The Papermaking Process
The artisans of WomanCraft make each sheet of our recycled paper by hand in our studio. We've outlined our process and included some information about recycling and our environmental impact.
Recycled, handmade paper:
For centuries, paper has been made by hand from the materials available, including: plant fibers, rags, hemp, anything with cellulose. When the paper industry was first established in the United States, it relied solely on rags to produce its paper. Trees were not used for papermaking until after the Industrial Revolution. At WomanCraft, we continue the tradition of making paper from recycled materials (information about environmental impact is found at the end of this section).
Raw Materials:
Our paper is made from shredded office paper from Deborah's Place.
Our paper is decorated with flowers, donated by floral retailers when the flowers pass their "expiration date." We separate the flowers by color and type and dry them on drying racks.
Making Pulp:
We place shredded office paper in our donated Hollander Beater. Hollander Beaters have been used for centuries in Western papermaking and literally beat fibers to a pulp.
Our beater was designed, built and donated to us by Mark Lander, an amazing papermaker in New Zealand. Mark's wonderful donation to our work allowed us to increase our capacity and paper quality dramatically, and saved us thousands of dollars.
We add water and soak the shredded paper, before beating it into pulp. This step of the process typically takes a few hours. The pulp is then agitated by a whiz mixer, an invention of Lee McDonald, featuring a small propeller-shaped drill bit attached to a sump pump motor. The whiz mixer stirs the pulp and removes the last vestiges of print on the paper. It also allows us to add pigment to large amounts of pulp, so all the finished sheets will match.
Inclusions:
Natural aqueous-dispersed pigments, botanical elements and other inclusions are added to the pulp.
Forming Sheets of Paper:
We use the Mould and Deckle method of papermaking. A mould is a mesh screen covering a frame; a deckle is an open frame that sits on top of the mould. The shape of the deckle determines the shape of the paper. So a heart-shaped deckle will make heart-shaped sheets of paper.
A sheet of paper is formed by holding the deckle and mould together, submerging them in a vat of pulp and water and pulling them from the vat horizontally. When the mould and deckle is lifted out of the vat, the pulp stays on top of the screen on the mould and the water drains out through the screen.
The ratio of pulp to water in a vat controls the thickness of the finished paper. Getting the consistency right takes a lot of practice.
Once a sheet is pulled it must be couched (pronounced kooched) or transferred from the mould by laying it onto another surface. First, the deckle is carefully lifted and removed from the mould. The mould is then placed, pulp side down onto a layer of interfacing, to provide a smooth drying surface. Another layer of interfacing covers the wet sheet of paper
An artisan will make a stack of handmade papers, layered with interfacing. In papermaking, this is called "building a post."
Pressing:
The next step is to press the paper. "Posts" or stacks of with newly pulled sheets layered in interfacing are placed on boards and placed in our hydraulic press. This step removes the excess water and strengthens the hydrogen bonds in the paper.
Drying and Assembly:
The sheets and interfacings are then hung on clotheslines to dry overnight.
Once dry, the sheets of paper will be pulled from the interfacings and placed into a wooden screw press.
Assembly of the finished sheets of paper is also done by hand. These steps include: stitching, folding, painting glue onto envelopes with a paint brush, trimming, drilling holes, etc.
Equipment Donations:
In addition to Mark Lander's donation of our Hollander Beater, we received support from individual friends and the Chicago Community Trust Young Leaders program that provided our studio with our: hydraulic press, whiz mixer and pulp refrigerator, scissors, guillotine cutter and other items. Please see our Wish List under "Get Involved" if you are interested in building our capacity in this way.
