Lolapaluza Wedding Stationery

Last week, I was thrilled to receive some superb pictures from Lolapaluza of our BOTANICA floral seed paper. Lolapaluza specialises in unique wedding stationery and having spotted our new range, purchased some BOTANICA to produce sample invitations to show at the forthcoming wedding shows this Autumn.

The samples are simply, but beautifully, hot foil blocked using gold foil...

I wrote about our new BOTANICA floral seed paper when we launched it on May Day this year HERE. The range is handmade for us exclusively in England by Two Rivers Paper, who are based at Pitt Mill in Somerset.

Great care has been taken in the hand papermaking process, using 100% cotton, without chemicals and dried naturally (only by air) meaning that the seeds remain viable and can germinate and grow. Below, you can see my efforts, grown on wet tissue on our window-sill.

...and my colleague Sarah Glennie has demonstrated her horticultural skills using compost in the image below - 4 weeks after planting:

My thanks to Linda at Lolapaluza for showing me the results of her tests and for planting the idea of this lovely new range into the minds of her clients...

https://lolapaluza.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/lolapaluza_stationery/

Posted by Justin Hobson 07.09.2020

May Day ...a preview of our new range

May Day was traditionally celebrated as a festival announcing the arrival of Spring and has since become a holiday, so what better day than to give you a sneak preview of our brand new springlike handmade paper range...

Here is the paper in the packets - the edge looks a bit rough ...that's because it is handmade and has a 'deckle edge' which is the natural edge of the paper.



Click on images to enlarge

As you can see from the images, the surface of the paper contains flower petals and looks wonderful. Aside from the stunning visual effect of the petals, the paper also contains flower seeds! Because great care has been taken in the making process, using 100% cotton, without chemicals and dried naturally only by air means that they will germinate and flower... 

Below is a detail image of the new paper...

Click on image to enlarge

The size of the paper is an imperial size called Royal, which in metric is 560mm x 760mm.

Given the current virus lockdown situation, there are no swatches available yet but more information will be available in the future, but if you want a sample (a very small sample) just email me: justin@fennerpaper.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 01.05.2020

Roman Holiday

Last week I was fortunate enough to be on holiday in Italy visiting Rome and Pompeii. On one of the days which was rather wet we were at a bit of a loose end. I saw a town called Amalfi on the map and remembered (by chance!) that there was a handmade paper mill there. So we hopped in the car and off we went to see a paper mill that was established in the 13th century - real medieval stuff!

It is situated half way up the mountainside on which the town of Amalfi is situated. At one time there were 16 paper mills on the mountain making use of the fast flowing fresh water streaming off the mountain to make paper and power the water wheels. The mill itself (which is now preserved as a museum) is carved out of the solid rock. This is a picture of the mill entrance:

The inside of the mill, hewn out of the rock:

The vats of pulp/water for handmade paper production:

Now, here's a truly amazing thing - the mill installed a "Hollander Beater" which is a machine which was a 18th century Dutch invention, to more efficiently break down fibres (rags) for papermaking - rather than beating them with a hammer with sharp spikes. This mill invested in this new technology and the machine was installed on 18th November 1745 - and this is the machine, still powered by the water wheel which I saw actually working , pictured below:

In the 19th century, the mill made inverstments in the new fangled paper machines which are shown below - although they are not currently in production (they only make handmade papers now), they work on the same principle as all modern paper machines.

On the picture below, note the saw in the foreground, which is the way in which the sheets were cut off the (very slow) machine and also in the background, the way that they created extra room for the machine by cutting further into the mountain:

...and to prove I was actually there, here I am with the machine in the background:

If you are in the area, it is definitely worth a visit.

http://www.museodellacarta.it/ingresso2.asp?l=2

http://www.amalfiguide.it/what-see-amalfi-coast/amalfi/paper-museum

Posted by Justin Hobson 25.04.2012

Justin is a papermaker, as well!

I was going through some stuff last night and found this picture. It's a Polaroid (remember them?!) of me making paper by hand ...back in 1997!

For those unfamiliar with the process, I have dipped my frame which has a wire mesh over it, into the stock (pulp fibres in water) and am attemting to shake it to evenly spread the fibres. I recall this wasn't too successful as I ended up with a sheet of paper that was about 400gsm one end and about 60gsm the other - but you can't say I didn't give it a shot!

This was taken at the old Stora Papyrus Gryksbo mill in Sweden in their hand-made paper studio.