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See the claymation video for a fun explanation of the same process. Thank you for the compliment!

Making paper from leaves is a little different, unless you're planning to deconstruct them in lye. The way I've seen it being done is through layering of leaves on top of each other. But, I don't have experience with that - so I'm not even sure of the process. There are books that delineate how to do that, however.

Check here for more info: www.chaoticgardening.com/blossom/growing-my-own-kakishibu/index.html

It is a running bamboo, rather than a clumping type. I would say that outside of its natural range (southeastern US), it is likely to be unpredictable. I don’t know of any horticultural trials on rivercane, either. I know that folks using it in restoration projects have some difficulty in getting it established, though often we get better at things like this with experience and sharing knowledge.

@@SEEthnobotany Thank you for your reply.

Thanks, Michael! Was created to make my otherwise boring discussion of the process come alive!

Thanks, Mary Jane! I always wished I could do voice overs. :-)

Ilex vomitoria is the species you need. All varieties of this species should (scientific waffle word since not all species have been tested) have caffeine and since they are hollies, the berries will be useful to wildlife - well, at least as long as you have both male and female yaupons as both are needed for berry production. In the Hort trade, look for Ilex vomitoria var. 'nana' as an example. This one is a small leaved variety and has been tested (positively) for caffeine. I would be super surprised if any of the named varieties didn't have caffeine - though, it's possible if there are breeders out there breeding specifically to get rid of this trait.

@@SEEthnobotany thank you so much!!

Is it good tea

Hi did you end up getting this tree in your garden? I too want to grow it. Am in the sub tropic area eastern side of Australia in permaculture too. I would love to have this in my garden to add to my other tea making plants. I also have coffee trees growing.

@@whatsthestorygirl922 I have not yet. The only one I could find for sale locally was pretty large and out of my budget.

Jason - are you a botanist? It would be good to get a dried herbarium specimen of this plant into an herbarium in Oklahoma, as a good record of distribution. I only see it having been recorded along streams in the SE corner of the state. If in NE Oklahoma, it would be helpful to know where - in order to understand if this is a natural distribution or if human distributed. If human distributed, that is also important as it may be a former cultivation site.

This, and I should say THESE specimens, since I have found a few more, were all growing at the base of established trees, indicating to me that they were seeded by passing through a bird's digestive tract. I am now suspecting that they are of the 'nana' cultivar, and that their parents were planted as ornamental shrubs - so, not deliberately cultivated per se, at least not for ethnobotanical purposes.

I don't know of any besides Carriage House. Do you belong to the listserve PaperMaking on yahoo groups? If so, you might ask this question of the group. Alternately, you could grow your own if you have space. I grew a weeping mulberry and harvested from it with some regularity - it made nice paper.

Yes, but it would take much longer. You could make your own lye from ashes - that would concentrate it.

Yes, but not in the same shape prior to the cut.

Colleen Forrest okra slime from roots could be a good deflocculant. That’s different from flocking. The purpose of a deflocclant is to puff up the fibers and therefore slow the drainage through the screen-it makes for a more uniform sheet of paper and allows thinner sheets to be made. Flocking is a term more often used to denote the addition of fiber as a finishing technique on paper (or cloth).

@@SEEthnobotany Thanks! Good info. I have paper mulberry on my property. Its thought of as a weed here. I grow okra every year in my garden, so this could be a fun Fall experiment.

I forgot to say that Tororo aoi' (Abelmoschus manihot) is related to okra distantly. People used to beat the root of Tororo aoi, put it in muslin, soak it and hang it over the vat (assuming you were working a vat for a few days or more. The resulting slime would drip in.

You don't need glue to make paper. It's created naturally from bonds in the cellulose fibers of the plant one uses. Papermaking simply reorders them from being organized in the plant, disorganized as one pulls them apart and beats them, more organization within a vat as fibers bond lightly to water molecules and then fibers bonding to each other (again) as them water drains from the paper.

What state & temperature climate do you live in? I want to raise silkworms too in USA. Where did you get the silkworms and know how to raise them? Do you turn the threads onto a spool and weave with the threads? How much silk can you get from 4500 cocoons. Why won't all of them "spin"? How many trees do you need? Are these peace silk? That's what I really want to make. What do you need to raise silkworms and make silk fabric?

@@tracyphoenix8 I'm in Tennessee but mulberry grows in a lot of regions. I get eggs from Mulberry Farms. if you let them spin and keep some of the pupa, you can let them mate and put your mated couples under small paper cups on a sheet of paper, keep the paper in the fridge until next spring and raise your own

@@tracyphoenix8 I've no experience in raising silkworms. Peace silk is made from the spent cocoons of the moth - in other words, the pupae has already turned into a moth and escaped the cocoon. In traditional silk making, the pupae is destroyed.

You could experiment with leaves, but your suggestion of their use as decorative element is probably more reasonable. Small limbs ~thumb size in diameter or smaller are best. You'll see as you experiment that the bark on larger limbs is more compressed, harder to remove and has less usable (by the handmade papermaker) fiber. Couching cloth can be as simple as 'handiwipes' or old sheets to nicer options like felt (including polyester interfacing alternatives). See Carriage House Paper for those. Strictly speaking, you don't have to have couching cloths. I've certainly transferred wet paper directly onto boards (I used old wood paneling) to dry. Keep in mind that couch cloths can confer pattern onto dried paper -- which may or may not be desirable. For paper that is good enough quality for calligraphy, you'll need to add sizing so that the ink doesn't run (unless you prefer that effect).Smooth papers can be created by drying in a press. I've also known papermakers who actually burnish one side with a smooth stone to get a nice effect. Also, ask others -- I haven't created a lot of paper for this purpose, so others will have more experience and better ideas.

You can use leaves, but the process is different. I wouldn't mix leaves and bark. I use old sheets as couching cloths. Then, I transfer the paper to a flat surface (back side of wood paneling), set in the sun and dry.

Been too long -- don't remember. It was a small handful of fiber. I suspect less than ten sheets...BUT, if memory serves, I refrigerated a portion of what I harvested and used it later. So, what you're seeing in the video is not ALL of the fiber.

alfredesquer it depends entirely on what the intended usage is...for me, the usage is in 3-D artworks and so I don't want it to be flat. However, when I am looking for flat paper, I typically use my plant press which flattens things nicely. Also, to flatten out existing non-flat sheets, I spray a little water on them and put them in the plant press for a couple of days to dry (along with heat -- not an issue in Texas).

It totally depends on what your end product is. Personally, I like paper that is more sculptural because I use it that way. But, if I were making paper to write or draw on, yes, a press would be nice. I have often used my own plant press to dry papers. It does a decent job, but not nearly as nice as some of the large presses out there used by professional papermakers