Iris Leaf Paper

July 16-18, 2010

     On July 16th, a friend and coworker brought me some iris leaves and bulbs from her place in Hallsville, Missouri. I started processing the fiber immediately as excitement took hold.  In school, I'd seen a group make paper out of iris and it's surface texture was varied.  I wasn't sure what to expect out of these leaves.  They were very fresh and as a result had a high-volume compared to their weight so in the end, there wasn't a lot of pulp to work with. Even so, the results were beautiful.


See the recipe after the jump.

Sycamore Bark Paper Additive

June 30-July 4, 2010

     The last week of June, the sycamore trees began shedding their bark and it was everywhere, especially on the public trails.  So we went collecting to determine of what value the bark would be to papermaking. It is far too brittle to made into complete sheets, but makes a wonderful additive to cotton pulp to make cotton sheets. In a bit of festive patriotism, we used cotton pulp that had been dyed red (but really came out closer to pink), cotton pulp that was bleached white and recycled cotton blue jean pulp. All paper was pulled on July 4th. 


Recipe and more images after the jump.

Onion Skin Paper

June 19-20, 2010

     A year ago, we began saving our onion skins in a glass jar with the intention of making paper from them one day.  It was much delayed, but once we were unable to fit any more onion skins into the jar, the decision was made to make paper from them. It had been about a year since I had last made paper, and my ambition for doing so had admittedly taken a hit. Setting a goal to make paper out of this collection of onion skin turned out to be a great re-motivator, as making this batch of paper has reinvigorated my love of papermaking.

See the recipe and more images after the jump.