Handmade paper
Description
Paper made by hand rather than by machine. Hand-made paper is produced with a wire sieve mold in which the wet paper pulp is shaken to level the fibers, then pressed and dried. This produces a paper with fine wiremarks (laidlines) and fibers that are not directionally oriented For machine-made paper, or wove paper, wet mat of fibers is continuously carried along a moving web of woven mesh producing paper with a grain due to the fibers aligning in a single direction. Handmade paper characteristically has uneven edges that are referred to as Deckle edge paper. Some machine-made papers may also have irregular edges, such as paper made on the cylinder cold machine, and are sometimes difficult to distinguish from the handmade papers. In general, handmade papers, as well as all deckle edge papers, are considered high quality. Size, such as Starch or Gelatin, is usually added to the pulp and additional size is put on the surface to minimize the spreading of ink.
Synonyms and Related Terms
hand-made paper; vat paper
Resources and Citations
- Hermann Kuhn, Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art and Antiquities, Butterworths, London, 1986
- Matt Roberts, Don Etherington, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books: a Dictionary of Descriptive Terminology, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1982
- The Dictionary of Paper, American Paper Institute, New York, Fourth Edition, 1980
- E.J.LaBarre, Dictionary and Encyclopedia of Paper and Paper-making, Swets & Zeitlinger, Amsterdam, 1969
- Silvie Turner, Which Paper?, Design Press, New York, 1991
- Eric Hebborn, ‘The Art Forger’s Handbook’ The Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY 1997.