The History of Paper

At the beginning of time, man was in search of a space for expression that would enable him to materialize his ideas. Over the centuries many means of doing so came and went, cave man used stone, the walls of the caves and the bones of his food to engrave signs and to paint drawing to communicate with others. The Romans wrote on "tabellas" (wooden boards covered with wax) and the Greeks on pieces of terra cotta... So many great mediums but how much effort! The Egyptians found an alternative lighter and handier method - the Papyrus - and thus marked the beginning of the great history of paper.

Over 3000 years ago, the Egyptians traversed the marshy zones of the Nile delta to collect a reed there called 'Cyperus Papyrus'. This plant could reach 2 to 4 meters in height! They cut the stem, (a triangular cross section), in a length ways direction into fine plates - the length of the sections determining the height of the sheet (on average 40 cm) - then they longitudinally laid them out side by side, and then placed another layer over the top at opposite angles. The fibres were then intersected by weaving and flattened with a hammer.
This stage was carried out in wet conditions, the Nile water being used in the process to stick the fibres together. After that, the whole lot was pressed and left out to dry. The sheet was then smoothed and polished with the help of a stone to obtain a paper with the exceptional characteristics of the time. The last stage was to glue the sheets together with starch with the idea that the rolls of papyrus consisted of laterally stuck sheets. Twenty sheets formed a 'scapus' and several scapi made a volume. The front, where the plates or sheets were presented horizontally, was used for writing while the back, letting show the horizontal fibres show through, remained untouched.

Flexible, resistant and not absorbing lots of ink, papyrus became the support of the famous hieroglyphics and that of Mediterranean cultures. The Egyptians took this support to the top of its status.

Its manufacture being relatively expensive, papyrus was usually reserved for religious, literary and scientifically important texts. In addition to these hieroglyphic manuscripts, its prestige was such that it was sometimes placed in the tomb of certain deceased people to testify to their very high social status. Papyrus had a royal and divine dimension in Ancient Egypt.
Today papyrus is used for painting, printing, decorative art or craft projects. This ancestral support gives an attractive dimension to all kinds of original creations.

Even though it flourished with many papyrus gradually saw its prestige fading at the dawn of the Byzantine period with the arrival of parchment. With its solidity and possibility it offered to write on both sides, parchment manufactured from tanned animal skin - cattle or camel with the Persians and the Hebrews, and deer leather with the Mayas and Aztecs - gradually supplanted the papyrus (No pun intended!). Parchment was created in Pergame, in the Hellenistic kingdom of Asia Minor, in 200BC, and was normally reserved for official documents intended for the files and for the crown texts.
The parchment of the Persians and the Hebrews was however only a transition before the discovery of paper.

 The invention of paper - from China to Japan.

In true revolutionary style in the history of humanity, the discovery of paper in China was to slice the fruit of contention between so many generations: to conceive a support that at the same time was stable, flexible, aesthetic and light but yet whose manufacturing cost would allow a diffusion on a large scale. A "democratisation" to some extent.

According to several historical studies, the invention of paper, is credited to Cai Lun (also known under the name of Tsai Lun), a senior official of the court of Emperor Ho, and dates back to the first year of Yuan Xing, namely 105AD. Annuals of the Han dynasty reveal to us that their reign was one of the most prolific in history and that they had managed to overcome the difficulties posed by the technique of weaving of fibres for the manufacture of paper.

Chinese paper was produced from the bark of the mulberry tree, hemp and bamboo. The craftsmen cooked all these elements in a detergent of wood ashes and beat the paste to get a homogenous pulp. They then used water to return the consistency of this paste to something more fluid and then spread it out over a sieve. After the last phase, drying off in the sun, the result of this meticulous process showed through: a splendid sheet of paper, some of the first in history.

This fantastic invention quickly became adopted in cultural and artistic mediums. Much lighter and cheaper than other materials, paper proliferated and quickly became the support of choice for scribes and artists.

It wasn't until 500 years after this Chinese creation, that paper made its appearance in Japan - in 610AD to be precise. The Chinese had provided the foundations in a process that would in fact be the core process of paper makers through the centuries. Japan now acted to work on this technique and to make improvements if possible. The Japanese rose quickly to the challenge.

The basic Chinese principles of paper production were taken for the Japanese process, but the Japanese were soon adding their ingredients. 
"Washi" is the term used in Japan to indicate that paper has been handmade. This paper is designed starting from natural fibres and contains only very few chemical substances. The particular technique called "Nagashi-Zuki" gives Japanese papers their strength and its lightness. The process consists of agitating the pulp so that the fibres of the mulberry tree arrange themselves in the desired direction and to make them hold the water, which it will then discharge with the help of a sieve.
Japanese paper offers an exceptional resistance to tearing and folds while being very malleable. It thus makes it possible to practise the art of folding (or Origami) without restriction and under the best conditions. No chemical substances are used for the treatment of the bands of bark of the mulberry tree. Craftsmen withdraw the impurities using detergent made from fire ash. The paper obtained has a neutral pH and an absolute purity. It contains neither chlorine nor iron because no ferrous machinery or tools are used during the preparation of the pulp.
Today "Washi" is used for the restoration of old documents, in particular of books.
This is why it is essential to obtain fibres as clear as possible. Craftsmen take care of the purity of fibres and the spring water for the treatment and the completion. The flexible fibres of mulberry tree are bleached thanks to a long exposure to the sun in a shallow basin filled mountain stream water (a brook is deviated towards the basin). The Western industrial paper producers always took examples from the craftsman - think in particular where you often find paper mills - next to rivers.

Next the fibres are mixed with pure water in a wooden bucket and stirred with a bamboo cane. After that, a miracle product from the root of the hibiscus plant is added which will separate all of the fibres and prevent them from sticking together and sticking to the sieve.
The sieve is then fixed in the Keta (1), a double framework in cypress articulated by hinges.
The whole frame is then submersed into the pulp (containing fibres, pure water and the extract) and is then agitated back and forth and side-to-side. Doing this several times intersects the fibres better. Water having been partly absorbed, the fibres are in suspension in less and less water. After draining the sheet is covered in a thin veil, stacked and left to dry
(1) Flexible sieve made of bits of Kaya tree.

The Japanese method - very similar to modern paper mill methods.

The wet paper pile then undergoes a pressing with such intensity that most of the moisture is eliminated and that paper becomes dry to the touch.

After a drying for approximately 24 to 48hrs, sheets are taken off - each one sandwiched between two pieces of cloth or veil to prevent them from sticking to each other.

The wet sheets are then placed on a wall with the help of a soft brush and allowed to dry or left out on sheets of metal that absorb the heat of the sun.