My resolution to stay focussed on quilts has taken a backward step.  I have just finished a three day paper making class with Meg Viney (over three Saturdays).  Meg is a sculpturer working in paper and felt and probably lots of other things.  Her paper is made from all sorts of fibre - including vegetable scraps left over from making soup!

The above photo shows a sheet of paper I made from Flax.  We drove out into the country side to harvest the fibre.  This flax was taken from some enormous clumps growing on the road side in front of a farm house.  We also collected leaves from Red Hot Poker, Daffodils, Irises and canna.  The red hot poker creates a reddish brown paper and the dafodils and iris made green and the dried canna leaves made the most beautiful chocolate brown.

I never realised how simple this process is!  We chopped the leaves up and the boiled them with a few tablespoons of caustic soda for an hour (or until slimy).  We rinsed the mush to get the caustic out ... and thats the fibre ready to use to make sheets of paper or to mould into a scupture.  I started a large vessel yesterday and I hope to work on it more during the coming weeks :-) 

The only problem with that plan is that I am attending the Geelong Textile Fibre Forum next week... once again diverting myself from my quilt making.  I'm going to learn how to make shoes on a last.

Flax paper made from scratch