In conversation: Paper Making.

1. Paper Making.
December 7, 2021

A topic close to our hearts is limiting our environmental footprint and finding new, creative ways to recycle our (already recycled) packaging. This counts not only for BASIUM's packaging but other products we use in our daily lives as well.  A wonderful recycling idea that we love doing is handmade paper. It might sound like a lot of effort, but making paper by hand at home turns out to be a simple process and a great way to get creative with a friend and gift the end result to a loved one. So have some fun with it!

 All you need is: 

  Used paper (you can use the recycled box your perfume came in)

  Water

  A bowl 

  A kitchen blender 

  Mould or a grid attached to a frame

  A rolling pin or an even glass bottle

  Cloths and towels which soak up water

  A tablespoon of Turmeric

  Dried flowers and herbs for decoration

 

 

 

1: Start off by cutting the paper in little squares, then put them into a bowl and poor on boiling water. Let it soak up for a couple of hours. When cooled down, dye the “dough” with a little Turmeric. By that, the color of the paper turns out to be bit earthier.

 

2: Blend the paper dough in a kitchen blender until it’s a pulp.

 

3: Fill the pulp into a bowl in which your mould and deckle can fit easily. Fill it up with water and add some of the pulp. The more pulp you add into the water, the thicker your paper will turn out in the end.

 

4: Now you’ll need the mould and deckle. We did ours ourselves by re-using an old picture frame and pin down fly screens around it. You can also buy mould and deckles at various art supply stores.

 

Stir your pulp well, then dip your frame vertically to the bottom of the bowl and scoop it up horizontally. Lift the frame out of the water and shake it a little bit. Make sure that the sheet is uniform. Now let the water drain for about 5 minutes.

 

5: Transfer the wet sheet from the frame to a flat and absorbent surface. We used old kitchen cloths for that. Gently remove the sheet from the frame, by placing the frame face down onto the absorbent surface.

 

6: Decorate the wet sheet with dried flowers and herbs of your choice.

 

7: In order to get rid of the water, place some absorbing cloths on top of the wet sheet and use a rolling pin or a glass bottle to press the paper.

 

8: After pressing, peel and hang up the cloth (with the wet paper still stuck to it) that you’ve couched onto, and hang on a clothesline with the top edge of the cloths