Glue for Collage Artists

[Framar]

I have a number of very steady artist-customers who are bigtime into collage and assemblage. They also use acrylic paint and various inks over their collages.

Over the years I have managed to talk these artists out of collaging onto brown corrugated boards, now they use canvas board or 1/4 inch thick drawing boards, and they mostly use acrylic medium as their adhesive, but now a new product has come onto their scene and they are all very excited about it.

This product, sold by a local art supply store, is called Double Tack, and it comes in huge sheets, the price is right and the artists all love the ease and lack of wrinkles when mounting thin hand-made papers and such.

I am leary of this stuff. How long does this adhesive last? Will it turn brown? Will it let go? In the past I have tried to promote the use of something like Yes paste, or even glue sticks, but this new double-stick stuff has my artists all a twitter.

What good is conservation framing if the artwork is gonna fall apart, tiny piece by tiny piece?

The "very nice guy" in the art store said he had been using this stuff for 25 YEARS (!) and he had "never had a problem." I can't imagine any product made 25 years ago would possibly meet today's standards.

Anyone run into this problem? Anyone make collages? What adhesive do you use?

 

[B. Newman]

Alas, some wonderful collages made by an idealistic teenage artist about 35 years ago with images of the Beatles, Stones, Vietnam, and other touching phoios are now as lost to history as the images themeselves due to the use of rubber cement. But whaddya do? High school art is high school art, and the budgets are non-existant.

As for this double stick stuff. How different from PMA is that material? Could it be just a commercial version of that?

However, I think acrylic medium would be much easier to use.

Betty

Man, I hadn't thought about collages in years!

 

[D_Derbonne]

We have an active collage society and most of the artists are well beyond the hobbyist level. They create an amazing variety of art.
Most of them use the acrylic gel medium or yes paste.
THe nature of collage is experimental so it isn't surprising that the artists you know would want to try something new.

 

[preservator]

Grafix Double Tack is listed as being "acid-free"
and "archival", but it is still pressure-sensitive
and such materials are likely to change over time,
making them less stable that acrylic medium. The
acrylic medium can be used as a heat bonding adhesive when thin papers are being used.

Hugh

 

[GUMBY GCF]

Why to go Hugh!
You brought up The heat bonding with the acrylic gel medium. Nobody ever thinks about it in that use.
Framar if you really want to impress the Kids show them that trick. Brush it on let it dry then low temp iron or tacking iron it & it is adhered. No wrinkles. About 20 years ago a little old lady crafter told me about that one.

 

[Framar]

WOW!!! I didn't know that little trick with gel medium. Can't wait to try it! It will knock their little socks off!

THANKS for the info and the back up and the bad memories of all the collages I ruined in college (!) with rubber cement.

BTW, the collages these artists do bear no resemblance to those sixties efforts of mine. They are very sophisticated intricate and amazing. Mostly we have to shaowbox them cause they end up multi-layered and up to 1/2" deep in places.

Thanks again everybody!

 

[B. Newman]

Originally posted by Framar:
BTW, the collages these artists do bear no resemblance to those sixties efforts of mine.

Ya know, not much I do today bears much resemblance to what I did in the sixties...

Betty