Paper Making

Drawing upon a process from the original papermakers in history, you can recycle your own paper by hand! It is a fun, easy, and unique way to express your creativity while also saving precious resources.

BENEFITS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: The environmental impacts of industrial papermaking are sobering. The average American uses 749 pounds of paper per year.¹ Paper makes up a third of waste found in municipal landfills.² The papermaking industry uses up huge amounts of energy, water, and forests every year,³ even when producing paper with recycled content.⁴ Why not learn to recycle your own paper using household items and the power of the sun?

BENEFITS FOR YOUR WALLET: Next time you’re thinking of buying an expensive and generic greeting card, consider making your own unique card from scratch instead. You could create your own textures, colors, and embedded decorations that would give your card that personal touch.⁵

BENEFITS FOR OUR HEALTH: The papermaking industry in the United States has been deemed one of the worst air, land, and water polluters in the country. The process introduces around 212 million tons of hazardous substances into air and water supplies.⁶ Well-known dangerous toxins like organochlorines, toluene, methanol, formaldehyde, and hydrochloric acid are among those substances that the public breathes and ingests.⁷ Be part of the solution for our public health and recycle your own paper using safe and environmentally friendly methods!

TIME AND EFFORT: Low to Moderate
The manpower portion of making paper should not take more than an hour or so. However, waiting for the paper to dry could take as long as a day.

COST: Low
Recycling used paper is a surprisingly simple and cheap operation. Most likely, you can find everything you need for this project right at home.

TOOLS:
Iron⁸
Felt Cloth
Rolling Pin/Jar⁹
Blender¹⁰/Food Processor/Egg Beater
White glue¹¹
Wire Hanger¹²/Wooden Picture Frame
Insect Screen/ Panty hose¹³
Small tub/sink¹⁴/pan
Chlorine-free Detergent
Pot¹⁵
Liquid Starch¹⁶
Newspaper¹⁷

MATERIALS:
Old Newspaper and Magazines
Scrap Paper
Old Wrapping Paper
Paper Bags
Cardboard Boxes and Egg Cartons
Grass and Flowers (Decorative)
Food Coloring (Decorative)¹⁸

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Prepare the old paper: In order to make paper out of old paper, you’ll need to break apart your old paper so you can blend it all together again. Take out any glue or staples in the paper. Tear the paper into 1-inch or 2-inch squares. Soak¹⁹ or boil harder paper like cardboard boxes in hot water for a couple of hours to make it softer and easier to work with.²⁰ If you want to lighten the paper, add a little detergent to the hot water.²¹
2. Blend paper into liquid: Once the paper is ready, you’ll need to mix it all together using a blender, food processor, or eggbeater. Put the paper into a blender or mixing bowl. Add an equal amount of water. Turn on the blender or start beating the mixture until it looks like a thick smoothie. If using a blender, leave the blender on for at least 30-40 seconds. With either method, make sure that you keep mixing until all of the paper flakes have disappeared.²²
3. Enhancing the paper: With a few little tricks, you can make your paper even better. If the paper is mostly gray or white and you want to add some color to the paper, add a few drops of food coloring to the liquid. If you want to write on the paper, add some liquid starch to your paper liquid to stop ink from soaking into the paper.²³ To add even more of a personalized touch, add some crushed grass or flower petals. Be sure not to blend or crush the delicate flower petals!²⁴
4. Make a mold: In order to make paper into a paper shape, you’ll need something to catch the pulp and let it dry flat—this is a mold. You can make a mold out of a lot of different materials. One way is to cut out a letter-size piece of insect screen around 8” by 12”.²⁵ A second way to make a mold is to use a wire hanger and some pantyhose. Unravel and bend the wire hanger into a rectangular 8” by 12” frame. Pull a leg of pantyhose as far as you can until it is taut over the wire frame.²⁶ If you want to make multiple sheets of paper at once, make multiple molds.
5. Transfer paper liquid: Now you’ll need to transfer the paper liquid into a container big enough to hold paper liquid and the mold. A sink,²⁷ small tub, or pan with a length and width wider than your mold all work just fine. Pour the paper liquid into the container and add more water if necessary. Add around 2 tablespoons of white glue to the whole mixture.²⁸ Use your hands to stir it all together.²⁹
6. Put mold into tray: Now you’ll use the mold to catch the pulp in the mixture. You want to get the mold under as much paper pulp as you can, so try to slice the paper liquid with the mold to get the mold to the bottom of the container. If using a wire frame and pantyhose, very slowly lift the mold up towards the surface. After it clears the surface, keep holding it over the mixture to let any excess water drain.³⁰ If using a screen, move the screen side to side in the paper liquid mixture to try to catch pulp and distribute it across the top of the screen.³¹
7. Dry the mold and paper: If you used wire and pantyhose, the easiest way to dry the paper is just to lay them out in the sun until they dry.³² If you used a screen, you’ll need to get out some more newspapers and cloth. Place the newspaper flat on a table and place the cloth over it. Flip the screen pulp side down onto the cloth. Add more cloth on top, and add another newspaper. Roll a rolling pin or jar across the top to push the screen into the felt and dry the pulp. Wait a half a day to a day to let it dry.³³
8. Flatten the paper. If you can do it while it’s drying, cover the paper with heavy boards to get the paper to dry flat. After the paper is dry, if it’s still not flat, carefully peel away the screen from the paper. Set your iron to its highest setting and iron out any bumps and dents in the paper until you get to the texture you want.
9. Enjoy! Now you’ve finished making your own paper.