Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Stick Like Glue



Yesterday's glue got me thinking about those weird glass bottles with the rubber nipples which were so standard in grade school. This wasn't the glue kids were eating, but a weird sticky substance which was hard to control, but hugely popular in years gone by.

Look at this nutty ad for it. Love the font, though I'm not sure what the words on right side are. "Save the Pieces?"



You can find many great pictures of glue on google images. Just enter lepages glue. Great way to spend the morning!



But I'm not sure I'd like the idea of living in a converted Lepages glue factory, which this actually is, in Gloucester, Mass.

Elmer's Glue must have put Lepages out of business. And we all know what that glue is made of, right?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

To quote from their FAQ page: Our products are made from synthetic materials and are not derived from processing horses, cows or any other animals.

I ate my fair share of the stuff, mostly cuz I was too lazy to get up and wash my fingers. I'd just lick them.

Linda Davick said...

It was that white paste that was so tasty, wasn't it?

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

I remember those glue bottles! We didn't use them in school but we hand one around the house when I was a kid. Talk about something I haven't thought up in years.
When I was little we had paste in the schools, but by the time I taught school it had been usurped by white glue and glue sticks.
One shtick I pulled with paste was to smear a coating of it over a felt tip drawing. When it dried the picture got a weird crackely texture.

Sally said...

The paste is a whole other category. Personally, I wasn't a paste eater, but I do think it's odd they chose to flavor it with spearmint. Vanilla would have brought in a whole other crowd of tongue depressor lickers.

Thanks for the correct info on today's glue, mean jean. Caused me to spend some time at the glue factory, I mean wikipedia, and you're right.

Namowal, did the texture stay on the picture or flake off? Was this the inspiration for your beautiful signature Painter texture which no one else can duplicate? (even though you do tell us how!)

Anonymous said...

I think a college art professor (and possibly my older brother) said mucilage was better for paper and Elmer's for wood. I took a "special topics" collage class. I didn't take to collage so much.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Sally,
Yes, the dried paste eventually flaked away. My parents saved one (in a box of old drawings) and there's not much flakes left.
Thanks for calling my painter texture "beautiful".