Is there a way to make homemade paper without screens?

Question

I am trying to make paper with a group of elementary students. We have very few recourses, I'm trying to find a way to make paper without screens or anything other than the very basic ingredients (water and paper and something to mix it in). It's not a big deal if it's not great paper.... I just want to get the idea of recycled paper across. Is it possible to do this or should I try to get more supplies from somewhere? Thanks!

Answer 1

If you don't want to use screens, Press the pulp into candy molds and add flower seeds for plant-able favors.

I have taught children how to make recycled paper. I make my own screens. I just cut window screen and quarter inch mesh (aka hardware cloth) into rectangles and bind them together with duct tape all around the edges. You also need a blender that is used only to make paper, and an extra large cat litter box that has never been used for cat litter.

Soak sheets of paper in water overnight. Make sure all the paper is submerged. I only use recycled paper. Even if there's printing on it, it's ok.

Fill the blender 2/3 full with water. tear up some of the soaked paper and add a couple of handfuls of it to the blender. Pulse until it's soupy. Experiment a few times to get just the right consistency. Pour it out into the cat litter box and keep adding more until it's at least a foot deep. You can start with one color and then show them how red changes to purple, then over to blue, et cetera.

Dip your screens in sideways and pull them up flat. Shake them a little to level out the pulp. Set them in an area where they can drain and the water won't hurt anything. I do it outside in warm weather and I rest the screens on old resin lawn chaises!

The sheets of paper take a couple of days to dry. Practice pulling them off the screens without ripping.

Another fun technique is paper casting. Take finished sheets, drape them over something, and wet the sheet so it molds to the object. Let it dry there and you have a cool paper casting.

Answer 2

sandwich the paper inbetween lots of paper towels then use those in the next batch or hang them up to dry (sticking to the recycled theme) or use cotton towels to express the water out of the paper. Another way would be let the kids squeeze the water out with their hands then push or roll the paper out flat. Good luck and have fun!!!

Answer 3

Talk to your local hardware store manager. Maybe they would be willing to donate a few supplies to the cause. Maybe you could get a local paper interested enough to come take pictures and do a small write up, this would be good advertisement/incentive for the hardware store to participate.