In article , "Carol In WI" wrote:
Carol, paper making is not very difficult to do. You need a frame and a deckle. Size 6"x8" ( With a pair of handy hands you can make this yourself.) Thit is a wooden frame with a piece of window screening fastened on it with staples. You put some ductape over the sharp ends of the staples. The second piece is the deckle, it is the same size as the frame, but it does not have a screen in it. Now you take all the garbage mail you get in your mailbox, and put it through your shredder. Cut these strips in small little bits, put them in a bucket of water, and let them soak for a couple of days. Put the soaked pieces in a blender, about 3/4 cup and add up to 500 cc water (the amount of water depends on the size of your blender) Now pulse this mixture until it is pulp (if the machine has to work to hard, put less paper mix in.) Save this pulp suspended in water. Now get a dish washing bucket pour some of your pulp mixture into it and add more water. Have the long side of this bucket facing you. There should be enough water in your working bucket,so you can take your deckle sitting flush with your frame and dip it into the dish washing bucket move it to the North and South, along the bottom of your bucket. Next to your bucket of water put a stack of old news papers, on top of it put an old piece of sheeting a little larger then your frame and deckle. It needs to be smooth, so do not use old towels. Have a second piece of old sheeting ready. Now scoop some of the paper pulp on your frame (remember that the deckle needs to sit on top of the screened side of your frame. Hold the two pieces between your two hands and move your deckle frame setup back and forth in gentle manner over the bottom of your bucket. Gently bring them out of the water in one fluent move. Hold the deckle and frame still over your bucket (flat do not tilt it at this point) let the excess water run back in your bucket. Take the deckle off the frame. You now have a neat little layer of paper pulp sitting on your frame. Put the frame with the long side against the edge of your piece of old sheeting and flip it downwards onto the sheeting. Take a large sponge and gently deb the excess water away, squeeze the sponge out and repeat. Now very gently lift off the frame, leaving the paper pulp behind. Put your second piece of sheeting over your wet piece of made paper and on top of it some of the felted pieces (I buy these at the dollar store 3 for a dollar) on top of this a stack of old news print and on top of that a heavy weight. Push down. Remove all the bits and piece till you come to your paper, take care to remove the piece of sheeting covering your home made paper, very slowly. Put it down on some old news papers and let it dry with the bottom piece of sheeting left in place, you take it off when the paper is dry. If the paper has buckled a bit, use a warm iron to iron it out.
This is the basic procedure. It may sound complicated but it is not. Try to get a book out of the library with lots of pictures and it will become clear right away. You can add little bits of hole punched paper of different colours. Or thin leaves of flowers etc. You can also make the pulp from tissue paper again from the dollar store and work with all kinds different colours. I book to show you how would be a real help at this point. Remember that this is best done out side on a sunny day (have lots of stones handy because the wind will blow your papers away) or do it in your kitchen.
Happy paper making. I did some this afternoon, to see if I could make my Christmas cards. Lots of fun.
Els