Category Archives: watermarks

This is a new one for me.

Well, sort of. I haven’t made paper like this since Alabama, and actually not even then: this is also watermarked, which I never tried down there.

The pulp:

The Pulp

(I took some excellent advice and did an almost five hour beat. It doesn’t have any knots in it, which is novel.)

The vat:

The Vat

(Almost charged. I think I dumped in another pitcher of pulp before I got started.)

The mould:

The mould

(As you can see, one of the nice ones. Man, these moulds are awesome after the first two sheets. Something weird always happens with the first two. It’s unclear why.)

The watermark:

Watermark

(Man, watermarks are fantastic.)

The failure:

The failure

(This is one of the first couple of sheets, and I have no idea why the watermark held onto the pulp, but that was the only time it happened. I bet it was something to do with my lousy shake, though.)

And the sheets in the dry box:

Thin friggin' sheet

(Surprisingly, I didn’t have any critical failures going from the post to the drying system. These might be the thinnest sheets I’ve made … uh, possibly ever.)

All in all, a pretty good day’s work, even if it is only like twelve sheets. (They drain slowly, ok?) More of the same tomorrow, and then I have another pound of the same rag to prep.

Holy crap, it’s even better than I hoped.

Would you look at how amazing this is? (The mould, if you’re curious, is an A4 from Khadi, which I have a serious love/hate relationship with.)

Wasp watermark

I actually have three watermarks to mess with, but the smaller wasp probably needs to be glued in order to function properly (guess I need to get to work making moulds) and the Marella needs a better head. But now I definitely want to make a series of Burgess Shale paper…