Papermaker

Yesterday I decided to do a test round making my own paper. I’d bought a small deckle to begin with thinking it would be post card sized, and it was – on the outside! The actual papers turned out to be only 12 x 7½ cm. I also think I may not like the fine silk screen used, it takes forever to drain the water. So I’m going to have to make my own deckle after all I guess and have some mosquito netting I’ll try for that. Once I get some wood.

paper07

Since I’m interested in thick, rough, blended papers with bits and pieces of plants and whatnot mixed in, I decided to jump right into that. My base pulp is just shredded printer paper (with print) mostly, and then I went and added some fresh stinging nettle leaves and some dried black hollyhock. Initially when I added vinegar to get the colour out, the pulp turned bright pink, but when I came back from a short break it was purple. pH of the pulp just over 7, so, more vinegar for pink which needs to be acidic (very in fact – don’t think I’ll bother on second thought when I also have cochenille).

All in all it went pretty well considering I haven’t tried this before, of course a few sheets break but they are for collage, right? I was so preoccupied with the process I didn’t take a lot of photos I’m afraid. I’ve promised Kristina a more thorough walk-through, so look out for that in a bit if you’d like to try this.

It will be interesting to see if the colours keep or if they perhaps all turn grey after a while. They certainly faded a lot after drying. One set turned out thinner because there was less pulp and they basically fused to the cotton towel. Luckily I could solve that with a spray bottle of water to the back of the fabric, then peeling off the papers immediately.

I have a small batch of pulp left, so I’ve made a birch leaf soup to mix that up with. But I ran out of towels to lay them out onto, so perhaps tomorrow. Today we stack firewood and write job applications.

danish På dansk ->

 

11 thoughts on “Papermaker

  1. Oh, now you got me thinking about making paper…and adding the calendula blossoms I just harvested. i did this years ago. Another project? Why not! Your work and your curiosity in the fiber world is always an inspiration.

  2. Så fint dette ble! Fikk veldig lyst på slike kort, det er så mye struktur i slikt papir, og så må det være det noe helt eget når man skriver på papir man har laget selv.

    1. Tak! Ja, struktur og personlighed er en dejlig ting i både papir og stof! For mig er det i hvert fald samme materialefascination. Postkort, hjemmelavede notesbøger, malerier på eget papir, der er mange muligheder! I dag eksperimenterer jeg med at lave relief af blade i papiret mens det tørrer…

  3. Paper making sounds like science… You added vinegar? And fresh plants? Hmm… sounds interesting. One more thing that’s been bugging me for ages – how easy is it to clean your blender from the pulp? I love your paper, I think you did a great job. It’s very “inviting”, I mean I’d gladly draw or write something on it.

    1. It was a mix of plant dyeing and papermaking I guess, you don’t need vinegar for the paper.

      They say to use a paper specific blender, not the one for food, especially if you use recycled papers. My mum decided it sounded so exciting that she bought me one! But it’s not hard to wash it off. Even if it dries up, you just soak it in hot water and then wash/scrub.

      It’s good to add teeny amount of wallpaper glue, that way your pens and paints don’t bleed. Something to experiment with.

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