Hand made paper - the results!

Now it's all dried, I thought I would share the results of my hand made paper experiments with you.

I think it came out really well - I was most impressed!



Grey - local paper, Green - egg box, White - second hand copier paper.

(Yes, the second set of grey DOES have glitter in!)

This is some of the equipment I was using, plus a blender, plus a towel, plus lots of cloths and tea towels to dry the paper on.



The finish on the paper depends very much on how much you squash the sheets to get the water out, and what with, and also on the quality of the paper you use for the mush.

I found that the egg box paper looks really nice, but remained fuzzy on the surface, while the newspaper gave quite a nice finish and held together even when the sheets were thin. The plain newspaper sheets were squashed on a wider mesh, which gave them their texture. The glitter sheets were pressed between "jay cloths".

I think I could have blended the copier paper for longer, as it was still quite chunky. If you want to do the "wedding words" paper, I suggest you blend the "base paper" for a bit longer, then shred and add the wedding words later as if they were glitter.

I found that the paper dried fairly well overnight, but suggest leaving it for two nights would be better as you can turn it over for the second night. You can also press the paper under a heavy book to flatten it once it has fully dried.

Now I need to work out what to make with it! Suggestions?