Making Paste Papers

I am collecting ingredients for a mermaid themed collage, and needed some paste papers in blues and greens, so here's how I made them.

My working surface is a sheet of the white siding used in milk barns and greenhouses.  Any smooth surface that's easy to clean will do; plexiglass, formica or enamel tabletop.

I used white, acid free cardstock.  Colors are nice too, just be sure the paper is heavy enough not to shred when wet and worked on.  You will also need various tools to manipulate the paste:

Here is my paste recipe.  There are many others, but this one is cheap, easy to make, and has a nice smooth consistency.

1/4 cup cornstarch
1 3/4 cups water

Mix cornstarch and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan until smooth.  Add 1 cup water and cook over medium high heat, stirring continuously, until it thickens like custard.  Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 cup water.  It will be runny at this point.  Let cool thoroughly without disturbing it.  It will take a couple of hours to rethicken.  Once cooled, strain the paste through a seive, then divide it into small containers - cottage cheese cartons work well.  Stir acrylic paint into the paste until it's as dark as you want it.  2 - 3 teaspoons is usually about right.  You can also leave the paste uncolored and drop colors of paint on top of the paste after it's spread on the paper, as I've shown in this demo.

Brush or sponge the paint so it mingles and covers the paste.  Sponged papers are particularly nice for landscapes and fantasy collages.

For a slightly different look, add paint and paste to another sheet and press the two together, then pull apart.  This creates wonderful lacy designs that look like trees or shrubbery.

You can also brush the paint on smoothly, then draw combs or tools through it to leave marks.  It's particularly interesting to paint a sheet of paper first, maybe with metallic or pearlescent paint, then, when dry, add a dark colored paste over the top.  When you comb through it, the underpainting will shine through, making very colorful, complex patterns.  On the following sheets I've experimented with some shell shapes.

And here is a sponged paper with silver over blue.  Very mermaid-looking, don't you think? 

Lay your wet paste papers over a rack or carefully on newspapers to dry, but if you use newspapers, check a few times to make sure the paste paper isn't sticking to the paper beneath it.  When dry you can either iron the back side or press under something heavy to help keep the paper flat.

The next step is starting on the collage.  Results will follow!