Category: papermaking

Posted on

Earth Day

I had the great pleasure of having a free day today! My normal commitment to the Community Quilt Center was covered by someone else (thank you Mary!).  I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to use the day, but a need arose!

When I did my last batch of papermaking, I realized I really should look into setting up a drying rack to dry the sheets more quickly. There are lots of good ideas out there and one in particular calls for layers of corrugated cardboard to wick out the moisture and a fan to blow through the corrugation and dry things out.

A recent post on the papermaking list mentioned the plastic corrugated political signs as being good to use for the rack. When I questioned how moisture would wick, the person who posted said it didn’t but that the system worked for her.

Well, I HAVE plastic corrugated political signs. I got to thinking that I could punch holes in the corrugation to help with air flow to the bottom of the sheet of paper….and then I thought about using it for covers in bookmaking.

So, down to the studio to try things out. Yes, holes can be easily punched through the plastic to ventilate the sheets, so I think a drying rack will work. Yes, the plastic can be cut for book covers. I tried pasting both paper and cloth on to the plastic covers and it seemed to work fine – as long as I spread the glue on the cloth/paper and then put that on the plastic. Finished up the cloth book with a spine and a little hinge business on both sides of the spine.  Hmmmm, will take a picture tomorrow.

Good thing that the signs will work – my sister is bringing in more of them on Sunday! They still have a pile left over from her husband’s run for city council so I’ll just help them out a bit in decreasing the pile.

A perfect Earth Day activity!

Posted on

Paper Paper Paper

I’m papered out for the moment.

The Weavers Guild did our schtick with the first and second graders on papermaking today. They have studied/are studying recycling so we made a point to collect school/class papers from them for the pulp.

One second grade had over 5 lbs – of which we only used 2. The other second grade had a lot of nice colors included in their recycling box which turned the pulp a lovely purply-reddy color. All the kids made sheets of paper and the second graders also did some pulp casting in a small paper cup.

The Hollander beater worked like a dream for all this! I shredded their papers first and then beat three batches of 2 lbs each. Got the last batch done while the temps were dropping and the wind was picking up. So nice to not have to spend an entire day using my blender.

Now, to put recycled stuff aside and pull out the plants. I have some pampas grass to try out, some asparagus stems in the freezer that I’ve been collecting, and the leftover palms from this past Sunday at church. Maybe I’ll get some of it cooked up over the weekend – if it warms up!

Posted on

First Official Pulp!

Today was the day!  The weatherman predicted a nice, warm, sunny day so I jumped out of bed early. I had paper pulp and Hollander beater on my mind!

A couple days ago I did some belated shredding of checks from 1994-99. They were all nicely cut into 1/4″ widths and I figured they would make decent paper. Since the morning started out chilly and I knew I would be using water from the outside faucet, I heated up a couple pots of water to help moderate the temperature. Soaked the paper strips in the hot water for a bit and then moved the Hollander beater – on its lovely table with wheels! – into p0sition at the front of the garage. There is a handy electric outlet on the side of the garage door frame and we have a grated drain running across the drive just in front of the garage.

Filled the beater tub with water and shredded paper, made sure the lid was on over the beater bedplate and filled the switch!

Everything worked smoothly for about 10 minutes and then the belt slipped. My love thinks it might have stretched during the winter while it sat out in the garage. After a couple of quick calls to determine the problem and the solution, I unscrewed a couple things and tried to move the moter back a bit to tighten up on the belt. Welllllll……….. a couple more calls were needed to my local brothers asking for their muscles!

Finally got it correctly in place and running again by early afternoon. After all that, it took maybe 15 minutes for the pulp to be ready!

My beater is an extended variety and holds 2lbs of material (dry wt.) and about 11 gallons of water to run fully and properly. That’s a lot of pulp!  I’m up to carrying about 2.5 gallons at the moment so I worked with that increment all day and used up about 10 gallons of pulp/water. All told I pulled about 65 sheets (mostly of 5.5″ x 8.5″) which doesn’t really sound like much, but I’m pooped!

I’m drying them by keeping them in a stack of six, all pressed by foot power between boards, and hanging them on a line. This should keep them flat as they dry. Since rain is predicted for tonight, I’ve hung them in the garage.

Paper drying in the garage.

As soon as some of the papers are dry, I’ll finish up the rest of the pulp. (I ran out of couching cloths!  You’d think I’d just get more…)

Paper drying in the garage.
Posted on

Ides of February

I keep thinking I’ll post a note here as soon as I get some pictures of current projects, but at the rate the pictures are coming, I’ll never get to posting! So……….

It’s been great lately as the feeling of wanting to create has emerged again. Must’ve been the anesthetic dampening that. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Hiding all the ends of the scrumbled vest is taking HOURS! Getting close now to having them all tucked in – except for the ones I’ll hang beads on. It’s a good activity for listening to an audio book. The current title is Monsters or Monsters of Templeton (the book is downstairs right now and I am not) but I can’t remember the author. All about relationships and family trees and those ubiquitous skeletons in the closet.

The string bag continues to grow and I’ve started another yarn in it – multicolored this time which I am barber-poling with a dusty purple. The original colors that I started with (brilliant gold, orange and dark purple) are not the current colors out there – the bag will have an interesting look by the time it gets done!

I picked up a rayon/flax blend of fabric yesterday and hope to do some mudwork on it this week. I’ve had rayon on my mind lately, just to see how it holds the color. Mudded up some silk scarves last week (the week before?) that are getting the wait-and-see treatment.

And thoughts are turning to the beater in the garage…….. Still too cold to work outside, but I’m starting to cast about for plant materials or anything I could beat up to use as paper pulp. We threw away an old cotton flannel sheet last week before it dawned on me that it could’ve been used – drat.

Posted on

Sunny paper day

Oh, a quite lovely day here!  We’ve been having unbelievably warm weather for November. In the mid 70s the past couple days and one more to go. Then we’ll hit more normal temps.

To celebrate the lovely day, and mostly to clear out a bit of space in the freezer, I thawed out two bags of recycled paper pulp (one pinkish and one green) and pulled sheets today. On the deck. In the sun. Wearing a t-shirt.

Used the sliding glass doors as my drying racks.

It is amazing how much darker it is inside the house with the sheets of paper on the doors. And it has a  Japanese feel to it for some reason.

As I worked, using a blender to ‘fluff up’ the previously frozen pulp, I could hear the Hollander beater calling out “come play with me, too!”  It’ll have to wait for another warm day……..