The paper making workshop that we did on Monday was awesome! It was so cool that we were able to make out
own paper out of nothing more than a sieve, a wooden frame, and a lot of
stuff. I was very interested in how
complicated the whole process actually is.
Originally I thought that making paper would be a breeze, all you need
to do is dip the mold in the vat of stuff, shake it a bit, then remove the
paper that had formed. (Seriously, children were doing it!)
Unfortunately,
actually making a perfect piece of paper is a lot harder than that because of
the infinite things that could go wrong.
Personally, I had a few sheets of paper that were less than perfect
because when I removed the deckle from the mold, some drops fell on the still
wet paper. Even before I tried to remove
the deckle, my paper was sometimes uneven and patchy in places, forcing me to
scrap the unmade paper and try again. The
few times when I was able to remove the deckle without causing drops to fall on
the paper, something would go wrong when
I went to remove the paper from the mold and the outside of the paper would get
pushed in when I tried to separate them, causing the edges to be
ragged and lumpy. Bottom line is, I was
never able to create the perfect paper. Although
the experience was amazing, I can now understand why people apprenticed to be a
vat man for four years before they actually go to work: getting the perfect piece
of paper every time is hard!
The stuff that clung to my arms was also a weird experience, I can't even imagine how strange it must be to go to work every day knowing that your arms were going to get covered with little bits of cotton pulp. One thing confused me though. I noticed that the stuff seemed to stick on everything, except when it was in water. Once I stuck my arms in the water, the stuff practically floated off without any encouragement from me. It even dissipated from my woven bandana bracelet, which surprised me because the bracelet was made of cotton or some other woven fabric. I still can't figure out why the stuff was so ready to stick to anything it touched, but as soon as it was submerged in water it was so ready to release us from its cottony grip. Anyone have any suggestions? Although
the experience was amazing, I can now understand why people apprenticed to be a
vat man for four years before they actually go to work: getting the perfect piece
of paper every time is hard!
All my papers were far from perfect! I could never avoid those pesky vat man's tears. I didn't really use the water, so I'm not sure why the particles were so easily attracted to it. I did, however, look at paper differently (like we talked about), especially as I was taking my math quiz shortly after class. We are so lucky to have paper processed for us these days, and I feel like that's often taken for granted. Something I was curious about was why it seemed so much easier to make sheets composed of the blue dye versus the white dye.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I got to spread the word about our awesome class because some people who had walked by us were asking about it. I know they were jealous of our sodas and, of course, our fashionable aprons too.
I think that the reason that the blue paper held up so much better than the white paper is the fact that there was blue dye in it. I remember last year my friends were doing some experimenting with laser engraving in their engineering class, and noticed that the material with the darker color always made the deepest grooves, even when put on the same setting (e.g. the black clipboards made indents about 1/4 an inch thick, where the same type of white clipboard made only 1/8 inch indents). Maybe just the fact that there was a dye, or another agent, mixed in with the cotton fibers made them stick together more. Which brings up another question: did the people who made paper in old-time England use a dye with their paper? It seemed like they had no problems making paper. Or did they use a deeper mold and deckle, allowing the paper to be thicker and less likely to fall apart?
DeleteSame here. My papers were all tattered and uneven and in some cases didn't even resemble paper, they were more scraps. Although it seems like it would be a difficult job to be a vatman, I also think it could be fun and entertaining. I personally would always be trying to achieve the perfect paper, making one better than the last. However, I am easily entertained.
ReplyDeleteI really want to know why the blue paper was easier to make, also! Was it the same material, just dyed blue? Or was it some different type of material, maybe more linen or something else as opposed to just cotton? The white material definitely felt thicker and more difficult to manipulate. Maybe there were just more particles in the white vat than there were for the blue.
Hey Maddie I think that although it was the same material the blue paper was made in a seperate jug and just had a better ratio of pulp to water than the white. I agree the blue was a lot easier to me as well haha.
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