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580ex II on boom with white shoot through umbrella triggered with RadioPopper JrX.
5D Mark II, 24-105mm. Check out the behind the scenes below.
Once your screen is in the pulp, shake it back and forth just a little, evening and settling the pulp along the screen. Continue rocking/shaking the screen as you pull it up out of the vat. If you screw up, just flip the screen over and tap it against the water in the vat, the pulp will fall off--it prefers the water, slippery stuff.
Now you can remove your damp paper, and let it dry in a well-ventilated place, or you can keep it on the felt. Comparisons of drying techniques are here. REMEMBER: always pull from the corners and gently. Hang your 'felts' out to dry, recycle the newspaper.
When you're done making sheets, top off your pile with another 'felt' and some more newspaper. The result is called a "post".
Time for the poor man's press. On some floor you can clean easy or don't care about, lay down your post and put your board on top.
Using a screen when draining will help you reclaim any leftover pulp, which can be squeezed out and left to dry. When you make paper later, this pulp can be broken up and re-blended.
The lid is very important in this process. If your pulp goes flying all over it will be awful to clean up. You want to blend until your motor sounds a little tired (best explanation), then up your speed and blend for another 10-30 seconds.
If you are using a pulse blender, throw your paper in and then blend. Otherwise, turn it on some medium speed and pop your paper through the hole in the lid.
Start tearing up your paper. You could cut it if you want to, or have bad hands, but tearing is quicker overall.
Paper pulp will do a number on your pipes, so use your screen or a colander in the sink when you drain your vat.
Brown paper bags don't blend up that well, so give it more blending if you don't like the chunks (which I do).
Soak up more water with your sponge through the back of the screen. Move around, paying attention to the edges.
. . . flip it over. The water in the screen should hold the paper to your screen enough for you to do this.
With your sheet formed, tilt your screen to drain the excess water out. When its only dripping intermittently, you can couch it.
This is what you're going for. The paper's cellulose will bind itself, you just need to gather it evenly on your screen.
This is how fine I blend my pulp. How you blend yours is up to personal taste. I like a few chunks. A sturdy blender and some patience will get your finer pulp and therefore finer-grained paper, but if you wanted perfect paper, you would buy it instead of making it.
Add your pulp to the vat. I use three blenders of pulp to one blender of water. This will make a nice soup, not too thick, not too watery, and about the right height (near the middle) in the vat.
This is how the pulp looks with some of that blue flyer thrown in. Remember that your dried paper will be one to three shades lighter than your pulp.
After three to five sheets, you'll find that your paper is getting thin and maybe being a brat about releasing from the screen. Time to add more pulp. This batch is white with some brown paper bag thrown in.
Starting from a corner, pull your screen off the paper. If it won't let go, plop it back down and soak up more water with the sponge.
Mix up your pulp and water by stirring your hand around in it. This is called "charging" your vat. You'll want to do this before you make each sheet, or thereabouts, any time the paper and water start to separate.
Prepare your space. Next to the vat, depending on your handed-ness, lay down some newspaper and then a 'felt'. Have the rest of your newspaper and 'felts' nearby. Once you get going, you're not going to want to search around.
My two favorite ways to tie a scarf:
Hacking Twist
Chi Chi Wrap
I learned the first from my friend Amy Storer-Scalia (who learned it from her dentist!) and I invented the second.
I didn't have any cleats to go under my board so I pulled apart 2 clothes pegs and glued them to the underside of the board....Easy!!!!
Gather the supplies. The most difficult thing to find is a piece of plastic or plexiglass. You want a non-porous surface for your plate. You could use glass, but I don't like to mess with it.
UPDATE: You can use unflavoured gelatin to make a plate, instead of plexiglass or plastic [link].