More Paper Experiments - Paper No 0008

My Dad came to stay for the weekend a while back, and it turns out he's always wanted to make paper, but wasn't sure how to start. So, we had a go. We started with some white cotton? dry pulp fibres, and pulled a few sheets. I don't think he'd realised quite how easy it is to make paper! We then carried on, and added some of my yellow recycled paper - coarsely shredded, then added some lint from the tumble dryer, them added some glitter, and so on. As we were nearing the end of the stack of couching sheets, we decided to add some of my white recycled paper to finish off. Unfortunately, my food mixer died after about 3 seconds, so, what the hell, throw the very coarse white stuff in too! The results are shown below.

My dad went home with all these sheets, and I'm yet to see what he's to do with them. Now, Dad lives in St Ives in Cornwall, and is friends with many of the artists down there, particularly Roy Ray and Jenny Devereux, two of the many well known artists working with paper in St Ives. Check out their websites.

I also understand dad went straight to Truro, and bought all the equipment to make more paper himself. So, watch this space.

Hanging Basket Liner - Paper No 0007

OK, here I was, browsing through the local garden centre when i saw a stack of hanging basket liner. These are the ones made of a papier mache kind of material. They are very cheap, and the quality of the material isn't very high, but pulped in the blender, I experimented making the sheets below. Techniques included layering with other papers, pressing on bubble wrap, etc. Not the best paper, but an interesting exercise following on from my Peat Pot papers!

Paper No. 0007 8x6 in (20x15 cm)

Unsupported Blanket Stitch Binding - Book No 0013

It's been a while since I've posted. This is what I've been working on. A Keith Smith binding that he calls the Unsupported Stitch Binding. (see Vol 3, pg 219). I've modified it slightly, in that I've stepped the length of each alternate stitch.

As the sewings aren't linked to one another, I used 2 colours of thread, alternatively brown and black. The pages are made with alternate sheets made from my own handmade papers 0001 & 0002. The ply boards i made from a cheap crate i found at the local garden centre - it was one of their free boxes to help you carry your plants home in, but the ply base has particularly attractive grain pattern.

I don't consider this book a complete success. I used both straight and curved needles, but i couldn't get the boards tight. This shows up in the second image, you can see the bottom board is loose. The back board, the last to be sewn, is particularly loose. More practice needed I guess!

Book No 0013. 4x6 inches (10x15 cms)

Swap No 0005 - My Handbound Books

Over to Canada this time, to Rhonda at My Handbound Books. I was a little slow off the mark in posting my end of the swap, and consequently, my package from Rhonda arrived before I'd posted mine!

But, i was blown away with Rhonda's generosity. I received 2 chopstick bound books, beautifully wrapped in a handmade, hand printed band. See Rhonda's tutorial to make these here. There was also another notebook, a print, and a selection of marbled and paste papers. All are stunning. Rhonda's tutorial to make paste paper is here.

I thoroughly reccomend Rhonda's blog, its fascinating, and an inspiration. Theres so much on there that I'd like to try and make myself. If mine are only half as good........

I sent Rhonda my usual swap, but as I'd seen what Rhonda had posted before I sent mine, I included one paper from each of the six papers I've made, and as a special treat, I sent Rhonda a pair of the wooden boards I'd made and kept for a rainy day. I'm looking forward to see what Rhonda makes with them.

Swap No 0004 - Guernsey £1 Banknotes

Recently, Mai-Britt from Linen & Silk commented on my origami book diversion, and offered to send a £1 Guernsey Banknote for me to make a Bank-Note-Book from. I was delighted, and offered Mai-Britt a swap, rather than the generous gift on its own. I was more than pleased therefore to receive 3 £1 notes in the post.

I sent Mai-Britt the following for my side of the swap.

Japanese Stab Bindings with Mizuhiki Cord - Book No 0012

A couple more experiments with the Japanese Mizuhiki Cord. I made these two simple Japanese stab bound books. One has very stiff and thick coconut fibre paper? covers, the other has stiff card covers. Both have pages made from a handmade sheet with petal inclusions.

As with the Keith Smith pamphlet binding, I didn't use a needle, but just had to re-stab the holes each time i pushed the cord through. As the cord is slippery, the trick was to bend or crease the cord at each turn around the book. This just about kept the cord tight. This time i did tie the cords off - on the back!, rather than try to tie off inside the spine area as is usual with these books.

The decoration on the coconut cover, is just the cord strung through holes pierced in the cover. The image at the bottom is the inside of he cover, where this time, I didn't tie off, but used the trick from the pamphlet, where I bent the cord back on itself at the end of the sewing, and looped it around the sewing without re-piercing the cover. This is very tight, and won't come loose in general use.

Book No 0012 - 8 x 5.5 inches (20 x 14 cms)

Japanese Mizuhiki Cord Pamphlet Binding - Book No 0011

This is the second of my Keith Smith bindings, this time I've experimented and bound it with the Japanese Mizuhiki Cord I've bought. The 24 page section is made of thin brown and green handmade paper with plant fibres. The cover is a heavy paper with tinsel inclusions. I kept the book quite large for this experiment, so I had enough space to handle the cord.

I chose a simple binding which Keith refers to as a dash sewing (vol II, pg 20). I pierced the section and spine on my sewing cradle, and as the cord is quite thick, I made sure the holes were quite big. I didn't use a needle, as the cord is stiff enough to support itself. Once I'd laced up the spine, I had the one end protruding through each end of the spine to the inside, and needed to tie them off. As this is a paper cord, I found that rather than try to tie a knot, i could just fold or kink the cord back on itself, and loop the head end down to the tail through the lacing, and vice versa with the bottom cord by bending it back up the spine, and looping it through the lacing. The third image below should illustrate what I did.

This actually makes a very strong binding, as the kinked cords won't 'unkink', and a knot is not required.

Book No 0011 - 6 x 9.5 inches ( 16 x 24 cms)

Tibetan Handmade Book

I recently bought this gorgeous little Tibetan book online for less than £1. It has 7 sections of 20 odd pages. The pages are handamde paper with petal inclusions. The paper covered cover is held by a multi-coloured cord, and small wooden toggle. That's a strip of bamboo on the front.

Swap No 0003 with Lisa from Parallel Botany

I received my swap items in the post from Lisa at Parallel Botany today. I sent Lisa one of my Bank-Note-Books with bank note paper endpapers, and some sheets of my handmade papers. Heres an image below, and Lisa's kind review of my items can be found here. Lisa sent me one of her delightful par avion notebooks. The cover is Lisa's own handmade paper, and features a brilliant watermark of the books title. The pages inside are a delightful mix of pamphlet stitched plain, lined, squared and other papers. In addition, Lisa sent me an assortment of her other handmade papers, including a notelet and envelope (too good to use!), and some gorgeous joss papers. I'll have to think up something to make with them.

Please visit Lisa's blog - Parallel Botany - It's well worth a browse, and bookmark.

Handmade Paper Sample Book

This is another online purchase. This was less than £1. Its a book of sample handmade papers. There are 12 different papers - 3 sheets of each - total 36 pages. They are a wide and varied set of papers, inc: a snake skin design, a marbled paper, printed papers, embossed papers. Some thick, some thin, most are coloured papers. All cord bound in a beautiful, marbled paper covered, stiff boards. Overall book size is 8.5x6.5 inches ( 22x16 cms ) Does anyone recognise this book? I've purchased a second set from a different vendor also for less than £1. So they must be made in bulk somewhere. I've an idea i will strip out the papers leaving one of each, and adding pages from the lots of other handmade papers i have, so building up a big sample book of papers I've used.

Charlotte Clowes Handmade Paper Still Life Picture

I bought this online recently for less than £5. It's a Charlotte Clowes original. The seller didn't advertise it as such, just calling it a handmade paper picture. See here for Charlottes website. Its beutifully made, and very vibrant - much more so than these images show. It's 9x9 inches (22x22 cms).

Seed Embedded Paper

Heres a freebie I received at work. Its a 2009 calendar, nicely printed on seed embedded paper. The company were playing on the 'eco' side of their business. Anyway, rather than throw it in the bin, I kept it.

I've been looking at it for weeks now, wondering if I shoud bind it in a concertina binding of some sort. Anyway, tonight I decided to see if the seeds are actually live, and i've soaked it in water and put on windowsill to see what happens. If it sprouts, I'll post a pic before i plant it in the garden.

As an aside, I have bought some seeds to put in some of my hand made papers when i get round to it. Wild flower meadow mix, and the old favourite - mustard and cress.

Tortoise Shell Japanese Stab Binding - Book No 0009

Just a quick 5 minute book this evening. Blue hand made paper, waxed linen thread, with small leather label (with a hole in for no other reason than it was in the scarp i picked up!)

Book No 0009 - 4x4 inches (10x10 cms)

Little & Large Bank-Note-Books

Heres a few more Bank-Note-Books that I've made for possible swaps (see here if you'd like to swap something book related you've made for one + a few of my handmade papers).

The larger one is a 1923 100,000 Mark German note, pamphlet bound with copper wire, using my Bank Note Paper for end papers, and some very nice cream laid paper for the pages. It is 3.5 x 4.5 inches (9.5 x 11.5 cms). The smaller ones are just over 1.5 x 1.5 inches (4.5 x 4.5 cms)

Coptic Stitch in Handmade Plywood Boards - Book No. 0004

Earlier this week I made a small coptic stitch blank book. This is only my second attempt at coptic stitch, and the stitching was less successful than last time - see here. After reading a few other comments on the web, I've come to the conclusion that bigger is better, especially where beginners are concerned (and that's me!). This book, at half the size of my first attempt, is too small, particularly for the thread I've used. I think a bigger book, with a thicker thread would be better. Roll on next time. The pages are made from my Paper No 0001. There are 8 signatures of 12 pages each, totalling 96 pages.

Book No. 0004 - 3x4 in (7.5x10 cm)

The plywood boards, on the other hand, were particularly successful. I have a hige stack of 100's of different wood veneers to use on various woodworking projects. I picked a nice orange coloured veneer. I'm not sure what the wood is though! See my next post, on how to make plywood from veneers.

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Bank-Note-Books with Bank Note Paper Endpapers

Two new Bank-Note-Books, both with endpapers made from my Bank Note Paper. These are the booklets I'm now offering as swaps. They will be versions of these booklets, using the Bank Note Paper endpapers, but varying the banknote used, or the stitching, or the paper used for the pages.

Bank Note Paper - Paper No. 0006

At a local auction recently, I bought £1,500's worth of shredded £20 notes (for the sum of £20). The auctioneer looked at me as though I was mad!

I had the idea, of course, to use them as inclusions in sheets of my handmade paper. Using cotton linters as the base, and just a tiny handfull of the scraps of notes, I produced these lovely soft sheets.

Heres a view of the stack of the dozen or so sheets I've pulled so far. And a single sheet

And a close up of a part of the sheet. I'm now going to use these sheets as end papers for my Bank-Note-Books. See here for how you can swap something for one of these Bank-Note-Books, 2 or 3 sheets of my papers, and if you want, a tiny amount of these bank note scraps.

My First Overseas Swap

I completed my second swap today, and my first overseas swap. With Judy from Iowa, I swapped one of my BankNoteBooks and 3 sheets of my handmade paper: for only Judy's second ever handmade book. I'm touched, and its delightful. Its Japanese stab bound, and made from an old macoroni package, with pages cut and folded at different sizes from (I'm assuming) a brown paper bag, with the stitching incorporating bead work. I'm extremely pleased with this swap.

My Home Made Press

I thought you might like to see a picture of my very sturdy home made press. I use this for pressing wet posts of papers, and (when dry) for pressing signatures, etc, for my books. This form of construction is extremely strong, and you get a huge amount of pressuer from even the smallest 1.5 Ton bottle jack that i'm using. A very useful tool. I built it to suit the materials to hand, but it will take A4 sheets if needs be.

Peat-Pot-Paper - Paper No. 0005

Over the weekend, I was clearing out the shed and found a pack of unused peat pots. I noticed that they are cast in a shape, so decided to have a go at making paper with them. So, 2 peat pots torn up in the blender at a time, and 3 blender fulls in the tub. This let me pull 4 sheets, before i had to put another blender full of pulp in tub. The sheets formed very easily, and also couched very easily. They dry quite smooth, and appear reasonably strong.

Next step is to make patterns with seeds in. I'm thinking big sunflower seeds in patterns sandwiched between 2 sheets. Watch this space.

Paper No. 0005 8x6 in (20x15 cm)