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We made pastepaper in the conservation lab today! 

Pastepaper is an economical (and fun!) way to make decorated paper for use as book covering material or endsheets. You can also use pastepaper to make your own stuck-on endbands! It is a technique that has been around for quite a long while. Our library has examples of pastepaper-covered books dating to the 18th century, but the technique goes back even farther than that. The University of Washington has a nice online exhibit of various historical pastepapers from their library collection.

You can learn how to make your own pastepaper using these simple instructions (in PDF) provided by Cornell Library!

Some of the designs I’ve shared were made with everything from my own hands, bubble-wrap, cheesecloth, and various kinds of brushes, among other things!