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By
SHANE EAGEN
Photography by SIMON CHEUNG |
MILKING IT - Making Your Own |
| The
ultimate do-it-yourself finish: milk paint |
Paint
(and stain) is made up of a binder and a pigment. The binder
in milk paint comes from mixing the casein protein, found in
milk, with one of the following ingredients: ammonia, borax
or builder's lime. The casein protein mixed with builder's lime
is stronger than the borax mix (molecularly), but requires the
use of alkali fast pigments. The borax mix is not as strong
but can make use of a far wider range of pigments. Also, the
borax mix is the best formula to use if you want to incorporate
some oil into the paint. The ammonia has no advantages over
the other two so use what is available.
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| Mix
the milk into the water until it's the consistency
of paint, then add food colouring |
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Depending
on the formula used milk paint can be extremely tough. So tough
that it can be very hard to remove even with paint remover.
Generally, milk paint is more durable than latex paint. It will
dry in a couple of hours but may take days, even weeks, to cure,
again depending on the formula used.
Recipe #1
The first recipe uses no lime, borax or ammonia. Mix together
powdered skim milk and water to the consistency of paint. Mix
in some food dye (there should be a colour chart on the back
of the dye package). Strain the mixture through some layers
of cheese cloth. Apply with a brush. Just for fun I tried some
instant coffee as a dye. It works, but mix the coffee with a
little bit of water before adding to the milk. The best thing
about this recipe is you can safely use the kitchen food processor
to mix it.
Recipe #2
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| Finally,
strain the mixture through cheesecloth
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This second
recipe uses skim milk, lime, plaster of paris and the coloured
chalk from your chalk line. Mix 1.5 cups of skim milk with 1
oz. of lime. Mix well, then add 8 oz. of plaster of paris. Add
the coloured chalk while mixing in the plaster of paris. Let
the mixture stop foaming before using it. This paint will require
re-stirring every five minutes to prevent everything from settling.
Recipe #3
This last recipe is for milk paint for exterior use, and makes
five gallons of paint. Mix two quarts of builder's lime with
four gallons of skim milk. Stir thoroughly. Then stir in one
gallon of linseed oil. Then stir in the dye. Strain through
a piece of cheese cloth and be sure to use within two days of
mixing. You can substitute three quarts of sifted, white, hardwood
ashes for the lime.
Finally...
It's a good idea to use water-soluble dyes. It also helps if
you mix a little water with the dyes before adding them to the
mix. Use powdered skim milk in all the recipes to keep the cost
down.
If you mix the milk with lime, make sure you use builder's lime,
also known as slaked lime or hydrated lime.
For cleanup, use soap and water.
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Part 1 |
Part 2 |
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