Basic paper making

[helymojo]

notice i said basic!!!

i only know this way to make paper, but would love to learn any alternatives!! hint hint :wink:

this is to make paper from recycling paper round the house

collect all old envelopes, and bits of good quality (preferably) paper, and tear into pieces approx 50p size or smaller, the better the quality of paper you use, the better the results will be, news paper type tends to make things go grey,try to collect like colours together, as a mix of allsorts of colours can tend to go a murky brown!, mix colour and white, or just one colour, experiment!! i did, you can use the white envelopes with the blue print on the insides too

once you have a good quantity of ripped paper, put into a bowl of cold water and soak over night, this loosens the fibres in the paper, after soaking, put the paper, and some of the water into a blender, and blend, you should have a nice mushy mess, ( at this stage it can also be used to model shapes from etc if you wanted to) at this stage you will need a washing up bowl, rectangle one pref, pour your stuff out of the blender into your bowl and top up to three quarters full with water.

you will now need a frame to make the paper with, i use a homemade one, 4 bits of wood screwed together to make a frame, then a piece of mesh, fabric or fine metal, stretched tightly over the frame. i have also tried using a piece of old net curtyain, which leaves a nice imprint in your finished paper!!

slide the frame into the bowl on an angle away from you, fully submerge it, and push it away from you at the same time as lifting it out of the water, you should end up with a thin covering of your paper mush on top of the frame, if not put it back in and scoop again!

you will now need a damp cloth, old hand towel is ok, fold it into a squareish shape, and put it on a flat surface, cover it with one of those very thin, blue kitchen cloths (forgotten what they are called, but you can buy them in packs of 100 for about 99p, vilene or something i think, or the same cheap brand!)once covered you can then gently place your frame on the hump! and rock it away from yourself, pressing firmly, a lot of the excess water will be squeezed out, so an old cloth for mopping up is handy!! once you have rocked your frame the paper should stay on the hump, cover this with 2 thin blue cloths , then go back and scoop again, keep repeating this until all of your paper is made, then put a blue cloth on top. you should end up with a pile , and each piece of paper should have a cloth top and bottom!
if you have an old wringer, you can then feed each piece through as it will dry quicker and smoother, a pasta wringer will also do this, if not it dosen't matter, use a rolling pin to roll each piece and get as much excess water out.

when this is done, you have to leave them to dry, i put mine in between the pages of an old newspaper, and placed a heavy book on top to keep it all flat, i made mine in winter, so changed the newspaper for a dry one every couple of hours, then when nearly dry i put them in the airing cupboard to finish,but keep weighted, else it will curl up as it dries, it should be a lot easier and quicker to dry in the summer!!

just before it is dried completely, peel the blue cloth off very carefully!

you should now have paper!!

[helymojo]

hope you understood all that :shock:

for alternatives, you can add bits of coloured thread, to the water mix, or glitter, whatever you want really

you can put a skeleton leaf or thin pressed flower onto the paper, as you make it , (at the bit before you put the blue cloth over the top), then when you roll it, the leaf etc, gets embedded into your paper.

i'll shut up now and give someone else a chance!! :lol:

will also try and find out the proper name for the blue cloth things :!:

forgot to say when you use the frame, it has to be mesh side up, else the paper won't come out if it is the other way up!

[helymojo]

http://www.easymakeonline.com/recipes.htm


here is a link to a lot of paper making recipes, some good ideas

[gazlannathai]

Handmade paper from Thailand - uses mulberry tree bark from sustainably managed woodlands

See my listings or full catalogue at www.gazlannathai.com - choose your exact requirements there and I'll post a private buy-now listing for you.

Big sheet sizes created using bamboo frames (also sustainable forestry) with many designs of embedded flowers and leaves etc. using very similar techniques to those above but creating much bigger sheets than you can do at home - ideal for wrapping paper and manufacturing crefts.

:wink: not trying to steal anyone's thunder, but this is much easier than DIY and the cost is low as well.

Regards all
Gaz

[wireweaver]

Have just signed up for a course at my local collegiate for Hand made paper and Books. :lol:
Course starts on the 19th so watch here for more details. 8)
I will post each weeks lesson and list of things we did on this thread if anyone would be interested.

Lorraine

[mfkirke]

Yes, Please Lorraine