If I am being totally honest, I was pretty underwhelmed when I opened the box from Blick Art Materials last month. Inside was a nondescript bottle filled with a white glue. Yawn! I wasn’t very excited to try the product and it sat on my desk for a week or two. Finally, on a snowy day during winter break I buckled down and put it to the test…and I was happily surprised!
I clamped together 25 sheets of cardstock and applied the glue to one long edge with a paintbrush. The glue is pretty thick so there was minimal running. One coat left a good layer on the edge, and so I left it to dry for a couple hours. The Pad/Book Compound smells a lot like your standard white glue (odors are important!) and washed easily out of the paintbrush with plain water. Obviously, this stuff was growing on me. Don’t judge an art product by its packaging: lesson learned!
The real test came when I removed the clamps to find a translucent, flexible bound edge as promised. It held up to thumbing through pages and being pressed open. I wanted to give it a real pull and found it’s strength to be comparable to your typical pad of paper. Judging by the size of the bottle and the excellent results, this one 12 ounce bottle could make up to a hundred or so notepads or sketchbooks, depending on the number of pages.
Overall, this would be an excellent product to include in any classroom where journaling, bookmaking, and sketch booking happens. I loved being pleasantly surprised by it’s economy, flexibility, clean up, and odor-free application.
What are some other must-haves for bookmaking in your classroom?
Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by an art product?
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