Paper Making D. Leela and classmates, Chennai It was summer vacation time and Mother had told Leela and Maya not to play outside in the hot summer afternoon. First they played a game of chutes and ladders which nobody won, because both went down the chute in turns and had to start afresh. They got so bored that they greeted Nivedita with yells of delight. Then they got out paper and paint and had a very satisfying afternoon painting the paper and the floor all colours of the rainbow. Soon it was evening. Mother came and told them that they could go out to play but they had to clean up first. Leela got a mop and a bucket. She kept mopping up the paint and squeezing out the paint-water into the bucket. But there was so much paint on the floor as well as bits of paper that were now getting soggy. Soon Navya and Sanjana turned up, urging them to hurry up since it was getting late. "There's so much paint, I can't get it off", said Leela. Maya had an idea. She poured some water on the floor. Then she took some old newspaper and mopped the floor with it. With the extra water, the paint started to come off. She looked around a moment, and then dumped the used newspaper into the bucket of water. Soon every one joined in. In a few moments, the floor was (relatively) clean and all the paint and soggy paper were in the bucket. Nivedita giggled. "What a mess," she said, stirring the paper inside the bucket. "Ah, the water is nice and cool!" she exclaimed. Instantly, five hands were inside the bucket, swirling the coloured water and mushy bits of newspaper into a thick, soggy mass. "The newspaper dissolves faster than the writing paper", noticed Leela, fishing out large bits of wet but intact paper with fading drawings on them. She stacked the large, undissolved bits on the floor. Maya groaned. "You're making the whole place dirty again," she complained. Nivedita said, "I'm sure tissue paper will dissolve much faster." "Why," asked Sanjana. "Do it and see," said Nivedita. Sanjana brought an entire roll of crepe paper that she had been saving for her birthday and dumped it in. After a few seconds, she fished it out. "See," she said, "it's still intact. It hasn't dissolved at all!" Nivedita took the damp roll from her hands. She found one end and carefully started unrolling the paper. Soon the entire roll was in her hands and she dumped the whole thing into the water. Within a few moments, the paper was wet and disintegrating. "That's the way," she said, smiling smugly. Leela was worried. What will Mother say, she thought. But every body was enjoying themselves so much that she didn't want to spoil the fun. Maya smiled knowingly at her and pointed to the pile of soggy writing paper on the floor. Leela quietly picked up the mess and dumped it into the dustbin. Mother saw her and said, "Good. Thanks for cleaning up. Why did it take so long?" Then, when Leela didn't reply, she asked, "Where's every body? Aren't you going to play?" She looked at the still silent Leela for a long moment. "Oh, oh, something's going on inside, isn't it?" Navya came out of the bedroom in a hurry. She thought it was time to support her friend from her mother's anger. "Sorry, Aunty, we won't do it again. It's not Leela's fault". "What is it?" asked Mother, curious now. She got up and came towards the bedroom, just in time to see Nivedita and Maya carrying the bucket towards the bathroom. "Hey, don't dump that," she shouted. Maya and Nivedita stopped guiltily. "It's just paper, Aunty, it won't block the toilet." "No," said Mother. "That's not what I meant. "Don't throw it away because you can do something nice with it!" "What?!" asked all the girls together, in high-pitched, excited voices. "You can make paper out of this mess!" said Mother, surprisingly. "That's provided you have only dumped paper into this sorry-looking mess." Paper out of paper?! All the girls clustered around. Mother explained that when you dissolve paper, the wood fibres in the paper separate from one another. The soggy mass is called pulp. "Pulp must be very smooth and nice, otherwise you will get lumpy paper," said Mother. "So all of you can spend another 10 minutes nicely stirring the solution." Soon Leela was picking out the bigger bits and breaking them up by hand while Navya and Nivedita took turns stirring. Sanjana took Maya away to find an egg-beater. When they came back, they took turns to make the pulp really smooth by beating it with the egg-beater. Then Mother topped up the solution with some water so that the solution became thin, somewhat like buttermilk. This is called a slurry. Mother asked Leela to arrange 10 sheets of newspaper on the table. "We will use this to dry out the paper we make." This pad is called a couching mound. She then went to the kitchen and brought a plastic sieve (the kind that is used to sieve wheat flour) with removable meshes. "We will use only the meshes, not the whole sieve, so that we have a flat edge", she explained. She took the sieve and dipped it into the slurry. She tilted it a little and then held it flat, moving it in the water in a swirling motion. "This makes the fibres settle uniformly on the sieve," she said. She continued to swirl the sieve and brought it out of the water. Since the sieve was used without an edge, only a thin layer of the mush was left covering the sieve. Mother gave the sieve to Nivedita. "Hold it over the bucket for a while, until most of the water has drained out," she said. "Then, turn it quickly over the newspaper kept on the couching table." Nivedita held her breath and flipped the sieve over. Nothing happened! The bits of paper were still stuck to the sieve. Mother asked Nivedita to leave the upside-down sieve on the newspaper and asked Maya to bring a flat spatula from the kitchen. Slowly, she loosened the sheet from the sieve so that it was free from the sieve. Next, Leela took some more newspaper and placed it carefully on the still-wet sheet. She used a rolling pin to remove the excess moisture which was absorbed by the newspaper bed. Then Maya gingerly picked up the damp sheet and held it up in the balcony while Mother clipped it with clothes-clips to the washing line to dry. Soon every one had taken turns making their sheet of paper. Maya, who got the last chance, got a really thick sheet. That's because what was left of the slurry at the bottom was much thicker. But she didn't mind. She put some rose petals into her slurry so she got thick paper textured with rose petals! Everyone was fascinated. Then Mother shooed everybody out. "Now that you've had fun, go down and play. When you come up your paper sheets will be ready and dry." "Lovely," said Leela. She twinkled up at her mother. "Can we come back and make another mess?!" Notes: If the lumps are too big or the paper is not easy to dissolve, use a mixie to blend the pulp well. Make sure that you have put in only non-toxic colours since the mixie will be re-used later to blend food! Also, use very little water in the blender and add the rest after the paper is well dissolved. If you get hooked on to paper-making, you can try making a more permanent mould (called screen and deckle) by nailing a square of netlon on to a wooden base. Dried flowers work better than fresh ones. Some cottonwool also gives a nice texture. Glitter can be used but sprinkle it on the wet sheet you have made and don't put it in the whole solution. It will stick to the sheet nicely. If you put too much stuff into the slurry, you will get nicely decorated paper, but it may not be very easy to write on it or decorate it further. But you can make nice decorations with it. A drawing with an older lady (mother) and lots of children with a bucket. Caption: "What are you making?" "Paper." "What are you making it with?" "Paper!"