The papermaking group started when an audience member at Mark Lander’s opening of “Garlands In the Mist “ in February 2016 asked about papermaking and said she would love to try it. From there things developed and in 2017 thanks to benefactors we acquired one of Mark’s hollander beaters. Mark gave us initial papermaking tuition and we have been making paper once a month and experimenting with papermaking methods since then.
We have a core group of people who make paper, we organise collection of material (vegetable fibres, weeds, harakeke, grasses) and have made paper from the weeds in the Eyre riverbed. Many people have given us cotton or linen which makes the best sort of paper, and can be added to other vegetable fibres to make interesting paper.
After pulping fibre in the hollander beater, sheets of paper are formed on a screen and deckle, then couched onto felts and pressed before drying. The paper can be thick or thin, even chunky and coarse, and we continually experiment with different plants. We can also dye the paper with pigments, or insert dried and pressed plants, leaves or flowers between two sheets of thin paper before pressing.
You can purchase our paper at the Arts in Oxford Gallery; the Papermakers have held exhibitions to show sheets of paper and the objects made from the pulp or paper. We hold occasional workshops.
