That time I used potato starch in my wheat paste and it was a total mess

I was trying to save a few bucks on materials for a repair job last week, so I grabbed some potato starch from the kitchen instead of buying proper wheat paste from the art store. Big mistake, ha. The paste turned into this weird gelatinous goop that wouldn't spread evenly on the book cloth, and it left these bumpy spots all over the spine. I thought maybe I could water it down, but that just made it runny and weak. The whole thing ended up peeling off after a day, and I had to strip the book and start over. What I learned is that the starch type really matters, even though they all look the same in the bag. Has anyone else tried a random pantry substitute and had it backfire like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabethmason1mo ago

Potato starch and wheat starch are chemically different. Wheat paste relies on gluten for stickiness, potato starch lacks that entirely. You basically made a weak glue that was never going to hold.

milam481mo ago

Yeah this actually makes total sense, never thought about the gluten part lol.

murphy.aaron1mo ago

@milam48 sure, but is it really that serious for a kid's art project though?