After my paper-making last week I had a little pulp remaining and decided to de-freeze some banana fibre pulp I made last year and see how it would mix with the rest. I also had a bit of recycled pale yellow cardstock to use up. It feels a bit like making a cake – gathering all the ingredients together and then hoping for a good result.
Above from left: The first couple of pages were plain cardstock. I then added some orange pulp to it and gradually, on later sheets, some banana pulp.
The cardstock has leached colour and become a lovely ivory, whilst the fine orange peel has retained its vibrant orange. So the paper has lovely flecks of colour throughout.
The banana pulp was made in two parts. Some of it I pulped very finely but the rest was left coarse so that fibres would be evident in the final product. By doing this I created a good change in colour (resulting from the fine pulp mixing entirely with the cardstock and orange) and a fibrous texture.
Above from left: These pieces are almost exclusively cardstock and banana pulp, gradually progressing to more banana and less cardstock.
The colour darkens and the fibres and small clumps become more evident.
This paper is very strong due to the longer fibres that interlock and bind it together.
As all the papers were dried on the window they have one very smooth side (dried against the glass) and one very textural. These papers are being prepared for printing on and I love the fact that I will be able to get very different print outcomes depending on which side I decide to use.
I made these sheets with a friend of mine and she also got some great results using some of her own recycled paper from her office mixed with some of my pulp:
Photographing paper is a horror. Very, very hard to correct the colour for decent on-line imagery, and I’m no expert photographer either, but you get the idea.
TactualTextiles 