Sustainable Handmade Paper

 So clearly, I am posting this at a much later date due to the fact that at the time of working, I would rather hand write my notes than have my laptop sitting out surrounded by supplies.  On this day, I had started come of my cooking process of Flax, Kenaf fibers and Chinese Mitsumata. Before cooking the fibers, you have to let them soak in water for a good bit of time; therefore, I started the soaking process of the flax and kenaf around 11:40am and let them absorb water for about three hours. I only did two at a time due to the lack of stovetop burners in the studio.  After soaking, you can start the cooking. In each pot, I had about one pound of the fiber, roughly two gallons of water and three and a half ounces of soda ash which breaks down the fibers as their cooking.  With the flax, it started cooking at 3:15 until 5:30. The water was brought to a boil and then the fibers were added, once the fibers were added, the water was brought to a simmer for the duratio...

 To start my journey, I started with a couple paper-making workshops at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh. The first workshop was on April 13th and it was all about the basics; we learned the Holland beater, what molds and deckles were, basic sheet making, and things of that nature. The best part of this workshop was that we each assembled a mold and kept it for our future endeavors in paper-making.  The second workshop focused on color and textures. We dabbled a little in embossing with different textures on black sheets of paper and really got our hands dirty with different pigments. This was particularly useful to me because I had purchased many different pigments and a retention agent to experiment on my own with but this way, I was able to see the instructor do it before I did.  The third workshop I attended was based on collage; this is where we were able to really be creative and experiment on our own. We worked with the paper pulp and any other materials we wanted ...

  Good afternoon to everyone reading!! First and foremost, I would like to introduce and share a little about myself. My name is Mikaela and I am currently studying Fine Arts at Slippery Rock University, in Pennsylvania, hoping to one day move onto graduate school and further my education to become an Art Therapist.  Enough about about me, onto why we are all here, Sustainable Handmade Paper!! Back in March of 2021, I had applied for a grant through my university in hopes of expanding my knowledge on papermaking, something not specifically offered in our program. At the time, I had little to no knowledge on papermaking and wanted to utilize the grant for workshops in the area and experimenting with fibers I would not have been able to find in my surrounding areas. From here on out, I will take you through the journey this grant has led me on and share as much of my knowledge with you guys!  *ps the picture shown above is from a workshop I had attended at Contemporary Craf...