Saturday, September 2, 2017

Second on the 2nd: handmade paper


The very first Second on the 2nd was about making paper using plant pulp.  Since Kathy has shown her beautiful corn husk handmade paper (hmp), I thought I would share this again.  I know some of you have already seen this post, but because there are so many new readers, I thought I would post it again.  This is my take on the one and ONLY time I made hmp from plant pulp.  Here is the post in its entirety.

New for 2015: second on the 2nd

Once a month, on the second (2nd), I will show a piece of art I have created in the past.  It's a second look at a piece of art I am proud of, or created before anyone knew my blog existed.  I welcome you to join me. 

For my first second on the 2nd, I actually consolidated two posts and recreated it below.  Please be aware, these were taken with my old camera, so the resolution leaves more than a little to be desired.

Making Paper From Day-Lilies
Parts 1 and 2

I've made paper for quite some time, but it has always been with paper pulp. Today (September 23, 2007)

I experimented using plant pulp. The supplies I used are (from left) Arm and Hammer Washing Soda (which can be used in place of soda ash), plastic spoon, a stainless steel pot dedicated to crafts, hot plate to cook the lilies outside, kitchen shears, and a scale.

The first thing I did after I picked the day lily leaves was put the pot (dedicated to crafts only) on the scale

and set the tare to zero.

I cut up the leaves to about half an inch using the kitchen shears.

Once the leaves were cut, which I thought was the most time consuming, I weighed the cut greens. I had to do that because I needed to find 20% of the dry weight. That is the amount of washing soda I needed.

After setting the tare of the spoon to zero, I then weighed the soda ash and added it to the pot.

Finally, I added water to the pot and set the temperature on "medium." I checked after two hours and the leaves didn't look like they had done that much, so they are still cooking away. I've been told that after they cook and are cleaned, they will last in the refrigerator for about a week.

This is what I had after the day lilies were completely cooked. Don't let the height of the cooked mixture in the pan fool you. It's mostly water, as you can see below (I showed these images on my blog on October 9, 2007).

Yep, you are seeing correctly. That's all the "pulp" I got from the cooked and cleaned lilies. Speaking of cleaning!! That entails washing the slimy lily leaves until they were no longer slimy. Good for everyone, as well as my camera that I didn't get pictures of that step. Take my word for it, cleaning the cooked leaves is probably the nastiest part of this process.

I placed the pulp and water, along with some tissue paper for strength, in my second-hand, retro, handmade paper (hmp) dedicated, industrial strength blender. Sadly, that was all the pulp I had. Remember please, items (including the blender and the cook pot) are never used in food processing once they have been dedicated to the craft room.

After all that work, I only got ONE page in the traditional manner, which is dipping my mold into the watery pulp. I had to pour the second and third pages. Pouring is hard for me, because I don't get an even pour, which means some areas of the paper had more pulp than others. The edges weren't as smooth, either. As you can see from the picture above, I only got two sheets from this batch.

The third page was a bust. It was too thin in most places, and only yielded a small strip of paper, which I used on a page in my Asian AB.

I hope you enjoyed this look back at my first second on the 2nd.   Thanks for joining me, and I'll try not to be so wordy next month. ___________________________________________________________________________
Now it's your turn to share a post you have dug up from the past. The rules are simple. This is a second look back on a post you are especially proud of, or possibly one you created before anyone knew your blog existed. Anything you want to share is acceptable. Feel free to invite your friends and followers to this fun, once monthly event, too.   Then link below (direct links only, please) and Bleubeard and I, along with other Second on the 2nd friends, will be by to visit.   Please remember, it's best to post on the 2nd, because this link is only open five days.




21 thoughtful remarks:

Valerie-Jael said...

Looks rather ghastly with green slime, but the results were good. I don't have the possibility to cook anywhere except in my kitchen, and only have implements used for cooking, so probably won't try it. But I admire your adventurous spirit! Have a great Saturday 2nd on the 2nd, hugs, Valerie

johanna said...

i always love experiments! and the green Color of this paper is very unusual and pleasing. i think it can be used for many things, your awesome AB-page is a great sample!
happy autumn, elizabeth!

chrissie said...

Certainly interesting Elizabeth and I had never seen it before. Always great to see something new though I wouldn't want to do all the washing up after trying it.

Sending good wishes your way for the weekend

Love Chrissie xx

RO said...

Happy Saturday to you, and I love, love, love that old school blender. I have to tell you that I love the blogging world, because never in a zillion years would I think I would meet a person who could actually make paper, and it's amazing! Hugs and kudos to you! RO

Pen Sunshinepen said...

Wow just had to say what a fantastic blog really interesting

hugs x

Meggymay said...

It was good to read the process and the results of this project. I don't quite fancy using my kitchen to try this one, I think when you said slimy leaves it completely put me off.. But your paper did look fantastic.
Yvonne xx

kathyinozarks said...

Good morning thank you for sharing this post-I would not have been happy with washing slimy plant materials and then to only get 2 sheets of paper. I think you would enjoy making the corn husk paper but it is more time consuming too than the recycled papers-which I really enjoy making too. and you need allot of them to make it worth it. the most difficult task was getting the poured and pressed paper off the plastic piece-I had to not press much to get the paper off so took allot more drying time.
to answer your question- I needed to go look in my basket of supplies for that project as i had forgotten- was lots of setacolor colors and they were very diluted too. I did this outdoors with the sun too-which I had forgotten and with several different shapes of brushes.

kaybee said...

Absolutely fascinating! Bet you were good at science in school - or did you blow the chemistry lab up!!

froebelsternchen said...

I really LOVE your wonderful paper and the tutorial! Just GREAT! It turned out amazing! Thank you - I can't remember the original post. I have here a fabulous book with 300 recipes for making paper in German language but never had made paper until now except as I was still at school many years ago.
Shame on me! But I admit that it looks as too much mess and effort to me. Lazy Susi!
Sorry for not having a Second on the 2nd post this month - I just am unorganized and tired just now .
Do you feel better?! I hope so!
Have a grat saturday my friend!
oxo Susi

kathyinozarks said...

ps yes same quilt

My name is Erika. said...

I am really glad you shared this post Elizabeth because before Kathy's corn husk paper, I never really considered making paper from leaves before. I love the lily paper. It is really pretty. Now it has me thinking about all my garden leaves that are starting to go anyhow. Hmmm. Hope all is well. Hugs-Erika

Cindy McMath said...

I don't remember seeing this post before Elizabeth - let me think...where was I in 2015? England I guess... Looks like a lot of work for not much return, but wow I love the Asian page you made! The colour is great too.

CJ Kennedy said...

I've never made paper from plant material. Nice shade of green. Goes beautifully on the Asian page.

Eileen The Artful Crafter said...

Boy that was a lot of work, Elizabeth! The green slime looks pretty disgusting even though the photo is very clear. Your Asian page using the paper is lovely.

Jeanie said...

I do so enjoy these and I'm really glad you revisited it. I haven't made paper in a long, long time and never from plant material so this was new. Loved the page, too. Do love Second on the Second.

On another note, thank you so much for all the catch-up. Sometimes that just happens, doesn't -- sick or travel or too much other stuff. Glad you are enjoying the Quebec posts -- two or three more to come, I think. I loved those flower boxes, too. I'm sure the climate helps. I'm also guessing that they don't go much past October -- it's so far north (12 feet of snow a year!) that they are probably late May or June arrivals!

Happy Labor Day!

pearshapedcrafting said...

Goodness! This does look like hard word work for such a small piece of paper! It does look fabulous though! I haven't made paper since we moved out our house as I could work under our car port(in fact a lot of things got made under the car port) there just isn't the room here! Still, I am lucky enough to have some of the paper you have made so Thank You for that! Hope you are feeling much better! Hugs, Chrisx

Sandra Cox said...

Wow, Elizabeth, that is impressive. You are the Daniel Boone of the craft world, exploring new territories. You create things that I had no idea were possible. Kudos.

Rita said...

Leah and I do the Arnold Grummer pour method and we use junk mail and scrap paper for the base. Been a while. This seemed like a lot of work and did look slimy indeed...but the paper looked nice. :)

UplayOnline said...

i think it can be used for many things, your awesome AB-page is a great sample!


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Barbara said...

Thanks for your comment, Elizabeth! I just posted to my blog, and coincidentally, Kathy and I did similar things today. I have more of a chance of getting slime though because I’m using new green vegetation this time, not dried, and I plan to check it often during the cooking time. I may end up cooking it for less time. I have a scale like yours, but I don’t weigh and go by ratio. It’s simpler and seems to work to just use 1 Tablespoon Washing Soda per I quart water in the cooking process. Do you think your ratio formula added more than 4 tablespoons washing soda? That is how much I added last week for dried grasses. I agree making paper with paper pulp is much easier, no gathering, cutting, cooking and rinsing. But something just feels special to me about making artistic papers the purist way as ancient civilizations once did it. However, the paper pulp papers can be so lovely!

kathyinozarks said...

thanks for the link to this post again.
Barbara is suggesting 1 tablespoon of the washing soda to 1 quart of water. I have soda ash on hand for natural dyeing so I will use that in this batch too. since this batch was fresh material and not dried I wonder if you could lower the amount of the washing soda-maybe that is what made it slimy-Barbara'suggestion