Making shaped papers is fun and easy. In this column we’ll learn how to make shaped deckles which control where pulp flows onto your mould.

As I write this the gardens are in full bloom and when you read it many gardens will still have flowers.

Let’s add some dimension to your paper life. There are many ways to bring paper “up” from its normally flat existence.

Living in the midwestern United States, I think of spring as a time of new beginnings--plants are alive again and the snow is finally gone.

If you have been following this column you now have colored pulp (see the previous two issues on dyes and pigments) and it seems appropriate to write about things to do with that pulp.

In the conclusion of our story it is not the villain who dies, it is the fiber that dyes. Don’t moan!

Summer is such a colorful time of year. I am reminded of being in Walter Ruprecht’s wonderful facility outside of Harare, Zimbabwe, and seeing a rainbow of papers, but no pigments.

There were good reasons why Japanese farmers made their beautiful papers in the winter

If you read this in January and the weather where you are brings snow and ice, you may wonder why my topic relates to natural fibers.

Tear Strength is a measure of the force, applied perpendicularly to the plane of the paper, that is required to tear one or more sheets of paper clamped between two sets of jaws through a specified distance after the tear has been started, using a standard tearing tester.

In the previous Newsletter, the units of measurement for Basis Weight (pounds per ream) and grammage (grams per square metre) were described.

From the earliest days of papermaking in Europe the Basis Weight of paper for various grades has been measured by the weight in pounds of a given number of sheets of a given dimension, which is called a Ream.

Each end-use for handmade paper dictates the surface texture, or sheet finish, required.

The “post” that has been eased from the press onto a waiting dolly consists of a pile of alternating press felts and sheets of wet handmade paper sitting on the bottom press board.

There are two reasons for wet pressing: water removal and sheet consolidation.