This is an art project ten years in the making. I first heard of Polaroid lifts and transfers when I was a senior in the Waterford photography program in 1997. They sounded like a great project, but I was at a loss as to how to do them.

Over the past few years I’ve been slowly gaining more knowledge and equipment to do this alternative photography art form, the culmination of which came in the Christmas ornaments I made this year for my family.

While there are several ways to get the polaroid exposed, my most recent process (as of just this fall) involves getting a digital photo file printed as a slide. I then take the slide and print it onto polaroid 669 film using my vivitar slide printer. From there it’s a simple process of “lifting” the emulsion from the paper backing of the print.

This year I took a photograph that I made of the temple several years ago, and “lifted” it onto Ostrich eggs–real eggs that I bought off e-bay. I then manipulated each photo, each one being unique in it’s wrinkles and tears and stretches. After they dried, I sprayed them with a matte acrylic sealer, and hung them with ball ornament hangers and strung them with black ribbon.

My lovely friend, Emily Elmer, gave me one of the best gifts this year . . . she got into a recording studio and recorded a CD of her songs that she writes. She’s very talented. My favorite (this is just plain vanity-let’s be honest) is the one about me. It’s called Lemony Princess.

You can download and listen to it by clicking here: Lemony Princess.

Now, I feel compelled to explain the lyrics.

I know a girl who lives in a Lemon
And every night they go sailing away in the stars – I made a “Lemon Galleon” once . . . a paper mache lemon a little bigger than a basketball, with a lovely ship that hung below, and the whole thing was strung up to the cieling. I’ve actually re-created this art project for this christmas (what a coincidence), so if you keep checking back over the next few days, I’ll have pictures. The original lemon galleon probably got thrown away in a move or something. One of those things about me . . . I’m never very attached to my art projects, and they always get thrown away or given away eventually.
Outside her window she hangs her pet goldfish
She sings him to sleep with all of her primary songs One summer I hung my pet goldfish in the tree that lived outside my second story bedroom window. I don’t know why, I just liked the idea of having a fish that lived in a tree.
She is the princess of her very own universe
And she never gets lost in it ’cause she wears the map on her finger. I’m not just the princess of my universe, I’m the princess of the universe (but since Olivia was born, I’ve been upgraded to Queen.) Also, my dear brother Larry gave me a ring that he made once. People always comment on it . . . it doesn’t look like any ring they’ve ever seen before. And I tell them it’s my map of the universe. You’d have to see it to understand why. I still wear that ring all the time.

Chorus:
She is my friend
She knows the secrets that make the world spin
And one night she solemnly told me
Love is what matters most in the world
Only Love
In the world
Only Love
After all

Her house is lit up with homemade “Care”lanters One summer I painted ”Kerr” jars(I pronounce it ”Care” because it sounds cool that way)  with transparent irredescent watercolors in Van Gogh esque designs, and the put tea candles in them and lit up my house and yard.
And butterfly wings make the stains of the glass in the window One summer I caught butterflies, and after killing and pinning them, I would take off the wings and glaze them with a matte modge-podge. Doing this would turn the wings transparent . . . like stained glass. Excellent for all of your stain glass needs. (Doll houses, fairy wings, etc.)
She says that the stars are like saphires diamonds
guilding the summers blue velvet evening cloak
And sometimes she writes jibberish in her own made up language In junior high I made up a language to write secret letters to my friends in. No one ever caught on, and the language was never used by anyone but me. But I still use it when I need to write secret notes to myself (I used it just two days ago for a christmas list . . . it’s good for keeping secrets and making Wyatt mad! )
And sometimes she even wears two matching right side out socks. Matching socks (shake my head) is just one detail I cannot bear to bring myself to care about. And no matter what happens (I don’t know how this happens) it always turns out that one sock is right side out and one sock is inside out.

Chorus

I know a girl who lives in a lemon
Every night they go sailing away in the stars

I like this song so much because it brings back funny memories. It also makes me sound cooler than I really am. It’s nice to be thought of sometimes not as your really are, but instead as the sum of all your good parts, without any of the bad being mentioned.

Thank you Emily for this wonderful Christmas gift. I love it, and I love you!

We wish you all a very merry Christmas, and hope that your holiday is filled with love and joy.

Love,

The Christensen Family
Wyatt & Andrea, Olivia & Calvin