Erosion Bundle Project Reveal -

"Erosion Cube - Final Reveal"

digital photograph by Mick Mather
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Here's the final result of "Erosion Cube", my addition to Kris Henderson's "The Erosion Bundle Project". As promised, I finally plugged in the blender containing the remnants of the cube and chopped everything up. Since a blender is not exactly a papermaking beater, lots of chunks and globs were left behind and made an especially thick slurry of paper pulp. The pulp was poured straight into a 5-gallon plastic tub filled with about a gallon of tap water and stirred vigorously. I made my own mold & deckle from an old food container (the omelet that came home from the diner in it was delicious and never made it into the paper) adding a screen in between from an old mesh bag that once contained onions. These three parts, held together with two spring-lever paper clips, were dipped into the stirred pulp. After lifting the screen - thickly covered with fine paper pulp along with chunks, lumps, thread and string - the clips were removed, frame & deckle taken apart and the screen was turned over onto a layer of fabric. The pulpy mass was covered with a paper towel and kneaded by hand to flatten, remove excess water (there was a lot) and to free the screen. After the session was completed, the wet sheets were placed in direct sunlight and allowed to air dry - about 4 or 5 hours. No, I didn't use felts or a press or a rolling pin or an iron or anything too fancy and I must admit that I'm completely satisfied with the results. For a photomontage of some of the steps described go to No Matter What Shape - The Archive.