Lokta for tesselations - MC or spray starch or?

[gailprentice]

I have varying thicknesses of lokta papers that I would like to use for tesselations. Some is very thin (maybe 30 gsm) and the others range from 40 gsm to around 80 gsm. I would like to stiffen some of these a bit for tesselations.

In Eric Gjerde's tesselation book (and in a post I found here), he recommends spray starch for treating unryu for tesselations. Is this good for the lokta papers, also? Or would mc be better? I have both. He posted that the spray starch may actually be made of mc so maybe it doesn't matter. Anyone have any experience/advice on this or for using lokta in tesselations in general?

Thanks!

[EricGjerde]

Hi Gail,

spray starch is typically methylcellulose (even if it doesn't call it that specifically.)

you can use this to treat large sheets, or buy some mc from an art supply store and mix it up yourself. I find the spray starch works well for even distribution and it's cheap :)

that said, you're adding sizing to the paper after it's made, this works to varying degrees of success... lokta is made from relatively unbeaten fibers, so it's quite soft and the fibers are very long. I've had mixed success using plain MC to treat lokta paper.

Since the paper is made in a specific sort of way, there's often a lot of variance in the thickness of the paper- this can be the most challenging thing for both folding and for applying sizing. (sizing = MC, gelatin, konnyaku, or other thickening/strengthening agents.)

I'd just give it a try on a small piece and see what happens. Try varying amounts of application; I'd do at least one where you completely soak it in the MC to see how stiff it gets.

you can buy lokta paper that has been sized while it was being made, I vastly prefer this paper to the softer unbeaten paper, but that's a completely different conversation :)

good luck!

[gailprentice]

Thank you so much, Eric! I will experiment...I have a lot of mc and a can of Niagara .

I also bought 2 sheets of oiled lokta based on your recommendation in the book. These sheets have a great look & certainly do seem like they will be wonderful for tesselations!