Children
The art of papermaking is to create sheets of paper like no other.
Suggestion: This craft would be a good idea for Vacation Bible School. The teacher could do the preparation steps at home and let the children participate in making fun things to take home at the end of the vacation Bible school period.
The fun comes from making those sheets from creative pulp concoctions. If you enjoy concocting, experimenting, and making art, papermaking is one of the most expressive forms you’ll come across. Small bundles of handmade paper tied together with ribbon or twine make lovely gifts.
If you lived in America 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin might have paid you three cents a pound for your old rags. Mr. Franklin was a rag buyer for paper mills. For more than 500 years, most paper in Europe and North America came from worn-out clothes made of cotton and linen. Linen comes from flax plants and cotton comes from cotton plants. So rags are full of plant fibers – just right for making paper.
Now, more and more paper is made from recycled paper – newspaper, computer paper, magazines, and catalogs. Even 200 years ago, people knew that recycling made a lot of good sense.
Making your own papers is lots of fun and one of the ultimate concoctions. However, please don’t pour leftover pulp down the sink, as it will clog the drain.
What You Need:
Scrap paper
Water
2 wooden frames (the same size and small enough to fit in a washtub with plenty of room to spare.)
Nylon screening
Washbasin
Tacks
Blender
Old newspaper
2 small towels
What You Do:
To make sheets of paper, you need a mold and deckle. Use picture frames (without the glass) or canvas stretch bars. Cover one frame tightly with the nylon screening; then tack it down. You will use this frame as the mold to lift the pulp from the water. The other frame the deckle (a frame around the edges of a mold used in making paper by hand), gives the paper an even edge.
Tear scrap paper into small pieces and soak the paper in a bowl of water until thoroughly wet. Fill the blender half full with the mixture. Then beat those fibers to a pulp! Blend until no chunks remain. (No blender? You can get good results beating the paper concoction with a whisk or eggbeater.)
Fill the basin about ¼(quarter) full of water and pour the pulp into the basin until it is about ¾ (three quarters) full.
Hold the mold screen-side up, with the deckle on top. Holding them together, dip the frames into the basin and scoop up some pulp. Gently move the mold and deckle back and forth until the pulp is an even layer on the screen.
Set on newspaper and let the water drain away. Remove the deckle, and lay a towel on top of the homemade paper. Carefully turn the towel, paper, and mold over onto the table.
Use a sponge to remove the excess water from the back of the screen. Lift mold and leave the paper on the towel. Blot with another towel.
Let the paper dry in a warm place. When dry peel the paper from the towel. To speed up the drying process keep your sheet sandwiched between two towels after the previous step. Place some heavy books on the towel, or roll a rolling pin over the towel to squeeze out more water then gently place it on another towel to finish drying.
Tips: Each time you dip into the pulp concoction, the paper sheets will get thinner. This is because you are using up more of the pulp. Add pulp to the concoction from time to time.
If you would like to develop a trademark scent, add a few drops of your favorite scent to the pulp.
Fun Ways to use Recycled Paper:
Now that you have torn and shredded all those old envelopes and junk mail (you’ve heard that “one man’s junk is another person’s treasure--here’s proof of that), catalogs and brochures, gift-wrapping, shopping bags, coffee filters, and pieces of computer paper to create your own handmade paper, what do you do with it?
Here are a few ideas to get your creativity going:
Greeting cards:
Cut it in half and cut out pictures from old greeting cards with pinking shears, use a glue stick to attach to the front. These can be used as new greeting cards, or punched with a hole punch, tied with a ribbon, and used as a gift card.
Bookmarks:
Use dried pressed leaves and flowers, then encase both in clear adhesive paper to make bookmarks.
Envelopes:
Disassemble an envelope; trace the pattern on your handmade paper to create a new envelope. Use a glue stick to attach the sides and flaps. Circular handmade paper can be folded in half to use as notes in your envelopes. Use rubber stamps and embossing to make your special stationary. Add glitter, threads, or whatever to enhance the paper.
Paper Bowls:
Make lovely delicate paper bowls from a colorful pulp concoction. These bowls are perfect for holding paper clips, stamps, small treasures, or special stones.
Make two or three batches of pulp in different colors. Use a sieve to strain the water from a blender full of paper pulp. Press the pulp against the sieve to remove more water. Spray the inside of a small bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Then press a layer of pulp against the inside of the bowl. For an interesting splotchy effect, press patches of different colored pulp together on the same bowl. Cover the inside completely so that the original bowl can’t be seen. Let the pulp dry in a warm, dry place. Use a dull knife to loosen the paper bowl from the original bowl. Paint the bowl with clear acrylic sealer to protect and strengthen.
Special occasion paper:
If you want to make some spectacular paper, add torn bits of crepe paper or tissue gift-wrap to your pulp concoction. Don’t blend. Make special occasion paper – like red, white, and blue for Fourth of July. Or, sprinkle any of the following items onto the deckle or mix into pulp mixture after blended: colored threads, bits of ribbon, lint from the dryer, bits of clean foil, thin leaves, tea leaves, flower petals, glitter, or postage stamps.
The art of papermaking is to create sheets of paper like no other. The fun comes from making those sheets from creative pulp concoctions. The sort of pulp you concoct determines the type of sheet you will get. Experiment with many kinds of scrap paper. Use each kind separately or mix several kinds together. (Black print from newspapers causes sheets to be dull gray. Also, you can use glossy papers, but the results aren’t quite as nice.)
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