Don Wiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hazel Green wrote:
>
> >I also heard that some specialty buttons are made with milk in them to
> >give them bright colours and also stucco contains milk!!
>
> You have to remember that casein is an excellent glue. So good that it is
> sold as glue, and not labeled as being dairy, as glue labeling requirements
> must be lenient. But white glue, used in woodworking and sold as Elmer's
> Glue-All, is pure casein. Note it is sold by Borden and has a cow on the
> front.

Casein is also used as the binder medium for certain paints.  Egg
tempera paints use egg yolk, casein colors use casein.  Both produce
an extremely durable, _clear_ film, which lets the artist produce
bright, luminous colors.  "Tempera" is just a word for pigment
suspended in some emulsion.  So poster paints are "tempera" paints,
but not the same as egg tempera.  I don't know if the "non-toxic"
poster paints sold use casein as part of the binding.  Artists' colors
sometimes do.

I mostly work with acrylics or egg tempera paints these days.  I had
the most hideous reaction to turpentine (made from pine tar), that I gave
up on oil paints.  And I'm not even going to _try_ the casein colors.
You might want to check with the manufacturers of those "non-toxic"
school supplies before you give them to your child.  I know that _I_
always end up with glue and paint all over my hands when I work.

Lee M.Thompson-Herbert        KD6WUR                  [log in to unmask]
Member, Knights of Xenu (1995).  Chaos Monger and Jill of All Trades.
"There are some people who will argue whether the flames are blue
or green, when the real question is that their arse is on fire."