CAFEGRAFIA®           

A BRIEF  HISTORY      

In the year 1988, the first coffee images were produced in Costa Rica .
The first type of CAFEGRAFIA (coffee graphics) or coffee art, was not a
coffee print on paper, but rather a coffee impression (photographic)
directly on glazed ceramic tiles.

This First process (paperless) required the making of the glazed surface
Light Sensitive by coating it with an emulsion capable of reacting with
liquid coffee, this latter was fixed in situ only on those parts of the image
that were exposed to light under a negative

The final product required lots of manual work on the highlights where
finest details were somewhat lost. (brush work with coffee as coloring
matter) The inventor allowed this process to be televised on numerous
occasions by television crews of Europe, South and North America, as well
as most of the mayor networks of Costa Rica.

With this first original coffee art process, about 250 works were created
(25- different subjects). Nearly 225 pieces were sold at the first and
second international congress of specialty coffee celebrated in Costa Rica.
The remaining 25 hang today in the artist museum. (tile size: 20x25 cms) .

Research soon shifted to finding a light sensitive coating that would retain
all details (to do away with all manual work). There was clearly a large
demand for this new art form. In early 1990 coffee art did not exist at all,
except maybe for an occasional coffee subject printed on a mug,
hat or T shirt.

A new process ( the Second ) was found by extracting some light sensitive
oils from the green coffee berries. Surfaces coated
very thin with this oils required time exposures of about 10 minutes under
daylight to yield a visible ground image which would anchor the coffee.

The great advantage of this process was that it yielded an excellent
photographic image without any handwork at all. But exposures to light
were too long for rapid production. But it was improved when it was found
out that the oil distilled from the green coffee berries, was really a mixture
of 2 separate oils.

-One oil was slow drying and not light sensitive, and the other: "fast drying"
and extremely sensitive. Solvents were found that could separate one from
the other. Thus light exposures were reduced to about 1 minute under
daylight. This fast oil proved to be color blind. It was polymerized (jellified)
only by the blue and blue violet radiation emitted by light sources.

Another EUREKA state arrived when a method was found to make this
"FAST" BUT color blind oil, sensitive to all the visible spectrum,
(with dyes) exposures were reduced then to about 5 seconds! (because the
oil could now see and absorb green and red light). No more than 100 works
were produced by this process. They were never exhibited or sold. They
still belong to the artist. The year was about 1992.

The reasons why this Second process was not exploited commercially are
many. For one, there was only one person researching in the lab
(the inventor himself without any help), and another (the main reason) is
the fact that a faster process had already been discovered by the artist.
This last may be called the third process.

In this Third process ways were found to utilize the silver emulsion
already found coated on commercial photographic paper. By chemical
means, the metallic image produced by processing the same, could be
made to react with coffee( liquid or powdered} to yield coffee color
images.

With this process more than 30,000 works (54 different
subjects authored by the artist) were sold between 1992 and 1995
that year edition was closed. About 250 of these works can still be
seen in the artist's gallery &.museum. Some of them are as large
as 42 x 32 inches.

With this commercial success the artist secured funds to continue
his efforts on several different areas of independent research.

It was the inventor's desire to create coffee images directly on
surfaces that were not flat, for example: spoons, plates, stones,
eggs, etc. To that effect 3 new processes were worked out. All of
them very slow. One of these (which will be called the Fourth process)
was chosen by the artist to produce images on small glazed ceramic
plates and metal spoons.

About 200 spoon and 200 images on plates were created. Research
begun at around 1990 and production started at around 1996.
It was not until the year 2004 however, that they were exhibited
and sold for the first time. About 25 plates of this particular edition
and only 2 or 3 spoons still remain with the artist. They were reserved
for his museum.

In the inventor's opinion these are among his finest work. The edition
is closed. This Process was substituted in the year 2004, by a
Fifth process which yields coffee tone images on plates at a much
faster rate. This fifth process however, can not yield images on
spoons, so spoons will probably never be produced again by the
artist on a industrial scale.


One of the disadvantages of an independent researcher acting alone,
is the difficulty to research and to market both at the same
time. This Researcher in particular has investigated many other fields
with no relation to coffee at all. But working in a country like
Costa Rica, with a strong coffee culture, inventions like cafegrafia
are easier to market than, for example, black tea or cocoa images
which have also been invented by the artist for many years now.

Many other fields of his research are not included in this paper.
The Sixth coffee imaging process:

At around 1994, an enormous ecological awareness had captured
some sectors of Costa Rica by storm. Friends of the inventor
urged him to focus on developing sustainable inventions.
The truth of the matter is that 100% coffee images produced on filter
paper "Drinkable"    coffee filter had already been invented in his research
lab by this time.

This (as well as many other inventions along the same line of
thought) were being kept secret for many reasons. It is not until this
year (2005 ) that these works on filter paper are being offered to
the public for the first time on a regular basis. History on these can not
yet be written.

In order to understand what will be called the Eighth process, the
Seventh process must be explained.

Coffee
As Photographic
Developing Agent for Silver Salts
The Seventh process.
Coffee as a developer for silver based photographic materials (paper and films) was
discovered by the artist in Costa Rica. The year was 1989. Caffeic Acid, is one of the
most important reducing agents in coffee but by no means the only one.

         



( Above ) Silver Prints Developed With Coffee, on spoons and coffee filter paper



HOW COFFEE AS DEVELOPER WAS DISCOVERED:

Coffee as reducing agent was discovered when the artist was improving Thomas Manley's
old " OZOTYPE " process. To elucidate the research environment It is necessary to give
a synopsis of pigment printing with chromates.

in 1839 Mungo Punton dipped paper in a 10% solution of potassium bichromate, dried it,
exposed it under light in contact with a design and observed that it was colored brown by
the rays of light. the image was "fixed" just by rinsing in water because chrome salts
exposed to light becomes insoluble in water. the final result was a brown chrome oxide
image on paper.

In 1873 A. Marion, showed that when this chrome oxide "primary" image produced by
Punton's process on paper ( exposed under a negative) was pressed  (in humid state)
into close contact with a paper previously coated with mixture of gelatin and pigment,
the insoluble light primary positive image would transfer from the exposed paper
to the unexposed gelatin pigment paper ( in about 10 hours).

After 10 hours contact , both papers "primary" image and gelatin pigment paper still
sticking together were then soaked in hot water until the backing paper that served as
support for the pigment gelatin mixture, would float off (and discarded) leaving a
photographic gelatin pigment image firmly attached to the primary chrome oxide image.
( just like in the carbon process- mentioned below- previously worked out by Poitevin,
Swan and others)

Thomas Manly, (1898) improved the Mariotypes (Marion's process) He mixed potassium
bicromate with manganese sulphate ( brushed on paper ) to get a stronger colored and
more powerfully reactive primary image, before contacting this with the gelatin pigment
paper, He dipped the latter in an acid solution where he included hydroquinone
(a photographic developer) to accelerate the chemical reaction.

Instead of waiting for an 10 hour contact as Marion had done for the catalytic action to take
place between the primary image and pigment paper, he only had to wait about 2-4 hours
until both papers, sticking together, dried.

As given by Manley, a typical acid reducing composition for the purpose is:

water..........................................................................1000  ml
Hydroquinone...( a photographic developer)....................1.25 grams
glacial acetic acid .........................................................4 ml
glycerin.......................................................................8 ml

for more contrast the acid in composition above can be increased, for less contrast:
the amount of hydroquinone is increased. Summarized, Manleys directions were the
following:

After about 2 minutes soaking of the pigment paper in acid reducer above, it was
pressed in contact with primary image and left to dry attached there on. this took
from 2 - 4 hours. depending on paper thickness and climate conditions. The glycerin
above was included to cause the gelatin to release the backing paper more easy in the
next step, which was soaking the combination primary/pigment paper in cold water
for 30 minutes, then in hot water at 45c for "development".
development, as mentioned earlier, is dissolving out the soluble gelatin to obtain a
final pigment image on top of  the primary chrome image.

A disadvantage of Manly's Ozotype process is that if acidity is not regulated
meticulously it tends to yield hard contrasty images with details washing off. Manley
knew this, that is why in order to make the image details more resistant to washing
off during the "developing " in hot water step, He let the gelatin pigment paper dry
first (adhered on top of the primary image) This prolonged the process, made it to
slow for production on a large scale.

Manley called his process Ozotype, because He believed that ozone played the
principal role in the chemical reactions.

In the year 1989 in Costa Rica With the intention of improving Manley's
Ozotype process, working in his research laboratory, the artist made some changes,
among other things a faster more versatile process was wanted.

first, the acetic acid in Manley's composition above, was substituted for a 40% instant
coffee solution which is quiet acid, a pigment image was obtained. In The next step,
to study the effects of the ozotype process in the absence of reducing agent, the
hydroquinone was deliberately left out the composition, the new testing ozotype
composition devised by the artist writing these lines was:

2 % instant coffee solution...................................200 ml
1% chromic acid solution.........................................2 ml
glacial acetic acid.................................................0.5 ml

the pigment paper was immersed for two minutes in solution above and immediately
after, pressed in contact with the chrome primary image for only 15 minutes, separated,
and transferredface down by pressing unto a glass plate, left 10minutes in contact with
the glass before immersing ( both pigment paper and glass) in 35c warm water to make
backing paper float off and dissolve out the soluble pigmented gelatine and discover
the insoluble pigment gelatin image adhering firmly to the glass.

The surprise came when a better pigment image was obtained rapidly without the
hydroquinone, the reaction had taken place with very good results ! Chromic acid is
not a reducing agent and neither is acetic acid. This clearly meant that COFFEE WAS
A REDUCING AGENT.

The reasoning was: since hydroquinone( discovered by abney in 1880) was powerful
developer used to to develop film and photographic paper, and, coffee had reduced
the chrome oxide in the primary image to a chromic compound even better than
hydroquinone, therefore, coffee had to be a powerful reducing agent (the pigment
used in the paper was inert red ferric oxide)

It was also found that the coffee/chromic acid solution above, allowed pigment image
transfers on other supports like glass (just like in the carbon process below) without
loss of image details ! This had never been done before by the ozotype process.
This was new. All the ozotypes up to this time had been done on paper, directly on the
primary chrome oxide image.

by the new process the primary image was discarded after use. Processing time was
also shortened, what took Manly from 2 to 4 hours, could now be done in 15 to
30 minutes, thanks to the coffee !

Since the author was very busy in other lines of research, only Notes were made of
the observations above at the time of discovery. Coffee as developer for silver  salts
was not studied utterly by the artist until the year 1991. it was found then that it had
some disadvantages compared with other reducer agents being used at that time in
the photographic industry, but it was non toxic and environmental friendly,
the disadvantages were:

1) image contrast was not very high
2) required longer developing times
3) about 200 % loss of emulsion speed
4) yellow staining of the whites on fiber paper

working furiously all the problems were solved. All of the shortcomings above were
completely done away with. The entire coffee plant was stripped apart and relentlessly
investigated, roots, leaves, bark, wood, flowers, beans, coffee cherry's skins, all of it.
By 1993 the artist was developing high contrast, coffee developed stainless images
with full emulsion speed and 3 minutes developing time on a great variety of media.

Hundreds of these were sold to tourist as souvenirs at La plaza de la cultura, in the
heart of downtown San José, Costa Rica, where the artist had a permanent art show.
Coffee Art that the world had never seen before was exhibited there until about 1995.

Coffee Developed silver images
are still being offered to the public today on a small scale.

The newly found coffeetype process (the improved ozotype above) was to serve as
the basis for a new coffee pigment process.
the eighth , below.

Coffee Pigment Process
gelatin coffee prints

The Eighth Process:

   First Coffee pigment print Ever
     as done by the eighth process which is described below

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To understand the eight process is necessary to give a
Historical synopsis of pigment process with chromates:

Mungo Punton (1839) was the first to use the light sensitivity of chrome salts to
make low contrast photo images on plain paper. E. Becquerel (1840) improved
the opacity and contrast of Mungon's chromotypes by filling the paper fibers with
starch. these images when treated with iodine gave deep blue densities.

it was fox talbot in 1852 who first mixed potassium bicromate with gelatin and
observed that after exposure to light the exposed gelatin was hardened while
the unexposed remained soft and could swell by soaking in cold water or be
washed off with hot water. The exposed gelatin that had been harden by the light
action would not wash off.

Louis Poitevin ( 1855 ) discovered that the bichromated gelatin could be pigmented
and that the gelatin made insoluble by exposure would serve as vehicle for the inert
opaque pigment. He was the first to incorporate a pigment in the chrome gelatin
mixture to obtain pigment images. Pigments like finely powdered vegetable
carbon or lamp black were used ( hence the name carbon process)


Poitevin's carbon process lacked middle tones, Abbe laborde (1858) observed that
the culprit of this drawback was the fact that the light action begins at the surface
of the pigmented gelatin and dos not penetrate enough further down into the layer ,
therefore the full tonal scale of the insoluble gelatin image was created and left
suspended on the surface, at such location it could not be anchored by the paper base,

thus after immersion in the hot water to dissolve the unexposed soluble gelatin,
only the deep shadows of the image were left on the paper base, there the light
had traveled deep enough to anchor the pigmented gelatin, but the rest of the image
would wash away loosing all fine detail.

J.C. Burnett ( 1858) solved the problem by exposing the chromed gelatin pigment
paper through the back, that is the backing paper holding the pigmented gelatin
was made translucent by oiling it, for exposure to light the negative was laid in
contact with the paper, ( not on the gelatin pigment side as normal) after exposure
to light , on immersion on hot water the pigment gelatin relief revealed itself with
all its middles tones firmly anchored to the paper base.

Fargier ( 1860) attacked the problem from another angle, He exposed through the
front as normal and after exposure he coated the surface of the exposed gelatin
pigment paper with a clear varnish layer (collodion) and dried it, He then immersed
the whole in hot water, where the unexposed gelatin dissolved while the exposed
insoluble gelatin with all its details and middle tones held
firmly to the clear collodion skin. After drying, From such a film the image could be
transferred to other supports, for example: to glass or paper.

Joseph Swan ( 1864 ) made a formidable Discovery. He found that the exposed
and tanned pigmented gelatin would just simply adhere to a polished surface, so
much that by mounting or pressing the exposed pigment gelatin surface into close
contact with a pore less surface, ( like glass, waxed or resined paper, etc)
He was able to wash away the not tanned pigmented gelatin without
loosing any details on the hardened parts. From these, the carbotypes could be
transferred to other media if desired. The carbon process was now perfect !
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In 1989 in Costa Rica while building the first coffee pigment process
( based on chromates) the author of these lines had already
found out that plain powdered coffee could be suspended in gelatin and
be used as a pigment, but He had also found out that coffee is so highly
chemically active that on contact with alkaline chromium salts like the
bicromates, tanning and other undesirable reactions take place even
without exposure to light.

This is probably one of the reason why coffee pigments prints had never been
done before. In other words, The carbon process could not be used for the
purpose because the bichromates in the presence of coffee will clot the gelatin
in clumps and clusters.

It is for that reason that he set out to improve the ozotype process in which
the undesirable reactions of coffee mentioned above are avoided, mainly
because the primary image in this process, has been freed of all soluble
bichromates ( by washing) before it is made to react by contact with the
coffee gelatin pigment paper.

Without the presence of soluble bichromates, the gelatin in the coffee pigment
mixture is not made insoluble spontaneously by the coffee, it remains soluble
and capable of being tanned selectively only on those parts where it comes in
contact with the insoluble chromic oxide of the primary image. The process works.

with due regards to many precautionary measures and careful balance of all
reactants participating, this Cafetype process ( based on the ozotype improved
by the artist) which we have just called the eight ( for illustration purposes)
can produce fine coffee pigment prints with delicate middle tones.(photo above)


TO SUMMARIZE:

in the early 1989 research sessions at Cafegrafia® labs, the ozotype process was
substantially improved, coffee as developing agent was discovered and the first
workable coffee pigment process with chromates was invented, which however,
was never used industrially by the artist. Only a few samples on stones were
produced (see photo above) this is due to the fact that

by 1992 the inventor's work had shifted to ecological, sustainable development
art forms where this eighth process had no longer an  important place. By that
time, A new process had already been worked out by the author to produce
photographic quality superb coffee pigment prints without a single toxic chemical
being employed through out all of the steps of the new process (the ninth )
This fact is extremely pleasing for the author. ( see photos below)

COFFEE PIGMENT PRINTS on ceramic tiles

CREATED WITH ENTIRELY NON TOXIC
COFFEE PROCESS ninth.



Modern Advances in Visual Art is incontestably certified in the documents below accrediting Cafegrafia®
as a Major Art form of Costa Rica and as a New Photographic Technology.
Below: press reports of journalist John Edwards who has witnessed the process for the Coffee Journal,
the articles by Dolores M. Rossman and Kristian Nielsen who documented in film the entire Cafegrafia®
process for television networks in the USA and other press reviews of this Important development of
Costa Rica Art.