35mm slides first).

Method:
Shoot the instant film and allow it to develop fully. Peel it apart and set the negative aside to dry, preferably in the dark.  Let the print dry fully: You may get better results if you leave it alone for an hour or so. There doesn't seem to be any upper time limit. I've made it work with prints which were years old!

Take the print and carefully trim off the white borders with scissors. This is important as it exposes the emulsion edges for the next stage.

Fill the heatproof dish with boiling water to a depth of an inch or so. (at this point I'm sure I'm supposed to put in a Health and Safety Warning on handling boiling water but if you can be trusted to make a cup of tea unscathed you'll be fine;-)
Immerse the print in the water and keep it under with the tip of the paintbrush until it stays submerged.

Now prepare your substrate. I tried a variety of art papers. The most successful was a lightly textured watercolour paper such as 80lb Somerset (available in the UCA art shop)  the worst was Daler-Rowney cartridge paper;- unsurprising as it's less resistant to getting wet.  Start with something like paper and then progress to more difficult substrates like metal or glass once you've mastered the technique. Lay a suitable piece of substrate on a clean, flat surface.  You can mark your target area with light pencil dots at the corners. Prepare some gel medium or a small container of PVA mixed 50/50 with water.

Check on your print. After a minute or three you will see the emulsion at the edges starting to separate and 'frill'. help it lift by gently running the paintbrush between it and the print surface. Pretty soon the whole image will come off the print and float around the dish like a scrap of coloured seaweed. If you can, catch it again on the print as it's easier to handle that way. Hold the print in the tweezers so you don't scald your fingers and persuade the emulsion back onto it. Don't worry about wrinkles etc.

Now you're ready to transfer the emulsion. Using the paintbrush, coat the target area with a thin film of PVA or gel medium (some people recycle the glue off the print and it does work, but it's more difficult).
The glue will start to dry immediately so you need to work fast. The technique is simple: slide the emulsion off the print and onto the new substrate. spread it out with the paintbrush (or even your fingers) and coat the top surface with more glue. Wrinkles and rough edges are generally what people want from the process so experiment with how they look. The one thing you don't want is air bubbles as this means the emulsion is not adhering properly. Work any air bubbles out by smoothing from the centre outwards.  The emulsion will stick either way up so ensure your image is the right way around. (see the note below though!).

I used some old genuine Polaroid material for my first tests. Dark images were quite robust: The emulsion was almost like a piece of clingfilm. Lighter pictures however were very, very flimsy and some disintegrated in the water. This may well have been due to the age of the film though. I have not tried Impossible Project film at this stage but it's reportedly rather thin and fragile.   Fuji FP-100C however is terrific! Really strong and easy to work with, BUT the emulsion tends to curl down at the edges a lot. This makes spreading it out on the substrate difficult as the rolled edge is on the underside. If you don't mind reversing your image, flip the emulsion over and it's then easy to spread it out.

Allow the image to dry slowly. If parts peel away when dry, reattach them with a small amount of glue.

As the image area is so small (interestingly, the size is the same as the old nineteenth century 'quarter plate' size)  simple, graphic images or portraits work best. However, being direct camera images the level of detail is very high indeed.

* If you treat the negative with household bleach to remove the black backing it can be reclaimed and scanned. I'll put more details in the manual but for now see: http://new55project.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/blog-post_6525.html

I'll post some more images here soon...