Contents of this website:

- Introduction (purpose)

- Background of experiment

- Hypothesis of what will occur

- Procedure

- Chronological pictures outlining procedure

- Data and observations gathered

- Conclusion

- Differences between original plan and final experiment

Introduction

The process of making paper in the confines of a lab room is fun and educational at the same time! (who would have thought!?!.... just kidding). This website will explain the process of beating fibers from a pair of blue jeans to make pulp, adding sizing into the pulp mixture to then form paper, and painting (using a watercolor technique) the mixture of a binder and a pigment onto the homemade sheets. The purpose is to examine the absorption effects the yellow paint has on the amount of time the pulp is beaten and also if different amounts of sizing drastically change the absorption of paint as well.

Background

Thankfully, prior to starting this final project I had already been introduced to most of the experiments included in the introduction above. Earlier in the year we did a lab that involved beating fibers to make homemade paper. We also did a lab that involved making our own binder and pigment. These two factors contributed to the idea for my final project, but I have also decided to take into account other data such as the difference in product of three homemade pieces of paper, all varying in the amount of time beaten, the weight of the paper produced, amounts of sizing used, and the L, a, and b measurements of the dried paint on the paper.

A brief history on the invention of paper: China was first credited with creating paper in the second century, A.D. and over the next several centuries, Arabs, Europeans, and Germans quickly caught on to the 'paper craze'. Paper mills did not make their way to America until the late 17th century with the installment of the first paper mill in Germantown, Pennsylvania. As the American population grew, so too did the need for paper. Currently, there are 598 paper mills disbursed across our great nation.

A brief history on the invention of paint: China, once again, is credited with this 'invention'. Cave markings in China from tens of thousands of years ago suggest that the use of paint was prevalent in ancient and prehistoric societies. Throughout the many centuries, paint has been used to communicate symbols to others, and in some ways is still used for this reason. By the 17th century, colors had been invented using hazardous concoctions such as lead and arsenic. Thankfully, by the 18th century, new means for creating these colors had been invented where the mixture no longer presented a serious danger to one's health.

Hypothesis

Prior to beginning the experiment, I predicted that the over-beaten pulp with the highest of the three amounts of sizing used (12 drops) would absorb the most amount of yellow paint.

Procedure

Part 1:

Creating Pulp- Wash a pair of blue jeans without soap in a washing machine 3 times (this removes the soap that has been absorbed from previously washing the jeans). After running the jeans through a dryer, cut the jeans into 3-4 inch cubes, intentionally cutting around the hem lines. Fill beater with water to the indicated mark on the inside of the machine. Weigh pulp on scale (I used 384 grams of cut fabric and had more than enough for my project). After weighing the fabric, place in a bucket of water so the fabric can absorb water (as to not absorb a large amount of the water from the beater once the squares have been placed in the machine). With the help of Dr. Bordley, place the beater on a setting of 20 and slowly begin adding the square pieces of fabric (all of my fabric was added approximately 30 minutes into the beating process). It is important to periodically check the fabric in the beater, making sure the squares are spread out. After all of the fabric is added, begin dropping the setting of the machine slowly until you reach the setting of 2. Record each time the setting is dropped (refer to data table 1).

Part 2:

Beating Pulp- After beater setting has dropped to 2, quickly raise the setting back to 20 and turn off the machine. Take a 100mL sample of the pulp and mix with 200mL water (provided). Use a stirrer to mix the water and pulp together, and then pour the mixture into a bottomless tin can that drains through a screen into a tall graduated cylinder. Record, with a stopwatch, how long it takes for the water to drain from the pulp to 240mL. Then, couch the drained pulp onto a piece of pelon with wool under it. Cover the pulp ring with another piece of pelon and then another piece of wool, so you have a sandwich. Use a rolling pin to further remove excess water from the pulp ring. Then, take the piece of pelon sheet the pulp ring is stuck to and press it to a drying board. Then, fill a bucket of water with some of the pulp/water mixture from the beater and label the bucket 'Round 1' (this is the bucket of underbeaten pulp). Turn the beater on again, and drop, more quickly, to a setting of 2. Record the time the beating begins, and periodically take samples to check the drainage time of the pulp (following the above procedure) to determine when you have reached the ideal pulp consistency (for my project, I raised the beater back to a setting of 20 and turned it off after 20 minutes of beating at a setting of 2). Refer to data tables 2 for results of the drainage time of the samples. Fill another bucket with some pulp from the beater and label it 'Round 2'. Finally, turn the beater back on and quickly drop the setting once again to 2. Record the time the beating starts, and take samples (using the procedure used in Round 1 and 2) to measure the amount of drainage time (for my project I beat the pulp for an additional 12 minutes, so 32 minutes in total). Raise the beater back to a setting of 20 and turn it off. Fill a third bucket with some amount of the pulp/water mixture from the beater and label is 'Round 3' (this is your overbeaten pulp).

Part 3:

Making Paper- Using a heart cookie-cutter to form the shape, make 3 pieces of paper from each of the 3 buckets of pulp, so 9 sheets in all. One piece of paper from each set should have 4, 8 and 12 drops of sizing. Using the deckle box (provided), fill with a given amount of water, place the heart shape onto the screen and fill it with the pulp/water mixture (100 mL of pulp/200 mL H20). Add 4, 8, or 12 drops of sizing and use a glass rod-mixer to thoroughly mix the sizing into the pulp. Then, as demonstrated by your professor and learned previously in the year, turn the knob of the deckle box to drain out the excess water. Then, use the couching method described above and press the heart-shaped piece of paper onto a drying board. Do this same procedure 9 times, obtaining 100mL pulp and adding 200mL water: 3 times from the bucket of underbeaten pulp, 3 times from the bucket of ideally beaten pulp, and 3 times from the bucket of overbeaten pulp. Be sure to add 4 drops of sizing to one piece of paper from each of the different amount of pulp, 8 drops to another, and 12 drops to the remaining piece. Press all sheets of paper firmly onto the drying board, label them, and allow to dry.

Part 4:

Dried Paper- When heart-shaped paper is dry, weigh each piece on a scale provided (refer to data table 3). Then, use an iron on each sheet of paper to activate the sizing.

Part 5:

Pigment/Making Binder- Using the following materials, mix together in a medium sized beaker to form a binder: 10mL gum arabic solution, 15 drops of strained honey, 10 drops of glycerin, .10 grams of benzonate. After mixing, measure an amount of lead tin yellow pigment (or any pigment of your choosing) using the scale (for my project I measured 8.0 grams of lead tin yellow pigment). Using a muller and a glass plate, pour the pigment (provided) onto the glass plate and begin, slowly, adding drops of the gum arabic binding mixture, recording how many drops are added (for my project I used 56 drops of gum arabic solution). Use the muller to mix the pigment and the binder until a nice consistency is formed. Then, using a scraping tool, gather the newly formed paint together and put into a small dish. Cover with plastic wrap to preserve the paint until time for use.

Part 6:

Painting- Wet a paint brush and use a glass plate, dipping the brush into the paint already prepared in Part 5 and then mixing with some water until a nice consistency of watercolor is formed. Paint, on the homemade sheets, a design of your choosing (for my project I painted the letters S E W A N E E and then painted two designs on the remaining sheets of paper). Please note that it is important to use the same consistency of paint and water when you begin working on a sheet of paper so that when you use the colorimeter to find the L, a and b measurements, each painted sample was painted with the same paint to water ratio. When the paint is dry, use the colorimeter to measure the L, a, and b coordinates (refer to data tables 4).

Part 7:

Final Product- The last picture in the sequence below shows a portion of my final product. I decided to use a heart shape for the 9 sheets of paper to add a more 'artsy' flare. After having painted 'S E W A N E E' on the 9 heart shaped pieces of paper, I used yarn to string each heart together and it is now hanging in my house as a reminder of what I created in Chemistry and Art.

The following display of pictures, viewing left to right, is a basic timeline of the above procedure. (In the 3rd picture, please notice that my hair is pulled back, I have on no jewelry, and I am wearing clothes that are suitable for lab work.. and I am also wearing a smile :)).

Observations and Data:

Observations-

When initially adding the fabric to the beating machine, the beater was extremely loud. A soapy residue began to form (assumedly because the jeans still had some soap left in the fabric from several previous washes). It was very important that I add the fabric squares to the machine very slowly because if I had not, the beater would have become jammed. I also had to periodically add water to the beater and occasionally stir the pulp in the beater with my hand to feel for large clumps (and if I found any, I would have to try and disperse the clumps in the water so that the beater would not get jammed). I observed that the size of the pulp clumps decreased as the beating time increased (and the noise from the beater decreased as well).

As the beating time increased, so too did the drainage time of the sample wafers (5).

Upon observing the dried final product sheets of paper, the sheets made from underbeaten pulp (sheets 1, 2 and 3) were significantly less strong than the sheets made from the overbeaten pulp (sheets 7, 8, and 9). When weighing the 9 sheets, the scale was very sensitive and, for example, when weighing a particular sheet twice in a row, the scale would show a slightly different reading. This change in weight could have been attributed to the air current in the room. With the exception of one piece of paper (sheet 6), the weight increased from sheet 1 to sheet 9.

When painting, the sheets of paper made from underbeaten pulp seem to be smoother because, when the paint was applied, fewer gaps in the paint appeared in comparison to the sheets of paper made with overbeaten pulp. Also, the paint seemed to dry quicker on the sheets of paper made from overbeaten pulp. Also, when the paint was added to the blue sheets of paper, the yellow paint looked as though it had turned a slightly green tint.

Data table 1:

Data tables 2:

Round 1 Sample:

Round 2 Samples: Beating began at 1:40p at a setting of 2

Round 3 Sample: Beating began at 2:15p at a setting of 2

data table 3:

Weight of dried pieces of paper-

data tables 4:

The L, a, and b measurements of the dried yellow paint on each sheet of paper.

The L, a, and b measurements of a sheet of underbeaten, beaten, and overbeaten pulp.

* Note:

L= measures the lightness- the more white the object, the higher the number.

a= the more green the object, the lower the number. The more red the object, the higher the number

b= the more blue the object, the lower the number. The more yellow the object, the higher the number

The following scatter plot graphs represent the L, a, and b measurements of the 9 sheets of paper: This is included in the website to further show that the L, a and b values do not follow any sort of evident pattern.

Conclusions

The purpose of this lab was to determine how the amount of time pulp is beaten and the amount of sizing used affects the absorption of a particular paint. Prior to beginning this experiment, I predicted that the overbeaten pulp that contained the highest amount of sizing would absorb the most amount of paint. Boy, was I wrong! According to the colorimeter results, the L, a and b measurements show no concrete evidence that the overbeaten pulp absorbed more yellow paint than the underbeaten pulp. I cannot offer a valid explanation as to why the sheets with more drops of sizing did not absorb more yellow paint. The varied and unpredictable readings of the L, a and b measurements were not what I expected, however, I did learn something new! I learned that it is okay to have an experiment that does not turn out the way it was originally planned and no experiment is ever a failed experiment. Part of being a scientist is learning from one's own experiments about how to do it better the next time- and this project really opened my eyes to this insightful fact.

Also, I concluded that the mixture of the blue pulp and the yellow paint make the final dried product have a more greenish tint than when the yellow paint was painted on white paper. Based on what we have learned earlier in the year, the color yellow and the color blue are complements of each other, so this makes sense.

Differences between original plan and final experiment

My original plan did not drastically change from my final experiment other than the following:

It was thought that enough blue jean pulp was available to be used, but upon beginning the project I learned that there was not enough for my project, so I had to incorporate 'Part 1- Preparing the pulp' into my procedure. This required that I come in early, and also work several hours outside of the allotted class time because this portion of my procedure was not planned prior to beginning the experiment.

Also, I had originally planned to form my own yellow pigment and a mortar and pestle technique to grind my own pigment, however, Dr. Bordley informed me that the chemistry department here at Sewanee had some pre-made yellow pigment available. Therefore, I strayed from my original plan in that I did not have to make and grind my own.

Links/ References

Lab Manual: Chemistry & Art, Papermaking Lab 1

Lab Manual: Chemistry & Art, Papermaking Lab 3

Lab Manual: Chemistry & Art, Pigments and Dyes Lab 1

http://www.realpaints.com/history.htm

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. John Bordley, Ms. Carolyn Fitz, and Mr. Stuart Leonard for their help. Without their help, none of the above would have been possible :).