Papermaking Adventures: Water Retting

Back in March (see post here), I set out several fibers in buckets of water and wood ash to ret for a few months. Today I strained the fibers and and thoroughly rinsed them with the power wash setting on my garden hose.  To my delight, three of the four had broken down to form a wonderful pulp. Here are the before and after photos:

               Gampi

             L: before

             R: after

             Kozo
        L: before
        R: after
 

              Mulberry
    with bark attached
         L: before
         R: after

                Willow
           L: before
           R: after





The only unpleasant part of this process is the foul smell of the pulp, though that is to be expected. The kozo is the most smelly and the willow has no foul odor at all, in fact it has the same pleasant, aromatic scent it always has. To help mask the odor, I added lavender essential oil to the pulps. I am storing the gampi, kozo and mulberry in the buckets and hope to make paper with them in the next few days. The willow I laid out to dry. I will try cooking this with lye to see if it will break down.

To be continued...