Handmade Papermaking Resumes

Papermaking is full swing around here. For the second year in a row, I am the winter times to making paper from the scraps I’ve saved over the year. Last year was a lot of learning. I worked on my process and getting more tools to help me. Things like a dedicated blender and an immersion blender are pretty critical items. I tried using natural pigments for dyeing the paper. And I used some of the paper to make some letterpress and botanical monoprints.

Over the summer and fall, I didn’t have time to work on it much. Summer is cyanotype making and adventuring. Gotta take advantage of all the sun you can get out here. The fall is full of markets and a lot of notecard making. I was still thinking about making paper though and how I could improve my process. I found a book that has made a huge difference. Modern Papermaking by Kelsey Pike. I was already doing a lot of things mentioned in the book, but there’s a lot of alternatives for several steps. That really helped me figure out how to either level up or try a new approach. The most important bits of information in the book for me were the pigment recipes and how to build a dry box.

Using what I learned from the book, I have begun implementing some new techniques and processes. Using aqueous pigments from Carriage House Paper and Kelsey’s recipes, I have made several batches of colored paper and the colors are stunning. I am so jazzed about how they turned out. The dry box is a key player too as it really helps to keep the paper flat and dry evenly. I started a video series to document the process I have developed thus far. Part one is out this week. Take a look!