Milk Paint

 Milk Paint...I love milk paint, it's creamy (if it comes from a can) cleans up in soap and water, it doesn't expect the surface to be perfectly sanded, just cleaned, dry and roughed up a little as long as there are no paint chips that need to be scraped off. And depending on the look you want, it can make the piece look sharp or rustic.

There are many types of milk paint on the market made from natural products which is good for our planet and ourselves. Some come in powder form and some are premixed, open, stir and paint. I recently used General Finishes Milk Paint, it's premixed and in a variety of colors. I found General Finishes in a little antique store here in town, so don't overlook small local antique furniture stores, sometimes they carry a variety of different types of milk or chalk paint. It's nice to go into a shop and be able to ask questions about the product plus your supporting a small business.

My daughter, who is also an artist, wanted to know about milk paint, she was like "seriously it's not made from milk."  Why yes it was made from whole milk, with other ingredients to turn that milk into an inexpensive paint used in the 1800's. Not only was it cheap, but it also dried quickly and had little to no smell while it dried.

Then her next question was can you make it yourself...hmmm, my answer was, I suppose so.

So, I had to find out. In my search, I found out that yes you can make your own milk paint.

It's curdled whole milk that make a binder.  And to get those curds you use vinegar which will make the milk sour and curdle after you let it sit for a day, or you can put it in a pot and let it heat up on low heat for about 5 to 10 min. You then scoop out the curdles and rinse them in clean water. Put curdles in a clean bowl and slowly stir in borax which is what makes the curdles smooth. This is your binder. You then can divide the milk binder into jars with lids and then you add mineral pigments to the jar or jars.

You can buy pigments online or if you feel inspired go out into nature and get rocks to crush them in a mortar and pestle. I suggest you have your pigments ready to go and only make what you need for your project because it's milk and it will eventually go bad. It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week and as always make sure you mark the jar.

You can always adjust the ingredients to how much you need.

2 quarts of milk

1 cup of vinegar 

4 TBS Borax found in laundry aisle in store

pigments (I had read that the more pigment you use, the more opaque the paint will be.)

recipe from 

• Green Guide For Artists by Karen Michel

***Please remember when your handling pigments to always wear a mask and rubber gloves.***

(And always read the ingredients if your buying milk paint in a can. Sometimes chemicals can be an added ingredient)

So go out and experiment! 

Peace and Love,

Dolores