Artist Page Title
Selecting material
for recycling and making pulp.
- Almost any paper can be recycled.
- Avoid newsprint and plastic coated paper.
- Shiny junk mail and magazines give a pleasant grey paper with coloured
flecks.
- Computer paper, photocopy paper and envelopes are good to make paper
from.
- A loosely packed bucket of torn paper will make about half a bucket of
pulp.
- The paper can be coloured with special paper dyes or pigments or with
coloured papers,
- eg tissue paper, wrapping paper and coloured copy papers.
- Once you have water for between two hours and two days.
- The longer the paper is soaked the easier it is to break up.
- Remove all tape, staples, gummed edges
- Tear/cut into 1" squares or smaller
- Soak overnight - if paper not very absorbent , you may need to use
boiling water.
- The longer the paper is left to soak the , the more the paper will
break down.
- Boiling the paer for about an half hour will break down the
paper.
- Do not leave paper soaking more than a week or it will begin to
smell.
- Rinse after soaking.
- Blenders are quick and easy tools for recycling paper.
- Slowly drop paper pieces into blender 3/4 full of water. Take care
to not overburden the blender.
- The paper pulp should become smooth, and creamy. DO NOT
LIQUIFY completely or paper will be weak.
- The paper is sufficiently pulped when there are no large pieces of
paper in the mixture, the fineness of the pulp is a matter of personal
choice.
- Blending times vary.
- Blender cannot fully hydrate or fibullate but will separate and
shorten the fibers
- each time you recycle and liquefy paper, the fibers are shortened
and the resulting paper is weaker
- If use short time parts of image/text will remain.
For acidic paper sources - coated magazine or newsprint
- Add calcium carbonate as an alkaline buffer
- Soak paper pieces overnight
- 1 3/4 oz calcium carb for each liter of water
For Heavily Sized or paper previously used for printing
you can cook in a mild alkaline solution to clean and soften fibers.
Rinse.
MAKING THE PAPER
Equipment Required
Mould and Deckle
vat, (concrete mixing container)
a press, (2 boards held together with C-clamps work
well as a press
sponge felts or
couching cloths - can be teatowels,
blanket, any fabric. The texture of the felts will be transferred to the
paper.
Western Sheetforming Techniques.
Stir to evenly distribute the pulp.
Hydrate the vat. Place palm flat to the
bottom of the vat.
In general, the more water-the thinner the
sheet the more pulp-the thicker the
sheet.
Pull the mold through vat to form the sheet
Vat Man Shake
Remove deckle and check sheet quality
Transfer paper to felt
Transfer paper to cotton sheeting or drying board
Varied Techniques
Add scraps of newsprint to liquidized pulp
From blender- aim for approximately 1/8" thick as pulp.
Creamy consistancy.
Wash mold and deckle after each use to prevent any transfer of pulp
residue between batches
Do not fill vat closer than 3" to top of vat to prevent too much
splash.
Big sheets from small molds
Place sheets next to each other slightly
overlapping
until you reach the desired size
Recycling Paper
Selecting material for recycling and making pulp. Almost any paper
can be recycled. Avoid newsprint and plastic coated paper.
Shiney junk mail and magazines give a pleasant grey paper with coloured
flecks. Computer paper, photocopy paper and envelopes are good
to make paper from. The paper can be coloured with special
paper dyes or pigments or with coloured papers, eg tissue paper, wrapping
paper and coloured copy papers. Once you have water for between two
hours and two days. The longer the paper is soaked the easier it is
to break up. A loosely packed bucket of torn paper will make about
half a bucket of pulp. The paper can be pulped with a metal paint
stirrer attached to a drill, a blender or food processor or in a non
automatic washing machine. The paper is sufficiently pulped when
there are no large pieces of paper in the mixture, the fineness of the
pulp is a matter of personal choice.
For acidic paper sources - coated magazine or newsprint
add calcium carbonate as an alkaline buffer
Soak paper pieces overnight
1 3/4 oz calcium carb
for each liter of water
Slowly drop paper pieces into blender 3/4 full of water
DO NOT LIQUIFY completely or paper will be weak.
Blending times vary.
If use short time parts of image/text will remain.
BLENDERS - quick & easy
will separate and shorten the fibers
blender cannot fully hydrate or fibullate
it shortens fibers
each tme you recycle, liquify
a fiber the fibers are shortened and the finished sheet gets weaker.
Remove all tape, staples, gummed edges
Tear/cut into 1" squares or smaller
Soak overnight - if paper not very absorbent , you may need to use boiling
water.
Rince after soaking.
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