Today was filled with so much exciting information about how to make paper out of recycled material! Thank you to Adam, Audra, Jessica, Johnathan, Mia, Sara (Lyla's mom), Sara (Noah's mom), and Clara, as well as our two experts for helping us make today possible. Check out all the steps to making eco-friendly paper!
This is the large blender, which is filled with recycled water, that is used to mix the paper in.
They use post-consumer waste and cotton, to make their paper smoother so you can write on it.
This is what they call pulp. It looks kind of like oatmeal!
After adding the pulp to the water, they add their seeds! These are a mix of wildflower seeds, so that when you're done with the paper, you can grow flowers out of it!
Then they mix the recipe together.
They have specially made brass/copper screens, hand-knit by a man.
When you dip the screen into the vat...
You get nice square sheets...
Like that!
"..it feels like wet toilet paper!"
The next step is called, couching, which is French for "the art of stacking felt and paper on top of one another."
He lays felt on top of the paper to keep it together, but it also allows the water to run out.
One finished stack contains 100 sheets of paper.
We had a mishap and the pulp slipped off the frame, and splashed a few friends nearby...
The stack is then brought to a press, which can apply 30 tons of pressure to help the water run out.
We got to see it do it's job!
The excess water is collected and drains out to a white hose...
To a blue bin...
And the pump sends the water through the black hose...
Back to a big white bin, which they use to fill the blender.
Here is their seed collection, which they use in their paper mixture.
They use powdered paint, or Earth Pigment, to dye the paper by adding it to the mix.
This is the fan which sucks all of the excess water out of the paper.
There were stacks of paper ready for shipment all throughout the warehouse.
Their paper comes in many different colors.
Even speckled paper, which was given to us as a gift to keep!
Here are some of the finished products that they make and sell at >>>The Green Field Paper Company<<<.
After that great tour, we were off to Olive Grove Park, where the students ate their lunch and played.
Back at school, we journaled about the process we witnessed.
We ended our day by singing our Songs and Poems, and one of them is called "The Papermaker" (no, that's not a coincidence ;-] ) Has your child recited it to you yet? Have some fun singing it together!
The Papermaker
The water turns my mill wheel round
where rags to paper pulp are ground.
Their snowy leaves on felt I lay,
and squeeze the water well away
and then I hang my sheets to dry,
all bright and shining like the sky.
-Author Unknown
Love, Gaby
No comments:
Post a Comment