Paper Making

On Saturday morning, I found myself wanting to finish some projects. The ones on the 'to do' list - you know that list. So, I got all of the stale bread out of the freezer and turned that into breadcrumbs. I also made a batch of granola - enough to last about 8 weeks. mmm. And finally, I attempted the papermaking I have been thinking about for so long. All in all, a messy day.

With camera on hand, I jumped on in. I figured that photos of the adventure would be much more interesting that a dialogue on the mess!!

I used an old photo frame that I had and a piece of fly screen that was left over from a summer project.

After I banged it all together, I pulled out the blender - old choppy and I filled it with torn up paper.

- and what better paper to recycle than my statistics notes!!

I knew that the ink from the notes would come through - but I wanted to see the effect before I started ripping up good white paper that could still be drawn on.

There was one minor glitch - remember the blender came with no lid. I had a tupperware lid over the top, but I very quickly learnt that you need to hang on pretty tight. Old choppy has quite the kick.

My first try was very thick - I just dumped all of the pulp into the screen.


Then I played around with some colour and my flower petals. To my second batch of paper, I added the sunflower petals, the blue cornflowers and some yellow food colouring.


The yellow food colouring didnt really take - might need to start with yellow paper to see it in the final product. But I really liked the little blue cornflowers - they worked perfectly.


Seeing as the paper was so thick, it didnt dry fully in the first 24 hours - so I put it on the dryer. This worked really well and the paper was good to work with after another day.

The paper is very stiff now =- and thick like cardboard. So a little more room to play with the consistency. And there is the slight issue with mess. At least working with watercolour, everything is contained and easy to clean up. I just tip out the jar of water when I'm done. Perhaps I need a little more room that just the corner I currently occupy. Do you think the kids would mind if I took over the computer table? mmmm

Now, to make something with the paper. !!