About My Papermaking Process:
When it's time to make paper, I blend unbleached abaca or recycled card stock in an industrial blender. I dye the paper using aqueous dispersed pigments and retention agent.
My paper is fairly textured and chunky. The texture is perfect for both my handmade books and for my illustration.
For the journals and photo albums that I make, I use my handmade paper on the cover-designs. I don't use it for the inside pages as the texture wouldn't be appropriate for writing on. Paper for writing on needs to be beaten differently.
I use a pour method of sheet production. This makes it so that I don't waste any pulp.
I press the wet sheets on to what are called "couch" (pronounced: cooch) sheets.
A couch sheet is basically like a piece of felt.
I stack the couch sheets on top of each other with the wet newly-made papers inbetween. A stack of these is called a "post."
I press the post between two boards to squeeze out extra water.
After they have pressed for a while I hang the couch sheets with the new sheets attached up to dry.
When they are dry I pull the new handmade paper off of the couch sheets. The new paper is all ready to be cut up.