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Papermaking

Papermaking
Poster with photos for each step of pulp painting
Downloadable Poster:
Pulp Painting Step-by-Step
Pulp Painting Poster is available to download at www.denisefleming.com/pages/papermaking.

Pulp Painting

is easy to demonstrate, but difficult to explain. But I’ll give it a go:

Five gallon buckets full of colorful pulp.
Denise preparing pulp.

Cotton rag fiber suspended in water (a wet, messy, colorful slurry) is poured through hand-cut stencils (made from foam meat trays) onto a screen (a window screen will do). The result—an image in handmade paper. The paper is the picture. The picture is the paper.

The advantages of this technique are many:

  • I now have a use for all those discarded yogurt containers and hair coloring squeeze bottles; they make excellent pouring cups and "drawing" tools.
  • I've developed marvelous upper-body strength, without the cost of a gym membership, from hauling forty-two pound pails of damp fiber (pulp) around the studio.
  • At the market I’m known for my fashion sense; my pulp splattered clothing makes quite an impression.
  • I’ve discovered that a bucket of pulp is the better mousetrap (I am withholding the disgusting details).
  • Looking for additions to my motley collection of blenders (used to mix pigment and chemicals) gives me a reason to stop and shop garage sales.
  • Example shows texture and thickness of pulp painting before it is dried.
    Cover of Count!, freshly poured and still wet.
  • Friends have found that the five-gallon pulp shipping pails make nifty nesting buckets for Rhode Island Reds.
  • And, of course, there is the pleasure of swirling my hands through five gallons of glorious color to mix fiber and pigment.

The drawbacks are few:

  • Cotton rag fiber spoils, and it is no secret when it does. Open the doors and windows and turn on the fans!
  • Then there is the problem of color test strips catching fire in the microwave—quite a dramatic touch, but a bit dangerous.

So why pulp painting? It works.

Published in the March/April 1998 Horn Book Magazine


Studio set up for pulp painting.
Closeup of wet pulp painting.
Stack of stencils used for pulp painting.
Sketches being transfered to stencil material.

Papermaking Demonstration Video:


A Visit with Denise Fleming

Available on Denise's website: www.denisefleming.com/pages/papermaking/papermaking-main#video.

Papermaking Activities

T-Paper Handmade Paper
Bookbinding: Handmade Journal
Papermaking Instructions
Papermaking activity instructions can be downloaded at www.denisefleming.com/pages/papermaking#crafts.

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