Friday 30 March 2018

Adding Colour to Paper Pulp

When I revived the two jars of paper pulp I decided to put the thicker paper into a paper-making bath and to colour the tissue pulp in a small bowl.  I used the black Brusho I'd used previously but at double strength in the hope of getting a deeper shade of blue and yes this was successful to a degree: the pulp is now a mid-denim blue, but lacks clarity.  Maybe it isn't possible to create a clear colour in this way, but only by applying diluted Brusho to a dried and finished piece of paper.

The experiments below show how I got on applying the coloured pulp with a spoon.  The results are rather blobby and I noticed that the water and paper pulp hadn't combined very well, also that I hadn't washed the dye out well enough resulting in blue shadows between the blue areas, so that there was no clear contast of blue and white.

4:4:20
4:4:21
4:4:22
Sample 4:4:22 is more interesting: I was able to add width to the first paper sheet by overlapping colour and white sections giving the appearance of disintegration as the blue paper pulp ran out.


4:4:23

4:4:24
The two samples above show writing in blue paper pulp on freshly made paper.  Sample 4:4:24 shows more controlled writing, both achieved by spooning the paper pulp.


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