Re: eggs for albumen printing
At one time, Jason Miguel of the now-defunct Contact Printers Guild made
albumen paper for sale on eBay. In his auction copy, he went through the
steps of making albumen paper, and in doing that, he said he didn't use
free-range eggs, but ordinary supermarket eggs. For some reason, that
point stuck with me.
You can probably contact him at :
http://www.jasonmiguel.com/
This issue reminded of a show on PBS I once saw, in which very old
harpsichords -- classic instruments-- were taken apart by scientists to
learn what gave the instruments their classic tone. The scientists learned
that many times, the wood used was the equivalent of today's orange crates.
Marco
----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Bryant" <dsbryant@bellsouth.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:22 PM
Subject: RE: eggs for albumen printing/ was "Apis or not Apis)
Judy,
The claim about "free range" is a joke, right?
but in 2002-3, printers agreed that powdered was fine, and the words "free
range" were unmentioned.
But this is another joke... right?
No.
My question to Ms. Zimmerman was serious as I thought her answer was, even
though there were quite a few giggles and quips from the audience. If her
answer wasn't made in jest then she uses eggs laid by free range chickens.
She lives out in Taos and I can see where she could have enough room to
raise her own chickens with a steady egg supply except during the winter
when production will naturally decrease. Perhaps she was being polite and
humoring me. And by winter she probably has a nice stockpile of albumen
salted away.
I don't eat store bought eggs whole or dry. I have no evidence to the
contrary but it just seems to me using a product with all natural
ingredients would be better for albumen coating rather than eggs produced
by
chickens that receive hormones in their feed to make them lay eggs.
Free range eggs taste better, cook better, look better, have thicker
shells,
and have a greater economic value to their producers (not the chickens of
course.) Our local Korean, Chinese, and Russian communities prize free
range
eggs and are willing to pay a premium price for them.
Local jurisdictions all over the country have had to enact new laws to
prevent city dwellers from raising their own fowl. This is in part due to
growing ethnic populations that prefer their own chicken and eggs than
what
one can purchase through grocers.
I don't know if you eat chicken Judy but free range chickens have much
better flavor and texture. Same for other fowl, even quail. Just ask any
black snake, raccoon, fox, or opossum, they all prefer free range eggs!
Perhaps albumen made from quail eggs would work better than chicken
albumen.
But I confess, I'm not an albumen printer so my thinking is just
conjecture.
Don