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.
I ended up cooking the hemp fiber in the washing soda for 4 hours yesterday evening. That seemed to be the suggested time from what I had read online. I decided to let it set in the hot water solution til this morning.
Early this morning I rinsed it well, and then just covered it with warm water. I needed to drive into town to put gas in the car and pick up a few fresh fruits and veggies before the weekend.
Of course we were 90 degrees f by noon again today and 95 for the high plus humidity heat index-not my favorite weather-I needed to get corn in for the wildlife too.
About an hour ago I decided I wanted to try a couple sheets of paper and see what happens.
I had bought a bag of cotton rag-it is cut very very fine and one is to add it to your paper pulp. I didn't catch the part where it said to just add a pinch. I was going for allot more since I want to dye these papers.
As I whirled everything up with water in my craft dedicated blender the cotton pieces just all clumped together in globs of cotton fiber-ugh not happy about that at all.
So I fished all that out and whirled the hemp fiber more. The hemp fibers did not totally break down although it is quite soft-I think the next batch I will cut the hemp roving into much smaller lengths. I did cut it small but I am going to cut so it is just really really short fibers next time.
One can dip into the pulp or pour over the mold to make the paper sheets. I have learned that just kinda depends on the pulp you are using.
My first piece turned out really nice-although thinner than what I was going for. I dipped in-didn't work as well so then I poured over. However for my second sheet the pour over didn't work out as even over the sheet-this sheet will be an art paper for sure.
I am going to kinda dip in and swish the pulp water into the deckle next time.
This paper making will go slower than say a paper pulp that goes pretty fast and easy. My corn husks papers were very time consuming to make-the dried grass papers actually worked up really nice and easy-but I am thinking these will be a bit slower to accomplish.
I can not believe how soft these papers are. They feel like cloth.
What do I need to improve upon: I need to get my papers thicker for my eco dye project, and work on getting smoother sheets like my first paper.
I may just see if I can cut these wet hemp fibers smaller before blending them-that just popped into my head lol
Some photos: click to enlarge to full size
Hemp fibers cooking in washing soda water solution
Strained out Hemp fibers
The fibers need to be rinsed in cool water very well-I love this old vintage strainer-I found it years ago at a farm garage sale-it became my dedicated craft strainer-it's heavy stainless steel-love it.
I put the fibers to one side of the strainer after rinsed and then fluffed them up a bit before I covered them again with cool water til I was able to work them up into papers--my frig is soooo full that there is no room in there-so I will just change the water evening and morning til all worked up into papers
Very pleased with this first sheet-you can see some of those little stems that I left in
This second sheet came out a bit thinner in spots-and you can also see the "clump" of fiber lower middle of paper art paper ha ha
I was surprised how white these are considering this is only hemp which is a tan color
I just showed Hubs these two papers and he was quite impressed and loves the second one with the textures. He is familiar with hemp rope making.
Stay tuned
mini update:
I did just try another paper-- cutting the hemp fibers with a sharp scissors into the blender water-cut it very small. I got a thicker paper although still thin in spots I need to really look at the pulp better on the deckle-the textures came from some textures from my blotting papers I hadn't noticed-grasses from last batch Its been another long hot day today-I think I will make one more sheet and work on the rest tomorrow-when I am more fresh
4th sheet tonight was the "charm" cut the wet fibers much smaller again, added just a pinch of cotton rag fibers-blended longer and at the highest setting-never needed to do that before - best sheet of the night
happy dancing
I think this calls for a bowl of chocolate mint ice cream ha ha
I am kinda slow getting into a project this morning.
I have one more large deep freezer to take everything out and defrost-put back in. I think I will do that after our 2 pm meal.
Last night when I had a baseball game on I thought I would see if my florescent ceiling light would turn on-it doesn't most hot summer days. It did-happy dancing-so I ended up listening to the game and setting up my April journal page til 1 am in the morning. Felt good-of course this morning the light won't come on again.
Next time we make it to the big city we will pick up a different ceiling light set up.
I got the cotton rag and kona pulps from Grummer yesterday so I can now proceed with my hemp-cotton paper project.
Some sites I have read says this needs a very long cooking time in the soda ash or washing soda-up to 4 hours, some say a couple hours. I am thinking perhaps since I am using hemp roving-ready for spinning perhaps the cooking time will be less- This is all a new paper making adventure for me. The purpose is to use this paper to eco dye plant materials on to it.
I decided to cut across the roving in small cuts and then fluff that apart. My hemp is in 8 ounce balls so I was trying to eyeball about half or less.
This is an interesting fiber-at first it feels a little stiff scratchy like jute or sisal is but then no it is actually very very soft-like that eco dyed paper I shared with you.
There were a few stiffer plant materials that would fall out during spinning, but since I like character and textures in my papers I decided to leave these in-I just cut them up smaller as this will not break down in the cooking process with the soda ash
Fluffed up I just used my fingers to seperate the cut fibers
In this last photo you can see some of those stiffer plant fibers
Instead of measuring by weight of fiber for the soda ash-which I think in paper making is too strong of a solution, I am using one tablespoon per quart of water that I add to the pot.
I am going to start cooking this after our meal, and multi task with cleaning out the deep freezer-sounds like a plan ha ha
stay tuned
