John Plowman

I don't make paper often myself, but this seems to be the papermaking book to end all, seeing the number of techniques not only to make it, but also to adorn and experiment with the finished product, truly pushing the technique into art.
Owning a papermaking kit is useful, but the book gives detailed, step-by-step instructions to make a mold and deckle from easily procurabel materials or objects (such as picture frames). This is followed by the papermaking section, the longest in the book, beginning by making pulp from three sources: recycled paper (from home scraps), part-processed fibers (from a specialized papermaker) and plant fibers (from nature). Sheet forming, couching, pressing/drying are described, again step-by-step, using different methods, making it easy to adapt to available equipment or the fancy of your imagination.
More advanced techniques are then tackled: making laminated paper (thicker and stronger), embedded or embossed papers, watermarks, casting (from clay, plaster or readymade molds) and still-life relief.
The next section is about using color with your homemade paper: by dyeing the pulp (again in a variety of easily-arranged ways, like using frozen berries!) or painting it. The final section deal with dry paper, in other words paper-based decorative techniques – stencil, batik, monoprint, marbling, embossing and many more.
All along, the book is strewn with highly creative or even conceptual pieces of paper art relevant to the technique being epxlained. It's amazing how such simple basics can be built up to obtain such stunning results, that are not to be used in another project but final pieces in themselves! Because the author takes us through the entire gamut of making paper, from the very basics (paper to make art) to the material's ultimate achievement (paper being art), I feel I'll never need another book on papermaking. Of course, if I did this in depth, I might feel differently about it, but for someone who only needs to make paper occasionally, it's a prime choice of a reference.… (altro)