Original Polaroids Available at The Last Temptation Thrift Store

Are you looking for affordable original art? I am currently selling some of my Polaroid 669 prints at The Last Temptation Thrift Store at 229 Bear Street in Banff. They are $10 each or two for $15, straight off the wall. If you can't make it to the shop you can view my work on Etsy or contact me via a comment below.

Polaroid Week - Day Three's Image PLUS a DIY Polaroid Framing Craft

Here is my third contribution to Polaroid Week. I decided yesterday that I wanted to photograph my little gem of a camera which is impossible without a mirror. So, I got out my vintage French Ivory hand held looking glass today and started experimenting. For anyone who has never tried to hold a Polaroid camera with one hand and take a picture, they may not understand why I feel triumphant about this blurry pic. Polaroid cameras as like clunky tanks, and they really need two hands. But, I like this a lot. And I dig the camera. It has the most amazing Polaroid sound. So loud. Not what we are used to with digital. Of all my Polaroid cameras this one is the loudest. On another note, I love that this image is capturing the moment right before the camera spit out the film.


Ok, I promised two DIY projects for framing your Polaroids this week. The first one will probably appeal best to Polaroid enthusiasts who like and own the little black packs that the film comes in. Back when Polaroid made film, they allowed people to mail these back so they could recycle them. I never did this and I now have over 200 of them for 669 film, and just a few of the square type 80 I am using here. I am happy to be able to reuse these as frames. I framed this image that I made especially for my friend, Kim. I made it this spring, when I passed the Mayberry store in Grindrod, British Columbia. It is a double exposure of the store and another store, covered in hubcaps, next door. Kim's last name is Mayberry. Since it was recently her birthday it was time to frame this image up and give it to her.

How to Frame Your Polaroid Image Using a Polaroid Film Pack
By Tiffany Teske


What You Will Need:
~ Empty Polaroid Film Pack
~ Polaroid
~ Picture Hanging Wire


This is the back of a Polaroid 669 pack.


Hold your film pack so the window is facing down. With your left hand, squeeze in the sides of the pack that have the window, and with your right hand remove the backside of the pack (I am right handed). Lift one side off first, then it will come apart easily. This is difficult to describe but easy to feel once you are doing it. It is not fragile so even if it feels like you might break it, you won't.


Now you will have three pieces.


Flip over the piece in the middle in the photo above (the solid piece). Lay your Polaroid on it. You can secure the image with photo tape on the back but it is not necessary.


Take the piece with the window and set it on top.


Put the third piece back on the pack in a reverse of how you took it off, one side then the other. Make sure it clicks together.


Take a length of picture wire that is appropriate for the frame size. Knot both ends. Pull up one of the tabs on the back side of the pack. Slide the knot in. Let the tab fall back into place and the knot will be secure. Do the same on the other side.


Ta-da!


You can put a business card in the back of the pack just secure it with some double sided tape.


I wrote a message on the frame with a silver paint pen. I packaged Kim's gift with recycled tissue paper, a take home food container, and recycle ribbon. Easy peasy and she was pleased as punch!

My Summer Vacation - Victoria Beach, Manitoba - Part One

Victoria Beach August 2009 Holgaroid Image by Tiffany Teske

The above image was shot a few days ago, as my family left the cottage we were staying in at Victoria Beach, Manitoba, on Lake Winnipeg. It is a unique and idyllic place where you must park in a lot and then walk or bike to your cottage. The only vehicles allowed past the gate are Victoria Beach taxis. It makes it a safe place for kids to run wild and experience that necessary freedom of childhood. And it makes everyone more physically fit. I was able to shoot several images of this rare place, both digitally, and with my favorite analog camera, my Holga, and will post them in coming days.

Mary Catherine - Shots Submission

Pardon the pun, but I always seem to get "shot down" by Shots Magazine. Here is the lastest image or collage of images that were not selected for the latest issue. I will keep on trying. It is such an excellent magazine. Check it out if you have not. Better yet, subscribe. These amazing small mags are disappearing one by one, we can't let that happen!!

Wedding Cake - Maine

Ok, so do any of you have more than one blog? Do you sometimes post to the wrong one? That is what just happened here. This was supposed to go on my other bloh, http://iheartpolaroid.blogspot.com. Whoops! But it is such a lovely image I am just going to leave it here... Another lovely image from my friend, Kiki's wedding, in Maine.
Image by Tiffany Teske

Roses Polaroid

I made this image on slide film at my friends' wedding in Wakefield, Quebec, about 4 years ago. I made them a Polaroid transfer collage of their wedding images. Today, I decided to photograph this slide onto Polaroid 669 film, and this is the result. I really like it a lot. It is really beautiful in person. Roses are not my favorite flower but I love how this is textured and dreamy at once, as well as the shade of red. I scanned it into my computer, to share it hear, and decided to do a bit of Photoshop work on it. I am always kind of stuck in between the analog, hands on way of making images, and the modern, technology based way of doing things. I guess it is a good way to respect and pay homage to the past while learning, evolving, and moving into the future, or in this case, at least the present. Which image do you like best? I love your comments...

Third Polaroid Collage

This is the last collage in this series, which tomorrow I will ship off to my lovely friends in Quebec, Kathy & Pam, for yet another installment of the Chelsea Erotica Show. I am bummed that Andre & I cannot be there on Valentine's Evening for some raunchy good fun. It really is an evening to remember...


Not much to say about this collage, since I have said it all in the first two posts here and here.


Oh, a quick note on the flower cut out on the outside of the glass. I did this because there is a scratch on the glass, and I believe in using what I have instead of wasting, so this fixes it. And I love it... but I am sure others may not. I always love to hear your views...

Second Polaroid Collage

I have a thing for ferns. And so I have been photographing them for a long time. I really love to encorporate them with nudes. Both are so lovely. This is the second in my series of Polaroid collages. I blogged about the first one here, and posted it on this site here. These are for a Valentine's Day Erotic Art Show in Chelsea, Quebec. I believe it is called "Swell" this year. I made a commitment to work with recycled materials in the summer of last year. These images are images that might just be thrown away in the process of making Polaroid transfers. Instead I have made them into interesting collages that I am actually hoping won't sell, so I can keep them... That is always good, to make something I love, not worry about making it sell.


In this collage, I cut off the borders of all but one Polaroid, and I played with the orientation of the images. No scalloped edges for this one, since I don't think it would be as nice with ferns as it was with the dreamy nudes. I welcome your thoughts!!

Polaroid Collage

I have been wanting to experiment with the hundreds, maybe pushing thousand+ Polaroid images I have. Many of them were the photo side of my 669 two part film, which I used the emulsion side of to make transfers. So, they are varying shades of color, contrast, and brightness, the perfect images to play with. It is also in keeping with my commitment to work using only recycled and thrifted materials.

I have been asked to submit work to the Chelsea Erotica Show for the third time. The first year I submitted frame Polaroid transfers, and the second year I made mixed media collages on canvas and in watchmakers cases as magnets. This year I am making these Polaroid collages.


I got to work composting, chopping, and gluing, and this is what I came up with... I have had these shadow box frames for a couple of years and wish I had more time to play around with them. I will have two left when I am done making what I need for the show, and I have vastly different plans for them. The glass that came with the frames has this frosting which matches the mats that came with them. It is kind of odd yet pleasing to put it back on top of the collage. Depending upon the angle that you view that from they change. And I think it makes you want to get up closer to discover more. What do you think? I welcome feedback...


Since the show is in Quebec, and since it opens on Valentine's Day, I need to make one or two more of these over the weekend and get them shipped in ASAP on Monday. I will post the others here when they are finished.