anyone make paper?

[MommyHawk]

I am going to start making paper from recycled paper and other materials, but I have never done this before. How hard/time consuming is it? the 'how to' links online make it seem simple, but I also have a 7mo and a 3yo with me all day.

any tips/ideas on how to make paper?

[eepster]

I worked in the papermaking studio of a colledge for many years. Forgiving the lack of modesty, there is very little I don't know about making paper.

The basics rules are:

• Anytype of plant fiber can be turned into paper but it varies greatly in quality and degree of processing
• how hard it is to make paper depends greatly on what you start with

You can make paper by recycling old paper very easiely.

1. You simply soak it till it is soft (how long depends on what type of fiber it is.)
2. Then masserate it, most people use a blender, it is now pulp.
3. Then form it.

The most common way to form it is to use a vat, and a mould & deckle. A mould and deckle are basically two wooden frames with screening attached to one, the mould, and nothing on the other, the deckle.

1. The pulp is stirred into a vat, large enough to acomidate the mould & deckle, of water.
2. The mould and deckle are then lowered into the vat and pulled up straight (this ius called pulling.)
3. If you have held everything the right way you will have a perfect but extremely fragile peice of paper sitting on your mould when you remove your deckle.
4. If something has gone wrong don't worry just lift off the pulp stir it back in the vat and try again.

If you want to have a sturdier peice of paper and be able to make more than one sheet per mould you'll want to couche (pronounced koowch) and press it. You will need two boards a bit larger tan your mould and felt sheets also larger than your mould.

1. Place a felt sheet on one of the boards flip the mould face down against the felt (this is the momment when many first time paper makers discover they held the mould upside down when they pulled the sheet) and press until the paper releases from the mould. If it won't release try pressing it with a damp sponge. You hav now couched.
2. place another sheet of felt on top
3. you can couche sanother sheet of paper on the top felt
4. when you have made enough paper place a final sheet of felt on top of your stack
5. Put the other board on top
6. Place heave object or jump up and down ontop of the board
7. remove the board
8. very carefully peel apart the layers of felt and set them some where well ventilated to dry
9. Oncce dry peel your paper off the felt

These are very general directions and there are many more ways to make paper but if I got into them I would be up till sunrise so I'll leave you with a couple of videos

these guys have a hollander (special blender for paper and very high quality moulds & deckles. http://youtube.com/watch?v=m9ELu8YdTAg

These guys have much more basic equipment http://youtube.com/watch?v=BO6ZDP7pQqY

This one features an artist who is lucky enoiugh to work at dioe dounne (I probably misspelled that) in Soho, NYC http://youtube.com/watch?v=wnim4osWSmc

[~member~]

I miss making paper! It's great to do with three yr olds. We used dryer lint. You can get really cool colors from the local laundromat.

[MommyHawk]

great! I'm starting next week

[TigerTail]

Oh goodness, Eep, I'm going to be picking your brains a lot this spring (I finally got my first deckle- I've been dying to do this for decades, & I finally said 'wtf am I waiting for? Do I want to go to my grave saying "I wish I had" about something so cheap & simple (not like say, the 3 month walking tour of Britain I'd like to take, or becoming an archaelogist )?

I can't wait. Everytime I go to semitropical climes & see papyrus it made me twitch. Checking out different plant fibers (we have cotton fields nearby!) is going to be fun.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by TigerTail

Checking out different plant fibers (we have cotton fields nearby!) is going to be fun.

Cotton makes truely excelent paper, when people talk about "rag" paper it is usually cotton. Unfortunately you need a darn strong machine to process it, like the hollander in the video.

[TigerTail]

I have a bag of linty cotton, will that be as difficult to process? I have a decent blender (KitchenAid I think?), but not an industrial strength one.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by TigerTail

I have a bag of linty cotton, will that be as difficult to process? I have a decent blender (KitchenAid I think?), but not an industrial strength one.

Since it is linty it will be easier, but that is only relative to starting with fabric or high quality (for spinning) cotton. Sheets of fiber that have already been mostly processed into pulp are actually called linters. It is probably still be to much for your blender though I've burnt out quite afew blenders on easier to process stuff than cotton. If you want to risk your blender and try it soak the cotton overnight. If your kids want to try a little manual labor you can use a motar and pestle, they will probably get bored long before you have pulp though.

But really cotton is one of the toughest fibers, not quite as hard as linen or hemp but hard, that has a lot to do with why it make such great paper. In a hollander beater cotton usually takes many hours. The hollander also makes a better pulp b/c it has a cruching motion instead of a cutting one. So you may just end up with a broken burnt out blender and poor quality paper pulp with lumpy knots of cotton. I actually got the occasional knot of cotton in the hollander at the studio I worked in.

I need to go now but I'll post links to linters which a better option latter.

[eepster]

Originally Posted by eepster

I need to go now but I'll post links to linters which a better option latter.

Here is the link to a supplier that we used on a regular basis http://www.carriagehousepaper.com/
The way the website is set up with frames I can't link you directly to the cotton linters but if you click on "supplies" then on "pulps & fibers" then scroll halfway down you'll see them.

[mrsalf97]

We need to do this soon. I bought a kit from Michaels's and have never opened it. We recently did some recycling experiments so this would go great with that.

[Flor]

I took a lot of Book Arts classes in college and had fun makingpaper there and with kids later, but the biggest problem was always where to dry the paper? I guess if you have a yard, it's a no-brainer, but in after school programs or in apartments, I'd have clotheslines criss-crossing and dripping paper hanging from everywhere! Have fun. I'll drag my stuff out someday.

[TigerTail]

Hmmm. I have a mortar & pestle, but I'd need a bigass molcajete for any kind of serious grinding action.

I never really use that blender anyway.