ALABAMA KOZO Glen House at the Graduate School of Library Service, University of Alabama, (2) first drew my attention to this fiber source. To the best of my knowledge this is a variety of Broussonetia papyrifera Vent. or 'paper mulberry' which can be found in some warmer areas of North America and in Hawaii. I believe Broussonetia kazinoki Sieb. is closer to the 'true' Japanese kozo used today for quality papermaking. Where Alabama kozo fits in botanically remains to be determined, and Glen reports several varieties even in Alabama. Identical or closely related varieties certainly grow in neighboring states, so that the term 'Alabama kozo' might best be changed to 'American kozo' until more work is done on regional variety identification.     On initial inspection the stripped bark does not look promising. It tears easily against the grain in the dry state, whereas Japanese kozo does not. Once added to water, however, and as preparation steps continue, Alabama kozo begins to act more and more like a top quality nagashizuki fiber. Standard cooking and hand beating give very good fiber separation and excellent formation quality. Parting after pressing is very good. In the end, I expect the fiber will prove to be shorter and weaker than that of Japanese kozo, but in the meantime I find it the most exciting new fiber available for nagashizuki and definitely worth continued research and experimentation.    

TORORO-AOI In my book I suggest George S. Park Brothers as a source for tororo-aoi seeds. Although the botanical name cited is the same as one of those cited for Japanese tororo-aoi (Abelmoscus manihot), and although useable roots can be obtained from this seed, genuine Japanese tororo yields a very different plant. While plants from the Park seed grow tall and have roots with a thin fleshy wall, Japanese seed yields plants that grow short and have roots with a thick fleshy wall. Since it is this fleshy layer that yields the majority of formation aid after soaking and beating, the Japanese seed is strongly recommended. Only a few seeds will give hundreds of plants after only a few years of routine cultivation. Carriage House Handmade Paper is probably the most convenient supplier of seed. (3)   WOOD ASH COOKING After three or four years of working at it here in America, I still find it difficult to obtain really excellent fiber distribution from wood ash lye cooked, hand beaten fiber. While some of these difficulties may be traced to poor or dated raw fiber, or to insufficient beating, cooking is likely to be a factor. This winter I will be shifting to 1700 grams or more of wood ash per kilo of dry fiber. Papermakers working with wood ash may wish to follow a similar route, remembering to use no more than is necessary, and to rinse well after cooking to remove the spent residual alkali. Using fresh wood ash also seems to be important.      

SPECK REMOVAL For anyone who has hand-picked black bark flakes and other debris from cooked bast fiber, a simple tool for speeding the process is likely to be of considerable interest. The accompanying drawing by Howard Clark offers such a solution. By adding several inches of clear cold water to the plexiglass tank, and turning on the light below, specks can be readily located and removed. Two people may work side by side at this 'picking trough', passing the fiber from one end of the trough to the other for cleaning efficiency.      

MAZE The maze or comb-like agitator used at the Japanese vat can be very effective at breaking up strands and clumps to give improved formation quality. Last year when I finally scaled up to 24 by 36 inch sheets, I built a new, 'improved' maze along with a new vat. Reasoning that more fingers on the maze would give more action on the fiber, I spaced 27 planed birch dowels at 2 inch intervals across the width of the maze. Unfortunately I failed to consider that the force exerted by a single finger would be greatly dissipated by the large number of neighboring fingers on the maze. The net effect is only fair mixing action. My next maze is likely to be equipped with fingers made of shaped 1/2 by 3/16ths inch stainless steel fingers spaced on 2.5 or 3 inch centers. Such an agitator should give action similar to the very effective, electrically-driven Japanese naginata beaters.      

SYNTHETIC SU Since the publication of my book I have been working with Tim Moore (4) to perfect a fully functional production synthetic su. While we have not yet found splint and chain line material with the ideal characteristics we are getting closer and Tim's weaving is vastly improved over my earlier attempts shown in the book. So far the 12 by 16 inch synthetic su (with .04 inch diameter fiberglass splints and monofilament chains) needs to be covered with a mesh of some kind for effective sheet release at couching, but I believe a successful and much larger su will be coming along shortly. Contact Tim if you are interested in details.   PHOTO-GENERATED WATERMARKING With the help of W. A. P. John (5) I was able to generate a watermarked mesh for attachment to a regular su. The 'image' I wanted was a series of horizontal lines designed to leave thin lines in sheets of Kalamazoo Handmade Paper tissue (6). The final product, 'Minter dry-tear guard strip', comes in full 24 by 36 inch sheets. Single lengths of tissue can be torn off dry for use in a variety of book and paper conservation applications. The technique is likely to be useful in more artistic applications as long as the watermark details are kept in the form of thin lines (1/8th inch or less). Specific procedures used in making the su are given below. A good silkscreen artist or printer may be a big help in undertaking the project and locating the required materials.    

Base mesh was 2XX silk screening (real silk). The mesh was mounted in a silk screen stretcher and treated with several coats of high quality spar varnish diluted about one third with turpentine. The varnish was applied with folded cotton cloth pads in such a manner that the openings in the mesh did not plug. The key to making the watermark is a photo polymer based emulsion. (7) There are two photo-sensitive components; a mylar-like sheet film coated with a thin layer of emulsion, and a thick liquid form of the emulsion. Under low lights the sheet film was taped down to a smooth surface with the emulsion side up. The prepared silk mesh was laid on top and taped down. The liquid emulsion was then squeegeed across the mesh to fully impregnate the mesh from above.    

After drying, the mesh, still under low light, was placed under prepared opaque artwork. A heavy sheet of plate glass was used to sandwich the artwork against the mesh. Roughly five minutes exposure to an arc lamp then hardened the emulsion areas not covered by the opaque artwork. After the exposure, the mylar-like sheet film was stripped off the mesh and the unhardened emulsion was washed from the su with water.     The finished su wets well and becomes quite flexible after soaking, yet the emulsion areas are abrasion resistant and wear very well. Any contortions that develop during drying come out upon rewetting. The emulsion stands only slightly higher than the mesh but multiple applications of the emulsion might be used to give higher profile watermarks.  

footnotes: 1. Timothy Barrett, Japanese Papermaking - Tools, Traditions, and Techniques, Weatherhill, Tokyo, 1983. 2. University, Alabama 35486, USA. 3. 8 Evans Road, Brookline, MA 02146, USA. 4. 1384 Williamson Street, Madison, WI 53703, USA. 5. Grafaktri Silk Screen Studio, 1200 North Main, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA. 6. This was suggested by Bill Minter, a bookbinder in Chicago. 7. Various brands are available but the product we used has the trade name 'One Pot Sol'. 8. In our caes we used 'rubylith' sheet film but any black opaque material would work equally well to determine the open watermarked areas in the finished su. </div>

‍