Casein printing with watercolor pigments....on glass?

HollyGettings · Apr 12, 2013

I'm teaching some alt process to my HS seniors and I may have created a monster. I have a guy who wants to explore printing on glass and stacking the images in front of a light box, and he's read that casein sticks better to glass than plain gum. And in fact, gum just washed off in my experiments.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how to proceed with this? I'd be grateful.

Holly Gettings

Whiteymorange · Apr 12, 2013

Come on, Holly. You create monsters all the time!
In terms of the glass, it may be difficult with casein, which is not really transparent. If you could work with acetate, there is a prepared acetate that takes water-based work. I don't know how it would fare in the processing though. It's called (unimaginatively) Prepared Acetate.

MDR · Apr 12, 2013

For gumprinting I would use a gum "primer" layer without negative but hardened with UV light and fully developed followed by one or several gum layers with negative. Gum should not wash away on glass there even was a photo mechanical process called the Erwinotype/Erwinotypie that used glass with a gum matrix as printing plate. Look it up it really is an interesting process. For casein print I would use a sublayer of hardened casein just like with gum.

Good luck
Dominik

HollyGettings · Apr 13, 2013

MDR said:
For gumprinting I would use a gum "primer" layer without negative but hardened with UV light and fully developed followed by one or several gum layers with negative. Gum should not wash away on glass there even was a photo mechanical process called the Erwinotype/Erwinotypie that used glass with a gum matrix as printing plate. Look it up it really is an interesting process. For casein print I would use a sublayer of hardened casein just like with gum.

Good luck
Dominik

Thank you Dominik. Do you have a favorite method of cleaning the glass?

HollyGettings · Apr 13, 2013

The casein is cloudy but made a layer that stuck as Dominik suggests. Looks like what we thought was a problem turns out to be step one. OK!

MDR · Apr 14, 2013

96% Alcohol to clean the glass and remove any remains of grease should work. The Collodion-Wetplate method of cleaning glass should work as well.

Dominik

HollyGettings · Apr 16, 2013

Well, we're not having much success. The gum isn't sticking. Will try the alcohol and talc approach to cleaning next.

Hexavalent · Apr 16, 2013

"Barkeepers' Friend" does an excellent job of cleaning glass.

You might want to try subbing your glass with a weak (1%) gelatin and chrome alum solution. Let it harden for a few days and it will provide a very durable subbing.

Casein printing with watercolor pigments....on glass?

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