Step One

What a messy process it is to make paper! First I had to figure out where to do it. I decided the garage and laundry room were the most impervious to the water I expected to splash around. I had watched the video on papermaking by Catherine Nash several times so I would know what I needed and could visualize the steps. I had all my supplies. Since this was simply a practice session, not a time to make the real paper for my book, I decided to use the junk mail paper I had shredded plus some dryer lint as the basis. I soaked it overnight and then ran it through the blender in small batches until I had a tub full. That took an hour or so. I set the tub on the dryer in the laundry room. The couching surface was on the washer nearby which I covered with towels and felt. In the garage, I had set up a table with a drying board (actually a "white board" I bought at Lowes). It needed to be smooth to give my paper a smooth finish. The pulp was gray, which I expected because the junk mail was printed paper. The ink makes it gray. When I make the real paper, I will use white pulp.
This was very good practice. I could see that I had made the pulp a little thick. The paper was heavier than I wanted. When I tried to thin down the pulp, however, it stuck to the screen. This will take some practice to get the thickness I want. I dipped the screen, got a nice batch of pulp and let it drain. Then I tipped the layer onto the couching surface. I blotted it dry, took it to the garage drying board, and rolled it with a blotter. This was to dry the paper further and make sure it stuck to the board. After a couple of sheets, I decided to add some stuff to the pulp: flowers and cut up raffia. I liked the appearance of the flowers; however when the paper dried, the petunia petals turned brown. The rest of the flowers retained their color. Another area for practice!
After several hours of work, I had eight sheets of paper. This is not going to be a very efficient process, I can see that. Of the eight, there was one I liked. But I learned a lot!