“The cover of this park map is made of tulip paper and consists of 20% tulips.” This statement, on the Keukenhof spring flower garden park map, piqued my interest. Tulip paper? You can make paper from tulips?
Turns out this was the same question the Dutch specialty printing firm, JEA, asked themselves when they took on the challenge in early 2019. According to their website, every year JEA runs a special sustainability project. Working with the Kuekenhof (see my previous post Come Tiptoe Through the Tulips), JEA aimed to recycle over 10 tons of tulip waste. The project was successful and Keukenhof’s 2020 maps featured the newly-created tulip paper. According to their Instagram announcement, JEA used over 250,000 faded tulips from Keukenhof’s 2019 season to make the paper.
Unfortunately, the Keukenhof was unable to open in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic. So, the tulip paper maps didn’t debut until this year—the same year I visited!
Around this same time, I became aware of a papermaking workshop at the Robert C Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta, Georgia. The workshop, Papermaking from Natural Fibers, was led by Robert Thompson, an Atlanta paper artist and owner of Lot 10 Paper. Robert is well versed in the use of natural fibers to make paper. His Instagram feed is packed with the natural materials he harvests and scrounges from local farms and the beautiful paper art he creates from them.
Our workshop started with an opportunity to view and admire some of Robert’s work. Interestingly, Robert attended the same Natural Dyes workshop, led by Doug Baulos and Jacob Phillips, I did a few years ago (see Natural Dye Making). Many of Robert’s works include eco-printing and natural dyes.
Paper making is an ancient art. “The earliest known paper has been traced back to 200 BCE in China. Archaeologists found a paper prayer embedded into the adobe brick of a home, presumably a blessing. In 105 CE, Ts’ai Lun, who worked for the Chinese emperor, announced and recorded the process of papermaking. … The first papers were made from recycled fishing nets, bamboo, mulberry bark, or hemp.” reports the Museum of Papermaking website.
The basic process to make paper remains the same from those early days. Simply put, the paper maker begins by breaking down cellulose fiber (cloth rag, plants, or scrap paper) and mixing it with water. Then the pulp is formed into a flat sheet, pressed flat and allowed to dry.
To make beautiful paper, like Robert’s samples or some of those from my own paper stash, requires knowledge and skill. Here are a few handmade papers I’ve collected over the years. I can’t recall where I found all of them but several were purchased in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Meanwhile back at the workshop, Robert showed us how to prepare wheat straw for paper making. He typically starts with a base, like wheat straw, before adding other cellulose fibers for interest, texture and transparency. Shown below is a pot of chopped wheat straw in water and lye.
After a few hours of simmering, the wheat straw was ready to neutralize with vinegar, rinse and drain.
Robert prepared wheat straw in advance so we could get started right away.
Each participant was set up with a vat of wheat straw pulp, a mould and deckle, sponge and section of felt. The mould and deckle were ingeniously created from a set of inexpensive stretched canvases. The mould, the bottom frame with a screen attached to its back, sits face down with the screen facing up. The deckle, the top frame without any covering, sits face up aligned with the mould.
Robert showed us how to pull paper. The mould and deckle are held together and submerged into the vat of water and pulp. Then carefully lifted up through the slurry leaving a thin layer of pulp on the screen. Still holding the mould and deckle together, the water is drained. Next the deckle is removed, the mould is flipped over and the newly formed sheet of paper is carefully transferred onto a flat layer of cotton and felt. This last step is called couching.
In addition to the wheat straw, Robert provided a variety of natural fibers including bamboo leaves, banana leaves, corn husks, garlic leaves, maple leaves, and pine bark. Tulip leaves and faded tulip blooms would have fit right in! We were able to experiment with the different fibers individually and in combination. Here are a few of my finished papers.
I’ve always liked handmade paper featuring botanicals. Here are a few examples from my own paper stash.
I was eager to try this technique for myself so I brought a few natural elements I’d previously pressed in my Fern & Flower Press (see Fern & Flower Press – DIY Tutorial). There were pressed maple leaves, hydrangea flowers and cosmos petals as well as some zinnia and coneflower seeds. The below photos show my attempt to embed a few maple leaves.
My most ambitious piece included an arrangement of pressed cosmos petals and hydrangea blooms sprinkled with coneflower seeds. I was really pleased with the piece at this point.
Unfortunately, after I added a second sheet of wet paper and let it all dry, my carefully arranged masterpiece had pretty much disappeared! Apparently, that second sheet was too thick. Regardless, the embedded seeds are still viable so I embroidered a little message on my sheet of handmade paper. You can learn more about paper stitching, including step-by-step instructions for embroidering a printed photograph, in my previous post Hello Marvelous Photo Embroidery – DIY Tutorial.
Based on the research I did after the fact, it would have been better not to add a second sheet of pulp. One expert says it’s all about timing—she says botanicals will become embedded within the fibers of the sheet if you lay them on the surface of the pulp directly after pulling the mould and deckle out of the vat before the water begins to drain away. Another expert recommends quickly presoaking the botanicals and carefully dribbling some pulp around and over the flowers (with a turkey baster) after placement on the sheet. And yet another expert, recommends using a pouring method (instead of dipping) with a deckle box. All good options to try next time!
Another option to try next time is to dye the handmade paper. I had great success dyeing various materials, including handmade paper, with Rit All-Purpose Dyes last year (see previous post Experimenting with Fabric Dye). The trick is to work quickly—dipping the paper into the dyebath and immediately pulling it out. The below photo shows the results of that project—the white sections are the original, undyed paper.
I really enjoyed the Papermaking from Natural Fibers workshop with Robert Thompson (Many thanks Robert!) and the folks at the Robert C Williams Museum of Papermaking (Thank you Virginia and Anna!). It was great fun to take that little spark of inspiration from the tulip paper to a full day of experimentation and creativity.
More Info
The Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, part of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, has a “mission to collect, preserve, increase, and disseminate knowledge about papermaking – past, present and future. The Paper Museum cares for the most comprehensive collection of paper and paper-related artifacts in the world, comprised of over 100,000 artifacts including manuscripts, rare books, prints, hand and industrial papermaking tools and equipment, and crafted and manufactured objects, as well as paper samples. … The Paper Museum also offers a variety of programs for audiences ranging from lectures for the general public to field trips for schools to hands-on workshops for all ages.” Workshops and exhibits are posted on the Paper Museum website.
You can learn more about Robert Thompson, Lot 10 Paper and his beautiful paper art on the Lot 10 Paper website or Instagram account.
Several FanningSparks’ blog posts are mentioned in this post including:
. Come Tiptoe Through the Tulips which is packed with all things tulip including a visit to Noorwijkerhout in the midst of the Netherlands’ Bulb Region, the world-famous spring gardens at Keukenhof, and tulip-related highlights from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
. Natural Dye Making about my experience attending a Natural Dyes workshop, led by Doug Baulos and Jacob Phillips, at the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking. in Atlanta.
. Fern & Flower Press – DIY Tutorial in which I share step-by-step instructions to make a generously-sized press for large plant elements. You can also use this press to dry and flatten handmade paper.
. Hello Marvelous Photo Embroidery – DIY Tutorial in which I share examples of paper stitching and provide step-by-step instructions for embroidering a printed photograph.
. Experimenting with Fabric Dye about my experience dyeing a variety of materials, including fabric, felt, yarn, string, wood beads and handmade paper, with Rit All-Purpose Dyes.
Today’s Takeaways
1. Be on the lookout for new and different ways to recycle.
2. Making paper by hand opens a world of creative possibilities.
3. Beautiful papers can be made from natural fibers.
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