Paper Making

Paper Making : the perfect antidote to yesterday .
New Year has properly been celebrated and I have the front sheets ( still drying on the radiators ) transported from Liz's for several birthday cards ( upcoming in January ) . The photographs show various stages of the process . The books collected by Liz over the years . The original liquidiser I forgot I had donated to Liz for the purpose which was a birthday present to me from my mother some thirty six years ago . Liz and I first made paper together after she took a course before she went to live in Fiji and before she had her children . She has recently returned from a holiday there and today I am wearing a necklace made with tiny shells brought from Fiji presented to me by Liz on the occasion of my recent landmark birthday . One of the pictures shows Liz cutting out a tiny greyhound shape for the wire mesh stencil I used to make paper sheets . Being Art , we decided it was of no consequence if at the end the shape was only vaguely greyhound like , giving the echo or sense of a skinny dog . Currently there are about seven such skinnies drying in grey , a darker grey and pink . We shall see.
having spent much of our time finding such a dog on the internet , cutting out in paper then in wire mesh , I then stated , " a cat would have been simpler and easier to recognise "
"yes" said Liz , thoughtfully ..... but we moved on .

As we work , or play , Liz 's boys are in and out and I am envious of how home based they are . N is much less at home . Much less in evidence and apparently much less still interested in doing family things . J greets me when I arrive and helps me make coffee as Liz is involved in a phone call with a German friend . It transpires that prompting has forerun this greeting and coffee making but nonetheless I am impressed with his social skills and warmth . I would expect no less though from the child of this family , whose parents are so welcoming and enthusiastic for life and friendships .
Liz is delighted to have the opportunity to share her many creative talents and the afternoon passes with much reminiscing about past events , friends , situations and such like .

For anyone interested in papermaking the process is not complicated .
We use offcuts from a local picture framing shop , who gave Liz the border card / paper / mount . This is soaked overnight in water , then liquidised. Once pulped it is divided into smaller amounts , and coloured either by the addition of a paper napkin , or some herbs such as parsley to add texture and colour . The colours and textures can be liquidised in uniformly , or added in flecks to add more interest .
The pulp is then placed into a flat tray and scooped out on a flat piece of wire mesh or mesh cut into a shape eg the tiny greyhound . Liz made winter trees .
This is then laid onto newspaper and the water squeezed out using a sponge , then the mesh peeled off . The paper sheet then dries on a radiator or flat on a table . In my case they are all transported home in sheets of newspaper .
I can't wait to see the final result . ....Coloured threads are also great for making letters to spell names !

So , after all this , today is after all the new New Year , and a great one too .

Have a great one all of you !