[shrike]

No, I clip the cotton bits off first<G>.


Yeah, that's it. you cut a slit along the length and start peeling. I'm not sure how the paper is treated, clay I think, but it takes paint and markers pretty well, and you can glue it with white glue too. (I really hate CA)
A real 'Q-tip" brand stick starts out at 0.098 " (2.5mm) and will easily stay intact when peeled down past .020" (0.5mm). 0.010" --(0.25mm) is possible, but iffy.
The fun part is that you can peel them in sections too to create stepped or tapered pieces.

It's a little bit of a cheat I suppose, but it is paper<g>