This tall, strong grass in Taiwan makes beautiful paper.
Paper is made from the fibers of plants. Therefore, the best plants to use for papermaking have long, strong fibers that make up a high percentage of the bulk of the part of the plant used.
The test for determining if a plant is suitable for paper is to try to break the part of the plant you wish to use. A suitable section of the plant will be difficult to break. The best plants will bend and crack, but not break given your best efforts.
Traditionally, the raw plant material was cooked over an open fire. The papermaker simply scooped wood ash from the fire and threw it into the pot.
Later, we will boil the raw plant material to help break it down and separate the fiber from the non-fibrous material. We will add wood ash to the boiling water. Wood ash is slightly caustic. The caustic qualities of wood ash help to disintegrate the non-fibrous material. Wood ash is the traditional caustic material used.
Formation aid can be obtained from a variety of sources.
Formation aid is a gelatinous substance that helps to suspend individual fibers in the slurry (the mixture of water and plant fiber) and to aid in the formation of paper. Formation aid can be extracted from various plants. For the paper we make on this site, we will extract the formation aid from aloe vera.