Saul Bolaños
Was Born In Costa Rica, He Has
conducted  independent research most of
his life in Several Countries. At This Time
He works and lives in Costa Rica.

Research

-Discovery of Coffee as developing agent for
Silver salts or Silver Emulsions.

-Invention of stainless high energy Coffee
Developer for Photographic Film and Paper.

-Invention of a printing process based on Light
Sensitive oils derived from the coffee plant.

- Invention of coffee pigment prints.

-Invention of  a new process via silver salts
to make INDESTRUCTIBLE PHOTOGRAPHS
which are not affected by fire, water or gases.

-Invention of the first COFFEE TONING process
for silver based prints or Silver Emulsions.

-invention of the first panchromatic LIght Sensitive
Oils which were made to see the full spectrum of
color light radiations as the human eye sees it .

-invention of a new type of silver emulsion stabilizers
for high speed photographic films and paper.

-Invention of  FULL COLOR EDIBLE IMAGES
As Disclosed in The United States Patent Office.

This was the first imaging process ever to produce
full color half tone "Edible" photographic images
on any solid food stuff such as bread, cookies,
cheese, etc. or on liquid foodstuffs like ice cream.

-invention of 100% edible coffee images
-invention of 100% cocoa edible images
-invention of 100% powdered milk edible images
-invention of 100% black tea edible images
-invention of 100% yerba mate edible images

-Invention of ultra rapid silver chloride gelatine emulsions
-Invention of a novel process of gelatine purification

Making a Photographic Image Appear, Without a Darkroom, Under full sunlight By merely Dusting The Cafegrafia Photo Paper With Finely Powdered Coffee Is an old Invention Of the Artist. It Has Been Done Live in Television Many Times.This Coffee Pigment Art is Permanent, The Coffee Grains are Large Enough to Resist UV Light.

Before Pigmenting, The Paper is just a blank page with no traces
of a picture on it. As soon as It is Dusted with the Ground Coffee,
The Image is developed under full daylight, appearing as if by Magic. The Artist calls this Paper: "CAFEGRAFIA MAGICAL PHOTO PAPER" It Delivers a Pure 100% Coffee Print that Never Fails To Amaze Every one Looking on.

COFFEE PAINTS

The Formulation of Coffee Paints For the Art of Painting with Coffee
Was studied by the artist in the late 1980's.
Any type of coffee is more durable than most paints.
Soluble instant coffee produces the warmest and most rapid to make of the coffee paints, but its stability to Light is not as great as the Larger particles of Normal Dark Roasted coffee,

Contrary to what most coffee artists think, acidity is not the mayor cause of instability, More important is particle size and roasting temperature. Instant coffee is hygroscopic, It attracts humidity from the air, which in combination with its small particle size, is the mayor cause of vulnerability to UV rays. Ultra Violet Light in the presence of moisture, especially if the coffee strokes lay on the surface of the paper, tend to alter the opacity and tone of the coffee color.
Good protection is a coat of acrylic varnish over the coffee image, it retards image changes in humid environments.

Coffee, due to the fact that it has been roasted, is a very durable pigment. None of the 100% pure coffee images that the artist has Made as far back as 1987 have faded, The Coffee pigment was
correctly prepared, with careful attention to particle size and roasting temperatures.

Ultra Violet light, among other things, tends to liberate Sulphur compounds from the coffee molecules. Even in the absence of Light, Sulphur and coffee aromas will escape as a gas from the painted coffee. If the recently painted coffee image is sealed inside a plastic bag for example, the sulphur gas, trapped, will stain the white paper fiber with a slight pale yellow color in about 2 years time.

If the recently painted coffee image is not sealed immediately after
having being made, and instead is left a few days in open light and air and it is finally sealed in the plastic bag, The sulphur will have little or no action on the whites of the picture.

It is perfectly possible to prepare Light Stable Coffee Pigment, but it is not a rapid process, it involves patience and work.
Below is shown a banner of coffee etchings, The prints were made with coffee as ink. Coffee was used for inking the metal plate.

Exhibits
_______________
The Artist has Numerous Art Exhibits
only a few will be mentioned.

1989  Costa Rica Museum of Art exhibit of Goldtypes

1990 Costa Rica FOOTE CONE & BELDING Gallery
          (Large format photo images Made of powdered Gold)

1990 Early Cafegrafia Exhibit & Process Shown at the
          fourth world coffee congress held in Costa Rica

1992 USA Humanities 101 Gallery, Seattle.
          ( Photographic Images Made Of Ground Coffee )

1992 USA COFFEE FEST INTERNATIONAL,
          Seattle Center

1992 GRAND HOTEL COSTA RICA 
           Exhibit of Pure Gold Images

1992 FESTIVAL WORLD TRADITIONS INTERNATIONAL
          Seattle Convention Center, USA

1993 Costa Rica Museum of Art Collective
          art exhibit of Cafegrafia.

1993 photo&imaging/expo USA His works gains
          entrance as a new imaging  technique in one of the
          world's leading technological forums, Seattle.

1993 UNITED STATES COFFEE SHOW Hynes
          Convention Center, Boston Mass.

1993 Northwest international Exhibition of Photography
          Washington, USA

1994 USA Takoma Community College
          washington, USA

1995  CONGRESS OF COSTA RICA
           in this exhibit the artist is honored by the Costa
           Rican Congress for  his achievements.

1995 Art exhibit at the Embassy of Mexico
          in Costa Rica.

1995 FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEETING OF
          UNIVERSITIES the artists officially exhibits
          his "Edible" Images other than Coffee for
          he first time.

Awards

___________________________________________

1993     INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF
              PHOTOGRAPHY Washington, USA

              Medal To The " MOST ORIGINAL "

1993   INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF
            PHOTOGRAPHY Washington, USA

             Award To The "MOST OUTSTANDING"

Magazine
Articles
__________
Too numerous,
only a few will be mentioned:


1992 PANORAMA INTERNACIONAL Costa Rica.

1992 CAFE OLE MAGAZINE Seattle.

1993 TEA AND COFFEE TRADE JOURNAL New York.

1993 NORTHWEST PHOTO NETWORK. Washington.

1993 CAFE OLE MAGAZINE, Seattle USA

1994 JAVA JOURNAL New York

1995 RUMBO MAGAZINE Costa Rica

1996 COFFEE JOURNAL MAGAZINE  New York

2004 ENLACE MUNDIAL

Films & Video

___________
Too numerous,
only a few will be mentioned

COFFEE INK
Permanent Coffee Inks for drawing with pen were
invented  by the artist in the late 1980's.



IN DRAWING ABOVE COFFEE WAS USED AS
PIGMENT IN THE INK COMPOSITION.

ART
INDESTRUCTIBLE

Coffee can not be used as a kiln pigment to make ceramic art because like all organic matter, it decomposes carbonizing at around 300c, At higher temperatures like 600c, Even the Carbon left as residue by the Coffee evaporates into Carbon dioxide gas. There is nothing left of the coffee at 600c

Coffee Brown Tones can be made however, for ceramic work, by mixing Manganese Dioxide with Red Iron Oxide in adequate proportions. Both of these pigments can stand high temperatures unharmed.

To Imitate with ceramic colors, the warm orange red colors or tones used at present by coffee artists who paint with coffee, it is necessary to use little black manganese dioxide, a lot of red iron oxide and even more of yellow iron oxide. The Red Orange ceramic tone obtained by this mixture resemble very much the coffee paint made by the coffee artists, which in most cases is soluble instant coffee with a little water.


If the coffee artist at present making their own coffee paints to paint with, used other types of coffee except the soluble instant type, the
Tones of their paint would not be orange red, they would be a lot darker, more solid colder coffee browns with more body and greater permanency under the action of light.

Below Are Shown some samples of indestructible Photographs Made by the New Process invented by the artist, in which a continuous tone silver image is produce on glazed ceramic tile. Before firing in the kiln at 900c, The silver in the image, by chemical means, is substituted by metallic oxides ( the only pigments which can stand that temperature) The final result is an image in oxides retaining all the scale and details of of the original silver photographic image.

these images are fireproof
and indestructible by the weather

ALSO WATERPROOF

AND EXTREMELY
DIFFICULT TO SCRATCH

The Artist (left) with Alvarez Desanti the president of Costa Rica Congress, During his Art exhibit in The congress of Costa Rica where He was Honored for his Achievements.
In the background his large format coffee pigment prints.

The Artist's Work Has Been well Documented in Numerous Magazines and Press Reviews as well as Television, film and Video Documentals.

Contact Saul Bolaños