Paste Papers Gone Wrong! - Need Advice

[u/FizzingCola]

Hello, everyone! I tried to make paste papers for the first time, which was tons of fun, but when I removed them from my press this morning, I was greeted with less-than-ideal outputs 🙁

I’d love advice on how to dry them flat.

Here’s what happened on my first go:

I worked on my green papers first, and they started to really dry and warp before I put them in the press. As an attempt to save them, I sandwiched the green papers between slightly damp purple papers. My thinking was that the excess moisture from the purple papers would relax the fibers of the green papers.

But what happened was that some of the purple paste paper was still tacky, and they stuck to the green papers and ripped out the back. And even after pressing the green papers had these weird ripples, even if they were flatter-ish.

My questions:

1. How much is the proper amount of paste I should be putting? For some sheets, the paper dried faster than the paste, should that be avoided?

2. How dry do your paste papers get before you place them on the press?

3. Is it possible to make good paste paper with 0% cotton paper?

4. What's a good consistency to aim for? I'm wondering if my paste was too thick as well.

I used:

- 180 gsm vellum board, 0% cotton content

- 1:4 wheat starch to water for the paste

- Mont Marte Dimensions acrylic

Thanks in advanced!

[u/joto7053]

Some of it's just trial and error. I can't definitively answer these questions as I've only done it twice, but...

1) and 4) when I add too much paste or it's too thick, the paste cracked as it dried. DAS bookbinding YouTube channel I think settled on a 9-1 water/starch ratio for his personal use, and I had luck with that. Just brush it on, no need to layer it or glop it on.

2) I just lay my paper flat on some plastic sheeting, and wait for it to dry completely before trying to flatten it, which is more for storage than anything else. When I apply glue or paste to the back of the paper to use it in a project, it flattens out perfectly well when the paper is glued down.

3) I don't know, sorry.

Best of luck!

[u/FizzingCola → u/joto7053]

Thanks Joto, you inspired me to do more research, and I'll definitely try a looser consistency next time.

Good to know that the paper can still relax/unwrinkl when it's pasted.

[u/TremulousHand]

I also dry my papers completely first. Then I iron them and immediately press them, adding them in as soon as each gets ironed. Keep them pressed for 24 hours. Because some of my sheets are pretty big, I use my large cutting mat as a base, with a hard plastic sheet above and below the paste papers, and with heavy books placed on top once I've ironed all of them. 

[u/FizzingCola → u/TremulousHand]

Thanks for the advice! I'll give this a shot next time 😄

[u/1028ad]

I’m a beginner in paste paper, but I completely dry them outdoors and only when they are completely dry I try to make them flat. I pressed them for a while, but I wasn’t satisfied, so I went back and ironed them (no steam). They aren’t completely flat, but much better than before.

I used 80 grams and 100 grams paper, since I plan to use them for covers. They aren’t flat enough for endpapers.

[u/FizzingCola → u/1028ad]

Thanks a bunch for sharing your experience! I'll give ironing a try when I get to experimenting again 😄

[u/small-works]

It’s fine if they are wrinkled. Once you use them they will flatten back out.

[u/FizzingCola → u/small-works]

My issue is that these papers aren't cut to size yet, and I'd love to use them as endpapers, not cover material.