Rubber Cement & other glues

[Emma Jane Falconer]

Everyone in the us seems to use something called rubber cement for gluing their zines, which is respositionable and can be rubbed off if you want. I've been using Pritt Stick, which is ok, but difficult to move once it's dry, and totally non removable. I can't seem to find rubber cement here in the UK at all, does anyone know if that's because it's not available, or is it just sold under a different name here?

[eddie willson]

Hello,
I think probably the nearest easily-available substitute you'll get here in the UK is copydex. I've used it before but its repositioning qualities aren't fantastic, although definitley better than pritt stick. You can shift it a bit while it's still wet. There's a wealth of info on wikipedia here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_cement Cheers.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

Copydex makes paper go a bit wet and wrinkly though and it STINKS like dead fish, I've tried it for zines before and it was awful. Does rubber cement really smell that bad?

[Misti Ko]

Rubber cement is solvent based, and rather stinky. According to Wikipedia, it is indeed not available in the UK.

In Canada, at least you can buy repositionable gluesticks.

Maybe an art supply shop could give you some glue recommendations.

[Anna]

I use regular old glue sticks. They're way less nasty than rubber cement!
If you're looking for something repositionable, there's nothing better than Studio Tac, though it is quite expensive.

[Nat Rally]

Yeah Nthing the regular glue stick. I've tried those like gel glue stick thingies but they get way too messy...

[Alex Wrekk]

I like gluesticks and they even have repositionable ones.

I'm not a fan of rubber cement because I can never get read of all the little gummy bits.

[Peter Taylor]

I believe there may be stuff called 'Studio Gum Rubber Adhesive' made by Platignum. I think it's used by advertising agencies and others in the printing preparation industry, but could be available in good art stores. Online art stores sell it.
It's a long time since I lived in England
Best wishes from Australia,
Peter :)

[Anna]

Art supply places sell rubber cement erasers for pretty cheap. They saved my life when I was doing precise gluey stuff for my 2D design class last year.

Alex Wrekk said:

I like gluesticks and they even have repositionable ones.

I'm not a fan of rubber cement because I can never get read of all the little gummy bits.

[James N. Dawson]

I know this is really going to be off the wall, but I've almost never used glue for any of my zines. I've always just used invisible tape. I'm not saying that's the best way, but it's always seemed to work for me. In fact I call my masters "tape-ups" not paste-ups.

I'll admit, sometimes my copies have turned out pretty bad, but part of that was being in a hurry, which I often am.

But once somebody thought I composed one of my earlier zines on a computer because the text was in triple columns and they were very clean and straight, so a few times using invisible tape I've done a pretty tidy job.