The porcelain berry paper

I have spent the last two months trying to make paper in my tiny, tiny cottage. This was in part to fulfill my promise of a sheet of porcelain berry paper to the first workshop participants. (They prepared a lot of porcelainberry vine for cooking last summer that we did not have time to use at the workshop.)

I moved into the cottage on West Island at the end of October. Most of my equipment was next to the shed, still in the blue totes I brought home from Philly at the end of August. The 23 inch blizzard buried it all pretty well, so the first act of papermaking involved a shovel, a tool Philly folks are intimately acquainted with this year.

Some things I won't try again. For example, thawing the giant ice cube of frozen fiber in my showerstall turned out to be a truly bad idea with surprising consequences.

And although it took many more weeks than it should have, I have made the porcelain berry paper. In addition to being lovely it is also sized and am about to try to print on it using images from GROVE and from Bill's butterfly garden. Stay tuned.
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