The Origami Forum

i think glass would be better but if you cannot find good glass then plastic is better than nothing!

Well glass is the best option I guess, but I'm using plastic now with great results.
As for the rips, I only had that a few times when I let my paper dry in the hot sun, so I don't really know what could have caused it. Maybe you should try to use different proportions of MC/water, or try to get another surface. Try to look in the MC thread, maybe you can find a solution there.

I started using a different mc, and the rips stopped, so I'm blaming the mc that I used.