Making paper from recycled paper (without a paper making deckle)

I love making paper! The textures, colours and variations possible are so much fun and never quite possible with store bought paper.

I often use a paper making deckle to make paper, but sometimes the soaking, the blending, the sponging and drying is all too much. Especially with a class of 24 rowdy Year 10s. This technique is so much easier.

All you need is paper you’d like to recycle, a cling wrap covered board, PVA, water and a paint brush.

Start by ripping the paper into little bits. It’s totally up to you how these pieces are shaped.

Mix about 1 part PVA to two parts water and start to glue each piece together onto the plastic covered board. Keep going until you make the size you want. Ensure the pieces are totally soaked in PVA/water mixture and they’re flat with no bits sticking up.

At this point, you can use water colour paint to add any colours you want.

Allow to dry. (A hair dryer can speed up this process)

The paper above was created using white tissue paper and hand coloured with water paint.