Monday, September 28, 2009

How to Make Turp Paper

I made turp paper today. It was stinky but it turned out great! These photos are my favorite pieces.
You have to do this outside as this is very stinky and you don't want to breathe in a lot of these fumes, so take precautions please. Wear rubber gloves for this project.
First you have to find old National Geographic mags that are 2004 or older because the pages are clay coated and that's what you need for the technique to work. I found mine at a thrift store for 39 cents a piece. I found out that all the pages in the magazine will not turn. Most will, but not all.
You need turpentine and a sponge brush and a container to keep your magazine in while it is soaking. Also you will need freezer paper or something to put the pages on to dry.

Take the book and tear the covers off. Discard them. Take out any paper cardboard pages. Tear the book into several sections making it easier to handle. With the brush start covering each page of the book with turpentine.
I covered all the pages in the whole book and let them sit stacked up on each other in the container for 3 hours or so. Then after I knew the process had taken place, I separated the pages one by one. Do not let them dry out during that 3 hours before the turpentine has time to "melt"the ink on the pages, as this will stop the process. As the process is taking place you can smush the pages around to intermingle the colors.

When you separate the pages lay them on freezer paper to dry, which should not take long. The smell will last for awhile I have read. Then when you use them for your journals and cover the pages with sealer or paints or gesso or whatever then the smell will not be there anymore. I have read that you can also buy a product called Cytrasolv or an odorless turpentine, which I have not found either one.
I love the way the pages came out and I will be using them in journals. The paper is strong and does not get weak and tear when it is wet with the turpentine so be sure and soak it well when you are doing this. I hope you try this as it is very unique and you never know how your pages will turn out. When you peel the pages apart it makes unique marks on them. Depending on what is on the page originally will determine the outcome, so colorful pages make the best turp pages I think.

12 comments:

Gail V said...

Very cool.

J said...

Those are great but it sounds like a lot of work. Maybe I'll go to St. V's tomorrow they have old Natl Geographics for I think a quarter. You can get the orderless turpentine at art stores. I have some for my oil paints.

It still smells though just not as bad.

Bea said...

THESE ARE FANTASTIC. I love this technique. I've never heard of it.
oooooooooooh I have to wait until I can unpack my studio stuff or go out and buy new. sigh.......I WANT TO TRY THIS..... :)Bea

Magpie's Mumblings said...

These are very cool Yvonne!! I will have to hunt up some old Ntl Geog somewhere so I can give it a try. I love the fact that the raw materials are cheap, cheap, cheap. Thanks for the tute!

Anonymous said...

WOW !! This is fantastic and something I must try. I have seen cheap Nat Geog mags at the thrift bookcase in the waiting room at our doctor's surgery, so next month when I have my 'flu jab .....

Anonymous said...

These are very cool papers. I'd love to try it out sometime.
Karma

threadsofmagique said...

This is fascinating! The pages are just incredible! I have no idea what I could do with them, but I've got to give it a try, anyway. Thanks for sharing the technique!

Jan said...

Thanks for the tutorial, I'm going to have to go into my attic, pull out some old Nat. Geo's and find some turp or citrisolve and give this a try. Your pages look fabulous!

Yvonne said...

Thanks Jan for visiting my blog. I love the turp technique and I hope you do give it a try. Let me know how it comes out. Hope you visit again. I will be posting some journal pages of what I do with those turp pages soon.

Yvonne said...

Thanks Jan for visiting my blog. I love the turp technique and I hope you do give it a try. Let me know how it comes out. Hope you visit again. I will be posting some journal pages of what I do with those turp pages soon.

.Trudi Sissons said...

Thanks Yvonne for sharing this - I like the last one the best...just as is. I wonder if you can write with a white ink pen on these? Very cool idea.

Yvonne said...

Trudi, thanks for visiting my blog. About the turp pages... I don't see why you couldn't write on them with any kind of ink pen. I have not tried doing anything with the pages yet, but plan on it soon and will be posting results. If you do this technique let me know how it comes out.