Tools of a papermaker

We have some inventive souls here in Surfbunny Warren. Last week young Alexander was twiddling his thumbs watching Phred and crew go through all the gyrations to cook some vegetable matter to make some paper pulp. After soaking the goo in lime water and soda ash it needed to be rinsed, BUT the rinse water couldn't just go out in the garden or the stream as it was far too alkali. So Phred was taking little bits at a time and using a cast off kitchen strainer from Mrs. Farmer Brown's trash pile. Well, next think you know Alexander has hopped on out to the used stuff pile where Farmer Brown keeps things that might one day be useful and low and behold he ups and invents an industrial strainer for Phred and company. Two buckets, some leftover curtain material and a few clamps and now Phred can strain 5 gallons of goo at a time with the rinse water all captured to take to the proper part of the field. Needless to say, Alexander is the current hero of the papermakers.

Accordion Books in Kalamazoo

The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center in Kalamazoo Michigan has a call out for artist accordion style books.

Phred made up just the thing today and we have inserted it into the mail system. The paper is all handmade right here in the warren. Banana fibers from the plantation were cooked and chopped and formed into the luscious cover papers. The pages are a mix of banana fiber and recycled office paper from Farmer Brown's recycle box. A small bit of blue construction paper was mixed into one batch to make the pale blue pages.
The book is bound with three pamphlet style signatures totaling 96 pages. Phred calls this Canoe Notes and hopes it will receive a warm reception in Michigan.