How to Make Paper

Clean paper. Discard the plastic cover, stapler, and non-paper parts. Be careful when you use promotional letters because the cover of the letter usually has a small piece of plastic. You should try to remove the non-paper parts.

Tear the paper into small pieces. Don’t spend too much time doing this, just tear the paper into smaller pieces. Tear each sheet of paper a few times.

Soak the paper in water. Place small pieces of paper in a bowl or basin and pour in water to soak. Soak the paper in water for about 30 to 45 minutes.

• If you want to create solid colored paper, you’ll choose to use paper that doesn’t have a lot of bold ink, uses a lot of “pulp” and adds food coloring. Your finished product will have a dark side and a light color on the other. Both sides of the paper can be used depending on the purpose, but the light side is better for writing.
• If you want to create white paper, you will add half a cup of white vinegar to the pulp mixture.

Turn paper into pulp. Now that the old paper is wet and soft, you can begin the process of turning them into pulp – the thick compound with a little water that contributes to your new paper. Here are two ways to make pulp:

• Paper mill. Tear up the paper and put it in the blender until it’s almost half full. Add warm water to the blender. You’ll first run the blender on a “slow” speed, then speed it up until the pulp is smooth and even – it takes about 30 to 40 seconds to get rid of any large pieces of paper.
• Paper mill. If you have a pestle and mortar (or similar tool, like a spatula and metal bowl), you can crush the paper by hand. Handle handfuls of paper at a time and try to make the pulp a texture similar to the consistency of soaked oats.

Prepare half a pot of water. You should choose a pot that is slightly wider, larger than the grid frame and has a similar shape to the frame.

• If you choose the frame method, you will fill the pot with water and add the pulp before you dip the frame in.
• If the tray method is selected, place the mesh under the tray before adding the water and pulp.

Add the pulp to the pot and stir. The amount of pulp added to the water will determine the thickness of the paper and you only need to get enough pulp to cover the mesh in the next step so there is no need to thicken the pot. Let’s experiment. Pulp consistency can be adjusted to produce thin or stiff paper depending on the amount of water added to the pulp.

Discard the clumped pieces of paper. Try to filter out any clumps of paper; The finer and finer the mixture, the more homogeneous your finished product will be.

Harden the paper (optional). If the paper is to be used as stationery, stir in 2 teaspoons of liquid starch into the pulp mixture. Starch prevents ink from seeping into the fiber of the paper.

• Without the addition of starch, the paper will be very absorbent and your ink will quickly smudge. If this happens, you will soak the paper in a mixture of water and gelatin quickly and then let it dry.

Embed the mesh in the mix (for the frame method). Place the grid in the pulp with the mesh side underneath, then slowly raise the frame while it is still submerged in the mixture. Gently move the frame from side to side until the pulp above the mesh has become flat.

Lift the net frame over the pot. Slowly remove the net from the water. Keep the mesh frame on the pot to filter out the water. Wait until the water has drained out of the pulp and you will see a new sheet of paper gradually form. If the paper is too thick, you will remove some of the pulp from the surface. If the paper is too thin, add more pulp and stir the mixture one more time.

Discard any remaining water in the paper. After you lift the trellis out of the pot, you’ll need to remove any excess water left in the pulp. Here’s how, depending on the method you chose in step 1:

• Frame Method: After the water has stopped flowing (or nearly so), gently place a piece of cloth (preferably felt or flannel) or a Formica board (smooth surface facing down) on it. frame just above “paper”. Gently press down to squeeze out excess water. Use the sponge to squeeze the water on the other side of the mesh and occasionally squeeze out the water in the sponge.
• Tray method: Spread the towel on a flat surface and place the mesh (with the paper on it) on half of the surface of the towel. Fold the rest of the towel to cover the paper. Use the iron on low heat setting gently on the towel. You should see some steam coming out of the paper.

Peel the paper off the grid. When the paper has drier, you will remove it from the grid. You can deflate the bubbles and the edges that aren’t tight in this step.

• Gently remove the fabric or formica board from the frame. The wet paper may now have adhered to the fabric. If the paper is still clinging to the net, you may have pulled the fabric too quickly or not fully dried the water.
• You can press the paper that is about to dry by placing a piece of cloth or another Formica board on top and gently pressing it. This will make the paper smoother and thinner. Leave the cloth or board in place while waiting for the paper to dry.

Peel the paper off the net slowly. If you find it difficult to peel off the paper, try covering it with a towel and ironing it one more time.

Dry the paper. Place the paper on a flat surface to dry. Or, you can also use a hair dryer on low heat to blow the paper dry faster.

• Peel the paper off the Formica cloth or board (for the framing method). Wait until the paper is completely dry and peel it off gently.
• Ironing (optional): While the paper is still damp, but can be safely removed from the fabric/board, you will use a high-heat iron to help the paper dry faster and get a nice shine. .