Dandelion Paper (and Hankie Finale)

Now that the dandelions are all but gone from the landscape, I have finally finished the dandelion paper project - which was basically processing their tiny floral corpses into beautiful usable art. It wasn't a hard project, just messy and a little time consuming, but it will be fun and easy to repeat in the future. The only ingredients and tools used are:

*Paper - I used shredder leavings with great results

*Dandelions - In the form of pulp, left over from the Dye project ( http://thecorntrade.blogspot.com/2008/04/dandelion-dyeing.html)

*Water

*Blender

*Screen - Stretched, as in a screen printing or window screen

*Rags

First the pulp was strained from the dye bath and the paper shreds were placed in fresh warm water to soften. The pulp was blended with enough water to form a smooth milk-shake like mixture, to which the softened paper was added. This is blended again and water added as needed, until the mixture is again smooth. The pulp to paper ratio is up to you, experiment with different textures as well by blending for longer or shorter periods of time. Also, the color of the paper will be determined by the pulp - the more pulp the stronger the color, and just as in the dye project, the shade is determined by the part of the flower used. In this project yellow and green paper were both produced, using the flowers only, and then the full flower heads respectively.

Once you have your mixture to the desired consistency, scoop it into your screen (over a sink or outdoors) and spread to cover the entire area as thinly and evenly as possible, then tamp with your fingers to get a good deal of the water out and to pack the fibers as tight as possible. it doesn't have to be perfect the first time, and is actually easier if you press the entire surface over and then again as many times as needed to flatten and drain. after the majority of the water is out you can lay the screen on a series of folded towels and tamp from the top with more rags to really squeeze out as much water as possible. After this, let the paper dry on the screen until it can easily be removed, then lay flat to dry completely. If you paper is wavy when dry (it will likely be), mist and press with a hot iron or between heavy books until flat. Trim edges and store flat, preferably under a book.

The finished paper and Hankie projects are fabulous, and will debut this coming weekend, the 17th and 18th of May at the Spring Bazaar benefiting the school at NATO base Geilenkirchen, near Aachen, Germany. The following weekend they will be offered at the Craft Fair in the Community Center on the Ramstein American Flugplatz in Ramstein Germany. If there is anything left after that the internet public will have the opportunity to own one of our lovely and extremely limited dandelion creations.

I am looking forward to making paper in the future as a complement to many projects. It is an ideal way to recycle old junk-mail and use free elements to create something useful and snazzy looking. Hand-stamped business cards and hang tags, thank you notes and invitations are just a few of the things that we could be looking forward to here. Yeah, I'm excited too.

katie corn