Wheat Paste

Street Art is one of my favourite things to look at, I love using it as backgrounds for my images and I really enjoy studying it. However, I have never considered doing Street Art myself, until now. After researching art for my MA I like the idea of showing in a gallery and the process interests me but I like the fringe adventurous side to Street Art. So I am going to be documenting my process starting with creating your own wheat paste.

how to

So this is just glue but it is made out of some very basic household items. If you cook it is like making a roux. The flour thickens to make the base and the sugar adds more stickiness, the salt is added as a stabilizer and is recommended for working with in colder climates.


Fig 1. Flour, Salt, and Sugar for Wheat Paste

Fig 2. Finished Wheat Paste

The Wheat Paste Mix:

  1. Bring 3 cups of water to a boil.

  2. Meanwhile add 1/4 cup of flour to 3/4 cup water, mix well.

  3. Add the flour and water to the boiling water and stir well for 3 minutes.

  4. Remove from heat and immediately add 1/2 cup sugar, stir well.

  5. Add 1 Tbsp of Salt, stir well.

  6. Let cool and your are ready to go.

This will give you about a quart (32oz), this gave me enough to put up a 72” by 72” poster with a little left over. The image was printed on bond paper on four separate panels to get the size I wanted. I am going back to the image to see how it is holding up.

When applying the glue work quick as it dries quick, then apply a layer of glue to the top of the poster to help seal and protect it. This stuff is very sticky quite amazing for flour, sugar, water and salt.

Here is a video of my first attempt.

Fascinated by Street Art I decided to try it myself. I like the idea of using images of people from my Street Portrait series perhaps, reposting them back into the neighborhoods​ I am photographing in. Regardless here is my first attempt of putting a piece up and with some homemade wheat paste. ​