Strengthening paper

[wolf]

Not if you're a sugar eating bug.

[esato]

Makes you wonder about the food you eat, no?

Well, after I found out we sometimes actually eat some kind of beetle, I was not impressed we may eat methyl cellulose! See this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dactylopius_coccus
It's a bug used as food coloring!

CMC is apparently is used in some sweet recipies like biscuits and pies to make the dough more consistent.

You might want to check though, that it's pure CMC and doesn't contain anything else like sugars and preservatives.

Well... I think its pure, as it's written on the bottle "purissimo", which means very pure.

[khunggiadien]

Oh, very nice
(honestly)

[thut]

It folds well when properly treated with things like methylcellulose or gelatin, depending of course on what your final model is. I tend to give it heavy MC treatments so it becomes rather springy, although with lesser quality mulberry papers this can lead to cracking.

How do you treat paper with gelatin?

[Finward]

All right, I finally bought two bags of CMC and started my experiments yesterday. I have also recently received the book Advanced Origami from Michael LaFosse, so i followed the process explained there, step by step. but when it finally dried, my sheet couldn't be pelled off! It was like the glass was painted with a bulky painting.
1. I used sirgo paper (tissue+white glue) Too thin???
2. I was suggested to grease the cristal before working, is that useful?
Humm i had more questions, but i cant remember then now...

[Michael LaFosse]

Finward wrote:
I have also recently received the book Advanced Origami from Michael LaFosse, so i followed the process explained there, step by step. but when it finally dried, my sheet couldn't be pelled off! It was like the glass was painted with a bulky painting.
1. I used sirgo paper (tissue+white glue) Too thin???
2. I was suggested to grease the cristal before working, is that useful?

Michael's reply:
Methyl Cellulose parts cleanly from all clean glass surfaces.
Two problems that I see: the white glue and the thin paper. If white glue was a part of your paper you could have activated the glue with the water--some white glues are reversible with water--and when the paper dried the white glue held firmly to the glass. Thin paper makes it possible for the white glue to migrate through the paper to the glass, making a bond. If you must use this kind of paper place a barrier of aluminum foil between the paper and the glass. Be sure to leave at least a couple of centimeters around the perimeter of the paper for paste to seal the sheet to the glass. Cut the dried sheet away and clean up the pasted perimeter with a razor blade. Never use grease or oil:it will ruin your paper.

Hope this helps.

Michael LaFosse

[gailprentice]

I have some questions about PVOH glue...I am in the U.S. and went to some craft stores and the glues there do not state what kind of glue they are. Lots of Elmers white glue and then a lot of others (Aileene's, Gorilla, etc.) but I could not tell if any were PVOH. I didn't notice any clear ones. I wrote to Elmers and they said that their white glues and school glues were a mixture of PVOH and PVA.

The reason I am looking for PVOH is that I read somewhere (maybe on this forum but I searched & couldn't find any info) that PVOH works better than MC for strengthening lokta paper. Does anyone find that to be true? If so, is it because the PVOH is more flexible than mc when dry? 

I have a lot of mc but would like to try some lokta and if PVOH is best, does anyone know where can I get some PVOH in the U.S? Brand? I did a google search and found some for $15 for 8 oz (!) from MuseuM Services online. Or is mc really fine for lokta and/or Elmers white glue (which I now know is PVOH plus PVA).

Thanks!

[SasukeUchiha]

what I actually use may sound weird, but I use hairspray to treat my paper. The concept behind it is that hairspray makes hairs unlikely to flop around and such, and it holds then in place. That's what it also does to paper fibers. It requires quite a few coats (or just one thick one) to get the paper quite crisp. It kind of acts like MC, because it's water soluble as far as I can tell. I also use it to make double tissue. Put the papers together, and spray away. Let me know if it works for you.

[Joe the white]

I've never thought of using hair spray. I'd say it would act against the paper in the long run, depending on how the chemicals react and what the ph level is. I'd also be careful because hair sprays can contain formaldehyde, which is toxic and the chemicals in general can inflame the skin.

If you can get a ph neutral hair spray that is non-toxic (maybe a spray-starch?) it might be a decent alternative to MC.

[phillipcurl]

I've used spray starch some. It definitely isn't an alternative, but it works to a degree. Try it out and see if it works for you.

[SasukeUchiha]

Well, it works for me! It takes way less time to dry, and peels cleanly off of any non porous surface. You can also use it as an adhesive, when you stick 2 sheets together to make a bigger one, and it holds the fibers together like they were together to begin with. I really recommend doing it with a spare sheet of tissue or mulberry, and see if it works. The color of the paper changes if you peel it off your spraying surface and hang it to dry. That's what I did the first time, and the paper became really clear. So much so, that the only things you could see were the mulberry fibers to give it color. If you let it dry on the spraying surface, it should peel right off, and the color should be very close if not exactly the same to what it was at first.