New Skill... New Vocabulary

Last week, my friend Jess and I took a papermaking class at the local botanical center.

The kind of class that is more than just putting torn-up newsprint in a blender.

One of those classes I remember from girl scout days and has been on my adult bucket list. So exciting!

Paper with flower bits drying on my kitchen window...

Our instructor, Chelsea, who also teaches papermaking at the local university, had the room all set up when we arrived. With aprons, tubs of water, fibers soaking, frames... what seemed a vast variety of stuff. We were all set to learn.

Beating iris leaves to pulp...

Besides telling us what types of fibers we could use, we also discussed what types of plants to collect and how to prepare them for paper making. We learned all sorts of new vocabulary.

Chelsea hogging the vat...

Chelsea also pointed out that each vat had a different fiber already soaking: cattail fuzz, hemp, cattail leaves, flax, iris leaves, and combinations thereof.

Couching the wet pulp...

Then we spent our time beating leaves to pulp, hogging (stirring) the vat to disburse the slurry (pulp) in the water, pulling the deckle and mould (think picture frame with a screen) in the vats to gather pulp, couching the wet pulp off the screen onto the couching cloth (putting the wet paper onto Pellon to drain), then kissing off the screen (washing any loose pulp back into the vat).

We put another couching cloth (in this case the Pellon) on top of the fresh wet pulp. Then did it all again.

Making a post...

When the entire class had several sheets of pulp/paper stacked together, we made a post (all the mini stacks put on top of each other between pieces of plywood). Then we pressed out the excess water. So much laughter as we took turns standing on the post!

Pressing out the post and bailing excess water...

Finally, we learned how to finish the paper at home by allowing it to dry on a flat surface.

I had so much fun last week, I went back for the class this week! I learned how to put flowers and leaves into the handmade paper!

Now to try more at home!

So many flowers so little time...