LOIS, from Sharon

A. I can try. I looked up milk paint in my trusty electronic file that proved untrusty -- I found nothing. But I did find this in another file; in fact, there is a whole folder full of information from a previous story so old that I forgot about it.

Two places that sell milk paint are the Old-Fashioned Milk Paint Co. of Groton, phone 448-6336, and the Trend-Lines Catalog in Chelsea, phone 617-884-8882.

And, in this treasure-trove of information that I found are several recipes for making your own milk paint. This one is the easiest, from John A. Johnson of Johnson Paint Co. in Boston: Mix equal parts of powdered milk (sold in supermarkets) and dry pigment, such as red oxide, sienna, umber, and other agents (sold in paint stores); add twice as much water by volume. Add more water if necessary. Other formulas are more complicated and involve more ingredients, some of them hard to find.