Recycling Paper

This summer holiday my son and I are going to make some recycled paper. We collect a lot of paper “spam” and the pile grows daily. To minimise this, we will recycle them and probably sell the sheets as is or make somethings nice out of them, ie. a notebook or a photo album.

Below are the easy to follow instructions on papermaking.

What you need:

recyclable paper
mould and deckle
blender
large bowl
towels

How to prepare the pulp and making paper sheets:

1. Clear away any foreign objects from your paper (remove staples, tapes, etc.)

2. Tear the paper into small pieces and soak in boiling water for a couple of hours or overnight

3. Once the soaked paper is soft, put in blender to achieve smooth and creamy consistency.

4. Once the pulp is ready, pour into large basin, add more water to achieve desired thinness.

5. Immerse the mould and deckle into the basin by slowly sliding them into horizontal position and slowly bring it back up. Shake it slowly from side to side and front to back.

6. Hold the mould and deckle above the bowl slightly tilted to get rid of excess water.

Drying the paper:

1. Place the mould and deckle on flat surface. Carefully remove the deckle from the mould so that no drips fall into the pulp.

2. To dry the paper, leave the mould to stand on the towel with pulp side up. When most of the excess water has drained, you can tilt the mould by propping it against the wall to finish drying.

3. When the paper has completely dried out, remove the paper from the mould slowly, gently easing the sheet away from the mesh.

~ by Ghene on July 29, 2008.