Mushroom Paper

[Andy Hamilton]

Made some mushroom paper today using some bracket fungus. It was supposed to end up being a present for my girlfriend. I was going to make her a notebook. The trouble was the paper ended up like springy cardboard. This was my first "foray" into paper making any tips.

Oh to make it I simply cut up the fungus into 2cm chunks then blended it in a load of water until I had a soup. Then I got a frame which I dipped in and slowly brought up full of the goo. Patted it down a bit then left each bit to dry.

[Big Al]

Made some mushroom paper today using some bracket fungus. It was supposed to end up being a present for my girlfriend. I was going to make her a notebook. The trouble was the paper ended up like springy cardboard. This was my first "foray" into paper making any tips.

Oh to make it I simply cut up the fungus into 2cm chunks then blended it in a load of water until I had a soup. Then I got a frame which I dipped in and slowly brought up full of the goo. Patted it down a bit then left each bit to dry.

i've never made fungus paper but the theory is the same for other papers. for the fungus paper did you make it too thick ? Could you thin it out a bit with more water ?

For normal paper I used non glossy stuff and only used about 1% to 3% of newspaper to plain white printer / photocopier paper, used of course. The reason to use the newspaper is to give it a sheen and glue the rest together but use too much and it turns out grey.
I have also added bits of cotton thread into the mix as this gives added strength to the paper. You can always do the first dip then place the cotton onto that and do another dip if you have a long piece of cotton.
After you have pressed it down and it has dried a bit remove the frame and leave the paper on a drying cloth like a tea towel. I have used a bit of greasproof paper between the towel and the new paper but it doesn't dry as fast. Assuming you don't use the greaseproof put another towel on top and place a few books ontop this will flatten the paper or if you leave it without the books you can get a "rustic", uneven type of paper.

HTH

Alan

[Green Aura]

You need a mangle - fantastic. Make your paper - however you want, put it between two pieces of cloth (tea towelish thickness) and pass it through the mangle. Dry it flat.

[Ellendra]

GA, when you say mangle, I assume you're not referring to a relative of the sugar beet?

[Big Al]

GA, when you say mangle, I assume you're not referring to a relative of the sugar beet?

It will be one of those ancient eashing and finger trapping twin roller affairs. Gawd how many times my sadistic swine of a step brother got my finger caught in one of those( by accident of course).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle_(machine)

Alan

[Green Aura]

That's right big Al - but we growed ups like to think our fingers will be safe!

[Big Al]

That's right big Al - but we growed ups like to think our fingers will be safe!

It depends on if you have grown up!! I was writing on my blog the other night and I remarked about all the cars and different engines I used to have but now I'm nearly 50 I have changed my ideas...... it struck me then that I was NEARLY 50!! I chuckled because i generally act my shoe size and not my age. My wife and I then got to talking about this and the consensus was that if she wasn't worried about my deteriating health she would be worrying about me jumping out of planes or para gliding, doing daredevil stunts on a mountain bike even though I was "nearly 50"....

As for the mangle, I would probably mess around with it to see what happened, I mean a full beer can could be fun.....lol.

[fergus]

Andy,
Glad you got around to it; I didn't - at least not with the fungi we collected from the fallen Beech - mine are all dried out on a shelf. Is that what you used (Trametes gibbosa -Lumpy Bracket I think) or Birch Polypores?. I photographed the whole process here using Birch Polypores:
http://www.newhousefarm.tv/forum/viewto ... r&start=15
Mind you, for making card you do need a frame to achieve the thickness AND, although you can dry it under books to prevent warping, it takes bloody ages!! I've found that the best thing is to firm it down with chicken wire or similar whilst drying. That way it remains flat but the moisture can evapourate off easily

[Andy Hamilton]

Nice link and useful photos.

I didn't waste the mushroom card in the end as they made good book marks for people. I did have a feeling that the constancy of the mushrooms we picked might be a little wrong. I only had a hand blender when making my batch as well as it got so over used that it started to smell like burning plastic, not the most successful thing I have done!