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I also made the paper! I love making paper!
It makes my brain tickle just right.
How the hell does a person make their own paper?
You can actually make paper from pretty much any plant material but in this case it's just recycled junk mail that I turned into brand new sheets.
The process in summary:
Shred the paper/cut the paper into small pieces.
Let it soak for 24ish hours until the paper is sufficiently soft.
Blend/mash it into a pulp (I use a blender personally because it's faster)
Put the pulp into a vat
Use a mould and deckle (basically a wood frame with a mesh sheet over it) to sift up some of the pulp onto the sheet.
Drain the remaining water.
Transfer the pulp onto a piece of fabric
Give it time to dry
Boom paper!
Other notes:
What's listed above is the bare bones basic process but there's a lot you can do to improve things and make the paper come out even better. For example; after transferring the pulp to the fabric, I like to stack them up on top of each other and use weight to flatten them. It helps even them out and makes the end result a lot nicer overall.
On the other hand, everything above can also be done even cheaper and you'll still get a pretty good result. If you don't have a paper shredder, scissors work just fine, if you don't have scissors... Just tear it into small pieces.
The vat could easily be any tub you can find filled with water... And the mould and deckle can be made easily at home with 2 of the same picture frame and cheap mesh from a hardware store.
The whole process is extremely enjoyable and fun and also you're turning junk into a whole new thing! I also recycle my shipping boxes this way by turning the cardboard into a thicker cardboard paper that's really good for oils and pastels.
I remember in second grade (I think) we made paper one day in art class or something like that. In retrospect it’s a surprisingly easy process (if you’re not going from raw wood, I suppose).
That's so cool! I'm impressed at how sharp your lines are with a dip pen (so presumably ink) on homemade paper. I would have expected it to feather a lot
Due to how handmade paper works in general... The amount of feathering varies wildly from page to page. From my testing (it's only been a few days so take it with a grain of salt) I've found it's best to use a nib size a little smaller than you actually want to use. That way if it feathers out it turns into the size you want to use.