Making Handmade Leaf Paper
I made handmade paper out of leaves! Okay, not 100% out of leaves, but pretty close. Ever since I started making handmade paper last summer, making paper with leaves was something I was interested in experimenting with.
Recently, I moved, as well. Prior to packing everything up, I wanted to make one more paper batch. I asked my Instagram followers what they’d like to see made: leaf paper, woodshaving paper, colored sand paper, or Freshly packaging paper. They voted for leaf paper.
So a couple of weekends ago, prior to moving, I did it (finally!). I had collected fallen leaves from the yard last autumn and after months of drying time, I was eager to use them. The leaves were overall still colorful, hadn’t decomposed, and were super crunchy.
The papermaking process was very similar to how I’ve used other inclusions—beat pulp, add sizing, gently beat leaf into fragments, mix it all together, pull sheets, let dry. After many months of learning about the papermaking process and fine tuning my set-up, I am just now starting to get more efficient with sheet pulling. Within a few hours, I was able to make about 18 sheets of leaf paper.
And, here is the result!
I will admit, when I first uncovered these from my dry box, I had mixed feelings about how they looked. The colors of the leaves became darker throughout the papermaking process; I wished they had stayed more vibrant. Since the leaf fragments were on both sides of the sheet, the coloring showed through from one side to the other, which resulted in dark patches I thought made these sheets look messy.
The color of the leaves was bright on the mould & deckle, and unfortunately dulled down somewhat in the final sheets.
On the other hand, how neat! Seeing legit leaves embedded into paper is unique and offers a lot of opportunity for creating bespoke crafts. Whenever I think something turns out so-so or poorly, I often have to remind myself that I am my own worst critic.
I shared the results on my Instagram and TikTok page, and the overwhelming sentiment was that people were really enjoying the leaf paper. So, maybe it’s all in my head, and these sheets are actually nice looking. (Let me know what you think in the comments below, I’m always curious to know!)
I still have some more leaves that I will use to make more leaf paper. One commenter from TikTok suggested that I blend the leaves more finely, and I think that is a good idea. I haven’t yet tried using these sheets in any of my bookbinding projects, so that will be the true test as to how usable these sheets are.
I do plan on selling a portion of this batch, so if you’re a crafter and interested in using one of these sheets in a project, pop on over to my shop!
