this post was submitted on 24 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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A florist let me scavenge their trimmings yesterday. After two hours of separating everything by colour, I set the red, green, orange and yellow things to simmer for dye. That left me with all these white flowers, so I decided to soak them for paper making.

Making your own paper is simple:

  1. Soak in softened water (add baking soda) because the final product should be PH neutral. Acidic/basic paper will break down faster and alter/bleach anything put on them. Organics are naturally acidic, so I add baking soda and do a PH test before dipping my screens.

Optional: Cut up and mix in any uncoated paper waste you have laying around.

  1. Blend, remove/strain out any large bits that won't blend. I use an immesion blender.

  2. Make screens out of old, thin cloth and wooden frames. Polyester/silk/satin work best, anything that lets water pass through that the paper won't stick to.

  3. Pour the paper soup into a large, square container — big enough to fit the screens. Start lifting sheets out of the soup on the screens, let drain about a minute before flipping onto a flat towel. Alternatively, let the sheets dry on the screens.

  4. The best sheets are made by sandwiching between screens and hanging to dry. Whatever your method, uneven drying will crinkle the paper — but you can always iron it out later on between sheets of parchment or silicone.

The florist told me to come back again on February 13th for another big haul.

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[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Neat! Saving this for later, could be a nice project :)

[–] Wren@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago

I'm glad! It's a messy kind of fun. Rough paper is perfect for witchy crafts, too.

[–] yuri@pawb.social 5 points 2 weeks ago

very cool! i’m excited to see the end result ^^

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 weeks ago

Ooh can't wait to see the end result! I tried making paper many years ago without success, but may attempt again.