Paper Making Weekend

2nd September 2013

I had a BRILLIANT weekend paper making and met some lovely people.
I think I may become 'addicted' to courses!!

Here are some photos of paper with labels! Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to label all the papers and I can't remember what was in some of them.

I love this one, the pattern is so delicate. Clematis seed heads.

Thistle paper, we collected the thistle seed heads earlier in the day.

Dandelion paper, we collected the dandelions and this paper is really pretty.

Red and blue jute was added to the dandelion pulp to produce this paper.

We arrived at Stone Creek Silk Barn near Hull at 9.30 after a good journey from Blackpool. 

Ruth Brown,textile artist,  hosted the course in her craft barn and Jonathan Korejko was the paper maker.

He showed us the equipment and explained about the cotton pulp and natural plants to add to the pulp.

This was a big bowl containing water, cotton/paper pulp and plants which had been whizzed in the blender. Floating in the bowl is the screen and deckle.

The couching tray where the paper pulp is transferred onto a cloth ready for pressing.

This is Jonathan demonstrating one of the paper presses.

Picking the thistle heads.

The thistle seed heads were placed in a bucket to soak then whizzed in the blender ready to add to the pulp to make a lovely textured paper.

Paper pulp on the left and flowers in water on the right.

This is daffodil and tulip 'paper' ready to be couched (rolled onto a cloth) off the mesh. The pulp/flower mixture has to be swished with the hand before the mesh and deckle are lowered into the mixture and then brought up to the surface. 

The cloths with the 'paper' are then pressed and carefully removed onto a piece of paper to dry.

The cloth has to be removed very slowly and carefully so the paper isn't damaged.

This is lavender and blue/red recycled paper pulp. The smell was amazing and the finished paper has quite a strong lavender scent.

The first paper we made was with just white pulp which was pressed with a leaf, vein side down on the paper.

The embossed leaf paper was lovely and I may stitch it when it is completely dry.

The top paper is the embossed leaf and the bottom is one of my photos of Chesil Beach 'laminated' in two layers of paper.

These photos show Jonathan demonstrating how to prepare long leaves ready for soaking and whizzing.

The leaf is scraped with a sharp knife to reveal the fibres which when cut and whizzed provide colour and texture to paper/cotton pulp.

This is celery being scraped to access the fibres. This is quite easy to do when the celery has been frozen then soaked in water before being whizzed.

My handmade papers!

Back to Unit 3 work tomorrow.