The History of Handmade Papers

When the paper had been formed, they were then placed between the felts and wool blankets. The texture for the felts was used in the drying process and it was an important part of the appearance of the paper. Some felts before were not woven while others were woven. Before the loft drying papers had been pack pressed and it had somewhat diminished the impression that was felt. 
 
 


The handmade papers were then put into groups or on the spurs so that they can stack to be matured. They were then gelatin sized and they are dipped in the groups and they were also dried once again. The papers were then burnished by using the hands and smooth stones. After sometime, they were hammer glazed. 
 
The paper that was made using such methods had some imperfection. They had swirly fiber, knots and clumps but they had a lively, complex surface, supple and strong texture. After sometime, the stampers were replaced by the mills and they speed up beating process. The beater was effective and was able to eliminate the fermentation process that was taking too long. The Hollander beater was capable to cut the papers and it resulted into short or less fibrillated fiber. It made papers with few clumps, fibers and more refined and weaker pulp. 
By the 18th century papermaking process was refined. The century papers were able to retain distinct surface texture with the laid and chain lines for the paper mould because the drying process was unchanged at the end of this century. The calendar roll that it used to glaze the surface papers started since 1720. 
 

After sometime, the papermakers had now applied too much pressure and to squeeze the moisture away of the paper so that the drying time may be produced by the flatter paper. This is capable to reduce surface textures which had been created by the use of the laid moulds. This made it easy to use the watercolor on the paper. 
 
Cotton was the important source for the pulp by the 19th century. The papers that were made in the cotton were looking opaque with less luster compared to the papers that were made in the linen. However, it was hard to distinguish the gelatin sized papers since it adds luster on its own. The papers that are handcrafted from cotton, they were softer compare to that of the linen papers but if linen is processed, the papers also became softer. 
 

The first paper making machines started in 19th century and it allowed the production of many papers. This also increased the demand for indigo and flax because they are favorite of many people in the art. Even machine papers were becoming popular, it does not mean that the handmade papermaking also stopped. The goal of makers of the handmade papers was to match the esthetics and smoothness of the machine papers. This is when the knotter started to be used and it was removing the foreign substance and clumps away from the pulp. Many hand papermakers in different environments are still using the same system.