Homemade Paper

I have been facinated with paper and papermaking for a long time. I first started experimenting with toilet paper (Scott brand) and have not found a very effective way to use junk mail! My toilet paper experiment begain after participating in a children's workshop years ago (Thank you Catherine Bolton!) where we took a few sheets of toilet paper and put them in a bottle of water, added glitter, shook well and poured out onto a screen mold. It was very cool and I had pretty good success with making small bits of white paper but my color would fade towards the edges.

I got a couple of books on papermaking from the library and realized that it was much more difficult then my toilet paper experiements--frames and deckles and pulp and sizing! UGH! Have I mentioned I like things to be pretty easy and cheap! So I got some tips on using junk mail and so I stuck junk mail and (brain storm!) colored art tissue paper in my toilet paper bottle. I let it soak and shook it and let it soak some more and shook it some more but it was still chunky! I took a hint from the books and used my immersion blender! Viola! I had great colored paper pulp! I put it through my kitchen strainer, which turns out these paper pucks and I was very pleased with the results! So here it is step by step:

Supplies: old magazine, junk mail--slick types papers, art tissue paper, emersion blender or old blender you don't use for food (Goodwill or garage sales are great for picking one up, clean juice bottle, large deep bowl, screen for straining (be resourceful--a grease spatter cover, a wooden picture frame with window screen tape on it--this is my ideal right now, other type of kitchen strainer that is a mesh or screen type), clean kitchen towel or felt.

1. collect magazine and junk mail papers--Better Homes and Gardens is great because the pages are thin and are bad for collage. Include text so some of it pops though. If you have a shortage of junk mail or magazine go to your local recycling center--I usually leave the recycling center with more then I dropped off!

2. get art tissue paper, the kind that bleeds use left over from birthday parties, in fact I bet wrapping paper would be great too!

3. tear everything up to about 1 inch square (don't cut because you want the rough edges to be penetrated by the water). The amount of tissue paper you use will depend on how dark you want the color.

4. put everything into a large deep bowl and cover with water. I use my Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl (http://www.pamperedchef.com/). Let it all soak for about 30 minutes

5. use your emersion blender and blend it all up until you have a pulp you like--don't over blend and loose the texture of the recycled material--it makes it more interesting.

6. Once all the pulp is seperated, pour your mixture into a clean juice bottle. You can store it for a while but I am not sure how long.

7. put your screen over a bowl, pour the pulp onto it in the shape you want--use different colors of pulp to create a picture--and the thickness you want play around with it until you like it. It takes some experimenting.

8. gently press the pulp to get the water out and you can either let it dry on the screen or carefully remove it to a piece of felt of a flour sack type kitchen towel. Lay it so that there are not wrinkles or creases under the new paper. Let it dry completely.

9. this is a rough homemade paper that is great for projects, give tags. I tear it, write on it and stamp on it. You can add in giltter, flowers, leaves, confetti--store bought or homemade during the pulp stage (after blending) to add interest to your paper.

Have fun and send me copies of your creations! I would love to see them!