Skillshare: Papermaking

Hannah and I presented the very basics of paper/pulp making from recycled paper, on the small scale. Here are the supplies & materials we used and the basic steps we demonstrated.

**Using a congealing substance helps with working with pulp sculpture, and I had forgotten that very important point in class(sorry!). Poor hippies like me use cooked flour paste, but we made due by adding two handfuls of Claycrete papier mache.


REMEMBER: The quality of your product reflects the quality of the materials. You can use an acid removing additive to help adjust for the use of recycled/unknown material, but be sure to research well any additive you use or mix.


Supplies:
Blender (dedicated to pulp, not to be used for food ever again)
iron
large, shallow tub (plastic sweater box)
screen frames & screen shapes*
tons of newspaper
2 felt soakers per sheet of paper
Materials:
paper scraps
hot water
flour(for pulp)
Optional Ideas:
natural fibers (onion skins, dryer lint)
construction paper (or dyes)
dried flowers or flat objects/paper shapes
laser printed photo (or ink-jet if you want to get funky)
*small shapes cut from screen make shaped pulp decoration
toothpicks (to make beads)

Demonstration Steps:
Prepare drying table for paper or armature for pulp sculpture.
Prepare pulp slurry, thin for paper or thick with added congelant for sculpture.
Dredge the papermaking screen and sculpt beads or sculptural forms.
Drying the paper or sculpture.

Alternatives:
- Boil plant fibers like onion skins or flower petals in water and add that to the blender or to the slurry tub.
- Construction paper dyes the water and white scrap paper while colored copy paper retains its color. These make a great combo for multiple colors.
- Dried Flowers, paper cutouts, laser-printed photos and other flat objects can be sandwiched between 2 thin layers of fresh wet paper.
- Shapes cut from screen can be dipped in the slurry and turned out to decorate a fresh wet piece of paper for a 2D composition.
USES:
Make a love letter
Cover a book
Bind your own book
Cover a frame
Make a lampshade
Make some beads
Make some art, 2D or 3D.

An excellent resource for Papermaking Beginners:

http://www.handpapermaking.org/ArticlesforBeginnersIndex.html



Also, I love Dick Blick:

http://www.dickblick.com/categories/papermaking/

Michelle Samour

From Earth ro Sky

http://www.smfa.edu/Programs_Faculty/Faculty/S/Samour_Michelle.asp

Article about Michelle Samour: SMFA Boston Faculty; Michelle Samour, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 2007
http://www.fiberarts.com/article_archive/process/largestreachesoflife.asp