We taught nature
papermaking last weekend at the studio. Donna and I spent the two weeks prior prepping fiber--chopping, cooking, rinsing & more rinsing, then beating it into a pulp. It really has a lot of similarities to industrial size cooking!
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We found bamboo fiber to be tough as nails! We soaked it for a week and cooked for about 14 hours in lye and it was still pretty tough. We have it soaking in water still trying to soften it up!
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We cook fiber in large kettles--I swear a watched pot never boils! We cook with the lids on but need to check them so they don't boil over.
A tangled mess only a papermaker could love! Once the fiber is cooked and rinsed, we "beat it to a pulp" in our beater. This is the plant fiber Yucca which is notoriously bad behaving--see the suds? It can be used to make soap! The first time we beat it at the studio it was like an "I Love Lucy" episode--soap suds were overflowing everywhere--in ginormous proportions! We had to move the beater outside, it was such a mess. This Yucca behaved and made only bitsy suds.
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Well
behaving Yucca!
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Everyone concentrating on their deckle boxes.
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Couching newly formed sheets of paper.
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These folks made a ton of paper.
Yay! It was worth all the
cookin' & prepping.