“In the 70’s, I learned that abaca was being used by some specialty mills in Massachusetts and Connecticut for the making of filter papers and teabags. I visited the research and development departments of those mills, and was told that originally they had tried using paper mulberry fiber from Asia, which worked, but it was very expensive, and they sought an alternative, which was abaca. I obtained samples of the abaca pulp in sheet form, and it was wonderful for my work. At that time, in 1976, I was on my way to Asia on my first papermaking expedition, and my friends at the paper mill furnished me with the information about the pulp mill where they obtained the abaca. I visited there, and came back with loads of sheets of abaca. Meanwhile, I also found another mill in western Mass. that had bought many bales of abaca to try out for a specific project, but they decided not to use it, and sold me quite a bit of it. This enabled me to not only use it myself, but also to use it in teaching. My students loved it – it was a fantastic alternative to cotton linters, as it could be easily pulped and could be used to make very thin, yet strong paper. That’s why it was used for teabags – the abaca has tremendous wet strength as well as dry strength. Throughout the 70’s and 80’s Donna and I did a lot of teaching all over the U.S., mainly using abaca, since it made great paper without the need for a Hollander beater. Our students wanted to buy the abaca from us, and that’s how our Carriage House studio began selling papermaking supplies.”
Thank you for your contributions to the field of hand papermaking, Elaine!