Psychedelic

Last year when browsing for inspiration I learnt of film soup, a groovy way of adjusting your film photographs using household chemicals or appliances. After you've shot your roll of film and it's safely back in it's cassette, you can dunk it in a 'soup' adding anything from your cupboards for all kinds of effects, or you can even put it for a spin through your dishwasher or washing machine! If you Google 'film soup' you can see all kinds of effects people have created on their film photographs.

I was eager to give it a try. I'd previously taken some photographs of Skegness beach using my 1962 Yashica, and was looking forward to the effect my old camera would apply to this seaside resort that hasn't changed much over the last 50 years. I imagined they might look like photographs from decades past, trapped in time. As I don't live very far away from Skegness I wasn't worried about loosing these photos as I can retake them at any time, so they felt perfect to experiment with!

I boiled a saucepan full of water, adding fresh lemon juice and about 1 tablespoon of washing 'Oxy' detergent powder and dropped in my film, leaving it for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, I rinsed it in cold water and then put it in a bag of rice for about 6 months because I forgot about it! It should only need a few days in the rice to dry out.

It's a good job I didn't care about the photographs, as I ended up totally 'ruining' them! Only one came out with any hint of the original exposure, I'm not sure what I did to overdo it so much but I actually really like the effect!* It looks very psychedelic, they make me think of space and the surfaces of the planets, I can imagine them being projected over Pink Floyd in their early performances. I'm going to use some of them incorporated into my artwork and scrapbooking, and even pin some to the wall for a groovy display. I love looking at all of the different colours and textures created.

* Edited to add: I remembered I actually dropped my camera after taking the first photograph, so it's possible I broke it and that's partially responsible for these images! Oops! Don't try that bit!

Lots of red and 45s

It's been far too long since I did a thrifty finds post, so I thought I'd rectify that and show you some things I've bought recently. I've been especially lucky lately, particularly today!



Friday I had a random urge to go visit my favourite antique store which is a few towns over so I only go a few times per year. I've mentioned it here before, it has a wonderful selection of '60s and '70s clothing and homewares, and is one of the very few brick and mortar stores that sells records near me. I had things to do though so thought I'd just visit whenever I could at some point, but over the weekend I couldn't shake the feeling I should go soon so I popped across today. And I had the most amazing luck with 45s I've ever had! I always enjoy checking the records in this store as because it's not a dedicated record store the prices are really incredibly reasonable, usually just £1 each. I began flicking through the box of 45s just because I was waiting for a man to be done looking through the LP box when I noticed the very first 45 was Curly by The Move. The Move are one of my favourites and it's incredibly rare for me to find anything of them so you can imagine how excited I was (especially as I found their greatest hits LP too!). I continued flicking through the 45s and couldn't believe my eyes. The Kinks, The Animals, a whole stack of Queen and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, a Marianne Faithfull EP, before I knew it I had a pile of 26 sitting next to me. They even had 45s by Ringo and Roger Taylor for goodness sake, that never happens! (I already owned those particular 45s but I bought them anyway just out of excitement!) I didn't have much luck with the LPs which was disappointing as I definitely prefer my LPs, but I hardly have any right to complain! The store owner was even kind enough to give me a discount because I bought so many. Definitely worth braving the snow and freezing my fingers off for!



I've also recently acquired these two jackets. The one on the right was discovered hiding on the rails of a charity shop and I've tracked it down as being from a boutique from the '80s (in case the massive shoulder pads weren't enough of a giveaway!). It's a bit different from my usual style, but I used to really be into the whole '80s thing so I can make it work, and I think it'd even look good thrown over my '60s clothes. I love the collar and military style and it fits very nicely. The one on the left was purchased today from the same antique store I bought all of the records from. I've loved these types of jackets for ages and have admired similar ones on Etsy so knew I had to treat myself when I saw it. It's wonderfully heavy and warm with it being made of layers of velvet. The design reminds me of traditional Romany patterns which makes me love it all the more, and it's my favourite colour - red!