Protoni's work diary - Paints

VUFF!
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Hello again. Today we are gonna talk about something that shows in every day life; paint. But isn't paint just something that comes from paint bucket or paint tube?

Paint in all simplicity is mixture of pigment and adhesive. For traditional paint do count next paints: red ochre paint, limewash paint, oil paint, casein paint, tempera (paint)  and animal skin glue paint.

Red ochre paint is prbably the best known traditional paint for Finnish people and does bring image from red painted wood house, cow shed or barn. The main materials for red ochre paint are water, grain flour and red ochre. There will be added some additive ingredients that can be different by recipes. Additive ingredients in red ochre paint can be for example linseed oil, ferrous sulfate, coppar sulfate or tar.
 
Limewash paint is used on lime plaster and compo mortar surfaces  and it does prepare from hydrated lime which does let set on water two or three days. After two or three days you  will add the pigments to the set water. There is a special brush to apply the limewash paint to the surface with circulate motion.

Oil pain is suitable for outside and inside wood surfaces. Today for oil paint adhesive is used mostly boiled linseed oil (varnish) mixed with pigments. In Finland there has also been used blubber of Arctic sea from seals and fish oil as an adhesive. Because oil paint does dry very slowly there can be added siccative so that the paint would dry a bit faster.  Turpentine can be used to thin oil paint.

Casein paint can be a bit unfamiliar for many. Other name for it is a milk paint. Do you now guess the adhesive of it? Yes, it is milk. But not the whole milk but rather skimmed milk. You can also extract the adhesive for milk paint from cottage cheese. Casein paint is used inside surfaces.

Many has seen tempera paint in orthodox religious icon paintings but it has been used as well for inside surfaces and furnitures. The adhesive of tempera paint is usually egg, varnish and water. You should mix them together as  mentioned before so that the mixture succeed. The pigment will added lastly.

If you are in Oulu, please do visit at the church of Haukipudas to see its paintings. Those paintings has been done with animal skin glue paint. The adhesive of animal skin glue paint, as the name tells, made from glue that has been boiled from animals skins (for example cow) and/or bones. For that animal skin glue you will added water and chalk. Animal skin glue paint is water-soluble paint so it is not suitable to use outside walls or damp rooms.

Working with the traditional paint is not necessarily easy for those who have sensitive nose because many from those paints have quite awkward smell.


This was my  prattles at this time.
See you next time
-Protoni

Water colors are mixture of gum arabic and pigments.

Sconce has animal skin glue paint on it.