Submitted by subrosa in Anarchism

Gonna visit the city next month, might as well spend some time decorating it. Currently looking at paper with a weight of either 100g/m² or 40g/m².

Regular printer paper is 80g/m², iirc. I worry that 40g is too transparent for what I plan to do, and that 100g is too heavy/thick for pasting. I wanna go big, and then go home. Can't waste a whole lot of time on making sure it stays up. Any opinions?

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liminal_d wrote (edited )

I've signed up to raddle just to answer this question :)

In my experience the lightest paper that isn't translucent is perfect. Remember the paper will dry to its dry colour. In my experience, the thinner stuff sticks wonderfully to the surface (the more textured the surface the better).

The lighter stuff I find I can position and hold with one hand and soak it to the surface in place. This saves too much mucking about and uses less wheatpaste. Other benefits of the lighter stuff are it dries quicker and its more difficult to remove. It's actually quite funny going back and seeing how committed your artistic adversaries were by how quickly they gave up trying to remove it.

You may find the lighter stuff may stretch a little if you move it about too much; this may be a concern for large pasteups where many sections are required, but not so much if the design isn't particularly intricate and can be overlayed or plugged-up.

By-the-by, as an addition I add a little tea tree oil to the pot to stop the old mold getting to grips as quick. And as has been mentioned already, whether light or heavy paper, using what you have to hand is always a good starting point.

Good luck and happy pasting.

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subrosa OP wrote

I've signed up to raddle just to answer this question :)

hah, appreciate it, thanks for taking the time :)

Earlier today I did some basic tests with regular printer paper and was surprised at how hard it is to remove once fully dried up. Pretty incredible what you can do with water, flour and paper.

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An_Old_Big_Tree wrote (edited )

I've done a bunch, and never cared about how much it weighs really.

If regular is 80 and your option is 100, then 100 is fine I think!

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subrosa OP wrote

Ok, thanks! I tend to overthink the simple stuff.

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