Paper making

One of the first things Rich wants to do is cut down as many nettles as possible that surround the portocabin. He bought a commercial strimmer on ebay for that kind of thing. For a long time I had been wanting to do things with nettles, I have tried nettle soup a couple of times, not very good. When Rich cuts them down one of the things I want to do is to try making string. Something else I have wanted to do for ages is to make paper, and maybe add nettles, etc to it. Well the week before last Astrid came home from school and said that she had made paper at school. She explained the process to me and between that, some added info from the internet and some bits and pieces from home we came up with this.

Soak shredded paper in water overnight. This paper is mixed with mint leaves, hence the brown water. Unfortunately the paper didn't smell of mint.

The blue part of the 'sieve' is part of a small trampoline thing Astrid had, is got holey and very old. It is stapled to an old picture frame. I was very proud of myself for thinking a little like Richard and making something out of what we already had instead of going out and buying the 'proper' stuff.

We also made round paper through an old splash protector from the kitchen.



After soaking the shreds (it may not be necessary to soak)blend the mixture and put into a container that is, ideally bigger than the sieve. Add more water to the blended mixture.


Pour the resulting watery mixture over the frame, trying to fill all the gaps. If the frame fits in the big container then it can be submerged in the water, as it is drawn up it will collect the pulp (this goes for a thinner paper). Put some scrap material over the wet pulp and turn the frame over, the pulp will still be attached to the frame.

Take a sponge and with strong dabbing movements try to get a lot of the water out of the pulp. This will also make it separate from the frame so it can be used again.
Continue adding layers of pulp, with material separating each layer, until the pulp mix is finished.


Add a final layer of material and cover the whole lot with something heavy. This will help to squeeze out the water as well as smooth out the paper.

The next day you can open up the layers and let each one dry separately.

When both the paper and the material are dry you can carefully separate the paper from the material, and now you may be hooked.