Adhesives
An adhesive is generally something that allows you to bond two surfaces together. Put simply an adhesive is a glue.
There are quite literally hundreds of materials and substances; natural and man-made that can be used as an adhesive. When creating artwork adhesives are interesting, challenging and often surprising to experiment with, some common artists materials and painting mediums are based on similar technology and adhesives, so experiment a little and see what artistic effects you can come up with.
Natural adhesives are derived from vegetable matter such as starch, natural resins or from animals. Natural adhesives are the best option when they are to be used by children or when they may come in regular contact with skin or may be ingested. However they often do not form a strong permanent bond and will be compromised by environmental changes easily. Traditionally stamps and envelopes used an adhesive made from starch, and for children a simple paste, made by mixing plain flour in warm water is still used in pre-schools today.
Synthetic adhesives are more commonly used now days, these are almost always based on polymer technology. They come in various forms:
- Drying Adhesives use a solvent or drying agent that will evaporate quickly to cure the bond.
- Contact Adhesives are adhesives that are applied to both surfaces and allowed to partially dry before the two surfaces are held together to bond. Contact adhesives produce a very strong bond, and are often the best choice for a heavy duty use.
- Hot Adhesives are thermoplastics which are applied in a melted state and solidify on cooling to form strong bond such as a hot-glue gun.
- Emulsion Adhesives are most commonly used by artists though, and are often called PVA glue, as they are often based on polyvinyl acetate a cheap and easily to use all purpose glue.
WARNING: Some adhesives emit very dangerous, and flammable fumes!
