Post #573969 by djwirk on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 9:14 AM

On 2011-01-30 21:49, MadDogMike wrote:
Tell me more about the handmade banana paper?

When one of our plants was harvested I took about a foot of the psuedostem and cut it up into 1/4 inch segments then pressures cooked it for an hour, then added a little bit at a time to about half a gallon of water and blended the pulp out of it.

I had never made paper before, but in theory it seemed pretty easy, I made a giant screen, big enough for the entire shade and tried repeatedly to pour the water/pulp mixture over it, but was unable to get anything anywhere near uniform, always super lumpy or a big hole in the center where the water settled last.

Ended up taking a 6x9ish photo frame and putting some old screen on that, then mixed what pulp I had salvaged from the first attempt with a bunch more water in a Rubbermaid tote, stirred it up real fast and ran the screen through, then just turned it upside down on a cutting board covered w/an old shirt and blotted the water out by pressing rags into the back until they were pretty dry, at this point, I would blow on the screen from the back until a corner came loose and then pull the paper off gently, roll it up in a paper towel and microwave it (It's been really cool and humid here lately so didn't think it would ever dry unassisted.)

I Made several small sheets and then overlapped them on centers and blotted them with a wood glue / water solution kinda feathering the edges to get it to blend, let the glue tack up a bit and hit the whole sheet with a clothes iron on high to flatten it out.

Once it was all done, I super glued it into the frame, used the water/glue solution to seam the back up and called it good.

All-in- all I had a lot of wasted time learning and guessing. At least I suppose if I ever do it again it'll go much quicker!