Paper Making

 Today's post was another craft experiment!  This time I tried paper making!

I found an old blender at the thrift store for this project. 

I marked the blender "for crafts" on the side with sharpie so no one will ever use it for food.

I mixed small paper scraps (in this photo I'm using an old magazine), with water.

extra water is good, if it is to dry it is even harder on the blender's motor to mix.

Above is a photo of what the pulp looks like after blending. Here I'm using a strainer to drain off the extra water.

Above is a photo of a wad of pulp. I'm using apiece of plastic  screen to mold the pulp into paper.

Above is the pulp sandwiched between the screen. 

I then used a rolling pin the press out more of the moisture.

Above I'm now using a cotton towel to blot out more of the moisture.

Above photo shows my new handmade pages laying on a plastic sheet drying in the sun.

This step took several hours and I flipped the pages over a few times to keep the edges from curling up.

I also pressed the pages under a heavy stack of books to make them nice and flat.

Most of my pages are made just with a magazine however, I experimented with adding fabric scrapes and tissue paper to a few of the batches of pulp.

I was very happy with my results, but it is a big project. I have some ideas as to how I want to use my new papers, but I'll save that for another post.  

One of the things I'd like to make in the future is paper using only fabric scrapes.  Unfortunately, I think I will need to find a stronger blender to make the pulp with fabric idea work.

I hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful day!!

MaryEllen