the gathering

at the start of spring, an early evening walk with a friend, shortly before twilight

we drove to the little lake, mostly for a stroll but also so I could try and identify any paper-making plants growing along the shore

as we wandered the path I used the app "Seek" to identify the plants I wasn't familiar with, my list of local prospects in my pocket for making a note of location if I found any...  I did find stinging nettle and canary reed grass, only one plant of the former, an abundance of the latter

on to the big lake, a similar story unfolded - no nettles, yet even more of the reed canary grass though it was last year's grass, dried and bleached by the winter sun

I took out my collecting bag and began to gather some from here and there as we walked the trail, after a few minutes my friend began to help

we chatted as went, stopping if there was a patch that looked "clean", gathering a few, moving on

the light was falling more to dusk and the pheasants began to show themselves... the water gleamed silver and the collecting stopped as appreciation for the beautiful evening grew

back at home, I laid the grass on my potting table, securing it against the wind, hoping the sun would bleach it further

 later in the season I picked a few handfuls of new growth of reed canary grass, this time letting it dry in the dark, preserving the beautiful deep green which darkened as it dried

and finally this week I made paper with it... first cutting and soaking the grass for a day and a night, then simmering it for a few hours in a soda ash vat, more soaking and finally rinsing and blending it to a pulp

a happy morning yesterday yielded ten sheets of paper

the first two were pure grass, no other fibre added

the paper is a beautiful green with a slight yellowish cast - the texture is a nod to its origins, it looks as if fine blades of grass were scattered over the surface... it feels sturdy in the hand but I'm not sure how strong it actually is, something I definitely need to test

after those two sheets were formed  I added a blender full of abaca pulp and pulled two more 

On I went, pull two, add another blender of abaca pulp mixed with water, and with each blender full the subsequent sheets became lighter and smoother, and the last two, after four blenders full, were more beige than green

the sheet below is from the 3 blenders of abaca batch, just the barest hint of green left

the images below show the full range of colour with the pure grass version at the far right

(these  show the smoother side)

the photo below is of the rougher side of the paper

 after some thoughtful comments on last weeks post about sketchbooks and ledgers, recording and sampling,  I prepared a small book to record my paper-making adventures, the material used, where and when it was gathered and how it was processed along with a small sample of each of the paper sets

the interesting thing with this batch is that I used 80% beige leaves to 20% green - it makes me wonder what 100% green would look like?

reed canary grass is an invasive species in this area and is more than abundant... there are no issues with me picking as much as I want so whilst its still green I'll be heading out to get a few armfuls to work with over the winter

I'm finished with the yard and garden but I think the Fall Harvest is not quite finished yet

take care,

Jillayne