Turp Paper

"Space Hole" Turp paper by Sally
*****See succinct list of instructions at the end of this post.*****

Oh, my! If you've never tried this, you gotta! Several of the MMCA artists have been toying around with a technique for paper making . . . or maybe you'd call it background making. The amazing artist, Katie Kendrick started it all by showing us some paper she made and called "Citasolve Paper."

Katie posted this page from a little booklet she had wired into my altered calendar. Katie said she did this page with CitraSolv and a National Geographic magazine. She thought, and we all agreed, that her page looks like lost souls!

Katie suggested, "You can find CitraSolv in the cleaning section of many grocery stores - especially a natural foods co-op type store - it's a natural product that smells intensely strong of orange. It's a cleaner and degreaser."

Katie 's recommendation is doing this outside and working on plastic as it's messy. According to Katie's instructions, first you pour CitraSolv into a container and using a big brush, start at the first pages of the National Geographic magazine and generously brush both sides of the pages with CitraSolv Turn the page and do the same. Repeat this throughout the whole magazine.

"Eventually you'll have a wet national geographic," Katie says. "You can let it sit a couple hours but you don't want it to start drying or the pages will stick together. One page at a time, turn the pages so they can dry (maybe a hair dryer would speed the process) You never know what your papers will look like - that's the fun part." Katie said she's  tried several other magazines but National Geographics are the only ones that have worked. Others suggested that it is because that magazine has pages that are clay coated.

Well, of course, I couldn't find CitraSolv in my little town but I was determined to try something similar. I tried a blender pen -- no luck. I tried acetone -- that might would work with more time but I'm an instant gratification kind of gal. So, then I tried turpentine. Voila -- only I didn't remember Katie's suggestions about using a brush or waiting (which I probably wouldn't have done anyway LOL) So I tried dabbing with a paper towel... not enough fluid -- so I poured it on -- I'm thinking, "Yikes - quick -- blot it up... O-o-o-h, look at the ink move around while I'm blotting! Hmmm, what's that rubbing through from something on my table under the page? Hey, let's try punchinella (sp?) Yes, that's cool. Yuk, what is that smell? Better open some windows."

I must add a word of caution here about the toxic fumes of turpentine - like you didn't already know. For two days and nights after I did this I was in bed with an upset stomach and digestive system. Now, I don't know whether it was something I ate for dinner that night or maybe something I BREATHED that day??? LOL. So do take care when you do this process.

Anyway, it makes very cool paper! The pages dry and cure without a smell and they are glossy and beautiful just like National Geographic magazine pages. Thanks , Katie, for inspiring this play.

Here are three of the first pages I did:

    

Then Jennifer Rowland jumped on the bandwagon with us. She said that she tore the magazine in half. Leafing through the magazine, she painted a generous coat of turpentine on the pages with lots of pictures/color. She went through the entire magazine. Then she went back through the magazine, starting at the front and peeled the picture pages apart. "Sometimes they'd look really cool," she said, "sometimes I'd slap more turpentine on them, sometimes I'd smoosh two pages, pictures touching, together between my palms, twisting slightly to smear the ink. . . . Sometimes, pages that I didn't put a lot of turpentine on would start to dry together....When I'd peel the pages apart, all kinds of neat things would appear....bubbles, transfers back and forth to text pages, etc...." Jennifer encouraged us to experiment and have fun. Here are three of her pages:

 

   
"Turpentine Sunset," "Dreamy Dancer," and "Pottery"  by Jennifer Rowland

Unforturnaltely, Jennifer doesn't yet have a web site for showing her fabulous art. You can, however, comment on this post and encourage her to hurry up and set up a blog or picturetrail or web site or something. She just can't keep her imaginative, creative talent all to herself!

Next, I tried what Jennifer did and worked on the pages of half of the magazine. I brushed on the turp and closed the magazine for a couple of hours. (Of course, every so often I had to peek to see what was going on!) I didn't add any turp or smoosh any pages to smear the ink and only one page stuck to another one but didn't result in anything wonderful. One page did stick to the wrought iron patio table while drying and resulted in a little pattern at the top of the page. To see these latest turp papers that I made, just take a look at the photo album called "Turp Paper" here in the right column of my blog. And let me know if you try it. I'd like to see what you come up with.

_________   INSTRUCTIONS for Making TURP PAPER _________

Turp Paper

This technique is done using pages from National Geographic magazine and Citrasolv or turpentine. I recommend Citrasolve only because it has slightly less toxic fumes than turpentine. Both solvents work equally well. Citrasolv is a cleaner and degreaser that you can find in many grocery stores, especially whole food stores. It is a natural product that smells intensely strong of orange.

Here’s my process:
1.    Work outdoors on a plastic drop cloth as the process is very messy and the fumes are quite toxic. Pour the Citrasolv or turpentine into a container.
2.    Starting at the front of the National Geographic magazine and using a big paintbrush or sponge brush, paint a very generous amount of Citrasov or turpentine on both sides of the pages. The pages with lots of colored ink are the best.
3.    Continue turning the pages and painting both sides of every page throughout the whole book. When you are done, the National Geographic will be very wet.
4.    Let the wet book sit closed several hours but don’t let it start drying because the pages will stick together.
5.    After a little while, start from the front of the book and peel apart the pages. If you like what you see, tear those pages out of the book. If not, close the pages again. Continue checking the pages every so often.
6.    You can mash on the closed book or twist it slightly to help manipulate the mingling of inks. You might even add more turpentine or Citrasolv to some of the pages that seem too dry. (Sometimes the pages at the very front and back of the magazine don’t work well. Maybe there is a different kind of paper or ink on those pages.)
7.    Also, great patterns can be made on the pages by blotting or swiping with a crumpled paper towel directly on the wet page or through a stencil or piece of punchinella (sequin waste). Or try drawing with a stylus or stamping with a rubber stamp or other item with a raised pattern. (Remember to rinse your stamp off right away afterwards.)
8.    Eventually, you will tear out every page or spread, and let it dry completely. The longer you can let the pages cure outside after drying, the more the smell of the solvent will evaporate. My pages eventually lost all their odor.  “The resultant paper is rich with color and has the look of a National Geographic page!

Happy paper making!
Sally Turlington
[email protected]
http://sallyt.typepad.com

Comments

[Christine]

sally -- what fun!!! looks like you had a great time :) and the results are incredible!

[patty van dorin]

this is so neat, I went out and picked up some turp. Will get some pages brewing this afternoon.
Patty

[Jblackdesigns]

Those are absolutely fabulous. Thanks for the incredible play-by-play and information. I gotta try it!

Jennifer

[Jennifer]

This technique is so cool!! I have to try this. I have some Citrasolve so just need some National Geographic magazines ... just another item to add to my growing list of things to keep an eye out for LOL!

[debra]

Your papers are super cool, Sally!! Love how they turned out. I can't wait to try it

[Susan Tuttle]

Oh wow!!! This technique is just so cool. I must try it!!

Hugs,
Susan

[MarilynH]

wow!! I didn't imagine it would look anything like this---very very cool!

[Sue B]

Blimey - these are a bit gorgeous chuck! And guess who has a box full of NG's under the bed .... I knew they'd come in handy some time! :o) Hugs, Sue xxx

[katie]

hi sally!
a friend of mine saw the citrosolve paper i just posted on my blog and because it tweaked her interest, she did a google search and landed on your site. what a wonderful job you did describing the whole process! I somehow missed the scans of everyone's papers on the MMCA site so seeing them was great, and especially how we love to *tweek* the process, like Jennifer Rowland did. I learned about the process initially from DJ Pettitt. I l understand Claudine Hellmuth teaches about this process in one of her classes.
I wonder what other products would work on the paper.....

here's to experimentation :-)

[lorraina]

i learned this technique using Citrasolve in a Claudine Helmuth class several years ago. Now i'll have to get some turps too. Do you know if the scentless type works? After much playtime i found the older NG's work the best - different ink back then maybe?. Sometimes both sides of a page will turn out good and its hard to choose which side to keep. I found pages with lots of pink in them give the most fabulous results....but then, maybe i just like pink...

[Jean]

Our Art Gang Ohio group met today and we did "turp(Citrasolve) papers". What fun!
I got out my plastic wrap and suggested we try using that so when the ink on the pages softened up from the solvent we mushed on some plastic wrap and they turned out really kewl. Can't wait to use them in my collages. thanks for the technique info.

[Pat]

I tried the turp tecnique the other day and got some beautiful results. I can't find Citrasolv anywhere (Sacramento, Ca.) Just a side note.....I tried a 2001 National Geographic and it would not release it's ink whatsoever but the February '07 magazine was perfect. Anybody notice the older mags don't work?

Thanks so much for the idea....I will use some of mine for my granddaughter's altered art bird book. Beautiful colors!
Pat

[Sue B]

This is very cool!

[Chris Arlington]

This is my first but not last visit. What a great blog. Great tutorials also.
Chris Arlington
BC, Canada

[Melissa Zeitler]

Sally,

Hi there! We make Citra Solv and stumbled across your page. I realize that this is a old post...but funny thing, we had no idea that people like yourself were out there creating these beautiful pieces. We actually market Citra Solv as a natural cleaner.
Anyway, if there is any chance that you are interested, we have set up a page on our website for Artists to display their work...and add their links.
http://www.citra-solv.com/ppapc11.shtml
If you have J Pegs of your work and send them to me I would love to include yours. They are amazing!!!! Also- you are the first one that actually gave them a name. I love it! So get back to me at [email protected] Keeping my fingers crossed that commenting to a post this old will still reach you. Melissa

[Nancy S]

Absoutely fabulous Tutorial, have emailed it to many friends! I finally was able to track down a bottle of CitraSolv was very difficult to obtain in Canada, found it in Bellingham Washington. Can't wait to try this out!

[Sallyt]

Nancy, 
Thank you so much for your nice comment. And by the way, you can do this same procedure using turpentine instead of citrasolve - thus the name, "Turp Paper." Just be sure to do it outdoors. And expect the paper to smell for months no matter which you use. Air it for as long as you can.

Thanks again for checking out my blog and thrilling me with a message to let me know you were there. Come back soon and let me know how your CitaSolve Paper works out for you.

Sally

> Absoutely fabulous Tutorial, have emailed it to many friends! I finally was able to track down a bottle of CitraSolv was very difficult to obtain in Canada, found it in Bellingham Washington. Can't wait to try this out!

http://sallyt.typepad.com

http://sallyt.typepad.com

[Marie-Aimée]

wow !!! fantastic effect.
thanks a lot for this fabulous tutorial
I try it really soon

have a nice day and a really good new year, creative and happy

[JOAN SMITH]

I TRIED MAKING TURP PAPER FOR THE FIRST TIME YESTERDAY AND HAD A BLAST. I DRIED EACH PAGE AND STEAM IRONED THEM AND THE ODOR OF THE TURP WAS GONE....IT WAS GREAT FUN. ENJOY MAKING TURP PAPER !!!

[chanel 2.55]

You can mash on the closed book or twist it slightly to help manipulate the mingling of inks.