Starch Paste Tutorial

It's Sqrl & Bee Studio's turn to do a kid friendly activity tutorial for those Natural Kids out there! Since I don't have kids yet (very soon, as you all may know) I decided to share our homemade Starch Paste recipe. It's a great recipe to have on hand for any kind of paper craft - especially paper mache.

Starch Paste! A glue for paper crafts that is Non-toxic, Biodegradable and can even be Organic.

Recipe:
1/2 cup flour
4 cups water
1/2 tsp thyme oil (this works as a really great natural preservative)
1 tbsp salt



First you add the four to cold water



Heat the water and flour -- stirring all the time!!!



Cook until the mixture starts to get translucent (you do not need to get to a boil) -- it will only get ever so slightly thicker at this point. As you can see below on the spoon.



Now, remove from heat, let the mixture cool. Once it's cool it's pretty much ready to use. You can use the paste fresh. Or put the leftovers in fridge -- it will get gelatinous (rubbery) from getting cold, and you will have to break it up with a whisk when you want to reuse it.



Above is Andrew(the Bee of Sqrl & Bee) showing you how to go about dipping paper for Paper Mache. You just dip, pull and squeegee the excess. We mainly use Starch Paste for paper mache but there are other uses for it such as::

• collage
• book binding
• any paper craft
• make your own paint by adding dry pigments, Bio Shield (their link is currently broken too bad 'cause they are such a great company) and crayola make non-toxic pigments.