Papermaking with Plants: Creative Recipes and Projects Using Herbs, Flowers, Grasses, and Leaves [Hardcover]

Helen Hiebert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 12, 1998

What can you do with banana and milkweed, cornhusks and pineapple, wheat straw and mulberry?  Make a deranged fruit salad?  A chapeau for Carmen Miranda?  No!  You can make your own unique hand crafted paper from natural materials with this complete how-to guide.

                With the step-by-step instructions and full-color photographs in Papermaking with Plants, you’ll learn how to:

·         Collect and harvest plant fibers from stalks, barks, leaves, and grasses

·         Process, press, dry and finish your paper using both Eastern and Western methods.

·         Embellish your paper with natural dyes and decorative materials like flower petals and pine needles

·         Craft one-of-a-kind projects such as vegetable papyrus, multipaper collages, and shaped papers including envelopes, lampshades, specialty books, and covers.

 

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As interest in papermaking grows, more and more artist-owned paper mills are springing into existence. This popularity, in turn, has spawned a whole new crowd of papermakers intrigued by the craft's environmental consciousness as well as its history and artistry. Hiebert, who confesses she began papermaking with a blender, includes processes and projects that require no mastery of complicated skills and demand only simple equipment. Most of the space in her book is devoted to techniques, from identifying plants to use (elongated leaves that are hard to tear crosswise are best) to troubleshooting if the pulp remains unappetizing. In addition, Hiebert draws on the expertise of others, showing, for example, how Oregonian Marilyn Wold transformed seaweed into paper. One would only wish for more actual process photographs and fewer illustrations. Barbara Jacobs

Review

“Helen Hiebert offers new uses for weeds and well as garden flowers – making them into decorative paper.” – Suzanne Hively in The Cleveland Plain Dealer

 

“Here’s a far-out project that looks to be fascinating…Leaves of iris, gladioli and daylilies along with stem amterial from hollyhock and corn husks are all sources of paper fiber.  There’s basically no limit to what you can experiment with.” – Dale Langford in the Denver Rocky Mountain News

 

“…includes processes and projects that require no mastery of complicated skills and demand only simple equipment.” – Barbara Jacobs in Booklist

 

“From hosta to milkweed and cornhusks to pineapple leaves, ‘almost any plant can be transformed into an elegant sheet of paper.’” – Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje in the Houston Chronicle

 

“these craft projects include making lamp shades, envelopes, collages, and other stuff that will have your less industrious friends rolling their eyes and wondering how in the world you do it.” – Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje in the Houston Chronicle

 

“teachers who have tried the recipes in this book have found students enthusiastic and anxious to carry through to many finished papers.  The search for plants provides a fresh look at botany…” – A. Carman Clark in The Camden Herald (NJ)

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; First Edition edition (January 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580170870
• ISBN-13: 978-1580170871
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 9.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #702,481 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-have for making paper from plants, May 2, 2000

By 

Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Papermaking with Plants: Creative Recipes and Projects Using Herbs, Flowers, Grasses, and Leaves (Hardcover)

This is a must have book for anyone who wants to make paper from plants. It is packed with information not found elsewhere. The full-color illustrations & step-by-step instructions guide you seamlessly through the papermaking process.

The author starts out by explaining the many kinds of plant fibers and how to find, harvest and store them. All equipment needed is detailed next. Processing the fiber including cooking, beating, and retting is then covered.

Using dyes & additives as well as making your own is also discussed. Both Japanese and western sheet formation are then covered. Instructions are included for making your own paper press, mold & deckle and high-tech drying box.

Many recipes including mulberry, rose-of-sharon, & seaweed follow. Several projects including vegetable papyrus & shaped envelopes are next. A chart with many fibers listed by type can be used to make additional paper types.

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If I could only have one papermaking book,this would be it., October 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Papermaking with Plants: Creative Recipes and Projects Using Herbs, Flowers, Grasses, and Leaves (Hardcover)

As a beginner papermaker interested in working with plant fibers, this book fulfills most of my papermaking needs: clear, concise instructions and illustrations; some good basic recipes; and great ideas to get the creative juices flowing. All this in a beautiful book that is also an interesting read.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE this book!, January 2, 2000

By 

"hamertia" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Papermaking with Plants: Creative Recipes and Projects Using Herbs, Flowers, Grasses, and Leaves (Hardcover)

I always wanted to make paper. However, the idea of making paper out of paper, seems idiotic to me. Then I found this book. It's everything I ever wanted. I recommend it for anyone. I would also make a great gift.