I wear two hats with different names: Madison Woods when I’m wearing the artist hat, Roxann Riedel in real life and real estate. I'm a rock-smashing paint-making artist & a sales agent for Montgomery Whiteley Realty. Hailing from the wild Ozarks in Kingston, Arkansas where my husband and I work toward a sustainable lifestyle.

You can text or call to reach me by either name (see above):
(479)409-3429, or email madison@wildozark.com

My First Sheet of Handmade Paper

So, with all the rain here, and now with the truck being broken which means until the road mud dries up some I can’t go out anywhere, I’m doing some of the other things on my creative bucket list.  I need a break from writing/editing/formatting from time to time, and *shakes head* housework is not on that list.

Yes, I do the domestic stuff when I need to, or more likely, when I absolutely must. Besides, I’ve done enough of that while confined in this house due to the relentless rainy weather. And I seem to make messes as fast as I clean it.  Today the mess is compounded by my project. As it turns out, making paper is quite messy.

Handmade Paper

Handmade paper is high on the list of things I *want* to do. After today’s trial, it appears I’ll need to do it a lot more often to become proficient.

Those little wasps make papermaking look so easy.

The other day I collected some mulberry leaves, chopped them up and put them in a large pot to cook.

Day one and the leaves were still completely unchanged by the heating and stirring.

Day two and ditto.

Day three and I gave up and threw it into the blender.

That might have been a mistake, but I’m not sure yet because I haven’t tried the pounding it into a pulp method yet.

The first mistake I KNOW was a mistake is the improper use of my improvised deckle.

Improvised deckle for making homemade paper.
Improvised deckle for making homemade paper.

The next mistake was not having a good place to turn out the wet sheet so it could press until it dried. I turned it out onto a folded sheet and covered with the other half of the sheet. That wasn’t easy to manipulate when I tried to peel it off.

So my first sheet of handmade paper was, in most ways of looking at it, a complete failure. I even wasted two of my ginseng leaves that I wanted to press into the surface of it.

But from a learning perspective, it was a useful experiment. Now I know to do some things differently next time. Hopefully the NEXT photo you see of my handiwork, it looks a lot better than the one below!

My first sheet of handmade paper. It's okay to laugh. I'm laughing with you.
My first sheet of handmade paper. It’s okay to laugh. I’m laughing with you.

 


0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
4 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
4
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x