Project 1.2, Completion and analysis

I finished making my paper. The process was quite simple but I do have some notes about what sort of adjustments can be made to make paper making in the household more environmentally conscious.

- The first step of making paper in the home is to acquire already used paper to shred in your blender. Seems like a loophole of making paper by already using made paper but there are some substitutes you can use! I learned that the dryer lint from my dryer is actually quite stable for paper making. Something about the bonding nature of cotton allows it to hold shape. You do the same as you would with the shredding of the paper- just add water and lint then blend. It makes no difference the consistency of the pulp since you are going to roll it down regardless. If you have seen the videos I posted in my resources tab, you are also prompted to making a dowel frame which basically drains and guides the pulp to a paper shape.

- One downside to this is that the expectations of pulp needed to make a small sheet of paper is skewed. I used about 3 loads of drier lint to make 5 sheets of 4'' by 6'' paper. I may need to consult another method because I did this same process with already used notebook paper and it took me four 8'' by 11''s to make three 4'' by 6''s! I never would have expected this.

- I suppose that as a hobby you would be better off making paper out of your dryer lint over making paper out of already used paper since the lint to paper made ratio has greater success than the paper to paper ratio. This difference is caused by the fineness of the pulp. Lint is clumpy by nature so it has no problem binding together. Paper pulp, however, has a greater chance at falling though the mesh and creating thinner and less survived second-hand paper.