Paper making:

As a quick exploration I wanted to have a go at paper making, to do this me and a few of my course mates ripped up a variety of paper, soaked them in a tub of water and used a hand blender to create a paste. We then used trays with sieves attached to them, dipped them into the paste and flattened them to create sheets of paper of different sizes. As a way to relate this process to my current project and nature I decided to add some pressed flowers into the sheets of paper. This not only added some much needed colour to my grey paper but also created an interesting composition. I love the rough edges that can been seen in these pieces, I think that they add to the natural nature of the work and create an organic feeling. One thing I really like about these sheets of paper are the small faults, tears and wrinkles that can be seen, there is something beautifully imperfect about them, they are clearly hand made and the rougher finish allows them to feel homely.

Although I do consider this experiment successful I don't believe that I will be taking this process any further within this project. At this point I want to make more cyanotypes and I have been having trouble with using different textures and paper to make them, as they have not been holding the mixture well. due to the time I have left I believe that it would be best to stick with the water colour paper and mixed media paper that I know is more likely to work rather than risk using this paper.