Last month I was invited to a bloggers event at the James Cropper paper mill by Paper Mill Direct. A few of us gathered together to make paper, have a tour of the paper mill, and discuss ideas for the future of Paper Mill Direct. Not only that but it was right in the heart of the Lake District, and I got to stay overnight in a lovely hotel.
It was lovely!
I must admit that I had no idea what a paper mill was like, and quite how huge it was going to be. It was massive!
After a lovely lunch we headed to the laboratory to learn how to make our own paper. It was a fascinating process, and being able to add our own ingredients was brilliant.
After blending the pulp with the extra special ingredients or colours, lots and lots of water was added to the mixture. I was amazed at how much water.
This mixture was then poured onto a mesh tray and spread out into a flattish sheet, where most of that water was drained away.
It was given a little shake and...
Voila! Flipped onto some blotting paper as an actual piece of (very soggy) paper.
A gorgeous old press squeezed even more of the water out.
Then the newly formed paper was peeled from the wet blotting paper and put through a dryer. Simple.
There were four bloggers and the lovely Hilary from Craft Blog UK who had organised the event.
After learning how to make basic paper, each of us made our own paper with our special added extras.
I made carrot seed paper. Which I will explain more about in the next post - the great carrot growing experiment. Eek!
There was chilli paper and tea paper...
... paper made with grapes...
... and paper made with glitter.
It was fab!
After the paper making we went on a tour of the factory. It was fascinating. And huge!
Everything we saw in the laboratory was almost exactly replicated on a much larger scale. From the mixers and blenders to the presses and dryers.
The mill runs constantly for five days a week, without stopping. Not even for tea!
So any mistakes have to be fixed very, very quickly as tens of thousands of metres are running through the mill all the time, and the wrong colour being mixed in at the start could mean an almost instant batch of paper all in the wrong shade!
The rolls of paper were so huge they actually had robots to move them around the factory!
The whole thing was completely brilliant, and chatting with the other bloggers and staff from Paper Mill Direct about ideas for marketing, projects, products, and plans was super exciting. I felt really priviledged to have been invited.
P.S. Do pop back later to find out about my great carrot growing experiment. I can't wait!
