T Stands for Paste Paper

Nan and I went to the Masscribes "Not in My House You Don't Event" where we made paste paper. My workstation set up with a piece of plexiglass, handout, mark making tools, travel mug of tea and a bottle of Stevia drops

The workshop was held at the Sportsmans Club in Norwood. Bystanders were decked out in their Christmoose finery.

The workshop was taught by Nancy Galligan. Her demonstration ready to show different techniques: bruising the paper before pasting, making marks with different tools, under coloring with pastels, pencils, etc. The paper used was Arches Text Wove.

If you don't know what paste paper is, it's basically finger painting for grown ups. A paste is made from flour or cornstarch. There are a ton of recipes for cooked or cold paste. The paste we used was made from Elmer's (formerly Ross') Art Paste.  Acrylic paint is mixed into the paste for color. The workshop was 3 hours long, and it went by took quickly. I realized after the workshop, I didn't take any process pictures

Marks made in the paste with a chopstick

Mat board scraps laid underneath the paper for texture. 

Paste can be applied to many papers even unwaxed butcher paper that's been crumpled. Watercolor papers react best with paste paper.

Back at home, I thought I'd take some process photos. The plexiglass is spritzed with water to hold the paper and the paper is dampened with a wet sponge

A blob of paste is plopped on the paper and smeared with the damp sponge across the sheet.

Most paste paper techniques have the paste portioned into small cups and applied to the paper. Nancy streamlined the process by dropping a wormlet of paint on the acrylic board and picking the color up with a sponge to apply to the paper. An even quicker method is to just drop dots of color directly onto the paper. 

Some of my classmates had commented that there was a lot of wasting of paint as you applied and it got wiped off. You might not want to use your professional grade acrylics. I just used some inexpensive craft paints. For even more vibrant results you can use pigment from Twinrocker.

I didn't rinse out my sponge from a previous sheet of paper so left some blue coloring in the paste. Since I was working with blue and purple paint, it didn't matter to me. If you want clear colors, be sure to rinse your sponge in between.

My cork didn't leave very good marks, but the chopstick did.

You can get some shimmer to your paste by adding some Sparkle Powder from Twinrocker

or some Pearl Ex Mica Powder. I like the sheen the powders give to the paper when dry.

Paste papers left to dry on a plastic sheet on the floor. I had draped a couple of sheets over a clothes drying rack. The paper dried  with ripples, but this can easily be ironed out from the backside or with a pressing cloth if the back is also pasted.

Paste paper can be used as decorative paper for book covers, decorative book end paper, wrapping paper, and it can be used as a substrate for other artwork.

A lot of people seem to make a Holy Grail out of paste paper. It's really quite simple and a lot quicker with the Elmer's Art Paste. It's also very forgiving. If you don't like what you did, let it dry and paste over with a different color. Be aware that pasting over is a bit like using glazes, you may see some of the previous color and marks come through.

The Elmer's recipe makes a gallon of paste. Nancy said left over paste will last 2 to 3 months and does not need to be refrigerated the way left over flour paste needs.

Have you made paste paper?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.