I admit now, I m a serial hobbyist. I start a new craft and get into it, and then a few months later, I start something else. I don't stop previous ones... I just do them less than I used to. The Galt Papermaking Kit was bought as a present for me by my fiancé - he knew I wanted to start making handmade paper.

I started off following the basic directions - rip up some old newspaper, soak in water for an hour to soften, put into the pulp-maker (a little plastic bottle), add water, and shake vigorously for a few minutes. Add some of the waterbased paints to give colour if required, put the mould and mesh together, float in water, and pour in the pulpy mixture. Lift it out of the water, unclip the mould, and squeeze the paper onto a drying board. Very simple to do.

There are a few comments about this method: using newspapers with the print on makes a much muckier darker paper, and the ink comes off in the pulp-maker. Fortunately this doesn't affect future pulp, which comes out clean. The ideal, although more time-consuming, thing to do is cut the unprinted edges off newspaper, or use plain unused paper (eg printer paper). Very little paint is needed to tint the paper, and the tendency is there to squeeze more in than you need, which makes the paper darker and more likely to stain while wet. The paper comes out with one very smooth side, and one very hatched side, with the typical "deckle" edge of handmade paper. White PVA glue is provided which, when diluted with water, is brushed onto the smooth surface of the paper, preventing the ink being absorbed into it while writing. This is called sizing.

This is all well and good, but the mould limits you to making approximately A5 sheets and envelopes (tear the envelope flaps off to make the writing paper). This is enough for kids or people wanting to make writing paper for their own use, but I wanted to make al my wedding invites.

So, I started looking for materials to make my own "deckle and mould", in the right size. Making the frame parts to support and mould the paper was pretty easy - I used strips of wood. However, my search for suitable mesh material was of mythological proportions .. even Jason and the Argonauts would have blanched. I tried canvas, I tried muslin, I tried an organza-like material. I tried tights. I even hacked up my splatter guard of fine metal mesh and tried that. But nothing was as effective as my now very well used Galt Papermaking Kit mesh. They were either too absorbent, so the paper stuck to them, or they formed an airlock with the water, so that the paper didn't drain and didn't get sucked into a sheet on the mesh. The Galt kit's mesh is more like slits with one edge pushed up and the other down, making vertical holes, than a standard mesh. (Incidentally, tights are second-best for formation of the sheet, but worst for durability.) The mesh was so good, in fact, that I went our and scoured the entirety of East Anglia for 2 more kits! I have managed to make all 125+ invites for our wedding, and from all the comments we have received back so far, it was definitely worth every last minute of the effort.

I would recommend the Galt Kit as a whole to children and adults who have a creative bent and would like to make their own letter paper. It is very much worth taking a little extra effort and using clean paper, and it is also worth experimenting with additional bits and pieces in the paper, such as glitter, wool fibres, pressed flowers and more. You cn make some really gorgeous pieces just with this kit. For more serious crafters who want to make their own handmade paper in other sizes, this kit is still worth buying for the mesh if nothing else!

This is a very well designed, durable kit - and after using and abusing it merrily for the last few months, I can see why it is one of the longest running Galt kits, lasting long after others have been put out of production.



Recommended: Yes