I have been experimenting with using starch based packing peanuts as an art material for a project. The starch nuts become sticky and remind me of a kind of binding glue when barushed with water. In my experiment, I pressed them between my fingers to make a flat surface and wetted one side. This allowed me to stick them to the mesh and each other.

Brushing the outside with a fine brush and water added some texture. The only draw back is that the starch will totally melt if you go overboard. Also you have to work around the fact that the starch will shrink a bunch as it dries. I found out that you can reduce the contraction damage by using a mesh bag as an armature. You can fix cracks or openings with more wetted nut if desired. I let it dry overnight.

The next day I painted it with alcohol inks as it was still attached to the mesh. Alcohol solvents seem to work very well at not dissolving the starch into mush. I left it to dry overnight and then pealed off the mesh from inside.

Surprisingly, when dried it has a crazy hardness and smell of uncooked dry pasta. 😀

Next thing to try? Making my own washes with alcohol rather than water!

Thanks for letting me share this with you

Please take care of each other.