The most successful paper experiment so far

The paper experiments continue.

I've been determined to find a perfect paper to water ratio through endless experiments!
Here is an image of my fourth and most successful sheet yet. It's not perfect but is durable enough to cut, fold and hold. It's not as delicate as the other attempts from yesterday. I like how the paper is lighter in colour than the previous sheets but still has some money details if you look closely.
I improved on the paper attempt by adding a lot more water than before. I filled up the blender with water, coupled with only a third of a cup of notes. This seemed to work best.. the more water the better. 

What will I do next? Next  I will add less notes and keep the water the same level. If my theory of 'the more water the better' then I predict the resulting paper will be an improved one. I also want to test what happens if I blend the notes more because I blended these notes for approximately 4 minutes whereas I blended them yesterday for about 2minutes. 

My feelings on this project have settled since yesterday; this is because today is more of a successful day in terms of the paper being useable therefore this has impacted my mood on the several stages of the making process. It's more enjoyable now I feel. I still struggle with being careful when peeling the wet paper off the deckle but this will, I'm sure, come with practice.

Fourth attempt.

Reflecting on the significance of using out of circulation bank notes

I've been thinking a lot about, not only the practicalities of working with bank notes, but also the concept of working with such a material, in an art therapy sense. I want to find out more concerning the complexities of working or training as an art therapists and how this impacts their personal art making. I have touched on reading the studio art practice… I hope this will aid my thinking in the future.

The notion of the giving something a purpose where there is none is vacant within my current art practice. This sense of healing the shredded notes in order to give it a new form is shown here. I have been exploring the issue of value, both in my personal therapy experience as well as my art practice. I didn’t, at first, put the two together until this week’s therapy where I made the connection, which wasn’t clear to me before. As I continue to learn more and more about art therapy I seem to be able to make these connections straightforwardly. I am literally taking an item with no value; a once highly valued object has become debunked, unusable, deemed too old. Undeserving of use in society. I am, in a sense, rescuing this object in an attempt to repair it; give it life, value and substance again. I use my solid methodological way of working to systematically create a paper making process… a papermaking machine almost, where I through many mixed emotions (that I have previously discussed) make this paper. Once each sheet is finished I am overcome with joy at taking what was once a cup of shredded, useless paper into a solid, worthy object. A sheet of a paper. A sheet that can be written on, torn, created into origami if one is willing. It now has a purpose and there is something extremely rewarding when taking on this process. It does, merely upon reflection, remind me of the therapeutic process. This process that attempts to help a person, to heal this person, to hopefully allow them back into society with a new viewpoint.