making paper
Fran
IK> Does anyone have good, basic instructions on making paper at home? I've
IK> been wanting to try it for some tiem, but most of the books I've seen are
IK> either quite technical or concentrate on the history of paper making.
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.01
Title: Homemade Paper
Categories: Tightwad, Crafts, Gifts
Yield: 1 servings
4 c Shredded scrap paper
Food colors
2 tb Liquid laundry starch
Laundry bleach (optional)
Newspapers
Iron
1 Window screen
2 lg Sheets blotting paper
Paper towling
: The type of paper you shred will determine the shade and
consistency of the final product, so choose tissue paper, old wrapping
paper, and interesting mail, and otehr odds and ends of paper with the
final product in mind. Don't worry about writing or ink, you can
bleach the pulp if it is too dark.
: This is a somewhat involved project that requires you to be
superorganized and work quickly once yo've processed your paper pulp
in the blender.
Put the shredded scrap paper into a blender, 1 cup at a time. Pour
between 1 and 2 cups of hat water and 1 tn of laurndry starch over the
pulp. Add extra color if desired or a few drops of bleach if the
color seems too dark.
Pour the pulp into a large bowl and process the rest of the paper,
adding the additional pulp to the bowl until all the paper is
processed into a pulpy muxh that is the consistency of thin oatmeal
or gruel. Mix more hot water into the pulp if it seems too thick,
and make sure you add color at this stage if you don't like the shade
of the pulp.
Organize you work space next to the bowl by firest covering the area
with several thicknesses of newspaper. Plug in your iron oandturn it
on the woolen or warm setting. Place the screen directly over the
newspapers and spoon some of the pulp onto the screen. Smooth it
around evenly and let some of the moisture drip out of the paper.
Press the pulp gently with the back of the spoon.
Cover the pulp on the screen with a piece of the blotting paper, flip
the scree, pulp, and paper over onto fresh newspaper covered with
paper towling and carefully lift off the screen leaving the pulp
sitting on the blotting paper.
Cover the pulp on the screen with another piece of blotting paper and
change the newspaper undernieah if it's too wet. Iron teh blotting
paper sandwhich, moving the iron slowly and gently over the blotting
paper. Lift a corner every now and then to see how well your paper is
coming along--the paper is ready when youcan lift of the top blotter
and peel the new paper off the bottom blotter. Iron until the paper
is dry enough to peel.
Let the blotting paper dry out completely between ironings (about 1
hour) and spoon more pulp onto the screen. Repeat steps 4 and 5
until the pulp is used.
Variations:
: Try adding exotic items to the shredded paper in your
blender. My children have make paper from celery, banana skins, and
scraps of blue jeans that have soaked overnight in 1/2 c of laundry
bleach.
To use:
: You can use the variously shaped patches of paper just as
they come form the blotting papers, but you can and should trim the
papers with a paper cutter or scissors for a more refined look.
: Try adding a deckle edge to your paper by marking a straight
line where you want the edge to be and then dabbing along that line
with a brush or qtip dipped in water. Once the line is nice and wet
you can work it apart with your fingers. Let it dry completely
before using. You can titn the edge another shade by using water
colors in place of plain water.
: Many artists are making whole constructions from homemade
paper. Try draping a piece of still damp paper over and ineresting
shape and letting it dry for an interesting effect.
Yield: 10 to 20 sheets
SOURCE: CHEAPER AND BETTER ALTERNATIVES TO STOREBOUGHT GOODS
BY: NANCY BIRNES
FOUND BY: FRAN MCGEE
MMMMM
* OLX 2.1 TD * Deja who? When you ALMOST rememboer their name...
Fran
IK> Does anyone have good, basic instructions on making paper at home? I've
IK> been wanting to try it for some tiem, but most of the books I've seen are
IK> either quite technical or concentrate on the history of paper making.
-Begin Recipe Export- QBook version 1.00.12
Title: Papermaking for Kids:
Keywords: Crafts, Kids, Paper making, tightwad
By: Karol Harding
My own idea..d beef, wienies, cheese
cubes; to noodle soups add croutns, parmesan cheese, cubesof
precooked beef or chicken. Serve with crackers or cheese bread.
(Unfortunately you will have to dirty a pot for this.)
From: MARIE CULVER Date: 10-01-93 (19:56) Conf: (9) COOKING
MMMMM
>>> Continued to next message
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126 07-24-9422:22INTERNET: SUSAN_KLINGENBEFRAN REQUEST: Campfire/Dut 4/5 1079094 38 a~
Stephie 99
writes:
(a terrific recipie for paper....)
Fran,
Thankyou for posting a most thoughtful and workable paper making
recipie. For those of us wanting to try the art, it certainly seems as
though your instructions will be easy, practical, and less costly than the
marketed paper making supplies.
Stephanie
benf...@muvms6.wvnet.edu
me? Thanks Denise
Sherry Bailey
We recycled newspaper, but any non-coated paper should work.
Rip paper into small pieces.
Soak in warm water with a little squirt of dishwashing soap in it overnight.
Put this mess in an old blender (preferably not the one for cooking,
although THIS recipe doesn't include anything that willd o more than dull
the blades...) - Probably a cup or so at a time, more water might be desired.
Whirl until an even texture.
Pour the pulp into a tub -- for tiny sheets a dishwashing size plastic
tub works ok -- for other sizes, you might want to hunt down something larger
like the kind of tubs restaurant suppliers sell for dish bussing or something.
Needs to be several inches deep (4-6 maybe) and three or so times the length
of the biggest sheet you want ot make...) Add more water.
Use a screen made ahead of time (I used plastic window screen stapled to
a 4x6 inch wooden photo frame, without the glass of course.) If you
want a deckle to provide those neat edges like on art papers, use a second
empty fram the same side on top of the screen. Swish the pulp around so
the fibers are suspended. Dip the frame and deckle into the pulp and lift
straight up. Tip the frame around a bit to drain off some of the water.
lift off the deckle. Flop the sheet over onto a "felt". (This can be a
piece of real felt, preferably wool, or it can be a handiwipe towel in
good condition (not fuzzing) or a piece of old wool fabric or blanket...
lots of choices, but something that won't repel water.) Put another felt on
top and keep layering as you make more sheets. The 'sandwich" shoold always
have a felt on top and on bottom.
Take thw whole sandwich and press the water out. You can do this with a
printing press or a book binding press or anything like that with wood
panels on the top and bottom to spread the pressure. If you don't have a press,
you can do the same think by putting the sandwich between boards then driving
your car over them! Or by putting a couple of cinder blocks on top fo the
boards.
After the water is pressed out, and the paper is still damp, you can pull
the sheets out of the sandwich and press them onto a flat clean sheet of
masonite to dry. Or allow them to dry on a rack (like cake racks or oven
racks...) Or on a clothes line! (You may need to press the paper with an iron
on cotton/dry after since it may buckle a little in drying.
You can make decorative papers by adjusting the amount of pulp to water
ratio, adding color, adding stuff like glitter or flower petals. You can
layer thicker stuff or things like pressed four-leaf-clovers between two
wet sheets of thin paper before pressing with felts.
I am reciting this from memory, so there may be some stuff I forgot, but that's
pretty much what we did. (You can add a little laundry starch to the mix to
"size" the paper, but I didn't do it myself. It might be nice if you want to
use ink on the paper after and don't want it blotter soft!)
There are a bunch of really nice papermaking books on the market, and suppliers
like Dick Blick USED to carry premade 100% rag pulp, just add water. Also,
SERIOUS papermakers who want to do everything from raw nature need special
chemicals and lots of equipment, some of which can be improvised, so if
you feel that way, definintely get the books, or better yet, take training at
some place like TwinRocker!
(Well, THAT was a long sentence!)
Good luck -- it's fun! (I plan to get back to it with cast paper in plaster of
paris molds, so it's fun to think about it here...)
Sherry