Arnold Grummer Papermaking - Flying Bats

October is here and signs of Autumn are all around.  With October comes thoughts of "all hallows eve".    That brings visions of witch's and spiders and ghosts ... Oh my! ... bu how about throwing in some flying bats too.

The flying bat's will hang above the doorway of the den and will be visable as people enter the house. They actually move and spin slightly while hanging and add a fun look!

I had a large amount of black card stock remnants from a previous project.  The pieces were too irregular to keep for future projects.  Instead of tossing them I chose to recycle into black paper pulp.
First, the scraps were shredded and then soaked in water before processing in a blender.  At first the plan was to make as many sheets of black paper from the pulp.  While going through my stash of cookie cutters, I came across one in the shape of a bat and had what is called an ... "Ah Hah" moment.

The pulp was placed in a squeeze bottle, a basting tube can also be used.  NOTE: Place the wooden frame onto a baking pan with sides, layering the white plastic grid next, with the blue screen on top.  Place the cookie cutter shape onto the blue screen.  Fill the shape with the pulp to the the top edge.  If needed push the pulp to the inner edges.  While holding the cutter in place, to keep it from lifting, begin to press the edges of the sponge into the pulp to remove water.  Remove as much water as possible from the shape before lifting the cookie cutter away.  NOTE: If needed, use a end of a small, rounded tip of a knife to push the pulp from the edges of the cutter.

Place the gray screen over the image and press with sponge to remove more water.  Remove the screen and cover with a couch sheet, flip over and press through the blue screen.  Remove the blue screen.

Here is where I made a fun, somewhat unexpected discovery!  I purposely did not remove all of the water from the shapes.  Enough water was removed to make it so I could remove the image from the couch sheets to a parchment covered baking pan.  Set the oven to 275 degrees or no higher then 300.
Place the  shapes into the oven and watch them carefully.  As the shapes dry in this process, they will begin to destort themselves somewhat.  Each of the bat shapes came out a little different, some had more distortion then others.  The edges of the shapes will have an organic look to them.  NOTE: My original plan was to retrace the shape of the bat over the pressed pulp and trim to make nice even edges.  I actualy liked the look of the rougher edges!

I gave the bats two dots of white iridescent Scribbles 3D paint for eyes and draw lines with black glossy Scribbles paint onto the wings for some definition of the wings.

To hang the bat's - punch 1" circles from black card stock.  Cut a very small slit on top and bottom of the circles.  Wrap clear monofilement thread around the circles, into the slits, and knot.   Glue to the back of the bats. Leave enough thread for hanging.  Attach to a doorway for some spooky decorations!

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