New Zealand handmade paper and calligraphy

The gentle art of making paper by hand is still done in the traditional manner. Blends of natural plant fibres impart their distinctive colours and textures to the paper resulting in every sheet being slightly different. The irregular 'deckle' edge and slight imperfections distinguish handmade paper from its machine made equivalent. Traditionally, watermarks are used to identify the origin of the paper. Our 'Imerina' watermark signifies the simple constituents of paper – water and plant material.

We have a selection of positive, empowering quotes about children, parenting, love, marriage, and friendship handwritten in calligraphy style on handmade paper. These make ideal gifts for friends and family for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, Christenings, blessingways, Christmas, and overseas. The scripts come in two sizes; B5 and A4. The B5 scripts have a decorative border and/or cottage garden/NZ native pressed flowers as decoration. The scripts look lovely framed (please allow the distinctive 'deckle' edge to show if framing).

All scripts are laboriously handwritten with calligraphy pens and ink. Due to different blends of plant material being used in the making of the paper, the natural colour and texture of the paper may vary from the samples shown below. Cottage garden or NZ native pressed flowers are used to decorate the B5 scripts and these may vary from the samples shown below. All scripts are packaged in cellophane.

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Price of B5 scripts - $10 each or $8 each for two (or more)
Price of A4 scripts - $15 each or $12 each for two (or more)
Stock up for birthdays and Christmas!

Please contact us if you would like to order a script.

1) Sourcing good quality paper for making the handmade paper
2) Choosing and sorting colours, checking for, and removing any sticky tape or staples
3) Ripping up unshredded paper
4) Soaking paper pieces in water overnight
5) Thoroughly blending soaked paper, by the handful in plenty of water
6) Draining each blenderful of pulp to store in buckets
7) Sourcing and drying leaves, herbs and bark (for texture), prior to papermaking
8) Soaking then blending this plant material to add to vat when papermaking
9) Twice boiling and twice rinsing all couching cloths* to remove gelatine residue from last batch of paper
10) Heating up water in Old Building and setting up all of the necessary equipment
11) Sheets of paper are formed by dipping the mould* and deckle* into the vat of paper pulp and lifting them out horizontally
12) The layer of pulp on the screen, the newly formed sheet of paper, is then placed onto a damp couching cloth
13) These wet sheets are pressed well to remove excess water

14) Each sheet of paper, on its couching cloth, is laid out to dry for a couple of days
15) Each sheet is then sized* with a hot gelatine solution
16) A second period of drying is required
17) All sheets are gathered up and paper gently removed from each couching cloth
18) Each sheet of paper is checked for quality, blemishes or tears
19) Sheets are sorted according to texture, thickness and colour, with the watermark* to the top edge
20) Sheets of paper are then weighted under large books to flatten out
21) Any creased couching cloths are ironed smooth again
22) Each sheet of paper is carefully measured up and lines ruled with soft pencil
23) Quotes that fit a certain space/number of lines have been chosen
24) Three different sized pen nibs are used, depending on size of quote
25) Each script is carefully printed by hand
26) Once the ink is dry, all pencil lines are carefully rubbed out
27) Meanwhile, suitable flowers have been sourced and pressed for at least six weeks before use
28) The appropriate pressed flower is then chosen, glued on and the script is then pressed until the glue is dried
29) Each script is stamped with a personal name seal and a descriptive label attached to the back
30) Each script is finally wrapped in cellophane, ready for sale

Definitions:
*mould - a rectangular frame with mesh stretched across it
*deckle - an open frame of the same size as the mould, which lies on top of the mesh-covered side of the mould to turn the whole thing into a temporary sieve
*couching cloth - (pronounced `cooching' cloth) is a piece of material that the layer of pulp from the surface of the mesh is laid on
*sizing - an operation to seal the surface of the paper so that water-based inks or paints will not run
*watermark - a means of identifying the origin of a piece of paper

The Geraldine Creamery

Dairying was an early form of farming on the cleared bushland of the Geraldine district. A small cheese factory was built in 1884 at Pleasant Valley where there was a considerable sawmilling population. It was remarkably well constructed of locally quarried black basalt with white limestone dressings and heavy kauri and gum beams. It is the oldest existing dairy factory building in New Zealand and the present owner A.C. Ebbett makes handmade paper in the old factory. Reference: NZ Historic Places Trust, 1991. South Canterbury Historical Guide.

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