Chapter Two: Experimental textures with paper

Below are my experimental paper textures. Apologies but they published slightly out of order. I'm still wearing my blogger 'L' plates.

I used PVA glue and mounted the papers on black card which I attached to mount board with double-sided stitcky tape.

Detail: scrunched and pressed tracing paper

Tracing paper is hard and unforgiving. It cracks when scrunched and forms delicate tracks in the paper.

Detail: gathered and stuffed tissue balls

I used a very fine needle and thread. This helped stop the tissue from tearing.

Texture with tissue

Machine gathering is very effective. I set straight stitch to its longest setting and gently stitched rows about 1cm apart along a long length of tissue. I pulled the threads gently and knotted the thread to secure the ends.

The 'balls' are squares of tissue, gathered and stuffed with tissue offcuts.

Detail: glassine beads

I crimped the edges of the fat beads with craft scissors. I used spots of PVA glue to stop the beads unrolling.

Crumple, ripple and roll

I used a paper rippler. Very effective on the card and cartridge paper. It did not 'take' on the thinner glassine, crepe and tracing papers.

Glassine was good for rolled beads and the crepe crumpled into lovely balls of texture.

Detail: ripped and folded card

Card makes lovely crisp folds.

Rip, fold and twist

Left column: glassine, crepe and kitchen paper.

Right column: tissue, handmade paper and card.

Detail: ruched kitchen paper

Ruching transforms this ordinary paper into something extraordinary.

Rip, ruche and pierce

The photocopy strips on the left were ripped along children's novelty rulers.

Middle column: greaseproof, japanese mulberry paper, tissue, cartridge (pierced with a hole punch).

Right column: glassine, kitchen roll,waxed food wrap crepe and tracing. The latter two were pierced with an awl.

How to ruche paper: fold then twist a wide strip of paper. Spray with water. Roll in a towel to reduce excess moisture then leave to dry about 24 hours.

Scrunched and pressed

I pressed these papers with a rolling pin.

Left to right: tracing, japanese mulberry paper, crepe, greaseproof, glassine, tissue, cartridge and waxed food wrap.

Detail: japanese mulberry paper

This paper was soft, velvety and pliable.

Scrunched paper samples

I scrunched the following papers - tracing, kitchen, photocopy, greaseproof, waxed food wrap, glassine, tissue, japanese mulberry and crepe.

The waxed food wrap was stiff and shiny.