Are you looking to make the paper yourself at your home? It’s a great idea; it uses up your old receipts, scraps of paper, junk mail, and copy paper, which you usually through in your recycling bin. It’s very simple to convert all of this stuff into glorious homemade beauty. If you have any of the mentioned useless material in your home, you can follow the below steps. Firstly, let’s see the supplies you need to convert this material into useful paper.
Supplies for making paper
·
Scrap
·
Water
·
Plastic storage tub or vat
·
Kitchen blender
·
Mould and Deckle
·
Wood boards and rolling pin
·
Towel, wool blankets, cloth, pellon, sham wows,
or any other absorbent
Step 1: Cut Up Paper
In the first step, you need to
cut the paper into a 1-inch square and soak it for few hours or overnight.
Drawing, printing, and watercolor papers are the best choice as these are made
from stronger fiber, which plays an important role in the quality of the final
paper. You can also try different color combinations.
Step 2: Blend it and Make a Vat of Pulp
Now you need to put the paper
pieces in the blender and keep blending them until they convert into a pulp.
Now this blender is no more for smoothies. Take a storage tub, and fill it up
with the pulp about 1/3 to ½ way. You can add more pulp to make the pulp
thicker.
Step 3: Pull some sheets
Now use the mould and deckle
to pull some sheets. These are two frames of the same size with a screen
attachment. To make the sheet stir the vat of pulp by holding the mould screen
side up and placing the deckle evenly on top. Make sure the 45-degree angle
between them and dip the mould and deckle to the bottom of the vat and scoop
up. The mould and deckle should be held horizontally during this process. Give
it a quick shake back and forth by lifting it out of the slurry. Make sure the
fiber is perfectly aligned from left to right. Stop the shaking before the
sheet is fully drained and let the water drain to a drip.
Step 4: Couching
Now, it’s time to transfer the
wet sheet from the mould to a flat, absorbent surface. You can use the wool
felts for this purpose, but you can also use the blankets, smoother towels,
thick paper towels, non-fusible interfacing or pellon, sham-wows, or bed sheets.
You need to remove the deckle from the mould, and place it along the edge of the
mould on the felt. Not place the mold face down in a simple one smooth motion,
press down, and lift from the initial edge. It’s like a closed-door and open-door motion.
Step 5: Pressing
Now, you need to press the
paper by using the hand pressing or board pressing technique. To press the
sheet, put the pellon or paper towel on top of the freshly couched sheet.
Firstly, press it firmly by using a sponge, and then press firmly with as much
pressure as possible. You can also use the rolling pin or old paint roller to
press the sheet. Continue to layer another sheet on the couched sheet and make
a stack. Put this stack outside to a concrete or stone surface and stand on it.
Step 6: Drying
This is the last step, which needs to get some blotters, towels, or other absorbent, dry, flat material. Layer the material and then put the handmade wet paper on it. Repeat to create a stack, and put a wood board or a book on top. You can increase the weight by putting in more books. Check it regularly until the homemade sheet is completely dry. You can also use the other drying methods like surface drying, no restraint drying, and dry on Pellon or cloth.
