[alt-photo] Re: casein

Tue Jun 12 19:09:34 GMT 2012

hehehe

Best Wishes,
Mark Nelson

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On Jun 12, 2012, at 2:04 PM, BOB KISS wrote:

> Mark,
> 	Notice how completely (and intelligently) we are being ignored!
> 		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
> Mark Nelson
> Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 1:13 PM
> To: The alternative photographic processes mailing list
> Subject: [alt-photo] Re: casein
> 
> Bob,
> 
> you beat me to that one.
> 
> Best Wishes,
> Mark Nelson
> 
> Welcome to the Precision Digital Negatives Home!
> PDNPrint : Precision Digital Negatives Forum
> Mark I. Nelson Photography - Welcome
> 
> 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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