[alt-photo] Re: casein

[Mark Nelson]

Bob,

you beat me to that one…

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson

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On Jun 12, 2012, at 11:43 AM, BOB KISS wrote:

> DEAR CHRIS,
> 	I only have thigh high silk stockings that clip onto my red satin
> garter belt.  Can I use them instead of the knee highs?  I am guessing that
> my fishnets are too coarse to properly filter out the whey, right?
> 	As Mark likes to say, "HeHeHe"
> 		CHEERS!
> 			BOB
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alt-photo-process-list-bounces at lists.altphotolist.org
> [mailto:alt-photo-process-list-bounces at lists.altphotolist.org] On Behalf Of
> Christina Anderson
> Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 12:13 PM
> To: Alt List
> Subject: [alt-photo] casein
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> I"ve been working on casein research over the last number of months as you
> know (with a hiatus for a month's travel in May). I'm about done the
> literature part. Someone on the list asked me to share so here it is.
> 
> Next week I go to Eastman House to complete the research in old journals of
> the time. Very excited to do that, but may not find much is my guess. We'll
> see.
> 
> If anyone knows of alt happenings in Rochester NY the 19th through the 30th
> I'd love to know.
> 
> I do have a question for those of you who do carbon; Mr. J. R. Johnson was
> the patenter in 1870, and I think if I am not mistaken he made a commercial
> carbon paper. Part of me wonders if anyone has checked casein as an
> ingredient in any of these manufactured papers, including Fresson. It is so
> fine grained and soooo stable. I am still wondering why it didn't take off,
> or, if it did. I know it was suggested as a replacement for collodion and
> albumen in glass plate negatives as early as 1858, it was suggested to
> replace albumen in 1916 because at that time eggs were expensive and scarce.
> All of these not casein-pigment printing but casein-silver emulsion.
> 
> Anyway, I had reviewed all of Franklin Enos' archives at the University of
> Kentucky, Louisville a year or so ago. Took notes. Come to find out, a lot
> of those great notes were summed up in the July/August 1987 AVISO newsletter
> of the New Pictorialist Society. I don't know if the society still exists,
> or if Theisen is alive still?
> 
> I got down to research in making homemade casein. To date I had used two
> forms of readymade casein, Schmincke and Kremer. Also casein from powder,
> both ammonium and sodium forms (don't consider those "homemade"). I had yet
> to tackle homemade casein from milk, etc., thinking it too putzy and didn't
> want to work with ammonia fumes or glacial acetic acid. But I bit the bullet
> and did so because I wanted to see if there was a difference in performance
> between homemade and store-bought.
> 
> Come to find out, making homemade casein is a no-brainer! Goodness. Why was
> I so afraid? Like all of these alt processes, they are way less complex than
> one would have us believe.
> 
> With powdered milk and vinegar (tried glacial acetic, citric acid powder,
> and vinegar in side by side tests and even exposed all three solutions side
> by side with no difference, all work fine so plain old vinegar is my choice)
> the curd forms immediately and is ready in under an hour. Didn't go out and
> buy cheesecloth--just used a knee-high nylon to drain off the whey.
> 
> Then with a tad of janitorial strength ammonia (which is 10%, but regular
> household ammonia is undetermined less than 3%-10% and would work just fine)
> it is amazing how quickly the curd liquifies into a pearly clear solution
> that...yes....looks just like the casein in Schmincke and Kremer.
> 
> The easiest by far was taking a container of cottage cheese, rinsing off the
> liquid and plopping some ammonia on top. THAT took only an hour to go into
> solution. I used it right away.
> 
> Enos recommends 60-75cc of 10% ammonia to 2 oz. cottage cheese. I started
> with just 50ml to 8 oz (to see how much is actually needed to dissolve the
> curd first) and it went into solution perfectly. However, that proportion is
> way too thick like the Schmincke gooey thickness. Enos liked his casein on
> the thin side, so I realized varying the amount of ammonia in the  cottage
> cheese would supply all sorts of dilutions and is the easiest because one
> only needs cottage cheese and ammonia, and could even rinse it in a strainer
> and forego the nylon.
> 
> This is VERY cheap. And no need to order casein.
> 
> So far just using powdered pigments because I want to avoid making judgments
> on casein with any modicum of gum arabic involved. With just casein, there
> is no gloss.
> 
> I am finding casein shorter scale than gum in all my tests. Need to
> investigate that further. If I vary the pot di strength it still doesn't
> matter...several stops at best of DR compared to gum of 4-6.
> 
> That's it for now.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> Christina Z. Anderson
> christinaZanderson.com
> 
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