FotoDave@aol.com
Date: 02/21/02-08:08:08 AM Z
<< A writer in current issue speaks of a former teacher who
made his own casein from old cottage cheese (or maybe it was new cottage
cheese, made to look old). >>
Luis Nadeau mentioned about using cheese in one of his books too.
<< I believe another (perhaps more usual) method
is from nonfat dry milk. >>
I believe this is cheaper, and that's the one that I tried with.
<< But in case you missed the exchange on the list
about the ammonia, Lukas said household ammonia in Germany is 9 to 10%. We
delicate Americans have it somewhere around 3 or 4%, or so say the only
recent estimates available. (Years ago I was told 5%.) >>
I don't think it matters a lot because we will eventually come to the part to
decide how thick the emulsion will be so we can add water if needed.
<< What that means in operation... simply longer to happen, or something else
entirely, perhaps you will reveal... (Tho come to think of it, twice the
amount in the water might come to same thing.)
>>
One thing that I should probably mention (though as I admitted, I haven't
tried casein printing myself) that while researching for casein *painting*, I
came across articles that describe some caution about using casein. One of
them is that since the ammonia will eventually evaporate out and leave behind
the original casein which is hard and not soluble, the painting will become
brittle in years and might crack; so in casein painting, it is suggested that
a hard (non-flexible) support is used.
That might be for painting in thick manner as in oil or thick acrylic
painting. We are probably not using casein in that way. However, one might
want to consider using borax or sodium carbonate as the solvent (as
recommended by some authors). Much of it will be washed out but the trace
amount left in the final print might help to keep the "emulsion" slightly
flexible in the long run.
Again, this is just some "theoretical" consideration. I haven't done casein
printing myself.
Dave S
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