Homemade Paper

Activity Directions:

1. Tear newspapers into small pieces, filling bucket half full.
2. Add water and let it sit for at least two hours.
3. Beat the mixture into a creamy pulp with the wire whisk.
4. Submerge the piece of screen in the pulp and mix again. Repeat until the screen has about 1/8” thick layer of pulp.
5. Lay the pulp covered screen on newspaper and cover with plastic wrap.
6. Press out the excess water with a rolling pin and set the screen up so that the air can dry the pulp.
7. When dry, peel from the screen. Paper can be painted or decorated.

Directions Pouring Method (as seen in video)

Materials

1. To begin the pour papermaking process, start by building your paper making tower on a tray to catch the water. The tower is constructed in this order: PVC pipe, plastic support grid, blue papermaking screen with the second PVC pipe completing the tower.
2. Choose two different colors of the half sheet tissue paper. Tear tissue into one inch squares and put into the plastic container with 7-8 marbles and a half cup of water. Tighten the lid and shake for about 3 minutes until the tissue pieces disperse into the water to create a slurry. Observe the color combinations as the two colors blend.
3. Open the jar and remove the marbles, placing them into a bowl to keep them from rolling away. Pour slurry slowly from the plastic container into the top of paper making tower. Wait for the water to drain then carefully remove the top PVC pipe.
4. Lift the sandwich of the plastic grid, screen and newly made paper round to a flat surface. Place cover screen on top of paper round and gently press straight down, blotting with damp sponge. (Do not “scrub” surface.)
5. Carefully remove the cover screen and replace with a piece of card stock. Lift sandwich of blue paper making screen, newly formed paper round and piece of cards stock— flipping this carefully onto drying shammy. Press with sponge again with sponge to remove excess water.
6. Remove blue paper making screen and celebrate the newly formed paper round! Card stock supporting newly made paper round can then be place in a zip lock baggie for transport home. Instruct parent to remove from bag at home and place paper with card stock between newspapers with weight on top until dry. If using heat press: place paper between blotters and press until dry.

Investigation Questions:

Q. What is paper made out of? How is it made?
A. Paper is made from trees. A pulp is made from the wood of the tree. It is pressed together and dried.
Q. What happened to the paper pieces in the water?
A. The paper absorbs water and turns into a mushy mix, called pulp.
Q. What happened when the pulp was laid on top and dried?
A. It blended together to make new paper.
Q. Why did we roll a rolling pin over the pulp?
A. It pressed the paper pieces really close together so they stick to each other and squeezed out the excess water so it would dry better.
Q. Why do you think recycling is important?
A. Recycling helps us to use less garbage and cut fewer trees.
Q. How can we use this paper?

Lesson Extension: Visit Treewhispers.com