This Morning's Paper Making-Finishing Up

  This morning when I got up my goal was to finish making papers with the hemp fiber that was left from the four pieces I made late yesterday. I also wanted to add in the cotton rag pulp and perhaps some kona pulp.  
   The kona pulp blended right in with no problem once the fibers were wet. The cotton rag is also very fine-finer than if I would have cut up cotton from scratch for sure-I discovered yesterday that some of the cotton rag was grabbing on to some of the longer hemp fibers and that is what was causing the problem of clumps-not just the cotton rag alone.
    
  So this was time consuming as I filled up the blender 3/4 full of water and took sharp scissors and cut up the hemp as small as I could. Next time I am going to take friend Barbara's suggestion and see if I can use my paper cutter to do this-would save extra work on my good right hand. Since the fiber needs to be cooked first I am wondering how small I can go?

 I ended up doing some sheets with cotton rag added to the hemp, some with the kona pulp added to the hemp, and some with both.

  I also realized this pulp slurry needed lots of water for better papers. I ended up pouring the blender full of pulp slurry into my pan and then adding more water. I dipped in and then the rest was pretty much hands on adding more pulp slurry with my hand over the paper being made. Lots of water just made this process work better.

  I am very pleased with the results-they are not all the same and I ended up with 13 sheets. The last sheet I added a good handful of kona pulp to what hemp was left and got a nice last sheet of paper.

Here are photos of the pulps and the process-for those of you especially reading this that have never made paper before.

   To begin I really like Grummer-he is probably 80 or 90 years old by now ha ha He has good tutorials, simple kits and supplies-I think geared for creative fun for all ages. I think his prices are reasonable too. Of course you do not need to buy pulps-I love making papers from recycled papers and dry grasses and corn husks and materials that are free. This project came about to make papers that I can later eco dye.  I bought the simplest kit but if you know someone with the time and is handy you can make the tools as well.
    I had never seen paper being made before. We did have art classes way back when I was going to school but we never made papers. Something that was on my to do list once retired. I thank Barbara for the inspiration-keeping it simple-and just doing it and having fun.

photos will enlarge just click on them:

Hemp fiber after being cooked with washing soda, and rinsed.

This is me cutting all this hemp fiber up smaller

The pulp slury

Dipping in to form a sheet 

another view

Next step take the wood frame off-pick up the rest and place in another pan

Place the plastic sheet on top and press over with big sponge-we need to get the water out

flip over now- screen is on top-press again with sponge

Take the screen off, move over to table-add a couch sheet-sheet to absorb more water-flip over-remove plastic sheet and add another couch sheet.

Place something heavy to weight it down-I do this until the next sheet is ready. this is a huge encyclopedia-perfect for this project

I take off the top couch sheet-add a dry sheet-flip over and remove bottom wet couch sheet-move over to table to dry

many of these papers are still wet so they will be lighter-but the browner ones have the kona in them 

I am actually eager to try another batch soon using much smaller hemp fibers. My papers do not have the fabric hand that the one I had gotten as a gift does. That piece was quite thick and just felt and handled like a piece of thick soft cloth.  These are soft, feel like fabric but they don't bend like a piece of fabric does-these feel moe like handmade papers.