paste paper
on saturday i took a paste paper workshop at minnesota center for book arts. i had no idea what paste paper was, and i didn’t try too hard to figure it out beforehand — i wanted to be surprised by something new.
and it was really fun! the gist: you make paste with corn starch, cake flour, or methyl cellulose, and mix in color (we used acrylic paints). then wet down a large sheet of paper, and brush on the paste.
and then you make patterns! we used combs, nubby soap dishes, grouting tools, and a ton of squeegees that were cut apart. we mixed and swirled and got messy.
i’ll admit that it was tough to let those little imperfections go… a smudge here, a crooked line there… you can start over as many times as you want (it’s a lot like finger painting), but in the end i accepted that it’s better to love your “happy accidents” and move on to the next sheet.
i now have 25 big sheets of paste paper! you’ll see more of them in book-form some day. and i’m thinking that making paste paper would be a really great outdoor summer pARTy activity.
a bonus to my day: finding my burst journals in the center’s gift shop!
March 7th, 2011 at 7:17 am
Paste papers are so much fun to make!
March 7th, 2011 at 7:53 am
What fun! Good stuff.
March 7th, 2011 at 8:05 am
sounds messy and fun and messily fun!
March 7th, 2011 at 10:02 am
Totally fun! I love it. Can you feel the texture now that they’re dry?
March 7th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
oh! i can see anna and i now think alike since working together…i was wondering if you could feel the texture too. this looks like way too much fun. can’t wait to see them fancy-ing up your next set of journals.
March 8th, 2011 at 6:11 am
I remember doing this at primary school! Great fun – and much more beautiful results than I recall getting.
March 8th, 2011 at 11:36 am
paste paper looks like so much fun and would make a great pARTy! your journal looks great on that table, too!
March 8th, 2011 at 10:07 pm
What fun! I used to make paste paper in my parents basement and they thought I was a strange kid
maybe that’s where paper schmaper started?! Your papers are gorgeous!
March 9th, 2011 at 10:44 am
every one is more gorgeous than the next! YOWZA! You are prolific.
March 11th, 2011 at 9:27 am
what really stands out to me was your willingness to not do any pre-research! to let yourself be surprised and leave yourself open. so fun, did it take you back to being a kid and finger painting?
March 18th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
that’s such good news!
i love it!
ps: thank you~ wink.
xo
June 1st, 2011 at 7:43 am
I’ve never done paste paper before, because I always thought it kind of looked like a preschool project. But your paste paper is gorgeous—and so precise! (Which is especially impressive considering you didn’t practice or do any research ahead of time.) You’ve totally opened my eyes to what the medium can be—fantastic!
February 15th, 2012 at 11:15 am
Hi,
We are doing a workshop at our library of paste papers and I was so struck by your beautiful images of the paper. Could I use a photo of all the paper hanging for a flier that would only hang at our library? I would credit you with a photo credit.
Thanks so much and I look forward to hearing back from you! Liza Walsh