Yesterday, at the end of a long day I was thinking about cardboard. I can't help myself!

And I was wondering if it was possible to make cardboard transparent. Here on the website I have a project I call the Shadow Theatre. That project came about when I accidentally spilled baby oil on a piece of printer paper.

I wiped the baby oil off the paper and it made the paper even "worse". The paper was turning transparent and wiping it made it even more transparent!

That got me thinking about how I could take advantage of this behavior. And not much after I had my shadow theatre.

That translucent paper was the front screen that we cast shadows onto.

So, back to cardboard.

I am wondering if there is an easy way to make cardboard transparent. Maybe not the whole corrugated piece but at least the top and bottom layers of kraft paper.

You can easily take cardboard apart, separating it into it's three layers. And it is the top and bottom layer that might be receptive to translucency.

Anyway, I am going to do some experiments with this. Maybe it will be something useful!

Before I do this I have to do some research. Why is cardboard that brown color? Is it because of the wood pulp fibers? Or do they add some kind of coloring or dye to it?

And so far I have tried three different things on the kraft paper to see if I can get it to clarify.

Acetone

White Vinegar

And Bleach

And none of these things worked! Ironically I don't have any baby oil. So, that is something I will give a try to tomorrow.