When my son David was in the 6th grade, his social studies class focused on Ancient Egypt as part of their curriculum. For a school project, we decided to make real paper from some of the papyrus growing on my patio. We started growing the papyrus in May, and by late summer, the stalks were large enough to use for this project. Here is the step-by-step process that we used, photographed by David:
There were several stalks that were broken in a recent wind-storm, so we decided to cut those.
The widest part of the stalk, which makes the best paper, is closest to the root, so we tied to cut as far down as possible.
Removing one of the papyrus stalks.
This was a particularly large stalk, with very good, dense fiber inside.
The next step was peeling off the rind, the outer green layer of the papyrus.
After removing the outer layer, the stalk was sliced into thin strips.
We laid out the stips lengthwise and crosswise on a wooden board, putting them together closely so there would not be any gaps in the paper.
We put newspaper over the sheet of papyrus to absorb moisture, and then we tried using heavy books on top.
The books did not work very well, because they were not heavy enough to press out enough moisture, so we decided to use C-clamps instead.
David and I each made one piece of papyrus paper in this manner.
Here's David's finished piece of paper. Nekhtet! ("Victory!" or "Yay!" in Kemetic)
All material on this website is copyright © 1999-2007 by Neferuhethert. All graphics which are not original works have been credited to their source or used with permission. No use of either written or graphical material is allowed in any form whatsoever without prior written permission. Questions should be directed to neferuhethert at aol.com. All rights reserved. This is a non-profit website for educational purposes only. Last updated 07/08/07.
