Paper - What Works Best for PM?

My favourite paper is newspaper. It's cheap, easy to get hold of and works very well for most projects. But, you can use any type you like. The beauty of PM is that anything goes. There are no rules, just a few guidelines.

You can recycle more or less any type that you have lying around the house, or that you can get it, free of charge, from friends and family who will probably be glad to get rid of it.

If you're really into recycling, you could use old curtains, clothes, bed linen etc, torn into strips and pasted into your artwork.

One thing I've learnt from my art is that all paper shrinks as it dries and that different types shrink at different rates.

This means that occasionally, if you are using two different types, your project may warp while it's drying. This is not always a bad thing, as a certain amount on unevenness is part of the charm of PM.

However, if you want a really smooth finish, it's best to use the same type for all your layers. I do like to use two different colours though so I can see at a glance which layer I'm working on if I get distracted.

I'm lucky in that our local Echo prints the sports pages on pink sheets once a week so I use that and ordinary white newsprint.

You could also use old telephone directories and yellow pages. This tends to be very thin and you need to use a lot of layers but for a project with a fairly solid base to begin with it can work very well.

Always tear rather than cut, as this gives a neater finish and, because the fibres in the torn edges are of different lengths, it makes the project stronger.

In most projects, I alternate the direction of the strips as I work so that the fibres lie in different directions, adding strength to the piece.

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