I had the great pleasure of having a free day today! My normal commitment to the Community Quilt Center was covered by someone else (thank you Mary!). I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to use the day, but a need arose!
When I did my last batch of papermaking, I realized I really should look into setting up a drying rack to dry the sheets more quickly. There are lots of good ideas out there and one in particular calls for layers of corrugated cardboard to wick out the moisture and a fan to blow through the corrugation and dry things out.
A recent post on the papermaking list mentioned the plastic corrugated political signs as being good to use for the rack. When I questioned how moisture would wick, the person who posted said it didn’t but that the system worked for her.
Well, I HAVE plastic corrugated political signs. I got to thinking that I could punch holes in the corrugation to help with air flow to the bottom of the sheet of paper….and then I thought about using it for covers in bookmaking.
So, down to the studio to try things out. Yes, holes can be easily punched through the plastic to ventilate the sheets, so I think a drying rack will work. Yes, the plastic can be cut for book covers. I tried pasting both paper and cloth on to the plastic covers and it seemed to work fine – as long as I spread the glue on the cloth/paper and then put that on the plastic. Finished up the cloth book with a spine and a little hinge business on both sides of the spine. Hmmmm, will take a picture tomorrow.
Good thing that the signs will work – my sister is bringing in more of them on Sunday! They still have a pile left over from her husband’s run for city council so I’ll just help them out a bit in decreasing the pile.
A perfect Earth Day activity!