We were making some banners at school and people were getting a lot of glue on their hands. As they rubbed it off, it reminded me of something we used to do in elementary school: make our own rubber balls. We would mix white glue with mucilage (which I think has one of the most disgusting names of any product sold on the market). Pour a little mucilage in the palm of your hand, then squeeze some white glue in, then roll and roll and roll. As it dries, it balls up. The resulting ball is very bouncy. We did it often.
Anyway, I just so happened to have a bottle of mucilage in my desk, so we tried it yesterday. The mucilage was old, so it was thick, and the kids were a little too enthusiastic, so instead of a puddle of glue, they covered their hands with it. It wasn’t drying out. I sent them to the bathroom to wash it off. It took a loooong time to get it off. But it eventually washed away. Whew!
Back in my room, I put just a little bit in my hand. Success!
What?? No picture of the resulting bouncy ball??
You tease.
I gave it to a kid. He was so excited.
Is mucilage the same as rubber cement?
It isn’t the same. It’s clear and normally kind of runny. Plus, it doesn’t have the delightful fumes that rubber cement has.
So why would you prefer mucilage over rubber cement? And doesn’t rubber cement also have the same rubber tip? I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard of mucilage.
‘Mucilage’??? I remember that stuff, but not the name. It must have been before I could read, or before I knew what mucus was. *jibblie*
It sounds like makes a more solid form of gak. http://www.howtodothings.com/hobbies/how-to-make-gak
Mucilage. *double jibblie*
I read the title and thought that we would be reading about snot and glue. Whew! I have no recollection of mucilage, but once I saw the bottle I remembered.
The bottle would be even more recognizable if I had left the red rubber tip on it.
You just so happened to have a bottle of mucilage in your desk? Dang…I was just looking for some mucilage the other day…
But seriously, can you make another one?
As kids we used to swear Elmers glue on our whole hand, very thinly, let it dry. The challenge was to peel it off in one piece.
…we were poor kids…we didn’t have any mucilage…
We used to let little one inch glue strips dry in that dip in the middle of our rulers. Then we would carefully peel them out and wear them as fake fingernails.
Good times!
And yes, I TOTALLY remember that mucilage stuff – I just never knew what it was called. I probably would have laughed at the name – you know, the way we laugh at stupid stuff now that we are grown!
Back in the previous century, when my mother worked as a secretary, mucilage was all I ever saw her use to make sure important envelopes were sealed really well, etc. The crack in the red tip from where the adhesive came used to get a crusty build-up on it – sort of resembling one’s nostrils after a chronically runny nose. I think I used to enjoy peeling that off, but it never did anything cool like bounce around…just made boring flakes everywhere. Those were the days. Never knew Elmer and his bovine friends even still made the stuff. Leave it to Brad to always have some on hand – literally.
Glad I found this post! Had to prove to some co-workers I’m not crazy! We used to do this all the time, lots of fun!
Hi Kevin! I’m glad I could help certify your sanity. You should get the ingredients and do it as an adult. It’s still so cool.