Tag Archive for ‘polaroid’ at Inspiration Junkie robayre.com

Tag Archive for 'polaroid'

Birthday Presents - Fuji Instax 210

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on October 5, 2011

in Fun, General Update, My Artwork and life

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For my birthday I got some AWESOME presents. For real awesome, not just “yay, socks and underwear” awesome. I’ll have to post a couple separate posts to share. My brother and sister in law got me the Fuji Film Instax 210. I’ve been wanting one of these forever, but could never justify spending that much.

People, it.is.so.awesome! It’s an instant camera, much like the beloved old days of Polaroid instant. The only (itty bitty) downfall (for me) is that the pictures are rectangular, where my heart really lies in the square format. Thinking about that, it’s kind of funny because in art school we were always ushered away from using a square format because it is harder to create balanced compositions, but I’m a rebel. Back to the camera, did I mention it’s awesome? Because it is. It comes with a lens to take close up pictures. What I would have done for one of those on my old polaroids (shaking fists towards the sky). If you are unfamiliar with instant fuji film, they also have pull apart films that I use on my Polaroid Colorpack II Landcamera. They have a second smaller Instax camera that comes in white and takes itty bitty baby instant pictures. I preferred the larger just because I already have my Polaroid Pogo Printer, which prints tiny digital pictures from your camera or phone.

When Polaroid announced that they would no longer be producing instant film I went into hoarding mode. Sadly, I still have packs left because I was afraid to use them all up, but the film is going bad because they are all REALLY expired. I realized with this new camera, only 2 pictures in, and I’m already being waaaaay to cautious about using the film. I need to lighten and loosen up and have some fun. I need to take pictures and enjoy my birthday present.

Instant film aside, I realized the other day that it was a good thing that I’d fallen in love with instagram and taking pictures with my iphone because since we moved I couldn’t find our battery charger. If it weren’t for camera phones, no pictures would be taken during this time. A few weeks ago I broke down and just bought regular batteries at the store to tide me over. Next thing ya know, Matt uses them, AND the batteries from my camera, to put into his wii-motes. Yesterday after hunting (for what felt like hours hours) through boxes of storage in the basement I finally had a meltdown. That was all it took for Matt to go to the basement and 10 minutes later return with the battery charger, sigh. Well, now I can take pictures AND Matt can have friends over to play Super Smash Bros.

Antique Shopping and Penny Rug

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robayre

on April 19, 2011

in Cool Links, Fun, General Update, Projects, fiber and life

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My sister-in-law Dacia and I love garage sale, estate sale and thrift store shopping. A couple weeks ago we visited a local-ish antique shop called Josie’s. A coworker had tipped me off about this antique shop located on an old farm off of historic route 38 (the lincoln hwy.), about 10 minutes away from where we live. Although my coworker told me about all the various farm buildings full of antiques, we were still blown away by room after room in building after building full of antiques. We were there for 3 hours roughly and could have easily spent more time, but Dacia had to get to an appointment.

Immediately upon arriving I had to take out my iphone and take pictures of some of the amazing goodies that were there and others that would have to come home with me.

You can see it really was a working farm with chickens and miniature horses, sheep and even peacocks.

This Polaroid Landcamera in it’s lovely leather case, as well as one of these wooden bowls came home with me.

When I saw this little piece that was marked “penny rug” I was immediately drawn in. I had never heard of it before, but right away it reminded me of my yoyos and I knew that I’d have to take a crack at this craft myself.

I found these tutorials online

a storybook life

penny rugs and more

As simple as it looks, it was a lot more time consuming than one of my yoyo sets. I wanted my circles to be irregular and organic. I handcut each circle free hand, no templates. I basically spent ALL DAY Sunday making this below:

and here is the same thing with a white background

I still need to attach it to the background and was trying to decide, white or black. Unlike the dark more earthy colors that I’ve seen of penny rugs online, my initial inspiration was this photograph by Sandra Juto of granny squares on a white floor. I liked the white background of the floor, white edges of the squares and bursts of color in the center. But, according to comments on flickr, people like the darker background because it makes the pieces pop out, which is completely understandable.

I love how this came out, and can see myself working on these just as often as making yoyos. Busy work, perfect for doing while watching netflix with my honey. I plan on framing the one above, similar to my yoyo pieces. Once it is complete, I’ll return with another picture.

Mailart Dump

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robayre

on March 11, 2011

in Mail Art

. 4 Comments

Here is this week’s mailart postcards for the 365mailart project. The first four are using the stamp I carved last month. The text that goes with each postcard is the list that I wrote on the back.

I used the handcarved stamp I made of the Polaroid Camera for this series. Card #6- Compliments I receive

#7 - Skills I Have

#9 - Mythical Creatures That Should Be Real

#10 - Cities I’ve been to

This is actually a postcard I made years ago, but I never sent it until now.
This is card #8 and the list is “Things I would save if my house was on fire”

postcard # 11, the backside has 10 Things I Like to Shop For

This is postcard #12 and the backside lists the pets I’ve had.

And I’m off! Heading to the city (chicago) to visit a friend. I’m so late already. Have a good weekend :)

Day 26 - Polaroid Stamp

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robayre

on February 26, 2011

in General Update

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Hello everyone. My name is Robyn, and I’m stamp making addict.

Who knew, when I began this month that I would become obsessed with hand carved stamps. I lay my head down on the pillow at night and all I can think of is new stamp ideas. And that is precisely where the idea for this one came. I have a huge collection of Polaroid cameras. Well, I guess huge is a relative term, I have about 15, give or take a few. I went through them all, searching for the perfect inspiration of what a Polaroid camera “looks like” and chose this one, as well, as another that had the rainbow stripe down the front, so I blended the two together.

I love perusing all the handcarved stamps on flickr, here is a little collection I made from other artists. If you click on the picture, it will take you to the post where you can find the links to each artist.

Day 9 - Me in my studio

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robayre

on February 9, 2011

in General Update

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Day 9 - Me in my studio, originally uploaded by robayre.

Thing-a-Day Day 9 - A while ago I read a suggestion of using a picture of yourself in your work space, as a picture space on your Etsy listings. I thought it was such a brilliant idea. Tonight I had Matt take this polaroid of me. It’s just one little corner of my studio.

This probably won’t be the final or official picture. I think I’d like to take some with natural daylight coming in the room.

‘Roid Week 2010

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robayre

on May 10, 2010

in Artists, Cool Links and General Update

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Untitled, 2. sail her, don’t sink her, 3. seedy motel, 4. 127/365 2010, 5. Any requests?, 6. logs, 7. Route 66 California, 8. waiting, 9. Daydream

‘Roid Week 2010 is over, but that doesn’t mean the beauty is gone. Please check out the many, many pages of participating pictures over at Flickr. I made the above collection using FDs flickr tools with pictures from the group.

Day Four - ‘Roid Week 2010

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robayre

on May 6, 2010

in Cool Links, General Update and My Artwork

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Here’s a polaroid izone picture of my yoyo quilt. This picture is probably from ‘98 or ‘99. Remember izone? I still mourn the end of izone. I remember a picture my friend Nicole D. and I took and stuck on the toll booth leaving town. Remember “change” toll booths in Illinois? Those are all but gone too. Times change.

I love Polaroid, and that means ALL Polaroid products. In other words, I am a sucker for a Polaroid gimmick. This has led me, time and time again, to be disappointed when they’ve discontinued products…until at last the FINAL discontinuation of ALL instant photos. That is, but one last gimmick, and I’ve used this blog as a stage to plug it over and over. POLAROID POGO! Take pictures with any digital picture, carry your portable pogo printer with you and print little Polaroid pictures on the go. Here you can read a previous post all about how it works.

Here is a Polaroid Pogo print and the original file from which it was printed. If you click on the images it will take you to their flickr pages so you can see them larger. Each pogo also can double as a sticker, if you peel off the release paper on the back. I love my printer and of course I think everyone should get one. I think they were even going to carry a printer and camera in one, so you can take the pictures on the digital Polaroid and print them straight from the camera, but I haven’t seen any of them out there yet.

edit: I forgot to mention I also offer mounted Polaroid Pogo prints in my Etsy shop, check them out here.

Day Three - ‘Roid Week 2010

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robayre

on May 5, 2010

in General Update

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Here is a self portrait I must have taken, circa 2000.

Recently, searching through stacks of old college artwork, I found these books I made for a project in lithography. I did a series of stone litho prints of self portraits based on polaroids I had taken.

Each one of these pieces was then attached to a thick black paper, like old photo albums had, and then handmade into a book. You can see the top center piece is not exactly the same, but must have been based on a picture from the same pack of film.

I thought I had shared these on my blog here when I recently discovered them, but looking back I don’t see them. Here is another print based on Polaroid, probably 2001? This is an intaglio piece, (etching onto a metal plate and then printed onto paper).

Welcome March!

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robayre

on March 1, 2010

in General Update, My Artwork, etsy and shop update

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The countdown to spring is on! 19 days left. If the rest of those 19 days are as nice as today was, this should be a breeze. The snow was all melty and I was able to drive around with my window rolled down half way.

Today was one of my days where I have to go in to work at 2 a.m. so I had the daylight to myself. I got a lot done. Grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc., etc. I also finally got around to listing the rings I made last month for Thing-a-Day.

The circle Paper Wrapped Spiral Stratum Rings are a new offering for my shop. I love the pendants that I make like this so much that I had to make some as rings as well. Dare I say, these rings are even more beautiful than the pendants?

Other rings that have been added are more collage based, similar to other rings that have been in my shop previously. I love this abstract piece above. It is very much like something I could see myself wearing all the time.

Here is a ring dedicated to my love of Polaroid. When I was in college I used to incorporate a lot of the polaroid shape into my artwork, printmaking primarily. This was about 10 years ago now and before Polaroid was becoming extinct, so I don’t think my teacher understood or appreciated it very much. It warms my heart now to see the Polaroid image in so much artwork nowadays. Each time I see it, it’s like me sticking out my tongue and giving a big raspberry to that teacher and saying “See, other people get it, why couldn’t you?”

And finally, here is the last ring. Picture it as a whisper of the spring to come. It looks like the underside of a leaf, but it’s actually a real leaf skeleton, with a green cardstock paper visible from behind, all encased and preserved in resin.

Polaroid Week: The Conclusion

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robayre

on November 6, 2009

in General Update, Projects and life

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It is Friday and that means today’s are the final pictures for Polaroid Week.

Once again trying to keep this week’s pictures relevant I decided to do portraits. This is my brother (who wishes to be known only as “Alfonso” or was it “Alfonse”?) and my Sister-in-law (who shall remain nameless, not because she requested but just because it’s fun). The relevance is that they are expecting their first child. They are so thrilled and the rest of the family and I are SO excited. I had the idea to document them in this manner, in this turning point of their life. They are right on the verge between being married and being married with children.

I set up a tripod and had them stand in the exact same spot so the height is consistent. They looked at each other off camera and it worked out perfectly. I kind of like to imagine the pictures framed as it is above.

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