Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Paper.

I was really bored so I sewed some paper.

Blank Paper - Get out a few sheets of competely blank paper. Isn't it beautiful? Doesn't it make you want to fill it with words or colors or shadows? So fill it.

Sew Paper - Plain sewing is fun at this point, but paper sewing is even better! Just dampen some paper and get out a sharp needle and thread. And the holes have to be pretty far apart, since it's very easy to tear damp paper. You can't make much, but you get to wait for it to strengthen and wrinkle. This is probably bad for your needle. Everytime you poke through the paper, a little tuft of fiber sticks to the end of the needle, so you'll need to wipe that off before poking anything else. If you want, I suppose you could also just stitch everywhere, then pull the ends of the thread apart and watch as your creation rips itself apart. :(

Make Paper - Make paper by recycling! I actually haven't tried this before... Anyway, get out a sheet of paper and let it soak in water until it disintegrates into little fibers. And then try to filter out the water and lay it out as flat as possible? Or you can clump it up and see what happens.

Reform Paper - I haven't tried this either. I guess you soak the paper with water, reform it in elegant little ruffles and complicated shapes, and let it dry. Hope that it stays the same shape when it dries.

CRAYONS! - Get dark vibrant crayons and doodle on a sheet of paper. All the light ones are just waxy and have barely any color, other than yellow. And coloring just isn't as fun as swiping the crayon around the paper.

Now I am soaking paper.

8 comments:

Laurapoet said...

Indigo, To make recycled paper you:

1. cut thin strips of paper (or just empty your paper shredder)

2. Put paper and water together in the blender. Pulse until there are no lumps. If its too watery add more paper. If it's too papery add more water. You can add food coloring for color.

3. Poor a large glop of the mixture onto netting stretched between two surfaces. Coffee can lids (w/ the middle cut out) and embroidery hoops work best.

4. take a sponge and dab as much of the water out of both sides of the paper as you can. Make sure to ring out your sponge frequently until very little water comes out.

5. take your slightly damp paper and transfer it onto newspaper to dry.

6. congrats! u just make paper, out of paper! Limited # of trees died for you :D

ps. Instead of telling you how I know this I'll give you a tip that will help you in life: Volunteer at Nature Centers and learn from all the crafts that you do!

Indigo said...

But the tree already died for the paper you used to make paper again, so since we're using that paper and not cutting pieces of bark, doesn't that count as recycling, sort of?

Oh. So you smooth it out?

And my before-this-comment-paper still hasn't disintegrated. D:

Laurapoet said...

Of course it's recycling! That's why I said a limited # of trees died for you because if you had used more paper instead of recycled then there would be more trees dying! When u recycle the trees died but you significantly "cut down" on the # of trees that died. (no pun intended)

Laurapoet said...

and yes u smooth it out

Indigo1928 said...

Oh. How much printer paper does one tree make? o_o

Laurapoet said...

I have no idea...I know I heard the statistic somewhere... i tree makes 100 sheets? 1000 sheets? Look it up

Indigo1928 said...

What happens to the leaves? Why dont they just make a little system where anyone who cuts down a tree has to plant a tree too?

Laurapoet said...

It's a great idea Indigo, and I wish that it was possible, but can you see hundreds of workers from the lumber companies planting trees? The CEOs would all say: "YOU WANT US TO PLANT TREES?? Too time consuming, too expensive! Murgruuuhmph!"