Paper casting #1

Paper Casting #1 Detail

ID: Paper Casting with a slurry mixture and Texture Plates

Created: December 31, 2007
Modified: 

I have a plastic bag attached to my desk where I throw all my small scraps of paper/paper  (not cardstock) to make slurries with when I need. It's usually whites and creams with a bit of other colors thrown in.

I cut these up with a pair of scissors to about 1/2 x 1" pieces and toss into my blender. Add lots of water and blend till I get my slurry  (no pieces of paper). 

I have a basin that fits my paper making contraption.

A thick plastic grid (see pic below), a fine mesh screen or plastic window screening, my paper molding frame (I use a metal picture frame that you put together yourself so I can make any size I want). I put this into my plastic basin and pour my slurry into my frame area. Sometimes I'll fill the basin with slurry mixture so that I can rock the frame contraption back and forth to even out the slurry, sometimes I don't. Depends on my mood. Sometimes I may want a slightly thicker casting and pour a second blender full of slurry over the same area.

When my slurry is evenly distributed on my screening, I raise everything up slowly, while holding the contraption together. I usually don't use clamps. And I raise slowly to prevent air pockets from raising the screening and creating uneven areas in the slurry. I move my contraption over to a waiting cookie sheet, remove the metal frame, and then press down with a big sponge to squeeze out water, wringing the sponge constantly to remove excess water. When most of the water is squeezed out, I lay my texture plate (Quietfire Design) ont he paper I've created, then holding the screening/texture plate sandwich, I carefully flip this over onto a stack of newsprint or towels. I have now bottom layer of towels, texture plate, paper, screening. I then continue pressing my sponge trying to remove even more water and at the same time pressing the paper into the crevices of the texture plate. When I can't squeeze any more water out, I see if I can remove the screen from the paper. I might speed that process up a bit with a hair dryer, or just leave it alone until it's a little drier.

Paper Casting #2

Paper Casting #2 Detail 

Paper Casting #3

Paper Casting #3 Detail 

For the above 3 castings, I started out with making a flat piece of paper (with two blender slurries) in the metal frame , squeeze moisture out, and then placing the texture plate on top and flipping it over. I also used the plastic door screening which is quite a visible texture in the pictures.

Casting #1 is just the plain paper with no additional coloring

Casting #2 I lightly sprayed the back of the paper after it was flipped over and the screening removed with diluted Adirondack color washes (terra cotta, Butterscotch) and Memories Spray Mist - an olive green color. 

Casting #3 I applied Pearl Ex onto my texture plate prior putting it onto my wet paper. You need to have Pearl Ex powder on your plate rather that just coloring the plate with Pearl Ex. The wet paper seems to only pick up the excess powder. There is a yellow cast to the paper edges which is probably from my dirty sponge which I didn't notice while I was squeezing excess water with it.

Paper Casting #4

Paper Casting #4 Detail 

This 4th casting was done a little differently than the ones above. I didn't start with make a paper sheet. I just poured the slurry over my texture plate while it was in my frame mold. I carefully poured 2 batches of slurry onto it and moved some around with my fingers. This one is thick and solid in comparison to the other three. It also seems to have a smoother overall texture. This may be because I pressed harder into the grooves. Not sure though. No added color was applied to this one.

This is the plastic grid laying flat on my cutting mat.
It is 12.5" x 9.5" x about 3/8" thick.

This image shows a portion of the grid standing on its side.