Polaroid Emulsion Lift

Video Tutorial: Polaroid Emulsion Lift

Have you ever wondered how to make your own Polaroid Emulsion Lifts at home? Well, this tutorial is meant for you! MOLAA recently held a workshop based on this art technique, led by MOLAA's very own Museum Educator, Leslie Jimenez. Due to its popularity, we also wanted to share the tutorial with all of you!

Here are the materials you'll need: - Polaroid Camera with 600 film. (This technique does not work with Fuji Instax film) - Watercolor Paper - Scissors - Paintbrush - Hot water in a container

Here are the steps you'll take to do your very own Emulsion Lift at Home:

Step One: Frame your subject with your Polaroid camera, loaded with 600 film, and take your photo.

Step Two: Once your image has developed (3-5 minutes), use scissors to remove the white border around your image.

Step Three: Peel the backing off your image. Sometimes the Emulsion sticks to the back, and sometimes to the plastic front piece. Either is okay and won't harm your emulsion lift. In this video, it sticks to the front protective plastic.

Step Four: Place your image into the hot water.

Step Five: Gently use your paintbrush to remove it from the front plastic piece.

Step Six: Once the Emulsion is free from the backing or plastic, straighten the image with your brush and slide the watercolor paper underneath the image as it sits in the water. This might stir up the emulsion and twist your image around. That's okay; you can gently reorient the image with your paintbrush.

Step Seven: Using your paintbrush or finger to hold the image in place, slowly pull the paper and emulsion from the water at an angle.

Step Eight: Let the paper and emulsion dry! Once dry, you can cut the paper down to the size or into any shape you like!