I was pleased with my flower paper made using torn recycled cartridge paper BUT it was challenging to get the consistency in the quality of each sheet, resulting it paper sheets with holes or thin areas, this is a nice tissue paper like quality but the fradgility makes manipulation and binding challenging and is not what I wanted to achieve this may be because I got the ratio of water to pulp wrong and may need to thicken the consistency to make the paper more ridged.
I wanted to experiment with paper and fabric blends, to make a hand made watercolour paper. To make this I shredded pieces of recycled calico cut ofs from the textiles room, then pulped it with a ratio 3:2:1 water, fabric, and paper.
This once pressed dried and rolled became a soft durable paper compared with the fragile flower paper. Almost fabric like in its quality.
As a result of this experiment I want to undertake more paper making continuing with alternative fabrics and materials such as wool and felt to experiment with texture value and explore the best options for book binding at a later stage.
Lara Hoad Artist Designer: Maker 