So here is how I make paste. It's really easy. For a small batch of paste, you need:2/3 cup cold water
2 tablespoons wheat starch or flour
Some people recommend distilled water. Let the water saturate the starch for a few minutes and then whisk it until you have eliminated all the lumps.
Now put it into a pot and cook it. If you cook it on direct heat, it is important to be whisking or stirring constantly to prevent the paste from burning to the bottom of your pot.To reduce the difficulties, I use a double-boiler to cook paste. When using a double-boiler, the paste is far less likely to burn (maybe impossible?) and it isn't
necessary to stir constantly, just frequently.Cook it for about 10 minutes. When it's hot it will be thick and runny like...glue! Let it cool completely. When it cools, it will be more gelatinous. So, since it becomes a gelatinous blob, just mix it and mash it up to make it smooth when you're ready to use it, so that you can spread it without lumps.
This kind of paste has a short shelf life - it will likely start to get watery and moldy within a week. It might live a bit longer if you keep it refrigerated and you can add a bit of water to your paste container - the water will just sit on top and create a seal to help delay the onset of mold. Just pour off the water when you're ready to use it.
18 comments:
Rhonda, you are such an asset to the book binding community. Showing how to make paste is really important and yet I've never thought of showing it. I often have trouble getting wheaten flour in Sydney - there must be a worldwide conspiracy.
FWIW, the "health" food section of SuperStore sells wheat gluten - which I *think* is just a fancy name for wheat starch.
thanks carol, hmmm what is it with wheat starch?? i had a message from another person who said wheat starch is available at Chinese grocery stores. So I'll be checking that now.
and thanks jen. i just did a little goggling and i don't think wheat gluten and wheat starch are the same product - but i may have a look when i go for groceries this weekend!
Double boiler- Genius! I've had problems with lumps and that should fix them!
Do you ever use methyl cellulose? That's all I ever use, but it's not reversible.
yes kiley, the double boiler makes a big difference!
eb, i don't know anything about methyl cellulose - do you recommend it? does the paste have a longer lifespan than wheat paste?
It lasts indefinitely and requires no cooking and a little goes a long way. ~5 T. makes a quart. By itself it's a weak bond, but cutting it into pva like with paste improves the properties of both. I'm told that moths aren't drawn to it like with wheat paste. Pure wheat paste is probably still the choice for paper to paper where the objective is to have a bond that will break before damaging the paper, like with gluing a paper hanging tab to the back of a drawing on paper. One draw back to the methyl cellulose is that if you run out of starch for your sauce recipe you probably won't want to raid your book binding supplies for a thickener.
Oh now I want to try some methyl cellulose, to make paste that is, not gravy :-)
I know a bookbinder who uses a mix of pva and methyl cellulose for almost all of his bookbinding. He showed me a bucket of the stuff, and explained that the "slime factor" is important--that you should mix just enough methyl cellulose into the pva to make it nice and slimy.
of course, the slime factor! good to know, thanks :)
I know a few people who swear by methyl cellulose but it's really expensive in the art stores here so I've never picked it up. Anyone have a reasonable source for it?
Great post, thank you. - My understanding about using distilled water is that it allows for an archival paste, whereas plain ole tap would not. True?
I was just viewing this site and saw the questions about methyl cellulose. You would be very surprised to learn that you probaly aready have some methyl cellulose in the name brands of Citrucel or Unifiber used as a laxitive but is same thing.
Good Luck and thanks for the info that I gathered from the site as well.
P.S. Wheat paste can be bought in powder form in the wallpaper section of Lowes ETC. I bought a box (name brand; Golden Harvest vinyl wallcovering paste for little over $2.00. I learned losts of tricks as a paint specailist.
This is so great that you are posting this here Rhonda,someone said you are an asset, understatement.
I uses CMC as a binder for glazes a lot and when i was making paper paste for kids art projects and mache. You can get it through pottery making stores. It's one of the cellulose products that interferes least with color and curls up least on paper.
Adornyourself, aka: kathy
Link for less expensive CMC, a cellulose porduct, bout 1/2 way down the page:
http://www.baileypottery.com/clay/clays-chemicals.htm
Infinite thanks, Rhonda.
Wait, EB, I thought straight methyl cellulose is reversible...? just not when mixed with PVA (since PVA is not reversible). I wonder how it mixes with EVA (similar to PVA, but reversible). If it has the same effect on EVA as it does on PVA, I'd say that would probably be a completely amazing bookbinding adhesive.
Eb, Methyl Cellulose IS reversible but it does have a much weaker bond than paste.
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