How Handmade Paper Is Made

January 27, 2025

The Process of Making Handmade Paper

White handmade cotton rag paper and card with deckled edges in various sizes

I've been in love with handmade cotton rag paper for a long time. There's something about it's beautiful texture and deckled edges that never fails to captivate me. It holds ink beautifully and it's the perfect medium for watercolour painting and calligraphy. And let's not forget to mention the delight of receiving an invitation made from handmade paper. Added to this, it's completely tree free and is made using traditional methods and recycled materials. What could be better?

VIEW OUR FULL RANGE OF HANDMADE COTTON RAG
CARD, PAPER and ENVELOPES HERE

During a recent visit to India, we decided to take a diversion and see for ourselves how this beautiful paper and card is made. Our journey started in one of the textile regions. We found a small handmade paper factory nestled in amongst a range of textile factories. What a perfect place to locate the little factory. Unused offcuts of cotton along with cotton rags from the textile industry are collected on a daily basis. The cotton is then cleaned and shredded (see below).

shredder for turning cotton rags into handmade paper

Once the cotton has been shredded, it's then beaten into a pulp in a machine called a Beater. During this process the cotton rags are refined in water to tear apart the weave and then the individual threads. Here's the beater in its full glory ....

Beater to create pulp for handmade cotton rag paper

Next, the pulp needs to be mixed with water to create a fibrous slurry that can then be used to make handmade paper and card.. The fibre is stored in troughs ready for the magic to begin. Here are the slurry troughs ..... I cannot tell you how desperate I was to run my hands through this pulpy mix.

cotton rag slurry to make handmade paper

And now for the magic! We watched as the slurry was spread onto screens and covered in a fine gauze. During this process the fibres interlock to form a sheet of paper.
I was curious to find out how they measured the weight of the paper and card. Unsurprisingly the answer was simple .... it's all about how much slurry is used. Over years of fine tuning, these artisans have measured how much slurry needs to be added to create paper and how much slurry needs to be added to make card. A surprisingly simple process that achieves surprisingly consistent results.

making handmade cotton rag paper in the traditional way

The wet paper is allowed to dry and then separated from the gauze by hand. This is done quickly by incredibly carefully to avoid damaging the beautiful deckled edges.