More Paper-making, 3rd March

On Friday I managed to track down a proper paper-making frame and mesh from the Creativity shop in Clifton, and I also acquired a small paper shredder, because I can't see how else I can shred or tear or cut up enough paper without damaging my r.s.a.-worn hand.  The shredder will be useful for other things,  and I had been thinking about getting one for some time anyway.

It made a huge difference!  I shredded several history articles, and put them in a bucket of warm water to soak, while I went to get the frames and mesh.

On Friday evening I made my first batch of paper suing this method.  It was much, much easier than my efforts in college!   There were clear instructions with the gauze, and the frames were big enough to produce roughly A4 sheets.

I liquidized the soaked, shredded paper in the liquidizer goblet until it looked like pale grey porridge.  

I filled the utility room sink with cold water and added a few handfuls of pulp and swirled it all around.  I submerged the frames and mesh, and lifted them out carefully, shaking them gently to get rid of  most of the water.

Then I put the mesh and 'paper' onto a pile of old towels and old newspapers on the kitchen floor,

 and covered the paper with a J-cloth

and then a wooden chopping board.

I stood on the whole lot for about 15 seconds, as the water squelched through into the towel.

At this stage the damp sheet of new paper sticks magically to the J-cloth, and you can peel the cloth away from the mesh, and lay it out flat to dry.

 I made about a dozen sheets, and layered the sheets between pieces of J-cloth and stacked them up on top of a cake rack on the AGA to dry overnight.

On Saturday morning the sheets of new paper were not quite dry, but ok to move and put under a heavy pile of magazines to finish off drying and to make them flat.  They were far less grey than the paper I made from newspaper in college last week, and had interesting and tantalising flecks of text showing through.  The sheets were varied in thickness, but I was quite pleased with their consistency overall.

This evening I have made a whole lot more sheets, this time (I hope) getting them a bit thinner and more even.  In some of them I included little strips of un-pulped paper in the mix, in the hope that random words will emerge in the finished paper.  I also stacked them up on a base sheet of flat plastic, to avoid any trace of the cake-drying rack coming through.

I plan to use some of these on Monday at college to (a) try some relief printing onto these sheets to see if they are robust enough to take ink; and (b) try making some of them into a book of some kind.

I still have half a bucket of shredded and soaked paper, and I'm not quite sure what to do with it - it will not keep for long.  So tomorrow I think I will try making it into papier macho forms, possibly letter forms, - both to see how this will work, and possibly for the idea of some kind of suspended, broken-up words.

I also plan, next, to try making some paper out of 'clean', i.e. unused white paper, but including odd words or strips of text from printed essays, etc.  And I also want to try making some a paper out of coloured pretend material, e.g. old copies of the RWA magazine, with is printed on quite heavy but not-glossy paper.