Ending October and at the beginning of November, I had the chance to partake in another workshop at Casa Ramos Sucre by @adncabrera. This time it was all about how to make paper from recycled paper pulp. As it has never happened before, I missed the first class. To tell you the truth, I forgot the workshop had even started. Since it was held on Sundays and those are the days I give my brain some rest, you can imagine how it went.
Nevertheless, I had the chance to attend to the rest of the classes. On them, I had a summary of the process on how to make paper. Pulp gets into water, then you use some contraption to both catch and shape the paper. The rest of the work is pressing it and letting all the water come out of it. More pulp means thicker paper; less, thinner. You can make a lot of types of paper if you give yourself a chance to experiment on how to tweak the formula. But you'll surely need some annotations on what is it that you're doing.
Regardless, the second class was about how to test paper. There are numerous tests. First, you can test its flexibility by folding it several times. Second, a cutting test. You need to know if your paper can handle cuts or if it is going to become shreds when you try to run scissors through it. The last test is about absorption. And for this you use the paper for one of its basic utilities, writing/coloring. So, you get some pieces of paper and start using different media. Pencil, pen, makers (different types), paint. Anything you want to try and see how it reacts. This can give you an idea of the use of your paper.
Another interesting idea that came around that class was using some other things to add texture to paper. In the case studied, it was flowers. Adding these to paper can make it more elegant and that paper could be used for cards. Maybe birthday cards or something else.
There are some other classes to see and those are related to vegetal dyes and other ideas for making paper.
Stay tuned for more!
Photos 📷: Redmi Note 13
Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva.
Editing 🎬: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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One year, our library offered bookmarks that had wildflower seeds incorporated into the paper. The idea was that once your book was done, you could lay the bookmark in a flower pot, cover it with a bit of soil, water it, and get native wildflowers. You might try something like that!
It is an interesting concept. I have seen similar takes on pencils and other things. I'll tell the people from the workshop to see if they like the idea.
It's super interesting especially that you can add textures to the paper with other things, I love textures. Very nice pictures!