Product Code Database
Wheatpaste (also known as flour and water paste, flour paste, or simply paste) is a gel or liquid adhesive made from wheat flour or starch and water. It has been used since antiquity for various arts and crafts such as bookbinding, Decoupage, collage, papier-mâché, and adhering paper and notices to walls.
Besides wheat, other vegetables also are processed into flours and starches from which pastes can be made, such as potato starch: characteristics, such as strength and reversibility, vary with the plant species; manufacturer's processing; and the recipe of the end-user.
Activism and various subculture proponents often use this adhesive to flyposting propaganda and artwork. It has also commonly been used by commercial bill posters since the nineteenth century. In particular, it was widely used by nineteenth and twentieth century circus bill posters, who developed a substantial culture around paste manufacture and postering campaigns. In the field of alcohol and nightclub advertising, in the 1890s, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's posters were so popular that instructions were published on how to peel down the pasted posters without damage.
Until the 1970s, commercial poster hangers always "cooked" their own paste, but since then many have bought pre-cooked instant pastes. It is applied to the backside of paper then placed on flat surfaces, particularly concrete and metal as it does not adhere well to wood or plastic. Cheap, rough paper such as newsprint, works well, as it can be briefly dipped in the mixture to saturate the fibres.
When Flyposting, to reduce the danger of being caught, wheatpasters frequently work in teams or . In the United States and Canada, this process is typically called "wheatpasting" or "poster bombing", even when using commercial wallpaper paste instead of traditional wheat paste. In the United Kingdom, commercial wheatpasting is called flyposting and wheatpasting associated with urban art is called paste up.
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