It was yet again another very rainy day on the West Coast, and the thought of going outside was just not very appealing. The rain and wind were sure to make even the most warmly dressed person cold. That being said, it was just the day to do something fun inside where it was warm, but what, was the question?
“Let’s not forget tomorrow is recycling day,” Mrs. Tucker yelled up the stairs to Charlie who had already been rummaging in his room for recyclable goods.
“Mom, I have all of these scraps of paper,” he came out of his room and held them up to show her his colourful assortment of orange and white pieces of scrap paper. “Can we do anything with them; I just hate wasting things if I can help it,” he said.
“You know, we could make more paper out of them and not just any paper, but special paper,” she responded.
“Really,” he replied. while coming down the stairs with his handful of paper scraps.
“Come, let’s bring them to the kitchen and get started,” she said, now walking with Charlie to the kitchen.
“Let’s see, let’s make a list of things that we need.” On the list they wrote:
- a sponge
- window screening
- an old wooden frame
- a tub large enough to totally immerse the frame
- a blender
- your white felt craft material
- tape or staples
- water
“ I feel like you have done this before mom,” Charlie remarked.
“Yes, actually, my mom and I used to make our own paper with flower petals,” she said, as if reminiscing.
“All right, please give me your paper young man,” she said, and then she took his paper and put it all in the blender. “Now we will add some water and turn the blender on till it all becomes a pulp like substance”, she said to Charlie, as he looked on in amazement.
“What do I do with this wood frame mom?” He asked, holding it up with both of his small hands.
“Okay, take the window screening and tape it onto the wood frame while making the screening as tight as possible around the frame,” she carefully demonstrated.
“All done mom”, he said showing her the finished product. “Now what do I do?” he questioned.
“Now put it into the bucket that has water in it already, and make sure to lay it flat,” and I’ll put the piece of felt on the counter with the sponge beside it, as we are going to need them both very shortly“ she said.
“Oh Charlie, I almost forgot, would you like to add some flower petals into our pulp mixture now that we are done blending it,” she asked him.
“Sure mom, how about those dried Tiger Lilies that you have over by the window,” he responded.
“A great idea, we can add them if you like,” she said while grabbing a couple flowers and taking the dried petals off. She then placed the orange petals into the pulp.
“Now, here comes the hard part, we must pour this paper pulp onto the screen evenly. Then we will quickly flip the paper mash onto the felt material,” she said.
“There we go, now what we need to do, Charlie, is soak up the remaining moisture very carefully with the sponge. Once you’ve done this, we will wait for it to dry” she said.
“That’s amazing mom that we can recycle my paper, and make orange paper with tiger lilies,” little Charlie said in awe of his new creation.
For more information on how to make paper from recycled materials, you can visit:
Making Handmade Paper in 10 Easy Steps
© 2011 Crystal Buchan
