this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
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The Grind & Bind Art Alchemist's Guild

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Good day and welcome to The Grind and Bind Art Alchemist's Guild.

An artist's community for the kind of people who don't just paint, they scavenge pigment from rotten leftovers. It's for potters who dig their clay from riverbeds, for weavers who spin their own wool (and probably know the name of the sheep,) and it's for digital artists who hack away at their creative endeavors.

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Most art makes people better, but this place can only make you worse, poorer, stained, and consumed by the craft.

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A much better set of instructions, since my quick and dirty run down on my last post left a lot to the imagination.

I made my screens and deckles from old matching picture frames and dollar store canvases, where I pulled the canvas off the frames and stretched old polyester or silk scarves for the screen half.

Here's a diagram with the staple order to get the tightest surface if you're MacGyvering your own paper-makers. It won't seem intuitive if you've never had to stretch your own canvas, but I've stretched dozens of screen and canvases — this is the best way. You'll get a better result if the fabric is wet, but careful not to put too much tension on a weak frame.

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[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Fuck it, guess I'm making paper now. Seems a cheap and easy way to keep my ADHD preoccupied for a week or two.

[–] Wren@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Congrats on your new hyperfications. A paper shredder is a great investment if you get really into it. I save all my banana peels to make black banana paper.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

You just make it normal but with peels instead of pulp? Or do you add peels to normal pulp?

Edit to clarify.

[–] Wren@lemmy.today 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Okay, so, basically anything with fibre can be paper pulp. I scrape all the the excess starchy bits off the peels and hang them to dry, like I have a clothesline of dessicated banana peels in the kitchen. Once they're bone dry I throw them in a bucket. When I have enough, I soak them again, blend, make paper. Nothing needs to be added, but you can throw in extra scrap if you want.

Too much starch makes paper brittle.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 3 points 2 weeks ago

Dope! Thanks homie!