I love paper! Books, drawing pads, journals, paper crafts… I also enjoy making it. Summer is a great time for a papermaking project. The paper dries quickly and working with the wet pulp has a cooling affect.
For my paper pulp I use the discards from our shredder. I put these shreds in a blender that is only used for crafts add a bit of water and mix. I want to add a safety tip here, please be sure to use separate tools for crafts and meal prep so that neither gets contaminated.
When I want to make a particular color of paper I sort our junk mail first before shredding it. Then I mix each color batch separately.
To get an exact shape as with the hearts shown here, I use cookie cutters to contain the poured pulp. After pressing the shape to remove excess water I place the wet shape on my paper pulp sheet. Leaf cookie cutters make a nice addition to paper with a fall theme.
Your paper shredder will also give you different results in the completed paper sheet. When I use our single cut shredder parts of the words are visible embedded in the finished sheet. To make a more speckled effect I use our cross cut shredder that creates a more confetti type cut.
I leave the pressed pulp sheet on the backing fabric and hang it on the clothes line to dry. I have never had a problem with this process, but a couple of my students told me that a gust of wind blew their dried paper right off the backing fabric! Fortunately, the wind did not take the paper far and the students were both able to retrieve their projects. So they were able to make art and get in a bit of exercise chasing the paper.
What is your favorite summer project?
