[alt-photo] Re: casein

[Peter Blackburn]

Hi Christina and all:
 
Yes, I do casein quite a bit—much of the time, fact and LOVE IT. It has quite a few advantages over gum with shorter printing times being one. And since I use the sun, I can work in casein on somewhat cloudy days—days which would create havoc with gum. It can be blotted dry after processing with a towel unlike gum which would smear or worse! My casein is pure white which makes it a bit easier to see and evaluate hue and density during the mixing stage. Casein is a little more fluid allowing for the use of brushes usually reserved for inks and dyes. There are a few more advantages which would take a bit of time to explain. Yes, casein is quite underrated in my opinion. Casein had been used in primitive painting in ages past. Why gum had about a fifty-year head start over casein for dichromate printing is a mystery to me. However, I make my casein fresh directly from cheese which I think makes ALL the difference in the world. Someday I will get this down in publication.
 
Hope you are doing well, Christina, in all of your extensive traveling and teaching. You seem quite busy these days.
 
Cheers to all!

 
Peter J. Blackburn
 
 
> From: zphoto at montana.net
> Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 09:43:44 -0700
> To: alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org
> Subject: [alt-photo] Re: casein
> 
> Keith!
> Thanks for the info!
> 
> One casein printer said it was half the gum printing time...
> 
> Christina Z. Anderson
> christinaZanderson.com
> 
> On Feb 25, 2011, at 9:35 AM, Keith Gerling wrote:
> 
> > I've used the Kremer product and it is cheap and easy. I have not used it a
> > LOT, because I really did not see much advantage of casein over gum, but
> > then I admit that I only used it on wood panels, so the "test" was hardly
> > extensive. The results that I got were very interesting and I can certainly
> > promise that I will get back to it in the future when it warms up and I can
> > haul my lazy self out to Menards for more wood. At the moment I am printing
> > tons of cyanotypes on Masa. Casein on masa? That sounds like frustration
> > in the making...
> > 
> > But while we are on the subject, maybe I can ask a couple of questions of
> > anybody that has worked with casein. I believe Loris mentioned that the
> > exposure is less than with gum. Is that the case? How much less? Loris??
> > Any comment? In my case, I cut the exposure back by 20% and the prints
> > still needed some heavy brushing/rubbing/spraying to clear. The emulsion
> > was rather opaque compared to gum, and the print was rather similar to a
> > temperaprint. Had the print been on paper, I doubt it would have survived.
> > So maybe i need to cut the exposure waaaaay back.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 10:11 AM, Christina Anderson <zphoto at montana.net>wrote:
> > 
> >> Yup--did...Lukas seems to be one who has done the process extensively, and
> >> he was on the list if not still is.
> >> Chris
> >> 
> >> Christina Z. Anderson
> >> christinaZanderson.com
> >> 
> >> On Feb 25, 2011, at 9:05 AM, Paul Viapiano wrote:
> >> 
> >>> Look at Lukas Werth's prints on Flickr...beautiful and lots of them!
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christina Anderson" <
> >> zphoto at montana.net>
> >>> To: "Alt List" <alt-photo-process-list at lists.altphotolist.org>
> >>> Sent: Friday, February 25, 2011 7:48 AM
> >>> Subject: [alt-photo] casein
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>>> (whoops, sent this with the wrong email so sending again)
> >>>> 
> >>>> Good morning!
> >>>> 
> >>>> So I'm on this casein hunt for one silly reason--I blame it on Sam Wang.
> >> Long ago I saw Sam Wang's caseins and thought them beautiful. Four of them
> >> are in his book, Sam Wang, Four Decades of Photographic Explorations,
> >> another "must-buy" alt book for just the HUGE amount of alt work documented
> >> within its pages. Sam's work is very poetic, subtle.
> >>> 
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