I don’t really know what to call this other than a glue, it’s a paste like substance that is a natural alternative to PVA and therefore I wanted to experiment to see if this would work as an alternative to PVA. To ultimately reduce the amount of artificial and non biodegradable materials I use within my forms, I also found the PVA spheres I made previously for my stitch experiments became rigid and felt quite brittle making then hard to manipulate with stitch, this may be due to the amount of glue to water content I used (this may require more experimentation to perfect)
This was made using 1/3 cup of cornflour to 1 cup water, boiled until it thickened and went slightly translucent, to use this as a usable paste for my sphere forms I have to thin them down the glue to use with my handmade paper.
By tearing up bits of my handmade paper and pasting then onto the ballon I am able to control the thickness and opacity of the forms, the process of papermaking itself is very controlled and repetitive but the paper created is unpredictable and changeable, so at the drying stage of the paper I have very little control. These forms are a mixture of controlled and uncontrolled process and I really enjoy that.
Using the corn flour glue itself was very similar to PVA, I am yet to see how these change during the drying process and how long these will actually take to dry. I am hoping it will dry transparent but I am not yet convinced, I have a feeling it will have a milky layer.
Lara Hoad Artist Designer: Maker 