In this section I cover some variety of materials you can use to when making your own paper. This is basic and introductory stuff that is easy to do. This will also give you ideas about your own experiments you can do when making paper.

For the most part this is about using the pour method of paper making which is the easiest way to do it.

I also have a page about adding cotton linters to the mixture to make some wonderfully rich cotton papers.

Will has a youtube channel with over 600 videos on projects you can make. Check it out right here

Here are the papers that we made and that I show you in this section.

The first thing to remember is that it is very easy to manipulate the thickness of the paper. You can have thick paper, thin paper or anything in between. Just by adjusting how much you pour into the mold and deckle.

Consider it as you make paper and observe the paper. You will quickly and easily get a handle on what thickness paper you want to make.

And of course, the size of the mold and deckle will affect the size of the paper you make. I have made these in various sizes. My favorite is the 9x12 inch because from that I cut standard sheets of paper. But I am also fond of any square shaped molds I have because they are perfect for making origami paper.

Let's look at four papers and a wonderful way to spice them up.

This picture shows you a lot of things. First off, inside the bowls of water are four very different bases for the paper. Counter clockwise from the upper left is white printer paper, a colorful newspaper flyer, 15/th of an egg carton and then 1 paper towel. All of these are quite suitable to make your own paper. And each one will give a different feel and texture paper. But also....

But also this picture shows us the wonderful technique of adding a little splash of color to your paper. Each bowl is paired up with a small piece of colored index card paper. That is all you need, just that little scrap. You tear it into pieces and add it to your blender at the end of blending. You don't want to pulverize the colored paper in the blender. You just want to shred it a bit into pieces that show up, kind of speckling in your paper.

Let's look at how to do it - We will make something I call Creamsicle paper because it reminds me of those delicious creamsicles I used to have as a kid.

This is 1 white paper towel in the blender and the scrap of orange index paper. Blend up that white really good. Don't put the orange in yet!

Ok, we are looking down into the blender and you can see that the white paper towel has been nicely blended. It is done! Now tear up the orange paper and add it in.

Now blend it very briefly, just a few seconds. So the orange paper is torn into small pieces but not pulverized into a colorful dye! See the bits and pieces? That's wonderful. Exactly what we want.

Now pour that into your mold!

It looks great!

And this is how the paper turns out! It looks great! Creamsicle paper!!!

So, this is a wonderful technique for spicing up your paper making.

Let's take a look at those other three bowls of paper and see how they turned out.

300 Papermaking Recipes

Even if you are a beginner, you can make gorgeous handmade papers using the expertise of two papermaking artists and the simplicity of a recipe-style format. This comprehensive collection of papermaking ideas provides 300 recipes for creating handmade papers in a variety of textures and colors, using recycled materials and equipment readily available in any common kitchen.

· Create unique handmade papers from recycled paper, cotton, plants, vegetables, and even denim · Gather ideas for embellishing finished papers with petals, moss, herbs, raffia, metallic paints, threads, and glitter

· Find inspiration from today's leading papermakers for using finished papers in a range of elegant projects

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