GRAS with Paper Foundation

The Gathering Hand by GRAS has had the privilege of working with Paper Foundation on a limited-run of handmade notebooks.

Paper Foundation is an arts and heritage organisation, based in the Lake District, specialising in the traditional production of fine handmade papers. Working closely with Paper-Maker, Tom Frith-Powell, we composed a quiet palette of natural papers that honour the traditional craft, which takes place across several distinct acts:

Natural cloth and rags of linen, hemp, cotton and abaca fibres are a local source of material for the paper-maker. Following this initial gathering, the rags undergo a series of shredding – first by hand and then by traditional Hollander beater.  The fibres are slowly broken down into a fine pulp that is suspended in water to form a semi-homogenous mixture.

The milky liquid pulp is agitated and scooped up with porous moulds that allow it to settle in thin, fragile planes. Once pressed and dried, these planes mature into strong sheets of beautiful paper.

“The immediacy of the creation is one of the remarkable things about papermaking. You have a handful of seconds to form the sheet, and once those have passed there is no modification that can be made. There is a moment when the mould is pulled from the milky water and the incipient sheet is seen. The simple mix of linen and water transformed into something beautiful.”
Tom Frith-Powell, Paper-Maker

The cover stock presents a very simple traditional paper type: linen rag formed in the James Whatman style. The fine mesh of a Whatman “woven-mould” creates a more continuous, unbroken surface. Produced in a strong, 400gsm weight, this fresh paper is then pressed and dried between handwoven felts that wick away excess water and, in-turn, impart their mottled texture on to the fresh linen rag paper. When seen under raking light, the cover quietly tells its story.

Turning past the cover, the notebook’s inner-body is bookended by fine laid-paper, produced from abaca, cotton and hemp fibres. This fine paper compliments the linen rag stock softly and presents a paper-making-method that pre-dates the Whatman moulds. Laid paper is formed on a more sparse mould type, the “laid-mould”, that imprints its grid of wires onto the paper. Lifting the paper reveals this fine lattice of grid lines and, on occasion, the inclusion of watermarkings. The infinity mark, denoting papers of strength and longevity, is present on a handful of these books.

A small number of this edition is now available to purchase on The Gathering Hand website—thegatheringhand.com with free UK shipping, worldwide shipping, or next-day collection from Custom Lane.

Photography by Paula Szturc