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.