Thanks for the tip on velvet, I'll look into it. What about a white background? Can you get such a thing called white velvet?
I don't know about white velvet, but it is not main stream.
Not anything I've ever heard of, so I doubt it could help.
White, you have to light, to illuminate it to be white. Macro, with the subject on the paper (or fabric) should not be much issue, except the closeness makes the shadows dark. Raising the subject just an inch or two (on a hidden spacer) would greatly help any soft shadows, but compared to a light at say 2 feet, is still about the same distance (still white).
Ideally, we have some distance between subject and background to eliminate shadows on the background.
Black velvet is generally no problem though, subject can lay directly on it, so long as exposure is not grossly overdone.
Switching to portraits, since that is often the major interest, and an easy explanation. If the subject is 4 feet from lights, and the white background is 4 feet behind subject, then background is 2x distance difference, which will be down 2 stops less than near subject, and will appear dirty gray, not white. So what is done is to add background lights to illuminate the background to be at least as bright as the subject. Then it looks very white..
Macro, with subject on the white background generally ought to light well (except the shadows).
Macro, it could be possible to light the white background, from below, to make it even brighter white.
Here is a sample of black velvet, with the subject laying directly on the velvet.