Coffee Art History - art of coffee history

Coffee Art History, Documented historical Account on the use
of substances derived from the coffee plant, as well as from the coffee beans to Create Art

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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 chromo types 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

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 chroma-tes) 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 evenwithout 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 which 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, 1. the ozotype process was substantially improved,

2. coffee as developing agent was discovered

3. 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.
for press articles of US journalist: dating back to 1992-1993
PRESS REVIEWS ABOUT THE ARTIST

Costa Rica Art COFFEE PHOTOGRAPHS PHOTOS DEVELOPED WITH COFFEE coffee art PURE COFFEE ART GALLERY art of coffee

Images made with ground coffee
On eggs and a great variety of Media
is an old invention of the artist.

coffee art

CONTACT SAUL

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. lots of (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, at that time 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. a great challenge, To that effect 3 new processes were worked out.

All of them very slow to react under the action of light. 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 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 was not until the year (2005 )

that these works on filter paper were 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.

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
For silver salts 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,

(Example: gelatine 10 gms, pigment: 2.5 gms, water 100 ml)

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 )
(Ex: pot. bichromate 10g/ manganese sulphate 20g, water 100 ml )

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.
(about hQ: 1 gm/ in water: 1 liter)

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 very well 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 transferred face down by pressing unto a glass plate, left 10 minutes in contact with the glass before immersing (Both pigment paper and glass)

in 35c warm water to make the 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 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 good but not not very high (for positives)
2) required longer developing times ( 10-20 minutes for negatives)
3) about 200 % loss of emulsion speed (on film exposed in camera)
4) yellow staining of the whites on fiber paper (printing positives) (but no staining on resin coated commercial photo paper)

working furiously all those 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 not offered to the public today on a any 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 Art History, Documented historical Account on the use of substances
derived from the coffee plant, as well as from the coffee beans to Create Art