I wanted to create my own paper because I love the texture that you get which normal paper doesn’t give you. I always wanted to see what it would be like to print on homemade paper. I’m going to try out different materials on the paper.
The first thing I did was find a material that would work best for creating the mould and deckle. I started off by using a ready made canvas as it was already in the form of a mould and deckle. However this didn’t work. The water did not go through the canvas which means I had to find a new material to try out. I decided to try tights next as I’ve seen it being used to strain things. This method did work however it took a while for the water to drain as you can see in the video above. But also I had a feeling it may stick and would be hard to peel the paper off when taking it out of the mould. Tights are extremely thin and not very sturdy so I decided to keep thinking about an alternative before using tights indefinitely. After looking around my house I found a magnetic door screen in the attic and and tried it out. It worked extremely well so I cut a piece out and used pins to attach it to the frame from the canvas I used previously.
The paper making process started the night before as I needed to let the paper pulp soak over night so that it was easier to use. I was going to leave it for a couple of hours but overnight was a better choice. To begin this process I went through lots of old mail and started shredding using an electric shredder. It took me a while to do this because the shredder only shreds for two minutes and then stays off for 45 minutes to cool down so there was a lot of waiting around. But whilst I was waiting I started putting the ready shredded paper into water and began using a hand blended to turn it into pulp. Once I had got the consistency I wanted, that was it. I left the pulp overnight to soak.
The next morning I started off by creating my mould and deckle. I laid out everything I needed and got started. I began by filling a tub with water. I added about three handfuls of pulp into the tub of water. I placed the mould into the water and gathered the pulp within the mould. I let it drain the water and began using a sponge to collect the water. During this process I realised how time consuming it was even though I had done this before. I decided to change to a sponge that was extra absorbent but also was a lot thinner than the one I was using and it worked a lot better. I also tried using different materials to absorb and drain the water. I used a flat cake scraper to press the sponge down and I also used chopsticks to hold up the frame so the water could drain away. The scraper was really effective however the chopsticks just kept moving. As you can see In the video, I did have trouble with getting the paper out of the mould and I feel like there a numerous reasons why. The mould and deckle that I had created wasn’t secure. I feel as though the material could have been pulled more taut so that it wasn’t as flexible as it was. I also think the pulp was to chunky and I don’t know if this is because of the paper I used or if I didn’t blend it enough with the electric blender. I’m glad I have the video to watch back on when I try again tomorrow.
Hannah's Art Blog 