Process of Paper

Saturday night I processed the cooked fiber that I had collected from the Minnesota River Valley and pulled sheets of paper. Below is some of the documentation of that process.

the fiber after 4 hours of cooking in Soda Ash.

The fiber after 20 minutes of beating with a wooden mallet
(shown at the top of the image)

The formed sheet has barriers built into the mould to create long strips when pulled apart. The texture of the fibers will create the visual interest and content of the books

Minnesota River Valley

Two weekends ago I traveled an hour south west with MCAD Alumni, Isaac Berends and MCAD student, Allegra Denton. Each of us went for a variety of reasons, but mine was to collect more logs for my sculptural books. Along the way I also came upon some nice reeds that I will make paper out of to create the pages, as well as the content. Here are some photos of that trip:
We really didn't see this beaver, but I imagine it was his cousin or close family friend that chewed the tree that we saw.
These are the reeds I brought back with me from the area shown above. In the past three days I have been soaking them and then I cooked them with soda ash for 4 hours. I'll make the paper today, so hopefully by tomorow it will be dry.