How to Make Paper with Herbs and Flowers
What You Need:
a thick kitchen sponge
sheets of cotton or felt
recycled paper
a blender
dried herbs
a mould and deckle
a tub larger than your mould and deckle
pictured: a handmade mould and deckle - essentially two frames, one with a mesh screen stretched over one side
Instructions
Fill your tub about halfway with warm water and set it aside.
Fill the blender halfway (loosely, not packed) with recycled paper torn into smaller pieces. You can use the paper from your paper shredder bin, old newspapers, etc. You'll want to avoid papers with a glossy coating; matte papers will work best. Old coloring sheets, tissue paper, or construction paper could be added to the mix to incorporate a bit of color to the finished paper.
Add water to the blender until all of the paper is covered by about an inch or two of liquid. Pulse the blender for about 30 seconds, or until you're left with a pulpy, watery mix.
At this point, you can add a little bit of dried herb to the blender and pulse again to incorporate. I like to use garden "weeds" in my paper - plantain, dandelion, etc. all work well once dried. You can also use dried rose petals or just about anything else that you'd like to include.
Pour the pulp into your tub of water and give it a good mix. After agitating the water, lower your mould and deckle into the tub. Let the pulp settle a bit into the frame, then slowly lift the mould and deckle out of the water.
Remove the top piece of the frame and set it aside so that you are left with just the screened piece.
Lay a sheet of cotton batting or felt over the paper sheet, then lay a cookie sheet on top of that. Flip the ensemble over carefully (the cookie sheet helps to keep everything flat while flipping), then set the cookie sheet aside and place the screened frame + cotton sheet onto the counter with the screen facing up. (The cotton sheet will be touching the counter; the new paper sheet will be on top of that and the screened frame will be on top.) Press the kitchen sponge along the screen to absorb excess water, squeezing the water out of the sponge and back into the tub as you go. Once you have removed much of the moisture from the paper through the screen, you can lift the screened frame off so you're left with your new sheet of paper laying on the sheet of cotton batting. At this point, you can leave it in a safe place to dry. After a few hours, you can remove the paper from the cotton batting and let it continue to dry out. Once all of the water has evaporated, you'll be left with a beautiful sheet of handmade paper!
You can use the paper for gift-giving, in your home herbariums, or to paint on. I love using it for watercolor painting. Enjoy!
About the Author
Hi there, I’m Erin! I am the main instructor here at Floranella. I am a clinical herbalist, aromatherapist, artisan distiller and organic gardener based in the Pacific Northwest. Here at Floranella, I teach people how to work with plants safely and effectively from the garden to the apothecary. Thanks for being here! I’m glad you stopped by.