One of the best ways to make wheat starch paste for bookbinding is over a cook top or stove. Here I show how we make paste in the bindery for bookbinding and book conservation. Wheat starch paste is a great material to use for paper and book repair.
See our online workshops in the book arts at bigriverbindery.com/workshops/
Big River is owned by Andrew Huot, a bookbinder, conservator, and book artist originally from Toronto, Canada. Andrew has an MFA in Book Arts & Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and an undergraduate degree in Printmaking from Portland State University. He exhibits his artwork widely and is held in collections across the country, from the Art Institute of Chicago to Yale University.
He has experience performing conservation treatments on books and paper based items. He was the Conservator and Preservation Specialist at Illinois State University for the last 5 years, and worked at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Wagner Free Institute of Science, and the University of Oregon. When he’s not in the bindery, he teaches Conservation, Preservation, and Bookbinding for the Graduate School of Library Science at the University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign.