Papermaking

Handmade paper

I started paper making over 6 years ago, I remember my first encounter with it, I was visiting The Hatch community, where I had just gotten my dream job as craft coordinator for the charity, they are a supported living community which runs craft and land workshops daily for members of the community and day placements. I remember walking into the small craft room and seeing someone sat diligently pounding a washing up bowl with a wooden mallet, the bowl was full of torn up waste paper and water and the repetitive nature of this gentle crushing was breaking down the fibre into pulp. Later on I learnt that when you take this pulp and add it to a vat of water you have the base for making fresh, beautiful sheets of paper, out of paper that was destined for the recycling. To say the least I was hooked.

Over my time as a craft coordinator I cannot tell you how many sheets we produced, playing with different coloured paper, adding seeds, dried flowers, even dying the pulp with old teabags. It was a perfect activity for a group setting with various roles to be involved in; whether tearing up old paper, crushing it with a wooden mallet ( Japanese technique) making the paper with the deckle and mould, sponging off the excess or ironing it dried, there was a role for everyone and it was very accessible.

After a major life move and desire to spend more time with my son, we had to reassess my role and I left the Hatch to focus on my small child and my own Art practice (the Hatch still holds a very special place in my heart). We moved to leafy Wiltshire and I found myself missing this methodical and relaxing practice, it didn’t take me long to make a bunch of moulds and deckles with my trusty staple gun and after a few trips to charity shops I had all the additional equipment to make paper at home and use it in my own work. After finding it works incredibly well to capture the fragility and beauty of botanical and lino prints, with its rustic edges and beautiful imperfections, I have been creating lots of batches to not only use in my practise but to incorporate into workshops that I am running so that people have the opportunity to see how wonderful this recycled paper is.

On the 15th March I will hosting a workshop at the beautiful wildling studio just on the outskirts of Calne, near chippenham. I will be teaching not only how to make paper and be playful with it but also how to contiune the craft at home with instructions on how to make a mould and deckle. If you want to book a place follow this link below

https://www.wildlingstudio.co.uk/paper-making-with-frances-daws