Gelled Alcohol - Sugar Syrup (water and sugar)

[Jammit]

The issue I want help with.

 

When I mix water with sugar on a 1:1 ratio, it works as an excellent carrier for pigment, and when applied to paper or timber etc., the water evaporates and the sugar acts as a binder and holds the pigment to the surface.

 

IF it is done in a VERY fine layer, it works well, however if the "paint" is applied a little bit on the thick side, the sugar tends to remain tacky - especially in hot or humid environments.

 

It becomes much like an old boiled sweet in ones pocket on a hot sweaty day.

 

This "tackyness" tends to glue or stick anything that is applied to it - and this is the problem. The pages DO stick together.

 

OK so I figured that I could use (ethyl) alcohol and shellac and pigment, but the shellac costs heaps, and so on and so forth. Sugar is about $2 a Kg and Shellac is about $35 a Kg.

 

I then tried to "gell" alcohol using lumps of premixed gelatin (jelly) - giving a ration of about 50:50 water - and the alcohol stripped the water out of the jelly, and the gelatin became a semi-opaque layer of rock on the bottom of the jar - much like a drum of unstirred sodium silicate.

 

With my limited knowledge - I am aware that one can "gell" alcohol, but it doesn't have the "binder" as a residue - after the alcohol has evaporated, like a water and sugar mix does.

 

What can I mix with alcohol to make it a slightly syrupy liquid, that leaves a fair volume of binder, to glue the pigment to whatever I paint it on?

 

The binder needs to be cheap, hard drying, commonly available and of low toxicity.

 

Any ideas?