making an emulsion out of everyday items

Is there any emulsion that can be made using only things you could

buy at the grocery store or other convenient place (ie. not a

chemical supplier or someplace). I know some alternative processes

use some easy to obtain materials, but are there any that are

completely made of common household goods?

thanks

I THINK, EVEN IF YOU MADE SUCH AS A " HOME BREW" EMULSION"

(oops) practical mechanical considerations woulkd keep it from being useful.

things such asemulsion speen and the problems of finding a material on which to coat the emulsion would present problems.

everything today is prepackaged and basic materials are harder to find.

" chemical" is a naught word many places. when i was at HP

even wite-out was prohibited. dy-chem ( blue varnish used in sheet metal layout) was kept hidden in a drawer. not to be mentiones.

besides people today are many times removes from real do it yourself and may belive you are some kind of radical.

people have asked me really foolish questions. your is not.

1) liquid emulsion for color print paper

2) home kodachome kit

3) laser printer that could print on multi-part carbon forms.

( really out of touch folks)

I am not trying to put you down, seriously.

even IF you had the formulas for old glass-plate negatives,

as used in the mid 1800's,

you would likely not be allowed to buy the necessary chemicals

there may be some limited use older, half-forgotten processes that

would be workable.

I do know about the coffee and the tylenol film developers.

which is just about as far as most of us can go.

If you want to make a negative film the options are pretty limited, if you want to make your own photographic paper there are some fun ways.

As a starter, have a look at the links below which describe the cyanotype/gum bichromate process, etc. While some of the materials are "readily available" they are not usually found in grocers' shops or "under the kitchen sink". There are other non-silver, chemical processes - Google: Calotype, Cyanotype, for example, or browse Wikipedia for history of photography.

I am trying to recall a fun process that used some plant extracts ... not likely to be of use unless you have the right plants, and I'm sure some are toxic.

A key limitation is that many "early" or "alternative" methods involved materials that are nowadays considered risky, and they give fuzzy, low contrast (but appealing) images that fade quite quickly.

http://www.gumphoto.co.uk/

http://www.siouxsan.com/

http://www.siouxsan.com/glossary.html#gum

Nina;

Many alternative materials are available in kit form from the Photographers Formulary in Condon MT. You might try their web site.

I am giving a workshop on making and coating traditional silver halide emulsions. The Formulary also carries material for making these.

As for Walter Degroots answers, they are substantially correct, but a color paper is possible (I have hand coated one quite easily) and processing Kodachrome at home is possible if you wish to pay the price for the chemicals or use alternate chemistry.

You can also buy pre-prepared emulsions such as Liquid Light, just make sure that it is fresh.

Ron Mowrey

You can make anthotypes from items commonly found in the home. You need flower petals, denatured alcohol and a blender. Dark red tulips and roses work well. Put a cup or so of petals in the blender. Set the blender to puree and add enough denatured alcohol to allow the two to mix. Strain the mixture through cheese cloth. Coat a peice of water color paper and let dry. Place a film positive (or some other translucent material) in contact with the paper and expose to the sun for 2 to 3 weeks. It gives a low contrast print. Color is determined by the color of flower.

If you order silver nitrate, you can do all sorts of things. Salt prints--salt, silver nitrate and water color paper. Albumenn prints--eggs, salt, silver nitrate and water color paper. POP--gelitin, silver nitrate, watercolor paper.

Also, there are a number of common kitchen items that can be used to develop film and prints: green tea, coffee, beer, vitamin C...

Nice one Allen!

Any more information on using beer? I'd love to do a beerograph! I know I am a bit light sensitive after a few beers.

If you know enough about the basic chemistry and/or are willing to experiment, then all sorts of opportunities open up with household items ..... rather than bought-in emulsions, etc as Nina asked.

Hi Nina,

might be interesting what's your idea about that.

The lack of resources for chemicals? That might be a problem, since even if sivler nitrate is available in some "everydays products" like water desinfection pellets from the globetrotters store, or in some medical applications, the complete coposition of those products is somewhat unclear, and you will fall back to the need of some "chemicals" for the tuning of the process.

If it's an artistic approach to use only "easy available" stuff including the restrictions in quality (craftsmenwise) i see a chance.

(I remotely remember a process to give blue colour to cloth using a special herb exposure to sunlight and going back to very ancient times, sorry no details in the attic of my brain)

Kind regards,

Martin

Martin - the blue dye you are thinking of, made from plant extract, may be woad. It's

obtained from mustard. Not sure about the "exposure to light" bit though