01 - Hand Papermaking 101

OK, so exactly how DO you make paper by hand?  In very basic terms, it’s a fairly simple process… you take some paper pulp, and mix a small amount of it into a large amount of water to make a fine suspension. Then scoop some of that up on a mesh screen, allow the water to drain out leaving a flat layer of pulp on the screen, then let it dry. Simple, huh?  Not so fast… let me break the steps down and give you a bit more info.

Firstly, you need some form of pulp to use as the main constituent of your paper. This could be a pulp made from existing paper products such as paper, card, cardboard, etc. (either recycled scrap paper products - which is what I intend to use, or clean virgin paper which has no dye or ink pollutants to affect the colour of your finished product). It is also possible to buy half processed pulp, which may have.  advanced qualities, be made from more exotic ingredients, and/or have particular additives already in it - but that kind of expense is beyond the realms of my experimentation. Pulps can also be made from other plant-based fibrous materials, but these take a bit (lot!) more preparation, such as boiling the plant parts, separating the useful fibres from the other parts of the plant, and may take longer to actually pulp. You can also mix and match different pulps in terms of material, colour, texture, etc.

SPOILER ALERT - any paper made from a recycled paper base, will not be white, at least not without some form of treatment.  At best, it will be a pale grey, and it may pick up other colours based on what was printed on it in the first place. I have seen mentioned that the addition of coloured tissue paper, such as the type used in fancy packaging or piñatas, is a good way of colouring your pulp. Also - don’t expect high quality writing paper - what we will be creating can probably be best described as ‘rustic’ 😄

Pulp is made by chopping your paper base material into small bits, soaking it in water, and then putting it through a large noisy expensive device called a beater, which basically churns the paper and water around for hours and hours, through a grinding, beating, squashing machine a bit like a medieval device of torture (I suspect this may be the source of the phrase 'beaten to a pulp'...?) At least, this is what the professionals do - personally, I'll be using a simple kitchen blender - probably MORE noisy, but much cheaper and quicker for small amounts.

The next thing you'll need is a large tub of clean water, in which you will mix a handful of pulp.  How much pulp to how much water, I hear you ask..? Very good question! There is no hard and fast answer to this, it depends on so many factors - only experience will help you on this one, and since I have no experience yet, I'm afraid I'll be no help here for a while yet. However, one thing I can tell you is that the more pulp you put in the water, the thicker and more 'card' like your paper is likely to turn out. A really fine suspension of pulp will give a thinner and finer texture paper.

Once you have the pulp suspended in the large tub of water, you need to take a mould and deckle with the... 

WHOA!!! WHAT THE??? Hold on there and wait just a minute - what is a mould and deckle, what do they do, and which is which? More very good questions, but these, I think I can answer… These are names that I have always associated with papermaking, and coming from England, am disappointed they were never used as the name of a country pub (I’m just off to the Mould and Deckle for a quick pint and a game of darts…) As a watercolour painter, I've used paper with a 'deckle edge' on it. My understanding is that the 'mould' is a wooden frame with some form of screen or mesh across it. When submerged and lifted out of the tub, this catches the suspended paper pulp and allows the water to flow through, leaving you with a (fingers crossed) even flat layer of pulp which is the start of your sheet of paper. I have also seen this part referred to as a screen - which makes sense, but also as the deckle - which I believe is wrong. The 'deckle' is a second frame which is the same size as, and sits tightly on top of the first, but it has no screen or mesh.  It is simply an outline or border which defines the edges of the paper.  I can see why some people would think that this part should be called the mould (and therefore by default, the other part erroneously being the deckle...), as it is moulding the pulp to the shape of your paper sheet... however, the word deckle actually relates to the soft and irregular edges of the paper (when compared to a sheet that has been cut to size) - as mentioned earlier - this kind of edge is called a deckle edge, and is created by - you guessed it - the deckle.

OK - sorry for that little diversion, I get caught up on trivial little technicalities like that - you’ll just have to forgive me. Now, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted... take a mould and deckle with the mould on the bottom, and dip it into the pulp suspension (there might be a proper name for this, but I'm not sure at the moment - I've heard someone refer to it as a slurry... ewww!) Rock it gently backwards and forwards for a few moments, to distribute some of the suspended pulp onto the screen of the mould, then gently lift it straight up keeping it flat, and allow the excess water to drain through.  At this point, I can see how much easier a YouTube video would have been, rather than trying to explain in words... OK - I give you my blessing - go and watch a few YouTube videos if you want to see this process in action. Just promise me you will come back… you will come back, won’t you? Please?

Next - gently remove the deckle and marvel at the beauty of the sheet you've just created, laying neatly on the mould.

OR

Utter many profanities and curse the paper making gods, when removing the deckle rips up the edges, or you see holes or ultra thin/thick bits, or lumps, etc... However, if this is the case, don’t fret too much - just dump the mould back into the tub, wash the pulp that is so offensively lacking in beauty back into the suspension, and try again.

Now comes the fiddly bit. The mould with the layer of wet pulp on it needs to be flipped onto a cloth or something which will carry your paper while it dries. Once flipped, start absorbing as much water as you can by pressing a sponge or towels or similar on the underside of the screen mesh (which will obviously now be uppermost after flipping), and then gently lift it away. In theory, the paper should stay laying on the sheet of cloth (traditionally called a couching sheet - from the french verb 'Coucher' - which means to lay down - remember that 70's song "voulez-vous coucher avec moi... c'est soir?" - scandalous!). Lay another couching sheet on top, to absorb more of the water, and also in preapration for receiving your next sheet. You are going to carry on, aren’t you..?

Once you have a series of paper and couching sheet sandwiches, the final step is letting them dry. Some people just peg up the individual couching sheets - each with its own sheet of paper - on a line, and let them dry that way, others will place a board with some weights on top of the stack - which will maybe squeeze out a little more water, and also help the sheets to dry flat.  If you have the money to spend, you may even buy or build a press to apply even more pressure when drying. Note that the final sheet of paper will dry with an impression of the fabric it is being dried upon, to some degree.  The more pressure is applied, the more distinct that pattern will be, so keep this in mind when choosing the material for your couching sheets, if you want to press the sheets while wet. Another option is to allow them to dry without any pressure, and then just press the dried paper without the couching sheets. This will flatten the sheets, but probably have less effect on the texture or surface impression than pressing them from wet.

The final, and some say most satisfying step, is to gently tease your dried sheets of paper off of their couching sheets, and admire (and even start using...) your finished product.

So that’s the basic mechanics of hand paper making, but there are a million ways (ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration) to introduce variations around these fundamental steps, to experiment and find a process that suits you, and/or the type of paper you are after.