adhesive advice

As much as we would love for everything in the etsyjournals to be archival and last a really long time, it's not practical to expect everyone who participates to know what the "right" materials will be.

In this post, we'll make recommendations of what are the "best" adhesives to use, but really whatever you do will be okay.

Etsyjournal participant, Phyllis Petersen (aka JOYouz) is an experienced book artist and kindly gave us some great advice about archival-quality adhesives:

The best are wheat and rice pastes one makes in small batches themselves. Most people don't want to do that these days usually.

PVA, Polyvinyl acetate, otherwise known as white glue, is excellent. Most brands are not reversible but I doubt many things made to be sold on Etsy need to be.

There are different brands on the market. Elmer's is probably the best known but not the best quality product; well, not for our needs anyway mostly because it's not elastic and dries brittle.

The primary difference between brands is probably how much elasticity there is after it dries. Elasticity is good for our purposes... book and paper products. Manufacturers are often not very open with their PVA formulas but the little differences between them can be significant when dealing with something like a book that will be opened and closed for years (hopefully) and needs to remain pliant.

Jade is a brand used by many professional bookbinders. Jade in the formula known as Jade R is reversible - if that is important to your work. I don't consider it that important in mine.

Jade and other similar products are listed and described on the Talas website. I trust anything recommended by Talas. Their staff is extremely knowledgeable about all the products they carry as well as bookbinding techniques. They can sometimes be more expensive however. Quality and inexpensive are not often compatible. lol

If anyone wants to go to the trouble of making their own wheat paste or rice paste, here's where to get the raw materials.

One brand of PVA widely available in most craft chain stores (also very elastic) is Aleene's Original Tacky Glue.

Nori made by Yasutomo is good.
http://www.dickblick.com/zz240/00/
http://danielsmith.com/products~sku~266+300+001.asp

PVA can be watered down to the consistency better for spreading. Don't ever allow it to freeze however because it will lose its stickum. Most art suppliers will not ship PVA during cold months for that reason.

Water can be added to any brand of PVA to make it easier to apply with a brush and it dries completely clear and won't yellow.

Phyllis also warns against using "YES!" paste, as it is not truly archival and will discolor with age.

Thanks for all the great information, Phyllis!

For those who are concerned about not having the "right" materials, don't sweat it! A big part of this project is the process involved, the collaboration. Even if parts of the book aren't archival, their slow transformation of the book (through aging, yellowing, etc) will continue to be a part of the process. Think of it as a lasting metaphor for how working with other artists has an effect on your work.