PaperMaking from Plants:
TEASEL HEAD PAPER

Inspired again by Gin Petty, I cooked teasel heads and made paper. They appear to be the prickliest part of this enthorned plant, but the burr middle can be handled gloveless. You must avoid the long fringe or collar spikes (ouch!) and the dramatic mohawk spikes (ouch ouch) emerging from the crown otherwise they are touchable.

The pulp was much finer than that from the stalk and processed, after cooking in soda ash for a couple of hours, in the blender, made a crisp, light paper, with a tangible difference between felt side down and the other side. One side was slightly furry--- the other very smooth. The color is medium dark beige.



This was so much easier to process than teasel stalk, I'm now inclined to only do these heads and their stemlets--- glad I saved these. I saved them all only for their decorative attributes, but I don't think I'll do teasel stalks until I run out of other plants to process. Teasel stalk makes pulp but not a sheet of paper. It works best as a bulkifier.

So thanks Gin, for yet again, pointing out something else to try and leading me to new discoveries.
I'm enamored of a new plant site if you want pictures of the plant and information on its habitat try:http://plants.usda.gov/

Kingdom Plantae -- Plants

Subkingdom Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants

Superdivision Spermatophyta -- Seed plants

Division Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants

Class Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons

Subclass Asteridae

Order Dipsacales

Family Dipsacaceae -- Teasel family

Genus Dipsacus L. -- teasel P

i'm following Gin's example (plant documenter extraordinare, access her journal here)Thanks to Gin and the papermaking list folks for reawakening me to the possibilities right outside my door.



Pulp on, people!





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Dracaena Knotweed Artist-made Paper with Bouganvillea and Fibers in between, 2002