Making Paper. A Wood Magic Show Project for Kids

Transcription

1 Making Paper A Wood Magic Show Project for Kids 2001

2 Contents: Introduction 1 Before you begin 2 What you will need 3 Instructions Making your frames Making your slurry Making your paper mat Drying your paper Suggestions for cool paper 8 Some examples of cool paper 9-10

3 Introduction Paper is just a thin mat of wood fibers, and that's exactly what we're going to make. We will break down existing paper into small pieces and make a mat from the particles! Be sure you've read the section on "Wood Products: How Wood is Processed: Paper" to get an idea of what exactly paper is and see how paper is made in big paper plants. You'll be surprised how similar our methods of papermaking are! Making paper is a really fun and easy project! You can make some really cool and unique paper that has a variety of uses: Party invitations Thank you cards Holiday cards Journal Stationary Gifts What will you do with your homemade paper? 1

4 Before you begin Before you start this project, there are several things that you should do: 1. Read and understand all of the instructions. 2. There are several methods of making paper discussed in this project; decide which methods you will use. 3. Make sure you have all of the tools and supplies necessary for the methods you choose. 4. Give yourself plenty of time to complete the project and to clean up afterwards. 5. Make sure you have an appropriate area to work in. 6. Make sure you have appropriate clothing to wear. 7. Make sure you have an adult to help you! Making paper is a lot of fun, but it can be a little time consuming. To save time, you can do most of the preparation in advance, like we do in our on-campus Wood Magic Show. This project can also be broken up over several days. Think carefully about how much time you have to do this project, and plan the steps of the project accordingly. This project can also be pretty messy. Make sure that you have rags, towels, a dustpan and broom, and other things handy to wipe up spills, sweep up paper scraps, and clean up messes as they occur. This will not only make a safe and neat environment to work in, it will also make cleaning up at the end of the project a lot faster and easier! 2

5 What you will need Miscellaneous: An adult to help An appropriate place to work (where it won't matter if you make a mess!) Old clothing to wear (an apron is also a good idea) Old dishrags, towels, sponges, etc. for clean-up Tools: A blender or food processor Sink or plastic tub (not a bathtub) that's larger than you want your paper to be. Rolling Pen Iron Scissors Stapler Big bowl Several towels Ingredients: Hangers, picture frames, embroidery hoops or other thin objects to use as, or form into, frames. See the following page for more ideas. Nylon hose, insect screen, or other objects to attach to your frames strain your slurry. A variety of paper (Newspaper, paper towels, construction paper, paper bags, whatever you would like to try) White glue (2-3 tablespoons for each batch) Optional: Glitter Dried flowers and leaves Feathers Pieces of yarn, string, embroidery floss, etc. Flower seeds Confetti (you can make your own, if you like) Anything else that you think would "spice up" your paper -- use your imagination! 3

6 Instructions Part 1: Making Your Frames The frame is one of the most important things you'll need for making paper. The frame is made up of an outer frame with a mesh stretched across it. The purpose of the frame is to separate the wood fibers from the water to form a paper mat. To do this, your frame must fit comfortably inside the sink or tub that will contain your slurry. Inexpensive and ready-to-use options can be found in the kitchen and crafts sections of your local department store: pizza screens, splatter guards for frying pans, plastic craft screens, etc. If you'd prefer, you can easily make a frame with things you can find around the house. There's a couple different ways to make a frame. Here are some options: Bend a coat hanger into a square or circle. Then, either staple screen around the edges or put nylon hose around the bent coat hanger and tie the ends. Use an old picture frame. Attach screen or hose. Use an embroidery hoop. Attach screen or hose. Helpful Hints: Make the frame larger than you want your paper to be. When removing the paper from the frame, the edges sometimes tear. Make several frames. This makes the whole process go more smoothly. If you plan to dry your paper on the frame (instead of removing it from the frame to dry) you will need one frame for each piece of paper you make. Make the frame as flat as possible. This makes a flatter piece of paper and makes your paper easier to roll with a rolling pin. 4

7 Instructions Part 2: Making Your Slurry Next, you will make a paper slurry. The slurry is going to consist of water, glue, paper pieces, and maybe some of the optional ingredients listed on page 3. Here are the steps in making your slurry: 1. Decide what paper you want to use. If you use newspaper, (which makes a light gray paper,) you will want to have 3-4 full pages of newsprint. If you use construction paper and paper towels, (which makes pretty colored paper,) a good combination is 5 paper towels and 2 pieces of construction paper. 2. Cut or tear the paper into small 1-inch squares. 3. Put the pieces of paper in a big bowl and add enough warm water to cover them. Let the pieces soak for several minutes to soften up the paper fibers. 4. Fill the blender or food processor halfway up with warm water, (usually about 2-3 cups). 5. Add about 4 generous handfuls of the soaked paper pieces. If you used 5 paper towels and 2 pieces of construction paper, this will be almost all of your mixture. If you used 3-4 pages of newspaper, this will be about 1/2 of your mixture. 6. Put the top on your blender or close your food processor and run it for about a minute, or until all the paper inside is cut up and the mixture is liquidy. This is your paper slurry, (or pulp slurry). 7. Put one gallon of warm water in your sink or plastic tub. 8. Add 2-3 tablespoons of white glue. 9. Pour your slurry into the warm water and mix well. 10. Finally, add any optional ingredients and mix again. 5

8 Instructions Part 3: Making Your Paper Mats In this part of the project you will use your frame to form a paper mat out of the slurry you just made. The object is to get nice even layers of pulp on the mesh, so take your time. You will be able to make lots of paper out of your slurry, but at some point, you will start getting very thin layers of pulp and paper. When this happens, do not pour the slurry down the sink; it could clog the drain! Here are the steps in making your paper mats: 1. After your slurry is well mixed, put the frame in the bottom of the sink or plastic tub and lift it up, slowly, through the paper slurry. Take your time. The water will strain through the mesh leaving a layer of paper pulp on the frame. 2. If you would like, sprinkle some of the items from the optional list on page 3 onto the paper mat at this time. 3. Let the frame with paper pulp on it drip for a few minutes over the plastic tub or sink. After it has drained for a while, put the frame, mesh side down, on a fluffy towel to drain for several more minutes. 4. Mix up your slurry again, and repeat the process as often as you like. Remember to mix your slurry after each mat is formed or you will not get even layers of pulp. 5. When you are done with your slurry, you can use a frame or a cup to get most of the pulp out of the water. Remember not to pour the slurry down the drain! 6

9 Instructions Part 4: Drying Your Paper Next, you need to get the piece of wet paper off of the frame. There s a couple of ways to do this. We ll call these ways Method One and Method Two. Both ways work well. Try them both to see which you like better. Method 1 Let the frame with the wet paper on it sit in a warm place overnight, or until the paper is completely dry. Then, peel the paper off of the frame. Be very careful, or the paper will rip! Method 2 Get the wet paper off of the frame and let it dry on a piece of cloth. 1. Put the frame with the wet paper on it facedown (i.e., paper-side down) on top of a couple of towels. 2. Put a few more towels on top of the frame. 3. Use the rolling pin to roll on top of the towels and frame to get even more water out. You ll have to roll for at least a few minutes. 4. After a few minutes of this, you should be able to peel the wet paper away from the frame. Be very careful, or you ll rip the paper! 5. Let the wet paper dry on top of the towels overnight, or until it s completely dry. Then, peel the dry paper off of the towels. When the paper is off the frame and dry, it s probably going to be a little wrinkled and lumpy. You can use an iron to press the paper if you want. The iron should be on high. Finally, you may want to trim the edges of the paper. Or you may not want to! Now you have finished making your very own paper! 7

10 Suggestions For Cool Paper You can make your paper as festive as you want! There are lots of things you can do to make your paper exciting! On page 3 is a list of optional ingredients that you can use while making paper; here are some hints on how to use them: If you use flower seeds while making your paper, you can plant your paper and it will grow! If you want you paper to grow, though, make sure you don't iron it; the heat could damage the seeds. You can cut up paper or punch holes to make confetti. Confetti can be mixed in with your slurry. You can cut snowflakes out of paper. Snowflakes can be sprinkled directly into the slurry and gently mixed. Things like leaves and yarn can be added right to the slurry before you form your paper mats. More delicate things, like dried flowers, can be added to the mat after it has formed. Glitter and heavy things that will sink to the bottom of the slurry can also be added after the mat has been formed. Make sure that when you add things to the mat after it has been formed, to do it before you let the paper drip dry - that way things mix with the wet pulp a little bit and stick in the paper better. 8

11 Some Examples of Cool Paper The following pages contain pictures of cool paper that we have made, and the recipes we used to make them. You can use our ideas or come up with your own. If you make a really cool piece of paper, send us a photograph of it. We would love for you to share your ideas with us! Recipe: 5 paper towels 1 sheet blue construction paper 1 sheet green construction paper We cut snowflakes out of construction paper. We put some in the pulp slurry and some on top before drying. Recipe: Newspaper Confetti made by punching holes in construction paper. Recipe: 5 paper towels 2 sheet yellow construction paper Plant leaves We put some plant leaves in the paper. 9

12 Recipe: 5 paper towels 1 sheet of yellow construction paper 1 sheet of red construction paper Recipe: 5 paper towels 2 sheet of yellow construction paper Colorful strips of construction paper were cut with special scissors that can be found in craft stores. These are just some of the cool ideas you can do with your paper! Have fun! 10