making paper, part II

Over the weekend, I had another go at making paper, this time using plain white copy paper and trying to 'mash' it in the kitchen blender to a finer pulp.  I managed to achieve this finer mix, so the "soup" of paper pulp and water was even creamier than previously, and therefore the paper sheets I produced were also thinner and smoother.  I improved my arrangements for drying the sheets of paper.  

I rigged up a series of "washing lines" indoors - i.e. rows of string tied between two kitchen chairs, and the J-cloths pegged onto them like a proper washing line.  I was worried that the paper would fall off before it was fully dry, but this didn't happen.  

It dried still firmly attached to the cloth, and once dry, it was easy to separate the two layers and pile the paper up.  I cannot imagine how this was done easily before the invention of J-cloths....

I rather liked the effect of a nice bouncy pile of my freshly made sheets of paper.   The wrinkly, deckled edges looked very good, and from the side-view the textural quality of the hand-made paper - all uneven and a bit wrinkled - is very compellingly tactile.  


However, this paper didn't have much character when looked at face-on.  The blandness of the plain white surface was really rather dull.  I don't think I will bother with this further for this project - and indeed, it isn't right to use plain, unused paper when I am focussing on re-cycling the  heaps of old paper from my former life.  


But I am tempted to play around with adding colour to the pulp, to sees whether I can make paper with a strong clear colour.  I have read , somewhere on the web, that this can be done using Procion MX cold water dyes - but at risk of dying everything in the house at the same time.  Another possibility is to add acrylic paint to the pulp - presumably before making the "soup" of pulp and water.  I will have a go on a good warm day when I can mess about outside.