Making Casein Paint: Benzimidazo Orange

I have another batch of casein paint in process. This time it’s Benzimidazo Orange. I also wanted to show a different method of marketing pigment that is sold as “aqua dispersions.” The squeeze bottle you see above contains the orange pigment that has been dispersed in water. Different companies that sell pigment offer this option. There is a surfactant added as well to make the pigment not repel water and disperse properly, but they don’t mention what that is, possibly ox gall. Dispersions make the handling of pigment much less messy than when it is sold in powder form, but can be a little more expensive. I got this 1 ounce bottle from Guerra in New York. They have a good range of pigments in both dry and dispersions; although, their shipping cost is high.

In the picture above I’ve squirted some of the pigment into the metal jar, and added twice as much casein binder that I’m starting to mix in. The aqua dispersion has a soupy viscosity, and the binder makes it a little thicker, about like wood glue in consistency.

In order to bulk up the paint a little bit more, I decided to add a teaspoon of calcium carbonate as a filler. This amount will not effect the opacity level of the pigment any.

This mixes so smoothly in the jar that I don’t feel a need to do any work on the tile slab at all, so no mulling will be required. Instead after several minutes of stirring it all together I pour the paint from the jar directly into an open empty tube. I like to take a small amount of putty that I press the top of the tube into to hold it upright as I add paint.

Here’s the finished product of a tubed paint with label applied and some sample swatches. This will probably be the last batch of paint I’ll make up for awhile. Now it’s time to start using them.