Paper making, an art medium found in many forms around the world, is an accessible craft for all ages and skillsets.

“It’s a wonderful medium that can scale from beginning crafter to contemporary artist,” said paper artist Jenn Woodward, co-founder of Pulp & Deckle in Oregon City.

Woodward learned how to make paper at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston. She had always been interested in drawing, but because the school had a paper-making facility she decided to learn more.

“I really fell in love with that process and the connection to reuse and the meaning that can be imbued within the paper,” she said.

Homemade paper allows you to recycle unwanted paper items, and the process is flexible based on what you want to make: cardboard, chunky paper, paper ornaments or gift tags, traditional paper for cards or journaling, or contemporary art like soft sculptures or even sewn garments.

Jennifer Rich, co-owner of Oblation Papers & Press in Portland, said she’s used her homemade wedding paper for a Soji Screen with wood and copper wire for a wedding gift. In her home studio, she also likes to letterpress print prayer books onto Oblation’s paper.

“It offers a rough, unexpected surface with lots of texture,” she said.

Rich said she started making paper with her husband and co-owner, Ron, while they were on their honeymoon at the Oregon coast. They brought a book and a blender with them and made paper with sea pods and grasses they found.

Rich said they crafted a “very rough” handmade paper they then sold at the Eugene Saturday Market and at craft fairs around the Northwest. In 1998, the couple opened Oblation Papers & Press in the Pearl District with “the goal of bringing beautiful papers from around the world to paper lovers in Portland,” she said.

Anyone can make paper with a few tools, recycled paper in a variety of colors, water and creativity.

A blender is an essential tool when making paper. Here, Ron Rich places cut up pieces of recycled paper into a blending machine filled with water. The best ratio for a sheet of paper is two-thirds water to one-third paper material.text

“Most people start out with a blender and then recycled paper and water in that blender,” Woodward said.

From there, it depends on what kind of paper the crafter wants to make. Pulp water can be used for pulp painting or chunky paper when it dries.

For more traditional looking paper, a mould and deckle will be required to hold and dry the pulp material. Mould and deckles can be found from $9.99 on Amazon to $29.99 at Paper Source. Alternatively, Woodward said, crafters could make their own using an $8.59 window screen from a hardware store and stapling it to a wooden canvas stretcher frame or even two picture frames of the same size.

Crafters will also want access to a tub that is big enough to submerge their frame or mould and deckle, whether that’s in a sink or a $2 dish tub. Use couching sheets to remove excess water. Couching sheets can be reused and range from $9.80 for a 20 pack of 6- by 9-inch sheets at BLICK Art Materials or $12.74 for a 20 pack of larger sheets at Walmart.

Oblation Papers & Press also sells a paper-making kit that includes a mould and deckle, plus material, for $59 on their website.

A paper maker at Oblation Papers and Press lifts the mould and deckle after dipping it into the pulp water. Mould and Deckles help hold and dry what will become the paper.Ron Rich

• Prepare materials: Fill a dish tub half full of water and tear recycled paper material into roughly 2-inch pieces, Rich said. For a specific color combination, use recycled papers with similar ink colors, like varieties of pinks and reds in one and blues and greens in another, Rich said. Woodward also suggested adding tissue paper, greeting card envelopes or gift wrap of the color you want to the mix.

•Blend. A big part of paper making is experimenting with how thick you want your paper to be, Woodward said, which comes down to how much water you use.

“You want more water than pulp to make a thin piece of paper,” she said. If you use too much pulp, you’ll end up making cardboard.

To make traditional paper, Rich recommends filling the blender two-thirds of the way with water and one-third with recycled paper material.

Blend the material until it has an oatmeal consistency.

• Transfer pulp. Pour three to five blenders full of pulp mixture into the tub and stir it together, Rich said, adding, “The more pulp, the thicker the handmade paper will be.”

• Dip mould and deckle. First, position the mould (frame with the screen) with the screen face up then place the deckle (frame without the screen) on top. As you hold onto them, dip the frames into the tub from one long side at a 45-degree angle to the bottom and pull up slowly to the water’s surface, Rich said.

• Transfer wet paper. After gently tilting the mould and deckle to remove excess water, slowly turn the mould upside down to transfer the wet handmade paper onto a piece of couching paper. You could also use a sponge to press water from the paper through the screen.

• Dry the paper. Once the paper has been transferred, there are a few options for drying, depending on the desired outcome. “If you’re at home and you don’t mind it being wavy — if you’re using it in collages or something like that — you can peel the mould away from the paper and (couching fabric) and hang it up somewhere,” Woodward said. Use a laundry line with clips or dry the paper on a flat surface.

For flatter paper, Woodward said, you can let it dry on the screen and then pull it off when it’s dry. For multiple sheets of paper, she will place the damp paper onto the couching fabric and transfer it to a window. “If you press the back of your fabric and lightly press it to the window it will stick until it’s dry and then you can peel it off,” she said. “That makes it really nice and dry.”

You can make multiple sheets of paper in a half-hour, but drying time will vary. “Right now, we have cool, wet weather, so it’ll take longer to dry,” Rich said. “But if you’re in a warmer room, it’ll probably dry in 24-48 hours just depending on how thick the paper is.”

Learn more. Pulp & Deckle also holds a virtual class on paper making, as well as tutorials on their YouTube Page. The virtual class is discounted through December for $6.

Oblation Papers & Press showcases their different colors and designs of paper. Oblation co-owner Jennifer Rich said, "Your imagination is the limit" to what garnishes you can add to handmade paper. She enjoys using colorful shredded paper, flower petals, ferns and sparkles.Lexie Rietze

It’s also fun to experiment with different kinds of embellishments.

“You can immerse colorful shredded paper in water in a blender to recycle it into a new paper form,” Rich said. “It’s also fun to add inclusions, like flower petals, fern, sparkles and other small bits — your imagination is the limit.”

Using plant material can be a bit tricky because “some plant materials are kind of waxy and resist water,” Rich said. Some dried flowers will turn brown or bleed across the page. In those cases, it’s better to embed the plant material on top of the paper like a collage and put pulp around the edges.

When using flower petals that absorb water, Woodward advises putting them in the tub with the pulp. Carnations are “always a safe bet,” Rich said.

Plant material like grasses and leaves can also be used to make the paper, although it’s a more complex process, Woodward said.

When it comes to paper making, Rich said not to expect perfection.

“The imperfection of the human process is what makes this such a surprising and interesting medium to work with,” she said.

Paper making is also forgiving, Woodward said. It’s easy to fix a hole or unevenness by putting the pulp back into the slurry and making another sheet.

“I think one of the things is just to relax and practice,” she said. “I just tell people to enjoy the learning of it and experiment until you get what you’re looking for.”

For Woodward, the process of creating something is immediately gratifying.

“I think it is something that people can do so easily and that sense of, ‘Oh I made something’ is kind of instant,” she said, “and that’s a really rewarding feeling when you’re used to going and buying stuff. That you’re connected to how it was made is really special.”

To make holiday decorations with homemade paper, Jenn Woodward of Pulp & Deckle spoons pulp mix into cookie cutter molds. The paper will take on the shape of the cookie cutter after it dries.Jenn Woodward

Homemade paper gifts such as cards and decorations are a relatively easy and accessible craft for the holiday season, said Jenn Woodward of Pulp & Deckle.

“People really love” homemade cards, she said. “It’s a personal thing you get from someone, maybe in the mail, and it’s such a great time to start making cards.”

Making cards starts with the same process of blending water and paper pulp, filling the blender two-thirds full with water and only one-third with recycled paper material.

“It’s really mostly about how you dry it,” Woodward said, “because you’re going to want it to be as flat as you can get it.”

For one card, leave the paper in the screen to keep it flat and remove it when it’s dried. For multiple cards, Woodward recommends removing the paper onto the couching fabric and transferring it to a window to dry.

Finally, simply fold the dried paper in half to make cards.

To help crafters make holiday decorations that could be used as gift tags or ornaments, Pulp & Deckle has created a video demonstration on its Youtube Page. You will need a dish tub, recycled paper, a blender, water, cotton cloth and towel, holiday cookie cutters, a paintbrush, spoons and an iron.

Start by making the pulp mix from recycled paper in the blender. The holiday cookie cutters should be resting on a cotton cloth or couching sheet with a towel underneath to capture excess water.

Spoon the mix into the cookie cutters to the desired thickness and use a paintbrush to pat the mix into all the corners. Then, gently remove the cookie cutter, patting the pulp formation down with the paintbrush so the mix doesn’t stick to the cookie cutter.

Allow the shape to air dry, which will add more texture to the finished product, or use an iron, folding the cloth on top of the paper forms as not to iron directly on top of the wet paper. Don’t push the iron into the paper, but firmly glide the iron on top of it. The process will take a few minutes depending on the thickness of the paper.

When the paper has dried, you can either leave it as is with its natural coloring, or further decorate it with a marker. From there, you can use a hole punch and string to fasten to your paper and hang it up.

— Aliya Hall, for The Oregonian/OregonLive

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