I mainly use kozo and abaca fibers. Both of these fibers need a different kind of preparation. Kozo is the inner bark of the mulberry tree (Broussonetia payrifera).

I let the kozo soak overnight and afterwards it has to be cooked, rinsed, cleaned and hand-beaten with a wooden mallet before it is ready for sheet formation. To make abaca paper I use abaca in sheet form. I soak it and use a blender and drill attachment to process the fiber. Because of the use of a blender the paper is very soft. I definitely want a Hollander beater (machine) for this job in the future!

After processing the fibers the pigment is added. Also other additives to change the quality of the paper. For example, in order the help prevent the paper from bleeding ink.

The resulting pulp and added water go into a vat, ready for sheet formation. Each sheet is formed using a mould and deckle.

Dipping the mould and deckle into the vat and lifting it with a shaking movement over and over again. The thickness of the paper depends on the ratio of pulp to water. If I want a thicker sheet I'll add more pulp, for a thinner sheet I'll add more water.

The newly formed sheet is then couched (transferring a wet sheet of paper from the mould to a surface) and pressed with a hydraulic press. When most of the water drained out it's time to upload my dryingbox. Or sometimes I'll brush the paper onto a window for drying.

After the paper has fully dried I unload the dryingbox or peel the paper gently off the window. This is one of the most exciting moments of the process. Now I can really see how they've turned out. I check all pieces of paper and stack multiple piles of the same kind of papers.

These newly formed blank sheets are the end of the process or the starting point for a next step in a different process such as letterpress printing or other product development.