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How to make paper
We\'ve all heard it before: reduce, reuse, recycle. But when it comes to paper, recycling doesn\'t have to mean tossing those scraps into a bin and dragging it to the nearest recycling center. Instead, you can create your own functional (and artistic) paper from old newspapers, unwanted files and letters. Here\'s how to do it.
Steps on how to make paper
Make a frame for preparing the paper. Stretch a fiberglass screen - for example, a window screen - over a wooden frame (an old picture frames work well for this, or you can build your own) and staple it or nail it to the frame. The screen should be pulled as tightly as possible. Make sure to construct the frame large enough to hold the size of paper you wish to make.
Find paper to be recycled. Newspaper may be the easiest source to start with, but you can also use old print-outs, notes, phone books - just about any unwaxed paper product. Keep in mind, however, that the color of the papers you use and the amount of dark ink on them will affect the "grayness" of your creation. This is important while you learn how to make paper
Remove plastic, staples and other contaminants. Especially if you\'re using junk mail, your paper scraps are likely to contain plastic from envelope windows. Try to remove such impurities as thoroughly as possible.
Soak the paper in water. You may be able to get away with skipping this step, particularly if you use a blender to pulverize the paper, but you\'ll probably have better luck if you presoak the paper for a day or two.
Pulp ready for the basin. Blend the paper. Rip the paper into tiny bits, and place it all into a blender until it\'s about half full. Know this in order to how to make paper that fill the blender with warm water. Run the blender on "slow" at first, then increase the speed until the pulp looks smooth and well-blended - approximately 30 seconds - just until there are no flakes of paper remaining. Alternately, you can grind up the paper in small batches using a mortar and pestle.
Fill your basin about halfway with water. The basin should be a little wider and longer than your frame and approximately the same shape.
Add paper paste (pulp) to water in basin and stir to make a homogeneous mixture. How much you add will depend on personal preference and the size of the paper you\'re making. The amount of pulp you add to the water will determine the thickness of the paper, and while you want a dense suspension of pulp to fully cover your screen in the next steps, you don\'t need to make the whole tub into sludge. Experiment a bit.
The step further moves in how to make paper is remove any large clumps of paper. Try to pick out any clumps; the smoother and finer your mixture, the more uniform your end product will be.
Make your paper ink-ready (optional). If the paper is going to be used for stationery, stir 2 teaspoons of liquid starch into the pulp mix. The starch helps prevent ink from soaking into the paper fibers.
Immerse the frame in the mixture. Place your wooden frame into the pulp, screen-side down, then level it while it is submerged. Lightly move it side-to-side until the pulp on top of the screen lies fairly uniformly flat.
New paper just pulled from the basin. Remove frame from basin and resolve any thickness problems. Slowly lift the frame up until it is above the water. Drip-drain it over the basin. Wait until most of the water has drained from the pulp, and you\'ll see you answer that how to make paper with the beginnings of a new piece of paper. If the paper is very thick, remove some of the pulp from the top. If it is too thin, add some more pulp and stir the mixture again.
Give it the pull. After the mold stops dripping (or nearly so), gently place a piece of
Fabric (felt or flannel, preferably) or a piece of Formica (smooth-side down) in the frame on top of the "paper". Very gently press down to squeeze out excess water. Use a sponge to press out as much water as possible from the other side of the screen, and periodically wring out the sponge.
Remove the paper from the frame. Gently lift the fabric or Formica out of the frame. The wet sheet of paper should remain on the fabric. If it sticks to the screen, you may have pulled too fast or not pressed out enough water. You can gently press out any bubbles and loose edges at this point.
Set the paper out to dry. Take the pieces of fabric and Formica with the paper on them and arrange them to dry on a flat surface. Alternatively, you can speed up the drying process by using a hair dryer on the low setting.
Repeat the above steps to make additional sheets. Continue adding pulp and water to the basin as needed.
Peel the paper off the fabric or Formica. Wait until the sheets of paper are thoroughly dried; then gently peel. This completes your how to make paper sessio
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