On the last day of the conference in Verona in September 2023 we visited the paper museum in Toscolano near Lake Garda. One of the highlights there was the possibility to make paper ourselves, and some of us - myself included - seized the opportunity. It is well known among paper historians that paper makers spend a few years practicing forming a sheet of paper at the vat before they are proficient enough to sell their product. This became very apparent when I tried to form some sheets of paper.
A common reduction in quality can appear when one gently shakes the mould to make the fibres felt. When I shook the mould backwards and forwards and just only very slightly rocked it at the same time, the paper immediately turned “cloudy”, for a lack of a better term (if you know the correct term, please let me know!), at the margins.
So-called papermaker‘s tears appear when one is not careful enough when taking off the deckle from the mould. And when the rags were not sorted properly or the paper pulp is not produced carefully enough, one might be able to see clumps of fibres or debris in the paper sheet.
Even in the later stages of paper production issues can arise. When the paper makers are not careful during couching the newly formed sheet onto felt, when dividing paper sheets from the felts after a stack of paper sheets and felts had been pressed, or when hanging the sheets to dry, wrinkles, tears, even imprint of fingers can occur. And when the sheets are not sized properly, the ink can spread, or “bleed”, through the page.
Some of these quality impairments may be visible to the naked eye, while others become visible only when looking at paper in transmitted light – or when writing on it. But even with these “mistakes”, it is very clear that paper makers have always been highly skilled people. When we try to maker paper, it also becomes clear that this profession takes its toll on our bodies. It is thus perhaps fitting to give human-inspired names to some of the impairments we find in hand-made paper.
Further reading
Schultz, Sandra and Johannes Follmer. "Von Brillen, Knoten und Wassertropfen: Auf der Suche nach Herstellungsspuren in historischen Papieren am Beispiel von Archivalien des Stadtarchivs Ravensburg." In Papier im mittelalterlichen Europa: Herstellung und Gebrauch, edited by Carla Meyer, Sandra Schultz and Bernd Schneidmüller, 11-46. Berlin, München, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110371413.11