Handmade Paper Making (Recycling scrap paper)

I’m always fond of making handmade cards and calenders but this time I thought to invest my time in handmade paper making and want to use the same paper for my next card. For the said purpose I read different paper making techniques and used a mixture of them by adding my own ideas. Here is gist of the procedure I used to make the handmade paper using scrap papers.

Handmade Paper Making

Stuff Required:

• Scrap Papers (Different materials can be used in handmade paper making, e.g. scrap fibers, cotton, dryer lint, small leaves and flower petals)
• 2 Wooden frames (A bit larger than the required size of paper) Picture frames can be used for the purpose
• Window screen (A bit larger than the frame size)
• Blender (Ask from the mom before using one from the kitchen, as it would not be suitable to use it for other purposes after using here)
• Large plastic tub (Where wooden frames can easily be placed)
• Sponge
• Thick towels
• Rolling Pin
• Cornstarch (To make easier writing on the paper)
• Flat Cookie sheets or news paper

Instructions:

Choose your scrap paper and other stuff which you want to use for making the paper and shred it all into small pieces. Now soak the shredded pieces into warm water for at least 5 hours.

While pieces are soaked into water, prepare your mold and deckle. Place and stretch the window screen over a frame and  bind it on the frame using nails or stapler. Other wooden frame which is without window screen is called as deckle and is used for making the smooth edges of the paper by placing it on the mold. If required, you can use any other shape of deckle to transform paper in that shape.

Typical Mold and Deckle – Handmade Paper Making

After 5 hours, blend the soaked material in blender at a ratio of 1 to 2 i.e. 1 portion of soaked material and 2 portions of water. If the mixture is too thick then add one more portion of water. Blend the material starting from slow to medium high speed until it becomes consistent thin oatmeal. If prepared paper will be used for writing then add a tablespoon of cornstarch. This way paper will not absorb the ink.

If you want to make colorful paper then you can add food color as well. Pour color and blend it. Leaves and flowers can also be added here or if you don’t want to blend these then add it later when you will pour the mixture into mold.

When the mixture is blended into slurry of pulp, fill the tub with 2 inch of water for every blender full of pulp. Place the deckle over the mold and pour the pulp into the deckle. Lover the mold into the tub of water and shake back and forth to smoothly distribute the pulp. Now pull out the mold and deckle from water and let the water drain. If you want then place the flowers or leaves on it.

Use the sponge to dry the excess water from the back of the screen. Remove the deckle and place the thick towel on the pulp. Now turn over all the thing onto the news paper or flat cookie sheet and let it dry. If the paper doesn’t come off easily then dry the back of the screen for some more time. Cover the paper with another piece of newspaper or cookie sheet and roll over it using rolling pin. It will bind the fibers and will imprint any designs of leafs or flowers on it and more over it will dry faster.

Prepare more sheets and pile them up with a separation of cookie sheet so that papers will not stick to each other. Pile them flat and place heavy books on them. Leave the sheets there for drying (time varies).

Handmade paper making is a bit time consuming but really is a fun stuff. Practice makes the man perfect. Over the time you will not feel it a complicated process and will definitely consume less time.