Impossible Project PX100 test film, box stamped 11*11, found tucked in my instant film box.

Impossible Project PX100 Silver Shade test film, box stamped 11*11, found tucked in my instant film box. I need to check that sucker more often.

You can see two more plum photos over here at Lytro.

Impossible Project’s PX 70 Color Shade Pioneer Edition Beta test film, Polaroid XS 70

Top row: 08/2010, PX 70 Color Shade, First Flush, Polaroid SX 70.
Middle row: 03/2011, PX 680 Color Shade ß-1 test film, Polaroid 680 SLR.
Bottom row: 02/2012, PX 70 Color Shade Pioneer Edition Beta test film, Polaroid XS 70.

Not to be melodramatic, but my heart broke just a little with Polaroid’s announcement that they were ceasing production of their instant film back in 2008. I stockpiled as much of the 600 film as I could afford. It was a crazy times. Rumours abounded with where and for how much and the internet would descend, or at least the passionate few who saw the end times of instant film. I still have a few packs of 600 left. Would it be too weird to be buried with one? I’ll have to note that in my will.

From there, everyone seemed to take great pleasure in telling me that they weren’t going to be making “that” film anymore. Even this gentleman:

Me: “May i take your photo?”
Mim: “Sure….. You know, they’re not going to make film for that camera anymore.”

Well, he and everyone else was wrong. The Impossible Project picked up the torch and ran with it. Here’s Anne’s photo of “The lovely men of the factory”, and a few more of where the current film is being made taken last week.

The latest colour film (bottom row) for the SX 70 is simply gorgeous. You should definitely hang onto that Polaroid 600, SX 70 or Spectra camera. Then again, if you don’t want it, you can send it to me.

A glimpse of my 2012 365 tarot project. Otherwise, I’ve started to collect decks. If you happen to have a Victorian Romantic Tarot just laying around, I’d be happy to take it off your hands. ($250+ on ebay!)

Valentine’s Day has become so loaded with crazy that I decided last year to pull it back and make it more meaningful for me. I created a small edition of “smitten” cards and mailed them to women who had inspired me over the previous year. I’m working another smitten project for this year, though I’m a wee bit behind. I’ll share the results of my labour.

My challenge to you: it’s never too late to celebrate the women who inspire you. Buy (or craft) a few cards and make their day.

Silver metallic “starburst” with magenta and red type. I <3 Gocco.

Just popped my last pack of Polaroid Viva into the Zip. A gift from the ever fabulous Anne Bowermann, I’m taking the time to smell the chemistry of each photo. If it wasn’t so caustic, I’d dap in on my pulse points. There’s nothing like the aroma of Polaroid peel apart film.

For someone who used to almost break out in hives if I didn’t update my site daily, I’m not sure how it came to be that four months has passed since I last posted here on hchamp.com. It’s not like I haven’t been sharing bits and pieces. I upload photos to Flickr almost daily, blethered on Twitter with some regularity and most recently have fallen in love with Path. But the place that used to be my heart and soul online? Nada. It used to be that our home pages were the one place we had to express ourselves. Now, we’re torn hither and yon across the internet.

I do want to do a better job at documenting some of the projects that I’ve been working on. We’ll see how that works on.

• I’ve completed two more Roktho inspired Plant Pockets. On the left, Black on Grey, 1970. Half black and half grey? That was almost a gimme. Blackish Green Tone on Blue, 1957 (the link is a crappy reproduction, but will give you an idea) was a wee bit more difficult. I’m still trying to figure out how to render the image. Do I want to try and include the top bottom and sides of the painting, or simply reduce it to the bars of colour? On the right, you can see that I included the blue surround of the painting in the ties and stitches. While it might be somewhat more “correct”, it just looks messy to me. As with the pocket creation itself, I’ll work through a few more versions until I settle on what pleases me the most. It will be interesting to see how they all look when planted. I should find a place to hang them with small gallery information tags.

• Tonight’s the last of three crochet classes at Imagiknit in the Castro. While YouTube videos have been fabulous in filling in missing bits for my knitting, I couldn’t get the hang of crochet. I was somewhat worried that my left-handedness would prove to be my undoing, but the small class size and Judy, our fabulous instructor, has made the experience both rewarding and enjoyable. We’re making granny squares tonight, so please prepare yourself for granny squared round rocks at some point in the not too distant future.

• Derek and I published our Plant Pillow instructions over on Instructables and they were a featured project yesterday. Woot!

• I contributed to the Jocyln Museum’s Yarn Bomb Family Fun day. If I’m not mistaken, that’s my pink bit (herm, that doesn’t sound right) in the 2nd photo top left in the middle of the tree. I’m somewhat disappointed with the number of photos shared of the event, not to mention the fact that I’m linking to FB. I’d love to see more. People, document your events profusely and then over share (esp. if you’re asking for contributions). Everyone will want to see theirs.