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This is a follow-up on my previous video about this no-mold substitute for Elmer’s Art Paste.
Some of the comments I received on the previous post made me a little nervous. Some folks thought the paste had to be mixed with really hot water or it wouldn’t be sticky after storing it for awhile.
If you saw my last video about methylcellulose, you know I mixed it with cold water, not hot. It worked great for my jackrabbit, but would it work again, after sitting on the shelf for a month?
I had to find out, so I took my left-over methycellulose paste off the shelf and tested it – just to make sure it still worked.
I discovered that if you try using it without re-mixing it, it doesn’t stick any better than plain water.
But if you mix it up again, it works really well. You don’t have to mix it very much – I just turned the jar over a few times, nothing fancy.
Maybe if I used hot water to mix it the first time I wouldn’t need to mix it again – but I don’t need another quart of paste so you’ll have to do that experiment yourself. 🙂
This is the brand of food-grade methylcellulose that I used. I doubt that the brand makes much difference, but this looked like the least expensive option, and the only one I’ve had a chance to play with.
Especially after today’s experiment, I’m really happy with this paste. It holds the paper mache on really tight, and it sat on my shelf for a month without even a hint of mold. It’s a great option for humid areas or school classes, or for anyone who doesn’t like mixing up a new batch of flour and water paste every day.
EDIT: I received this note recently from a bookbinder who uses this product all the time, and she had some great tips for us:
I am a bookbinder and I was seeking MC as an additive to PVA for my students and found a source that significantly beat your Amazon price, even with free shipping. Hollanders in Michigan has an 8-ounce bag for $24.95 and even with shipping, it ended up costing me $3.96 per ounce which comes in significantly lower than your Amazon vendor at $6/ounce with free shipping. The Hollander product is made for gluing and repairing books. Hollanders also have larger quantities that would come in much lower than the $4 price if you need that much MC.
Another bonus was that Hollanders had some instructions on its website about mixing MC up. I spoke with a scientific friend about MC and she said that MC has a queer property for dispersion and solution; it disperses in warm/hot warm but thickens in solution with cold water. The trick is to sprinkle the measured powder into a small quantity of hot water, stir lightly until the powder is dispersed through the warm solution (no lumps). THEN, add enough cold water to come up to volume of solution needed. Let sit overnight (preferably) and the whole solution will thicken without a lot of bubbles. She laughed when I told her about your use of the immersion blender saying the bubbles would have lasted for hours with that amount of agitation.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. 🙂
I teach high school art and this is the methyl cellulose that I use. https://a.co/d/isNBDD0 I have tried mixing it using only 2 oz to a gallon, but find it kind of thin. To make it more comparable to the Elmer’s paste, I now add 4 oz to a gallon and it seems to work better. I store it in empty 2 ltr soda bottles and when it settles, I just shake it up. Last year, I went back to the old flour based paste and use the methyl cellulose for students that are sensitive or allergic to gluten. I just find the flour recipe creates a harder surface for the projects I do. One thing I do add to flour mixture is salt and a few drops of tea tree oil and I keep in the fridge at school. Seems to keep a little longer.
Great tips, Lisa. Thanks! 🙂
Hi Jonni! I have been following you for a long time, love your art and have even purchased your books. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Have you ever thought about, or tried, using this paste with the recipe for the outdoor portland cement clay? I’m making a lot of pieces for Halloween and I was hoping to find a cheaper alternative to PVA glue.
I purchased the powder and went back to watch your process before I realized that you used it only in regular paper mache. Drat! I was really hoping it would be an option to replace pva in all of your recipes. I guess I got too excited!!
I have the powder so maybe I will just give it a go. But I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences!
Thank you!
Hi Michele. I haven’t tried it, and I don’t know how it would react with the other materials in the outdoor recipe. I have thought about trying the home-made paste that’s used in the no-glue paper mache clay recipe with the outdoor recipe, but I can’t lift the heavy bags of cement anymore so I haven’t had a chance to do the experiment. The home-made glue would be even less expensive than the methylcellulose. If you experiment with either one, please let us know what you learn. 🙂
I used the methylcellulose and it was okay for the first three days and in the fourth day it went to liquid water. Any tips on how to keep it lasting long we?
Mine lasted for at least four months. I didn’t check it after that. But I did have to stir it really good, to get all the solids mixed back in. It was never thick, even right after mixing it in the beginning. But it did stick the paper down.
I will give it another try. What do you do about the smell? My students complain that the smell is horrible.
Did you use the same brand I did? I don’t remember a smell.
Hi, I’m just starting to experiment with using cellulose powder to create my paste – so far it’s working. I wondered, though, if it’s okay to rinse it down the drain. I wiped my dish first, but there was still some in the dish and on the brush I used. Should I be cleaning these outside?
Hi Val. It shouldn’t hurt your pipes, because it doesn’t harden under water, the way plaster does. Methyl cellulose is often used in cooking recipes, and cooks clean their pans and bowls in the sink.
Good to know. Thanks, Jonni!
Hi Jonni!
I had an issue with my papermache paste molding and producing an EXTREMELY foul smell. Is that something that you have run into with your projects? I work with high schoolers and after about a week sealed on the counter it gets really rough.
Paste made with flour and water will smell bad if you keep using the same batch day after day. That’s because yeast from the air (and from the flour itself) will try to turn the paste into sourdough batter. The yeast eats the starch, turning it into alcohol, and the result is a really bad smell. Your students might enjoy learning that the clear, sometimes brownish water that collects on the top of sourdough starter was called “hooch” by Alaskan goldminers, and they drank it when they couldn’t get anything better.
🙂 But digressions aside – I don’t recommend keeping flour and water paste from one day to the next, because the starch is what makes it sticky. When the starch is changed by the yeast, the paste doesn’t work as well. I always make up a new batch each day.
I really wanted to edit my comment to say that I made it with Methyl Cellulose but couldn’t! The kind I got was not food grade, so I’m wondering if that was the issue?
Oops – I should have noticed the page where you posted your comment.
The brand or type of methyl cellulose you used might be the reason it didn’t work. I kept mine on the shelf for months and it didn’t change at all. The only thing that was different after sitting in the jar was that I needed to mix it up again, because the sticky stuff sank to the bottom of the jar. This is the brand of food-grade methyl cellulose that I used. I haven’t tried any other brands or kinds of methyl cellulose.
I never let student put their hands in the “mother batch” of an paste, even when I used Elmers Art Paste. Whatever they used, was poured into smaller containers and if it didn’t all get used, it was dumped out.
That’s a good idea. Thanks. 🙂
Mine went bad over a weekend. I just don’t do paper mache with my elementary kiddos anymore. Never had that issue with the Elmers. ?
Interesting – I had a quart jar of the methylcellulose sitting on a shelf for half a year, and it was fine. I wonder if the brand makes a difference?
Mine went bad over a weekend. I just don’t do paper mache with my elementary kiddos anymore. Never had that issue with the Elmers. ?
June 26,2023
Good afternoon!!!
First and foremost, I truly really enjoy your videos; which are very informative.
I would love ?? if you would demonstrate how I can turn a photo of a person (mom) into a mask like you do with the animals.
I’m needing each steps from the photo phase to understanding how to create the pattern that makes up the mask.
After I have an understanding on how-to the rest I can do.
Any suggestions you are able to provide are greatly appreciated.
Ansim
Ikigai Art Studio
The easiest way to make a mask with a human face is to sculpt it first with clay, and then cover the clay with plastic and then paper mache. I show how to do it in this post. If you need to make multiple copies of the same mask, you can do that by making paper mache castings in a silicone mold. I have a post for that, too. Have fun! 🙂
So interesting that you managed to get methylcellulose to work. I failed miserably. I will try again! Thank you!
So – what went wrong with your first attempt? I just mixed the powder in water with my little electric mixer. There was a lot of foam but it went away and didn’t hurt anything. Can you describe what happened to yours? Was it not sticky?
I mixed it the same way and it just didn’t thicken. I am going to have another go after seeing your success!
Mine didn’t really get thick either, but it still stuck the paper down really tight. Was your paste sticky, even though it wasn’t thick? Someone mentioned that adding glycerine would make it thicker, or just using more of the powdered methylcellulose.
Thank you for the update, Jonni! Quick question. I’m going to be teaching a paper mache class this coming fall to a classroom of homeschooled children, ages 10 years and up. It’s a twelve week class that only meets once a week. I’m guessing that I’ll have between 20-25 students. Should I purchase a larger bag of MethylCellulose or will the 2oz size be enough? I’m going to have to go find the original video you made. I noticed the fun colored chicken you made sitting on a shelf. Can you provide a link to where I can find the tutorial? I think the kids would have fun creating their own in class! Thank you so much!
As always, I greatly appreciate your talent and willingness to share this knowledge with us!
Hi Janet. You can find that chicken here. A lot of people have made one, and every one comes out different. 🙂
The two ounce package of methylcellulose will make a gallon of paste. That’s a lot of paste! But I don’t know how much each student will use. I don’t work with kids, and I’ve never measured how much paste I use for my own projects. But I do still have that quart jar of left-over paste, and it looks like there’s about a cup of paste missing, which I used on the jackrabbit. I only used one layer, although every piece of paper overlapped other pieces – but the jackrabbit had a smooth surface because of the cardboard pattern. On a project that uses an armature made with crumpled paper or foil, you might want to use more layers to smooth out some of the bumps. But it was also probably bigger than one of the chickens, because of those long ears. Lots of ‘ifs.’
If I was going to guess, I’d say one cup of paste should be enough for each chicken (but that’s really just a guess) and the 2 oz package is enough for a gallon, or 16 cups. You might want to get two packages, just to be on the safe side – but you could make a chicken at home and see how much paste you use, to be scientific about it. Have fun! 🙂
Thank you, Jonni! I’ll do that!