Shop PortfoliosVolunteers

Beginner Series

Are you a beginner papermaker? These articles for novice papermakers were first published in the popular “For Beginners” column of Hand Papermaking Newsletter. Now, you can browse through these for free. Enjoy!

Cooking with Caustic

It is possible to construct a papermaking practice without cooking or using caustics if one purchases partially processed fibers in half-stuff sheet form or recycles existing paper fibers.

Sustainability in Papermaking, Part 2

Three years ago, in Hand Papermaking Newsletter #85 (January 2009), this column featured an introduction to thinking about sustainability in the paper studio.

Selecting Source Fibers

When explaining hand papermaking to a non-papermaker, one often hears: “so, I assume you use wood to make paper.”

More Couching and Drying

While a stack drying system requires a strong pressing of the wet paper for best results, restraint drying calls for only a light pressing so as to leave more water in the paper, helping it adhere to its restraining surface.

Couching and Drying Surfaces

Once you’ve mastered the papermaker’s shake, and pulled a nice even sheet, what is the ideal surface to transfer it to?

More Basic Editioning

In the July 2010 issue of Hand Papermaking Newsletter (91:7) I discussed techniques for editioning imagery within your handmade paper, including some stencil techniques that took their inspiration from contemporary watermarking techniques.

Working Large by Tiling Wet Sheets

Hand Papermaking Newsletter No. 81, January 2008, addressed a method for working large through tiling dry sheets.

Pulp Additives

The fibers you use and the way you prepare them can produce a vast array of papers; you can stretch this range of properties even further by combining additives with your pulp.

Papermaking for Editioning

If you’ve created a post of wet sheets, you’ve used a fundamental technique of editioning—registration—to place your wet sheets in the same spot on your felts to build up a pile that will press evenly.

Why Handmade Paper?

You probably know why you’re doing it, or maybe you have trouble articulating it, but there is something about sticking your hands in a vat full of pulp that is addictively compelling.

Affordable Studio Equipment

Hand papermakers have improvised all manner of alternatives to traditional studio equipment, repurposing materials from the hardware store, the kitchen supply store, and the five-and-dime to build a studio to suit their liking and particular needs.

Assessing Your Pulp and Paper

When you are starting out as a papermaker, it can be a challenge to judge when you’ve completed certain steps of the papermaking process, such as when your pulp is done, or when your paper is completely dry.

An Updated Bibliography

In the July 1999 issue of Hand Papermaking Newsletter, we published a bibliography of books on hand papermaking.

3D Work from High-Shrinkage Pulp

This technique focuses on the use of highly beaten flax fibers processed in the Hollander beater.

Sustainable Papermaking Practices

Green living is increasingly on the mind, especially in the post-industrial countries that have, on the whole, forgotten how to do this.