Dancing Hippos

Baby Tiger

Owl Student

Creating Handmade Paper

Tired of hearing your roommate complain about all those scraps of paper lying around your room? Well, keeping track of discarded paper can really be a messy business. The good thing is we can transform that mess into an actual business. Here’s how: To produce our own handmade paper, we’ll have to go through four stages. The first is making the mold and deckle, second is making the basic paper mixture, third is making the new paper itself, and last is personalizing the finished product. For the mold and deckle we’re going to need the following: Screwdriver 8 L-shaped aluminum braces 2 Plain wooden frames 16 bass screws Gloves Wire cutters or sharp scissors Aluminum wire mesh Hammer Brass nails Then for making the paper mixture, we’ll need: Discarded paper Large bowl Large cup or mug Blender Large container Once our paper mixture is ready, we will need: Mold and deckle Plastic container with a flat bottom Paper pulp Wooden spoon Cloth Sponge Clothesline Newspaper Board that is at least 2 inches bigger than the mold and deckle Old cloth Pins Flat iron (optional) and for the last part, we’ll have to gather: Rose petals Flower heads Leaves Grasses Any items that you wish to decorate your handmade paper with Making a mold and deckle The mold and deckle are the wooden frames that we will need to shape our handmade paper. The mold is the wooden frame that has wire mesh stretched across it while the deckle is the plain frame with no mesh. Don’t worry, they’re not difficult to make. To make the mold, we’ll take the wooden frames and attach the L-shaped braces to its corners using the bass screws. This is to strengthen the frame which will be submerged under water from time to time. Next, we’ll cut a portion of the wire mesh using the size of the frame as a guide. Then using the hammer, we’ll nail the wire mesh unto the back of the first frame. To prevent accidents, we’ll wear a pair of thick gloves before we do this (Safety first, so no objections, okay?). Once the mold is ready, we’ll attach the deckle on top of the mold and sandwich the wire mesh between them. Preparing the Paper Mixture After preparing the mold and deckle, we will now move on to making the paper mixture. For this part, we’ll get the discarded paper we’ve gathered before and rip them to small pieces, ideally about 1 to 2 inches wide. Next, let’s place the paper in a bowl then pour some hot water unto it until the scraps are fully covered. After that, we’ll set the bowl aside and let the paper be soaked overnight so the fibers will separate. Once we’re done with that part, we’ll take one cup of soaked paper and three cups of cold water and put them together in the blender. Then let’s turn the blender to high speed and let it spin for a while until the paper is completely crushed and the pulp has achieved a creamlike texture. Finally, we’ll put the pulp in a large container until we have the amount we desire. Making the Paper Now that the paper mixture is ready, get the mold and deckle so we can place the latter over the former. After this, we’ll stir the pulp with a spoon then submerge the frame under water and keep it there for a few seconds. After the pulp has settled on the frame, we’ll bring it up to the surface of the water and shake it from side...

About our Blog

Saturday. That lovely day when you wake up to the piercing light of the morning sun shining through your curtains and you lazily pull your blanket up to cover your face instead of doing a mad dash to the bathroom for your daily morning rituals before you go to work. At least that’s how typical Saturdays go. For us at BNP, Saturday is – aside from being the last day of our workweek – our official let’s-all-stretch-our-bones-and-do-something-fun-and-artistic-day. It’s the day when we unleash the inner child sulking in the corner while we sit in front of our computers and go about our regular work to try our hand in various artistic crafts and all sorts of casual but fun activities. That is exactly what we’re going to be sharing here. With simple and easy to follow tutorials inspired by our own experimental forays in various crafts, short profiles of up and coming local artists in the city of Lucena and other neighboring towns, hodgepodge of random but interesting stuff we stumbled upon the web, and our very own misadven… err… adventures, there will always be a little something for you to enjoy while giving you an idea or two – probably something that you can even make a business of – at the same...