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Yesterday I decided to do a test round making my own paper. I’d bought a small deckle to begin with thinking it would be post card sized, and it was – on the outside! The actual papers turned out to be only 12 x 7½ cm. I also think I may not like the fine silk screen used, it takes forever to drain the water. So I’m going to have to make my own deckle after all I guess and have some mosquito netting I’ll try for that. Once I get some wood.

paper07

Since I’m interested in thick, rough, blended papers with bits and pieces of plants and whatnot mixed in, I decided to jump right into that. My base pulp is just shredded printer paper (with print) mostly, and then I went and added some fresh stinging nettle leaves and some dried black hollyhock. Initially when I added vinegar to get the colour out, the pulp turned bright pink, but when I came back from a short break it was purple. pH of the pulp just over 7, so, more vinegar for pink which needs to be acidic (very in fact – don’t think I’ll bother on second thought when I also have cochenille).

All in all it went pretty well considering I haven’t tried this before, of course a few sheets break but they are for collage, right? I was so preoccupied with the process I didn’t take a lot of photos I’m afraid. I’ve promised Kristina a more thorough walk-through, so look out for that in a bit if you’d like to try this.

It will be interesting to see if the colours keep or if they perhaps all turn grey after a while. They certainly faded a lot after drying. One set turned out thinner because there was less pulp and they basically fused to the cotton towel. Luckily I could solve that with a spray bottle of water to the back of the fabric, then peeling off the papers immediately.

I have a small batch of pulp left, so I’ve made a birch leaf soup to mix that up with. But I ran out of towels to lay them out onto, so perhaps tomorrow. Today we stack firewood and write job applications.

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