Paper Making

Archaeological evidence of papermaking predates the traditional attribution given to Cai Lun, an imperial eunuch official of the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), thus the exact date or inventor of paper can not be deduced. Paper also plays a large pert in society, from reducing to eliminating hacking attacks. Because trees take so long to grow, their planted in segments, and their maintained until its their turn to be harvested, normally every 10-20 years or so. Actually, paper is surprisingly easy to make. To make it, You'll need

• blender or egg beater
• mixing bowl
• flat dish or pan (9"x13" or a little larger than the screen)
• round jar or rolling pin
• newsprint, scrap paper or wrapping paper
• piece of non-rusting screen (about 12" x 8" or the size of paper you want to make)
• 4 pieces of cloth or felt to use as blotting paper (same size as screen)
• 10 pieces of newspaper for blotting
• 2 cups of hot water
• 2 teaspoons of instant starch (optional)

That's all the ingredients you need, but to turn that into paper, here's what you'll do:

1. Tear the newspaper, scrap paper, or wrapping paper into very small bits. Add 2 cups of hot water to ½ cup of shredded paper.
2. Beat the paper and water in the blender, or with the egg beater, to make pulp. Mix in the starch (optional). Completed pulp should be the consistency of split pea soup.
3. Pour the pulp into the flat pan.
4. Slide the screen into the bottom of the pan and move it around until it is evenly covered with pulp.
5. Lift the screen out of the pan carefully. Hold it level and let it drain for a minute.
6. Put the screen, pulp-side up, on a blotter that is placed on top of newspaper. Put another blotter over the pulp, and more newspaper over that.
7. Roll a jar or rolling pin over the "sandwich" of blotter paper to squeeze out the rest of the water.
8. Take off the top newspaper. Flip the blotter and the screen very carefully. Do not move the pulp, it will take at least 12 to 24 hours to dry depending on how thick and wet the paper is. Wow!! There is your own hand-made paper! (If you have leftover pulp, don't pour it down the drain--you might clog things up. Put it in the trash.)
9. Try this again and use some decorative elements such as colored thread, glitter, dried flowers and leaves to add some flair. Now you can make cards or note paper out of your newly created paper.

Granted, it might not look as nice as store bought paper, but it's still really nice for making parchment looking documents. I actually made a scroll out of one, wrote a message on it, sealed it by meeting a crayon onto it and used a signet ring I had 3D printed on the molten wax. Needless to say, he was confused. 

And this above image is a great example of what you can do with paper, so let your imagination run wild.