Book Arts and Photography

How to make Methyl Cellulose paste.

https://youtu.be/xC6p63xnSj0
I don’t use mythel cellulose paste too often. I like when a paste give a stronger bond. But when you need a paste to make book cloth, methyl cellulose is a one paste to use. I keep methyl cellulose powder in the classroom as you never know when you might need it. When I need paste to make book cloth, I like to have a thicker paste. In this video, I heated water till approximately 150 degrees (70 celsius) and then added 18th of a cup of powder to 1 cup (275 ml) of hot water. I needed a full cup of paste to make the two sheets of book cloth. I did have some left over. It is better to make more than you need. It really does take time to fulling formulate. I would hate to be in a situation where I needed a bit more paste and had to make it on the spot. As it happened another student was working with a faux leather book cover and wanted to try using a mix of PVA and Methyl cellulose (MC). When you mix the two at 50% to 50%, you keep some of the bonding qualities of the PVA but gain some open time to work the book cover. At the end of the video can see that the PVA does not look all that different. It is important to label your jars if you want to be sure you know which jar contains the past or adhesive you want to use. I will be working on a video on how I used the book cloth from this vide.

Making more paper from corn husks

Two stages of corn husk preparation. The full corn husk has been cooked and still wet. The threaded fibers are the result of being processed in the hollander pulp beater.

Corn husk (left) has been cooked and dried. Fibers (right) were removed soon after the beating process started.

Round sheets of corn husks paper

My current project is making round sheets of paper from corn husks. When the sheets dry they look very much like tortillas de maize or corn tortillas. Soon more images of the project will be shared.

How to Make Paper from Corn Husks

People often want to know how to make paper from a plant fiber. Many different fibers can be used. For this demonstrations, I used fibers that were donated by Bill Tracy, Professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Agronomy Department. He manages a large sweet corn research program. In the paper lab we have Lilian Bell’s classic book Plant Fibers for Papermaking. Her book is a great book to start your own investigation. This link will display the location of the book in the class bookshelf.Others exist and additionally, one of the best resources for all kinds of information is the website for Hand Papermaking Organization. This link will play the video How to Make Paper from Corn Husks in HD on YouTube.

Pulp painting workshop

Saturday, Barbara Landes and I hosted a short pulp painting workshop for 7 area high school Art teachers. We had a wonderful time working inside, even if the spring was starting to shine outside. Thank to these area teachers that gave up part of a Saturday morning to learn about hand papermaking.
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Paper Casting Video

Thsee video clips were taken during last November in the Paper Lab during Barbara Landes‘s workshop. This video is longer than the one specifically about embossing a shape in handmade paperI hope it gives you some ideas for papermaking related projects. This link will allow you to watch it on the YouTube channel and can ben watched in a larger screen.

Cast or embossed handmade paper video

This is the first of two videos that showcase methods of using handmade paper to cast or form shapes. The video clips were recorded during Barbara Landes’s workshop which took place November 17, 2013 at the Paper Lab in the Art Department’s Art Lofts. Myszka Lewis’s work is featured again as she uses some crochet designs to press into damp sheets of cotton paper. Of course never forget to visit Handpapermaking Organization. The organization and publication have been in existence for more than 25 years. The bi-annual publication is the best resources for papermakers.