From Plants to Paper
Emily Ellis
While we all know paper comes from plants, we generally don’t think about that connection when we scribble in our journals at the end of the day or dash out a quick watercolor. However, creating your own handmade paper from plants you know and love can add another dimension to your craft, and help you build a stronger relationship with the flora sprouting in your garden.
A corner of the BCCF’s fiber garden.
We’re excited to offer our first short course in papermaking this fall. Led by paper artist Alyssa Sacora, the course will utilize plants grown in the Biocultural Conservation Farm’s fiber and dye garden. This special part of the BCCF was planned and planted by Greenhouse Manager Caitlin Etherton and contains a range of interesting plants, many of which have been used throughout history not only for paper, color and cloth, but for food and medicine as well.
Alyssa giving a papermaking demo at the BCCF in 2020. Photo by Caitlin Etherton.
While many papermakers use pre-processed pulp for their craft, there is something magical about the process of transforming the delicate leaves of an iris or the fibrous stems of an okra plant into paper yourself, said Alyssa, a crafts person based in Western North Carolina who has taught papermaking at a variety of organizations in that region.
“Being intimately involved in the transformation of a plant into something else, it's really mind opening,” she said. “That's the subtle message I'm trying to share with my students - to be considerate of the living beings around you, and be thinking about ways you can work together.”
We asked Alyssa to tell us a little bit about the joyful, messy process of turning plants into handmade paper. Scroll down to read more.
What plants are good for papermaking?
Irises can be made into beautiful paper. Photo by Christine Harris.
There’s a good chance that if someone in history successfully spun a plant into thread, it can be made into paper, said Alyssa. Many fiber plants tend to be in the same families. The mallow family, for instance, includes cotton, basswood, hollyhock, hibiscus, marsh mallow (not to be confused with the iconic campfire sweet!) and okra - all of which are growing in the BCCF fiber garden, and make fantastic plants for textiles and crafts due to their sturdy fibers and the mucilage many species contain, which can be used as an emulsification agent in papermaking.
Another prominent fiber plant family is flax, or linum, which is grown both in the BCCF’s fiber garden and in Oak Spring’s formal garden. Along with being the source of everyone’s favorite airy summer fabric (linen), the long, tough stems of shrubs and flowers in the flax family can also be made into beautiful paper. Milkweed, nettles, kudzu, and garlic are just a handful of other common plants that lend themselves well to gorgeous and unique paper crafts.
While different plants give their own unique qualities to paper, Alyssa definitely has her favorites, she said - several of which will be used in the course at Oak Spring.
“I appreciate any plant that lends itself to being fermented first, which in itself is a magical transformation,” she said. “Okra and kudzu fibers are best extracted through fermentation. Iris leaves and banana petioles are dried before processing and make lovely paper, too.”
Flax growing in Oak Spring’s formal garden. Photo by Peter Crane.
Day lilies, irises, and okra are three of the plants Alyssa plans to use in the papermaking workshop. They have have unique histories at Oak Spring: some of the flowers were originally part of Bunny Mellon’s cut flower garden on Rokeby, and the okra is Shelton’s Giant, a special heirloom variety given to us by the Shelton family, who have saved Appalachian seeds for generations.
Another great thing about papermaking is that you can mix other fiber materials into the paper, giving new life to old cloth and other objects, said Alyssa. Paper was originally made from cotton rags, clothing that had run its course. By adding old clothes to the plant fibers, we are tapping into the history of papermaking and the resourcefulness of the people.
Okra and garlic are two common plants that can be used for papermaking. Photo courtesy of Alyssa Sacora.
“I tend to mix my plant fibers with repurposed cotton - old bedsheets or old clothing. That's something we'll do in the workshop too,” she said. “I like the idea of everyone bringing a little bit of themselves or a little bit of their own history, so that we can infuse it all together and create something new.”
What is the papermaking process like?
While cultures around the world have rich papermaking traditions and different ingenious methods for transforming plant fibers into material for writing and artwork, it all starts with turning plant material into a watery mash pulp that can be molded into a sheet of paper.
Photo by Caitlin Etherton
This early step can vary depending on the type of plant used - some, like okra, require fermentation beforehand - and the style of papermaking you choose. Alyssa, who has pieced together her papermaking education through self-study and by taking workshops at Penland, Arrowmont, Asheville Bookworks, and Old Way Bookarts, uses a machine called a Hollander beater to break up fibers in the Western-European tradition; in many Eastern traditions, papermakers use mallets to break up the fibers by hand. After the pulp is formed, papermakers form beautiful, unique sheets of paper using screens, molds, and other materials.
“It's super fun, labor intensive, messy, and fragrant at times, but really it's about transformation,” said Alyssa. “Starting with a plant as the raw material, breaking it down to its smallest bits to extrat the cellulose, and then putting it back together in sheet form.”
Whether you’re a scientist, gardener, artist, writer, or just like messing around with plants, papermaking is a great way to understand them better and deepen your connection with the natural world.
In order to interact with her environment in a respectful and sustainable way, Alyssa thinks about papermaking as a “reciprocal relationship” with the plants she works with, she said. “You have to be slow and intentional, and invest time in the process, just like building any relationship.
“I think about what I can do in support of the plant’s long term health and vitality so that it can provide materials for me to work with over time. Yes, it can go back to the earth and become compost, but it can also be transformed and live as paper for a while first and then become compost,” she said. “That's how I think about my artwork - I want it to disappear eventually.”
What is handmade paper like?
While all paper comes from cellulose fibers, there is something special about working with paper made from a plant you’ve befriended, cared for, and transformed yourself, said Alyssa.
Photo by Caitlin Etherton
“You get to determine how long or short you want the fiber, so you can create paper that has individual fibers that you can still see and feel,” she said. “And most of the paper has its own subtle coloring - iris has a hint of pink to it, a lot of plant papers are cream to tan, depending on how you process it.”
Handmade paper is a particularly good medium for artists interested in adding another level of complexity to their work, she continued.
“When you make paper from plants, you get an interesting texture that can serve as a background to anything that you want to put on top of it - you can use pencil, a variety of paints, natural dyes and inks, depending on how the paper is sized” she said. “The paper becomes part of the art, rather than just the backdrop for it.”
Starting your own papermaking journey
Photo by Caitlin Etherton
Alyssa teaches workshops on papermaking at her studio, The Patchwork Underground in Fairview, NC. She also teaches regionally. Alyssa’s upcoming course at Oak Spring is already full, but there are plenty of ways to get started making paper on your own. Here are a couple of resources to get you started.
Books
In the Field: A study guide for processing natural materials for hand papermaking by
Andrea Peterson
Papermaking with Garden Plants and Common Weeds by Helen Hiebert
The Papermaker’s Companion by Helen Hiebert
Japanese Papermaking by Timothy Barrett
Hanji Unfurled: One Journey into Korean Papermaking by former OSGF resident Aimee Lee
Websites
North American Hand Papermakers
You can also read more about papermaking at Oak Spring’s Biocultural Conservation Farm in this recent blogpost, Seven “Rules” For Artmaking From Resident Aimee Lee.
Interested in working with plants at Oak Spring? While our fall papermaking class is full, we do offer a range of other workshops related to plants and the environment - check out the current list here. Artists and fellows in residence are also able to utilize some of the plants grown at the BCCF in their work; check out our list of 2022 opportunities here.
Banner image by Caitlin Etherton