Hi There!

Not sure if this is the place, but I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm a fibre artist with a fair bit of experience in making my own handmade paper. I generally use linters, but have processed my own fibres making paper from corn husks, onion skin, gampi and kuzo. I recently received a pound of clean-tow flax from a local flax farm who's requested that I do some experimenting to see how I can make paper from it.

http://taprootfibrelab.ca/

The fibres have already been retted and processed for spinning, and handle a lot like wool. I've tried soaking them, boiling them with soda ash, hand-beating and blending the fibres to make paper.

They're awfully tricky, and really just want to knot up rather than turn into a pulp. I don't have access to commercial equipment like a hollander, which I think would solve a lot of my problems.

Is there any advice you can offer on hand-processing flax fibres for linen paper?

Thanks so much!!
Sally

Hi Sally,

We would need to defer to these experts in the handmade paper field:

http://carriagehousepaper.com/

http://www.twinrocker.com/

http://paperslurry.com/about/

Good luck!

HI, Ive been doing paper for four years and i would like to know, if someone could share their processes for doing rag paper without a beater.
is it enough to just add soda ash and a mullet?