There are many reasons why you might want to make your own paper, but chief amongst them are: it’s environmentally friendly, it can save you a little bit of money and, by far the most persuasive reason, the end product is unique, charming and (for the person lucky enough to have created it) deeply satisfying.

Anyway, enough preamble. How do I make paper, was your original question.

First, you’ll need to assemble your materials.

Ingredients

1. Some old paper. You can use paper bags, left-over wallpaper, tissue paper, magazine or newspaper pages, napkins… In fact, you can use pretty much any type of paper you wish. Just remember that different materials will create different textures, colours and weights.
2. An old picture frame, roughly as big as the size of the paper you want to create. It’s best to start small, however.
3. Wire mesh. The material used for window screening works well. You’ll find a variety of options at your local home improvement store.
4. A food processor. You’ll need this to ‘pulp’ your old paper. You can use a pestle and mortar, if you’re feeling particularly low-tech and want to get back to basics.
5. A large washing up bowl. This will need to be big enough for you to completely immerse your picture frame.
6. Liquid starch
7. A large sponge
8. Small tacks
9. A piece of clean white fabric

Once you’ve assembled all your tools and ingredients, you’re ready to start. It’s probably a good idea to wear an apron and have a mop on hand, as this can be a messy job the first few times you try it.

Preparing the Pulp

1. Tear your old paper into small pieces and put them into the blender up to about the halfway point.
2. Top up with warm water. Operate the blender on a gentle setting to start with then gradually ramp-up the speed. After about a minute, the contents of the blender should look suitably smooth. Make sure there are no clumps of paper. Any pieces that appear resistant to blending should be removed.

Creating the Mold

1. Stretch your window screening mesh over the old picture frame, making sure it is a taut as possible, then fix into place with the tacks. This process is not unlike the method for creating a canvas.
2. Half fill the plastic washing up bowl with water. Stir in the pulp. Generally, about three blender loads of pulp to half a washing up bowl worth of water should be about the right ratio. However, you can increase the amount of pulp you add to the washing up bowl if you want to make a heavier, more textured paper. For beginners though, it’s probably best to stick to the 3:1 ratio.
3. Add a little of the liquid starch. A teaspoon or two should be sufficient. This will help create a more effective writing surface.
4. Lower the mold into the pulp until it is completely immersed. Sift it gently. After a while, the layer of pulp covering the screen will even out.
5. Very gently, lift the mold out of the water. Let the excess water drain off.
6. Swiftly and carefully (this is the tricky bit), turn the mold over and place it pulp-side down onto your piece of fabric.
7. Gently, sponge off any excess water.
8. Lift the mold away from the fabric. Your paper should be left behind on the fabric.
9. Leave to dry or, if you’re feeling impatient, use a hair dryer on a low temperature and speed.

This method will create a rough-edged (and utterly charming) piece of paper. You can use a ‘deckle’ (an empty picture frame) which when placed on top of the mold before it is immersed, creates a straight edge for your pulp to settle against. This will create a neater effect.

You can add food dyes, small leaves and petals, glitter, colourful threads etc to create a wide variety of creative effects.

Have fun.