The Origami Forum

Okay, so I saw in the internet that we could make wallpaper paste using flour and mixing it with water. Then we boil the hole thing and in becomes a wallpaper paste. So i was wondering if i could use this glue to stick to tissue together and use it for origami (back-coating).


Thanks in advance!


Sorry for my bad english.


--Lolipop (It's not my real name btw)

Yes it is possible, however, Methylcellulose is easier to work with and less likely to attract moulds.

I've tried wheat paste. I don't remember the proportions I settled on, but it had to pretty thick for it work well as a glue. It also didn't help with the stiffness or crispness of the paper, in fact it worked against it.

My guess is that it wouldn't work that well with tissue, and MC would be a better choice.

Now I didn't experiment that much... different flours or porportions, others may have.

OK, here's where I start wondering. Most glues (including wallpaper paste) are polyvinyl acetate (PVA) based. But here everyone is talking about methylcellulose. Which is it?

Methylcellulose is the wallpaper glue that can be bought in powder form. If you mix it up with water it gives you a clear eggwhite like substance that is great for sizing paper. Watch Sara Adams video on making double tissue paper to see how it looks like and how it is done: http://www.happyfolding.com/instructions-double_tissue
A very common brand in Europe is Metylan normal that can be bought in any home improvement store, but you can also get Methylcellulose at pharmacies as thickening agent (probably it is more expensive there). A small amount of powder lasts for a long time. Using a box like the the one Sara has in her video, after several years I haven't finished the first box yet.

And PVA is basically white glue. It is particularly useful for tissue foil because MC doesn't adhere well to foil. But the PVA does and I think most feel that the sizing it gives the paper at the same time is superior to making tissue foil with spray adhesive...

Absolutely!