I'm making spanish moss paper... from moss.

Start with some run-of-the-mill spanish moss. Just grab it from the trees.

Soak it in water for a day or two. It'll smell like rotten seaweed and earth. That's normal.

I ended up with 1lb 12oz of dry moss, so I used 5-ish oz of soda ash to cook it in. Don't touch this stuff or breath it in. It's a lot like lye. Remember that scene in Fight Club where he burns his hand... yea. That will happen once you mix it with boiling water. 

 

Come on baby light my FIRE! (pronounced: Fayaahh!)

Put the boiling soda-ash water, spanish moss, and more water in a pot and boil that madness for 2 hours or so. It'll smell kinda like popcorn in the end, with water as black as a moonless night.

Once the moss cools, you have to wash out all the soda ash. After the long bath we then it all goes into the beater! It essentially mashes the hell out of it for as long as you want. I let it go about 2 hours.

FROTHY!

Once you are done beating the moss into pulp you have to drain the beater, and strain the moss. Here we are adding sizing to the remaining pulp so that I can draw on the paper later without the ink bleeding.

Then you clean your beater. Turns out the tiny fibers from the moss are a pain in the ass to clean out of all the moving parts, but we eventually got it all. 

Here is the moss pulp mixed with other pulp to make it stronger and lighter in color.

Once you pull the pulp and get a good pile you have to press it to get the extra water out. (There are a few more steps, so send a message if you have questions)

Here it is after the first press. Let it air dry for about a half hour then on to the next press!

 Detail shot for texture.

Here's the final press. The damp paper will be sandwiched in this device for about 2 days. It's got ventilation to dry it out, and lots of steady pressure so they stay flat. 

I ran out of time, so I had to take all the extra pulp from the water bath and dry it out. I will make more moss paper another time. I got 7 good sheets out of this first run! These little bits can be put in a ziplock bag once they're dry (a week or so depending on humidity) and used later.