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This information is reprinted from the For Beginners column
of Hand Papermaking Newsletter #24 (October, 1993).
To learn how to order Hand Papermaking bi-annual magazine
and quarterly newsletter, click
here.
Paper from Iris and Daylily
Autumn is a wonderful time of year to harvest local
fibers for papermaking. While the average person may look
out the window and see yellowing plants, papermakers survey
the fields for valuable fibers which can create unusual and
beautiful papers.
Paper can be made from the cellulose of any plant,
however some plants have a better fiber yield than others.
Cat tails, wheat straw, yucca, and milkweed are only a few
of the plants used by papermakers and indicate the range of
fibers available. Each fiber has its own recipe for optimum
results. There are several useful books which will help
those of you who wish to continue your exploration of this
process. They are listed at the end of this section.
Plants such as day lily and iris are simple to start
with, and the following directions apply directly for them.
The first step is harvesting the fiber. You can collect the
leaves at various times, when they are green, yellow, or
brown. Cut the plant leaves and bundle them together with
string. The bundles should be hung to dry until they are
needed. Harvest more fiber than you think you will need,
because these plants yield a surprisingly small amount of
fiber for papermaking.
Before you can make paper, the fiber must be cooked with
soda ash to remove the non-cellulose components of the
plant. A very simple recipe for cooking is one tablespoon of
soda ash for each quarter pound of dry fiber. For more
specific cooking recipes, consult the suggested reference
list.
Weigh the dry plant material, then cut the leaves into
two-inch lengths. Soak the fiber in water. You will need a
stainless steel or enamel pot for cooking fiber, and it is
recommended that you do not use this pot for food
preparation. Aluminum pots should not be used. Place the
fiber in the pot, then fill it two-thirds full of water.
This should allow room for the fiber to cook without
spilling over.
Add the soda ash to the water; do not allow it to splash
into your eyes. Stir the mixture every half hour. Please
note that your kitchen will be filled with a strong aroma of
cooking fiber, which you may not like. A hot plate outside
can remedy this problem.
Let the water cool, then pour the solution through a
strainer. This will allow the fibers to be trapped while the
water drains. You can line the strainer with fine mosquito
netting to help catch all the fiber. Rinse the fibers until
the water is clear. At first, the water will be a dark
brown. It will take several minutes until the water clears.
You are rinsing away the non-cellulose materials.
The plant fiber is now ready for beating. Place a handful
of fiber in a blender full of water. Do not overload the
blender. Run the blender until the fibers are broken apart.
You can vary the blending time on several batches to create
a mix of short fibers which will serve as the base of the
sheet, and longer fibers which will create a decorative
element in the paper. (If you are familiar with Japanese
papermaking, you can beat the plant fibers by hand.) Add
this material into a vat. It will take several blenders full
to have enough fiber to form a sheet of paper. To create and
maintain the correct ratio of fiber to water, you will need
to strain some of the fiber after it has been blended. This
will allow you to add concentrated fiber to your vat.
You will only have enough fiber to make a modest number
of sheets of pure iris or day lily paper. However, by adding
another fiber such as cotton or abaca, you can continue to
create wonderful sheets of paper which will reflect the
character of your backyard plants.
Additional information on this process may be found in
the following texts:
Lillian Bell, Plant Fibers for Papermaking,
Liliaceae Press, McMinnville, OR, 1981.
Winifred Lutz, An appendix on alternative fibers; Timothy
Barrett, Japanese Papermaking, Tradition, Tools, and
Techniques, Weatherhill, NY, 1983.
Diane Reeves, From Fiber to Paper, W. Thomas
Taylor, Austin, TX, 1991.
Copyright 1993 Hand Papermaking, Inc.
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