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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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