TatteredWitch

  Oh, I've wanted to make paper for the longest time! I bought a book like fifteen plus years ago, and had never done it. What a lovely process. Yesterday Maddie and I went through her paper box, and tore up copy paper that had been drawn on (both sides), and a few coloring book pages that were in there, as well. We put our bits in a five gallon bucket, and set it in the bathtub, and filled it maybe a third of the way with hot water. We let the paper soak for three or four hours, then we dumped paper and water into our blender, blending it into tiny bits. When the blender got stuck, we just added more water. As the batches finished blending, we poured each one into a large , shallow box. When all of the paper that we had soaked had been pureed, we stirred it up with our hands. I dipped our smallest screen into the plastic box, and then swished the fibers over the screen. When it looked like it was full, we lifted the screen straight up, and set it on the edge of the box to drip...

I think this is one of my very favorite projects. How could it not be? We try to do it every year for Solstice, but the weather doesn't always comply! You'll need small and large containers, cold, something heavy, and bits from nature. The Gathering is a favorite part, to be sure. For the containers, you can use buckets, the bottoms of orange juice or milk cartons, bowls... whatever you have on hand-- just make sure there are no ripples or any lines to keep your ice from flowing freely out of the container. Place your small container inside your large one, and then between the two place your pretties- evergreens, rosehips, glitters if you like, pine, berries... Weigh down your inner container with something heavy (rocks, marbles, whatever) and then pour water into your outside container. Set them outside to freeze. When they're frozen throughout (possibly it will take 24 hours), bring them in and empty your inner container of its weights, then...