Paste Paper

Paste paper originated about 450 years ago when printers, seeking inexpensive end papers for their books, added paint to paste and made patterns with the tools at hand. Many of us were first introduced to paste paper in primary school where it is known as finger painting. More recently calligraphers and book artists realized that paste paper makes an excellent surface on which to letter.

I am interested in using paste for the text pages in books rather than the end papers. My papers usually, but not always, have multiple layers of transparent colors. I teach workshops in which participants create their own reference books that they can refer to when they are at home.

The three pieces in the first line below are the first 3 pages of an unfinished book of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem The Leaden Echo and The Golden Echo.

The bottom line shows a variety of paste paper possibilities.