Gundo Paper Making Workshop

Printmaking Studio Itsukaichi is located on a mountain nearby a shrine. The building is a former townhall. On the ground floor are press-machines, hand presses and many tools. On the first floor are the living quarters where I stayed with two Japanese printmakers: Miki Hatakeyama (silkscreen, woodcut and lithograph) and Ayumi Anzai (lithograph). You can view the works I made at the printmakingstudio here. 
After Mino I not only came to love Japanese paper, I also very much enjoyed the process of how to make paper. Naturally I got excited when I learned about a paper making workshop just a few kilometres from the printmaking studio.  Here are some photos of us making Gundo paper

We were welcomed with ocha

Sensei is preparing the mix

Mixing the fibers and glue

How to use the bamboo frame

Swinging the frame a few times to the front and back, left to right and front to the back.

Placing the freshly made papers neatly is quite difficult.

All our papers on top of each other separated by a thin paper.

Using a metal frame to make paper. You don't need to swing the frame, just hold it until the water stops falling.

Making postcard sized paper using small metal frames.

Placing all papers under a pressmachine

With the right amount of pressure, the paper has to to stay there for a while.

Placing the papers on a heating element. There is a thin protection paper placed on top. You use a wide brush to flatten the paper, getting rid of air bubbles.

To take the paper off the heating element, we used a needle- like object for the corner.