Product Review: Two-Way Glue
One of the materials I use in my torn paper collages is a two-way, acid-free scrapbooking glue. There are a couple brands; I haven’t noticed any difference between them so I usually buy whichever one is available or least expensive. I’ve tried other types of adhesives, but haven’t been very happy with their working properties.
It’s available in a
large, chisel-tip dispenser as well as a couple
small, pen-like dispensers. I use the large chisel tip one for laying down adhesive over larger areas of my paper and the small chisel tip pen version for working close to areas I’ve already finished, adding details, and securing edges where the paper fragments overlap. The glue is also relatively easy to find. It’s typically available in all the major craft stores as well as online.
The glue is blue when it is first dispensed and turns clear as it dries, though it remains tacky. The “two-way” refers to the formulation of this glue where it creates a permanent bond if the materials are stuck together while the glue is blue and a ‘temporary’ bond if the glue is allowed to dry first (in other words, if the materials are stuck together after the glue has turned clear). While I don’t need a removable adhesive for my purposes, I do like how the glue stays tacky, so I can still attach the pieces of paper even if it took me a little longer to fill in an area than I expected when I applied the glue to the paper.
It’s not perfect—like I said, I don’t need a repositionable adhesive and I’d really prefer it to always provide a permanent bond. It’s also a bit messy, since it remains sticky. I tend to get adhesive all over my fingertips, which can make it hard to place tiny paper fragments accurately and it can also pull the color off the surface of some of the magazine papers, leaving pale fingerprint marks. The small chisel tip pen can dispense glue unevenly, either not putting anything on the paper or allowing large amounts of glue to pour over the tip and onto the paper in an uncontrolled manner. This appears to be more of a problem when the pen is partially or mostly empty than when it is new. I also haven’t noticed this problem much with the chisel tip dispenser version, though that may be due to the larger, flatter tip, which seems to be more absorbent and holds the glue better than the thin pen tip.
Overall, I like this product and it is my go-to adhesive for making my torn paper collages. I will probably continue to try out other adhesives, but so far I haven’t found anything that works nearly as well.
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