Profession artisan papermaker

Artisan papermakers create paper slurry, strain it on screens, and dry it manually or using small scale equipment.

Personality Type

• Artistic / Realistic

Knowledge

• Drying methods

  Use different methods to dry handmade paper, such as air drying, stamping, wiping, vacuum, and iron drying.

• Types of paper

  The different criteria used to determine differences in paper types such as coarseness and thickness, and the different fabrication methods and wood types from which the types of paper stem.

• Types of pulp

  Kinds of pulp are distinguished based on their fibre type and the specific chemical processes through which they were created.

• Sizes of paper

  Different kinds of paper sizes such as folio, quarto, octavo, and sixteen-mo. Each type indicates how many times the paper has to be folded. While these are older, they are nowadays connected with ISO standards such as the A paper sizes.

Skills

• Wash fibres

  Remove the chemical solution of the digesting process, making paper pulp soft and fibrous.

• Press paper manually

  Press the paper with a couching sheet or felts and press bar, further draining water of the paper and reducing drying time. The goal is to press in a way that the whole of the paper dries evenly. Press bars can be books, couching sheets or mechanically operated paper presses.

• Follow a brief

  Interpret and meet requirements and expectations, as discussed and agreed upon with the customers.

• Strain paper on mould

  Adjust the paper to the size of the frame and insert a cover paper screen and grid on top of it. Strain the whole, and dump the paper pulp in the opening of the 'mould and deckle'. Distribute the paper pulp, let the water drain out on a metal sheet or cover and remove the mould without the grid.

• Make paper slurry

  Create paper slurry or pulp from recycled or used paper with water in mixers and blenders or other equipment. Add colors by adding papers in different colors.

• Meet contract specifications

  Meet contract specifications, schedules and manufacturers' information. Check that the work can be carried out in the estimated and allocated time.

• Dry paper manually

  Press a sponge on the pulp and screen to press water or chemical solutions out, forcing the pulp fibres to bond together.

• Identify customer's needs

  Use appropriate questions and active listening in order to identify customer expectations, desires and requirements according to product and services.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB