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Test--Junk

• Plain paper can be embossed with lace or with initials for special occassions.pressed with a fairly heavy lace. The lace was left on until the paper dried.
   
  beautiful individual papers by adding various materials to recycled paper pulp. Papers used for cards & writing sets, for making boxes, folders & gift wrappings or for artwork, collages, calligraphy and stamping.
• sheet-forming techniques which add texture, colour & images to the paper. Use of coloured pulps, shaped & alternative moulds, stencils, creative watermarks, string pulls, lace and rain papers are just some of the exciting possibilities you will experience.
• Recycling Paper
  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. 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 selected paper for recycling, tear it into 3 - 5 cm  squares and soak in warm 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,  with 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.
• Put warm water into your vat to a depth of about 8 cm. Add about 3 cups of pulp and mix well. Hold the deckle onto the mould and lower into the vat vertically, move to horizontal and slowly lift through the water  shaking from side to side and back and forth. When most of the water has drained through tilt to one comer to drain some more then remove the deckle. Invert the mould onto a very wet felt resting on the wet sponge. Rock back and forth and rock the mould off the felt leaving the sheet of paper on the felt. Put another wet felt on top of the paper and repeat the process. Ten to twelve sheets can be made at one time by placing a felt between each sheet. The sponge is then removed and the paper is pressed between two boards for an hour or overnight.
• Once pressed the paper can be hung to dry on the felts. When it is dry the paper will peel easily from the felt but should be pressed lightly between dry boards or under books. Different shapes can be made by using different deckles. Some mould
  and deckle sets come with an envelope deckle which has the corners blocked. An embroidery hoop can be used as a deckle to make circular sheets of paper.
• Making a Latex cast of a three -dimensional object</b></h1><p><ul><li>Attach item to be a base board with cornice plaster or blu tac.
  Seal base to board to prevent latex seeping under base.
  Dab latex over item in thin coats drying between coats (don't allow the latex to pool or bubbles will form). Item can be heated before applying latex to speed up drying.
  Apply about 10 coats, test with a fingernail, should be springy.
  Apply reinforced coats by adding sand, sawdust or squares of chopped up pantyhose to the latex. Make sure to reinforce any edges and curves and fill in any undercuts. Give the item between 3&5 coats of reinforced latex, then 2 coats of plain latex.
  Finally make a plaster support cast by coating the outside layer of latex with about 2cm plaster.
  Because the latex is flexible you can make casts of items with undercuts.
  Wash brushes out in a solution of the washing powder BioZet.
  PLANT FIBRE PAPERS
• Many plants are suitable for making paper but they must be treated to remove the acid and lignans from the mass of cellulose
  which is the basis of paper. This is done by boiling the plant material up with some form of alkali, the mildest being wood ash followed by washing soda then caustic soda. Fibres for papermaking are classified on the basis of their source,
  some of the best and longest fibres are those from the inner bark or bast for example Kozo from Japan and daphne paper from Nepal .
  Stem fibres for example abaca & ginger lily and leaf fibres like sisal and New Zealand flax have comparativly shorter fibres than bast fibres and grasses have shorter fibres still.  A way of telling if a particular plant is suitable for papermaking
  is to bend the leaf and if it bends without snapping it will probably be suitable. Some plants require fermentation (retting) before cooking, this can be done by soaking the plant material in milk, water or mild alkali until it has rotted and bacteria has started to break down the fibre. Bast fibre is prepared by stripping the bark off the plant and removing the outer bark, sometimes steaming will make the removal of bark from the stems easier.
• METHOD: PREPARING THE FIBRE:</h1></b></p>
  BAST FIBRES :- Some plants whose bast fibres are suitable are hibiscus, mulberry, wattle, elm, daphne. Many others
  are bound to be suitable it's just a matter of experimenting. In order to harvest the fibre the stems should be cut into 20cm lengths and the bark stripped off. If this is difficult the stems can be steamed to make removal easier. The outer bark is then scraped off and the bast is cut into lengths of 2-4 cm. then put in a pot ( not aluminium) to be boiled up with alkali.
  STEM FIBRES:-Some suitable stems are ginger lily, agapanthus flower stems, red hot poker flower stems,bluebell flower stems and papyrus. These are cut into lengths and may need to be retted or beaten before being put into the pot for boiling up.
  LEAF FlBRES:-Suitable leaf fibres include New Zealand flax, cordyline, red hot poker and iris. To speed up processing
  these can be stripped by pulling the leaf over a set of spikes so that they become shredded then cut into lengths before boiling.</p>
  GRASS FIBRES:-many grasses are suitable for papermaking although their fibres are shorter than the leaf and bast
  fibres.Many of the cereal grasses are suitable, e.g. wheat, oats, barley etc. The grasses are cut into lengths before boiling.
  BOILING THE FIBRES:-The quickest way of breaking down the fibres is to use caustic soda. There are several precautions
  which must be noted when using caustic soda.
• (A) ALWAYS WEAR GLOVES AND EYE PROTECTION </p>
  (B) ALWAYS ADD THE CAUSTIC SODA TO THE WATER NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.
  (C) ALWAYS USE STAINLESS STEEL OR ENAMEL COOKING POTS AS CAUSTIC EATS ALUMINIUM.
  (D) ALWAYS WORK IN A WELL VENTILLATED AREA, PREFERABLY OUTDOORS.
  You should measure the volume of water you add to your fibre to just cover the plant material then add caustic soda according to the volume of water. One tablespoon per litre of water should be sufficient for most plants. Alternatively the fibre can be weighed and 10% caustic soda by weight added.
• Boil this mixture until the plant material is soft and slippery when rubbed between gloved fingers. This can take anything from 30
  minutes to 2 or more hours. Allow to cool slightly then pour through a sieve or a square of fine curtain netting. Do this down a gully trap or over an unimportant corner of your garden. Rinse well until the water runs clear and the pH is approximately 7 i.e. neutral. This can be tested with litmus or universal indicator paper. Sometimes the fibre is ready for use at this stage but it becomes finer if it is beaten with a wooden mallet then vitimised for a few seconds. You can tell how fine your fibre is by placing a small amount in a glass jar full of water and shaking it so that you can see the individual fibres.
• MAKING THE PAPER:-The paper is made in the same way as recycled paper except that some papers require