Wow, Talk about March Madness. I am barly recovered from the Original Sewing Expo and the Georgia Quilt Council's Spring Conference but I had to start playing with my newest toy for recycling.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sujPukm4PkqObjjTn-4S6ayTA9qdTcIxTEuIhsdrDA50SLQKVarziUJmUNMttuYXYIIH_09RwhQw-WiGrOrDo_-4UnBukIeWn-8iYKeNuUi24RoYGN=s0-d)
My company creates trash, we recycle the cardboard and the office paper but what am I supposed to do with the fabric scraps? I save them, they can't be trash! Last fall I started looking for a solution for reusing the scraps of fabric from my sewing projects and from the first rip on each new bolt of fabric we get in. By luck and providence I went to a paper making workshop at the High Museum of Art, I asked the teacher,
Katy Dement, if I could use fabric scraps for paper, of course! ONLY I need a very expensive piece of equipment called a Hollander Beater. Thwarted by the expense I started a search for a less expensive version, I found a great
Yahoo Group and an awesome artist, Mark Landers, he makes a machine called the "Critter" and he will ship this handmade work of art, which is also a Hollander Beater, all the way from New Zealand. My "critter" arrived in December, just in time for me to ignore it until NOW!
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tPpTKNb3FMkz9jQrXrkiEvj6QQHTSfnQTLNNW7qMQ51hQ3lVgSw4ynI1R8cPjZRt41n6riCR8P6hOB1QPJjhebxslkZcR9QN0a_jwofgE-L46C0zpJ=s0-d)
Last week the weather was warm enough to play in large quantities of water and scraps of paper and fabric. Here are some shots form my first go around. I am completely the novice paper maker who tries to ski the Alps on her first go out. I dumped the carefully weight 2 pound of multi colored fabric scraps into the machine filled it with water and waited for the magic.
What I got was 8 - 10 hours of
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sFA3Re9BAbazaJLKOEviG56l6Y_XMGqLlD2pwpGkVLfZ-qpx2Ktt149bOCvXtsQ5dtcwnLldzj37OBQybskolC4-BjHjpIx1N9kEFvC9U7VFCz11g=s0-d)
watching my poor machine struggle, clogging up and stalling, while making a lovely bunch of goop. The goop did make some pretty gray paper but I was frustrated. My great Yahoo Group helped me through, with out telling me I started a bit big.
I emptied the machine and filled it with a lot less stuff, about 3/4 paper and then a bit of fabric scraps. I picked one color for all the scraps, Red- Pink. This time the machine munched happily away at the scraps and created a beautiful pink pulp in about 3 hours.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sz21-WrPx3PPXtAbOpdH7gTkSDbMRQtF9FaDSz6jV84a231PKGITloLvxBzsejZ6pB_xuu9_yJH8kM_h3_iTn4DOm4YUI-vTgA-_yiZ0E16V-HFn1tYG_1c7FpbfU=s0-d)
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t5zwME9tF8p2LjWMK5KMKat5Jx_KXJ_bYEfzKqe_DhHY2GIC4J46pxZ9TDKWKS2GCKXbYfYf76GUccUjTqb1OLmQL-YKHYhDWJgJLXuvuev4Itf1u_UYSWUUgj9A=s0-d)
I am truly in love, no more clogging or stalling. Apparently overfilling the "Critter" is a bit like over filling the washing machine, nothing really gets done and you end up starting all over again. I set up a station to pull the paper and started making my second batch of hand made paper. I did a second tub of mostly white office paper, bye bye packing slips and used envelopes. Look how pretty you are when I recycle you.
You might ask, "What does she intend to do with all this recycled paper?" I think some of you will start to see upcycled thank you notes in your orders and I may start making some blank cards. Right now, I am working on making nice paper, getting a semi studio set up outside Making paper is a messy bit of work. Stay tuned for updates!
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vStvNZFBprwbE29lszAHf4N3OrperXNoiZzkpCntj0JJ1yRe_FguvduB-1my_4a1qVdMKa1gloIwomEKzrG9frLHjXfsv_DA_ldv5hfAaXDBldFDeNKPVPWwOxSA=s0-d)