Paper experiments

Fig 1. First attempt

I've done a few paper making experiments so far, all of which haven't gone to plan!

I started with treating the notes as regular ripped up paper but I soon found out this wouldn't work. As you can see from Fig 1. the notes didn't bind together enough even though I used three cups of water and one cup of notes.

After learning that I will probably need more water than the 3:1 water/note ratio I used at first I then went on and used more water than before. The outcome to this is Fig 2.. this was again too flimsy and didn't bind well either. It was however a significant improvement on the first attempt as I wasn't able to lift it up at all without it crumbling before my eyes.

Fig 2. Second attempt

I then, after doing more research into how to make paper, decided to use a blender to make my mixture into more a pulp rather than water mixed with chopped up notes. It's difficult because in all the youtube videos and research I've done on the subject I found that the paper blends well into paper. The resulting solution appears very much like liquid. With this in mind, I began to mix my notes with water as before. I decided to go for a 'more or less' approach than a more scientific ratio experience as this didn't work for me before. I'm sure this is because I'm working with notes rather than regular money like the situations in the youtube videos.