Sterling Day 22

Today we made paper in Farmstead Arts. We used burdock, buttercup, bishop's weed, and milkweed stalks as the fibers for the paper. We also used some old office paper shreddings to recycle as new paper. The process is pretty simple. To prepare the pulp you defoliate the stalks of the plant you're using, chop the stalks into 1" pieces, boil them for 10 minutes or so to loosen the fibers, and then put them in a blender with some water to pulverise the material down to a goupy pulp.

Here is some of the burdock being prepared






After you get your stalks or office paper down to a pulp you pour it into a tray full of water. Next you will need two picture frames that are the same size, some screen, and a staple gun. Tightly staple the screen over the back of one of the frames (this will be your "deckle") and leave the other one how it is (this will be your mould). Place the open frame on top of the screened one so they marry up and leave a raised square edge around the screen. Dip the deckle in the tray and draw it out while keeping it flat so that the screen is evenly covered in pulp. Remove the mould frame, shake the excess water off the deckle and flip the deckle over onto a piece of felt. If your sheet of paper does not come off easy you can blow on the back of the screen a bit to loosen it up. Next put another piece of felt on top of the paper. Put the paper felt sandwich between two short planks and stand on top of it while shifting your weight to compress the paper and squeeze out excess water. Remove the top layer of felt and let the paper air dry in the sun. That's it! Paper!

Here is the process using office paper shreddings












Here is some of the burdock paper. The uneven edge is called a "deckle edge," an indicator that the paper was handmade.


You can also add texture and designs by laying down objects before the compressing stage. This piece had a few leaves on it that left behind impressions.


This one is my favorite. It's a mix of burdock and paper shreddings.


Here's me with the pieces I made