Given the right supplies and a bit of ingenutity, making paper is lots of fun! First you will need a mould and deckle (the frames to shape the paper). The mould is the part which contains the screen (your local hardware store has great inexpensive screen for screen doors). While the deckle goes on top of the screen to create a great boarder for the paper pulp. An easy frame is using two embroidery hoops (these will make circular paper) or select appropriately sized frames from the embroidery section of your local craft store (we liked the 8" and 11"). The embroidery hoop mould involves loosening the outer hoop, placing a screen on the hoop (as you would normally fabric), and fastening the outer hoop back in place. You now have the mould; for the deckle, just use the outer hoop of the second embroidry hoop. A similar process is needed for the embroidery frames. First create the two equally sized frames. Then attach the screen to the exterior perimeter of one frame (I like the staple gun for this) and you now have the mould. The other frame makes the deckle.
You also need some kind of container, perferably large and clear plastic. I find that the clear plastic helps me to see clearly what is happening with the density of water to pulp. We used a large plastic storage container (which normally store clothes for the off seasons). After placing the bin on a stable surface, I added enough water to fill 1/3 of the container. Now put a 1/4 cup of cotton linter into a blender containing 3/4 full of warm water (warmth for your hands and to help the linter absorb the water quicker). This blender should only be used for paper-making and not for food. Then just pulse the blender until the linter is evenly distributed. Pour the solution into the plastic container and repeat at least 4 times for your first batch of paper.
Once the pulp is prepared and ready to be used, it is important to evenly distribute the pulp in the container (an easy method is to put your hand into the water and make a couple of figure-eights). Place the deckle on top of the mould (screen side up) and grip it tightly with both hands. Dip the mould into the pulp mixture. To do this appropriately, start at the back of your tank of water, place the mould and deckle perpendicular to the table, drag the mould and deckle down into the water, and in a smooth motion flatten it out horizontal to the bottom of the tank. Here you can wait a bit, and then pull the mould and deckle straight up and out of the water. Let the water drain, as there will be quite a bit (we are using cotton).
Now remove the deckle; you should have the outline of a nice piece of evenly distributed pulp. If the distribution is not even and you want to start over, just invert your screen and touch the pulp to the top of the water - all the pulp should come smoothly off. Now just repeat the previous paragraph. One note: if you think that your paper looks really thin, just remember that everything is wet and looks a bit translucent right now. If you still think that it looks too thin, redip the mould and deckle into the water. Just move slowly, otherwise you are lible to loose all of your previous hard work.
To remove the "future" paper from the screen of the mould, first place a piece of pressed felt (slightly larger than paper size) onto the lid of the storage container. Now we need to couch the paper, meaning "remove it from the mould." Invert the mould on the felt and sponge the back of the screen well. This helps to release the paper from the screen. Starting at one corner, slowly lift up the mould and seperate the fibers from the mould (you may need to use your fingernails or a knife to help the process). At this point you have a piece of very wet paper. You can either stop here, or create a sandwiched piece of paper.
For sandwiched paper, at this point, add whatever you want to the paper (i.e. leaves, crumbled leaves, sawdust, seeds, yarn pieces, fabric pieces, etc). Now create another sheet of paper and place that sheet on top of your first. Couch the new sheet of paper, and you're all set. If you would like to place glitter or confetti paper pieces, you can put them on while the paper is still wet.
To dry the paper, place another piece of felt on top of the paper and apply pressure (or a good pile of books) to press the fibers together for a denser sheet and remove as much water as possible. After 5-10 minutes you can remove the top layer of felt and either lay your paper out to dry by a fan, or put an ironing cloth on top and steam more of the water out of your paper. You now have a piece of homemade paper!
As a note, we found that adding powdered spices can create a sticky and dirty iron very quickly, be warned. I did try paper from cloth, and unless you have a holland beater, I wouldn't recomend this effecient way to destroy a blender before it's time. Also, if you can't find cotton linters, you can purchase pulp via mail.
Here are a few of the sites I visited to learn about paper making:
http://members.vienna.at/difr/anl.html
http://www.twinrocker.com/supplies.htm
http://www.manitowocart.com/paper_making.htm
http://members.optusnet.com.au/vanviola/paper.html
http://www.wipapercouncil.org/makepaper.htm
http://www.wipapercouncil.org/paperearly.htm
http://users.bestweb.net/~bpress/res/art/paper1.html
http://www.dcwi.com/~twinrock/sbooks.htm
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/makingpaper.html
http://www.coxes.com/paper/
More on marbling in the next entry...
