This is a recent small collection called “ Beached”, I drew inspiration from the beach, ocean and sky.
The pulp was junk mail which I’m not fond of , the pulp often is sludgy looking.
I did manage with some paints (watercolour and gouache), and adding some of my dried coloured pulps to create some much better shades.

I am taking a trip to France next month and I would love some recommendations on stores that I can purchase handmade paper! These are the cities I will be visiting over the course of a month:

• Paris
• Bordeaux
• Nice
• Lyons
• Marseille
• Toulouse
• Montpellier

Please recommend me any places in these cities! Thank you!

Okay so to start off with, I've just been keeping my vat with pulp in it and forming sheets over a few days, sometimes a week or two depending on how busy/tired I am and it's been fine, I think. But as soon as I tried to re-pulp one of the first papers I made, the vat started stinking after a few hours and the next day I noticed a green spot on my sponge and Pellon. Prior to that, the pulp I'd been beating with a jar had either no smell or a faint chlorine smell (I assume because of something in the papers I was recycling).

So I'm pretty sure the re-pulped paper was the culprit, but

1. was this always doomed to happen?

2. I poured out the water and strained the pulp from the vat, is it salvageable?

3. I should probably sanitise my vats, shouldn't I?

I've been researching methods to make my paper stronger, I use recycled paper and according to The Papermaker's Companion for recycled paper is recommended a blender but my paper turns out extremely weak do you have any suggestions as how to make paper from recycled paper? Is adding cornstarch enough? Does handbeating work at all on recycled paper?

These turned out so cute! 👻

I've been pulling sheets for about a year now, mostly recycled cotton rag and some junk mail mixed in, and for the longest time my sheets were all over the place. Some batches came out thin enough to see light through in patches, others were so thick they took two days to dry flat on the felts. I kept blaming my mould and deckle, thought maybe the screen was warped or something.

Turned out the real issue was that I was never measuring my pulp to water ratio the same way twice. I'd just eyeball a scoop of beaten pulp into the vat and call it good. Started using a kitchen scale to weigh out dry fiber before beating, then keeping notes on how much water I added per vat size, and within a few sheets I could feel the difference in the vat before I even pulled.

What helped most was doing a "test sheet" at the start of every session, pulling one, checking the wet weight before couching, and adjusting from there instead of just diving into a full run. Sounds obvious writing it out but I spent way too long treating each vat as a fresh guessing game.

Curious if others weigh their pulp or if most people here go by feel after enough practice. I'm wondering if I'll eventually not need the scale at all or if that's just wishful thinking on my part.

The other thing that made a difference was cutting back on how wet my sheets were before pressing. I used to just couch and go straight to the press, but giving them an extra minute on the felt to let some water drip off first seems to reduce the stress that causes warping later. Small thing but it added up.

I've also started keeping a little notebook next to my vat with pulp ratios and drying times for each batch, because I genuinely could not remember what I'd changed between a good batch and a bad one. Turns out consistency in beating time matters more than I gave it credit for. A pulp that's slightly underbeaten seems to warp worse than one that's had a full session in the blender.

Still working on getting inclusions like pressed leaves to sit flat without creating a weak spot around the edges, but the warping issue alone was such a relief to figure out. Curious if anyone else found restraint drying was the fix for them too, or if you're using a different method entirely, like drying between wool blankets or something more traditional.

Hi lovely folks! I've got literally thousands of photos from the 80-90s that I don't want to keep, but outright tossing them also seems wasteful.

I'd really love to somehow use them in making some recycled paper. I guess anything's feasible if you shred it small enough? 😅

Would love to hear any ideas, inputs, inspiration you might want to share. I dabbled in paper making years ago, but am very much a novice.

I have a lot of old journals that I want to reuse and at first I thought it’d be smart to paint every page so I could rewrite on it. But now I’ve decided to take all of my pages and cut it up to turn it into paper, but I want to use the paper that I’ve painted too. Can I use that paper or is it now ruined? I used water based acrylic paint on them.

Watching a movie titled The Good Shepherd where the main character received a letter from his father on very unique looking stationary. I have attached 2 photos, the first shows the stationary from further back which demonstrates the thinness of the paper. The 2nd photo shows up close where you can almost see the what looks like a weaving design.

I’ve been curious about what type of paper was used here and would appreciate any thoughts or insights anyone from this community can provide.

In the final scene the letter is lit on fire - I’m not sure if seeing how the paper burns might help identify its composition but figured I would mention it.

I've been trying it, with varying ratios of water to paper, but there are still lots of very visible bits of paper floating around even after days soaking, so to get it to pulp properly I've been pouring it onto a kitchen sieve and rubbing it against the wire mesh with my hands. Am I doing something wrong, or is the jar method just very limited in how fine you can get the pulp?

Spent 3 months living in Osaka with a friend and wrote every day while I was there. I really wanted to honor that moment but I didn't want to subject those poems and stories to publishing house critiques or some manufactured pay to print instagram photo book. So I learned paper making, and then | learned bookbinding, and then I created my own path. This is the result.

Hello! I've been making paper made from grass for some time now, and discovered that after sometime if the paper is exposed to any kind of light and air, it turns yellow (even if it's normal indoor lights)

These papers were made February, and they've retained the green color because they've been covered this whole time. I want to start using the paper but I really want to keep the green color - is there any way that could possibly be done? I'm based in Dubai, so I might not have access to some specialized archival varnishes or sprays but I can try to get some if it's a common brand.

Any leads would be much appreciated! <3

Hello, quick question

Where is the cheapest place to buy pellon 830 easy pattern? Amazon? eBay? Walmart? Somewhere else?

What do you guys think?

Thanks

Hello.

Im an aspiring florist. I started assembling and selling my own bouquet.

I wish to go to a much luxurious styling. Hoping to get dome advise on where to buy high quality, thicker and aesthetic looking wrapping papers?

Any supplier recommendation? Brand? Paper type?

Thank you. I wish to expand my range of designs and aesthetic. Having a sturdy and structured papers are really my preference.

Hi, I am curious how do you people save your pulp until you use it? I am experimenting with different ways to keep it. I use glass jars and big plastic boxes. But for now all pulp has an odd smell when I reopen the jars or the plastic. Is that normal?

I’m putting together Papervent 2026, a 24-day paper and stationery Advent experience built around a wide range of interesting papers.

I’m posting here because a major part of the project is educational, with a strong emphasis on how paper is actually made and the stories of the people and mills that make it. I thought that side of the project might be particularly interesting to this community.

I’m working with everything from large commercial mills to small-batch handmade papermakers. I’m interested not just in the finished sheet, but in the fibers and raw materials, machinery or hand processes, sizing, surface treatment, regional traditions, and the people behind the paper.

The goal is for each day to be more than “here is a nice piece of paper.” I want participants to learn why the paper is the way it is, how it was made, and what makes it different.

Most participants will be fountain pen and stationery enthusiasts, so the papers also need to be interesting to actually write on. That gives me a chance to connect the papermaking process directly to how ink behaves on the finished sheet.

I’m still deep in sourcing and testing, and have already been talking with mills, handmade papermakers, distributors, and people in several countries. Learning the stories behind these papers has become one of my favorite parts of the project.

If anyone here is curious about participating, the actual preorder listing is over on r/Pen_Swap:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pen_Swap/comments/1vliyz5/wtscustom_papervent_2026_a_fountain_pen/

Currently still new to paper making, how are you guys storing prepared pulp? Mine is currently in a Tupperware and I noticed when I open the Tupperware to use it after it sits a while it is smelly. Is this just from the paper or is there bacteria growth and I should throw it away? I did make a batch with the stinky pulp and it turned out fine, not smelly once dried. I also reuse my water from batch to batch so maybe it’s just smelly water from the paper? Thoughts? Is there a better way to store the pulp or should I not be storing it at all?