So I decided to try papermaking again. My first attempt was so so. I put threads into my first attempt so all of the paper turned out pink. And the whole thing was messy.
So I consulted with my new best friend, youtube for a simple papermaking method.
First of all, you don't need a blender to make the pulp. After the paper sits in water for a few hours, you can mush it up between your fingers. Since I don't like getting my hands dirty, I opted for the blender. I had, after all, invested in it.
I put the hoop onto the contraption below. The contraption is a foil baking pan with rigid plastic embroidery netting, and bulldog clipped the plastic to the foil pan.
and poured the pulp onto the nylon and let it drip into the pan.
I covered the pulp with a mesh bag
and pressed down with the sponge to absorb and squeeze out any excess liquid.
When the sponge came up dry and the dripping into the pan stopped, I carefully peeled off the mesh bag. Then I carefully flipped the hoop onto a piece of fleece (or you could use a towel).
About 10 sheets of 8 1/2" X 11" gives enough pulp for four 6" paper circles, maybe more if the pulp is watered down more. It appears that the paper will be relatively thick - I will check tomorrow. And if you don't want circles, instead of the embroidery hoop, you can use 2 dollar store picture frames.
And the best thing of all, I just tipped the excess water from the foil tray into the sink - it didn't have any pulp in it so no worries about clogging the sink. The only thing to wash - rinse off the nylon stocking covered hoop and rinse out the blender cup.
And the whole thing took maybe 1/2 an hour from blended pulp to paper. Paper shredding was only a few minutes. I let the paper sit in warm water in the blender for about two hours before blending it.
Hope this helps. Questions?
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