Handmade paper using banana's trunk

The medium of Do I Litter ? Campaign is used eco-friendly and biodegradable materials which is banana handmade paper. The designer learnt the technique and skills to do banana handmade paper which is using banana’s trunk from the 3^rd week of second semester started, which is early of March 2013, and completed her first paper within one month. The processes of making begin from 2 options to the paper maker, one is cut the banana tree using parang knife, another option is picked up the ready cut banana tree in the blue tank which been immersed in the tank for more than 6 months. Before make any option, Master Mr. Adnan said that the second option, which the banana tree is very smelly, in the tank the banana trees are immersed well to get the fibers only in the banana’s trunk yet the process is dirty, smelly, and full with unknown insects hide in the black, mudded, smelly water and in the banana trees as well. The designer know herself well, hence she chose the second option. In the process of making, there was almost two weeks off the progress of making due to mechanized beater  is spoiled and Mr. Adnan could not identified the problem then happened unexpectedly. However, Mr. Adnan’s meticulous observation, and he also contacted the machine maker in England via email to discover the problem of the mechanized beater. The maker gave a big help to me and Mr. Adnan, we both followed the suggestion given by the machine maker, fortunately the problem is identified, which is my banana fibers is too long for the mechanized beater to cut, the mechanized beater cannot afford the length of fibers more than 2 cm. Subsequently, the progress of handmade banana paper is conducted smoothly with the supervision and big help given by Mr. Adnan bin Mat. The processes of making are recorded through photo captured using mobile phone as follow:

1. After the banana trunk is carried out from a big blue tank, the banana fibers is extracted from the banana’s trunk and cut it short which the length is less than 2cm.

 

2. Collect the extracted fibers in a clean pail and immersed the cleaned fibers with solvent hydrogen peroxide for days. You will notice the colour of the banana fibers will bleaching and getting lighter through days.

3. After prepared the extracted fibers, fill mechanized beater in half of water.

 

4. Put in washed fibers into mechanized beater that filled with water.

5. Turn on the mechanized beater, and let it run until the banana fibers are converted into pulp.

6. Pull out the cloth that blocked the water and banana fibers spill out of mechanized beater. Before that, a clean pail and silk cloth under the hole is prepared to let the banana fibers fill in, and avoid it spill out.

 

7. Filter the pulp using silk cloth.

8. Take off the filtered pulp carefully into another clean pail, then let the filtered pulp in the pail and ready to make paper.

9. Cleaned the frame to mould paper.

10. Filled water in a big tank then poured filtered pulp into it.

11. Cut the Ruku plant early morning to maintain the jelly things that found in this plant. Ruku plant only suitable to be cut off in early morning around 7 to 10a.m. and must in a sunny weather. The function of Ruku plant is to hang banana fibers evenly to make a quality handmade paper. The plant then is immersed in water to avoid it dry off, and run out of jelly.

 12. Squeezed Ruku plant using hand as hard as possible to squeeze out the jelly of the plant. If possible squeeze the plant into bits to get more and more jelly produced by Ruku plant. Next, add in h20-Methyl in the jelly then poured the mixture into a pail that a silk cloth is prepared to filter the Ruku plant’s jelly. At the same time, put the pail on top of the tank that poured filtered pulp in it, so that the filtered jelly will directly flowed into it and avoid the jelly spilled out.

 13. After the plant jelly is flowed into the tank, stirred the water and filtered pulp to make the plant jelly flow through evenly all over the tank.

 14. Prepared a cleaned frame then put it in the tank to scope up the filtered pulp. In the process, paper maker have to maintain balance of the scoped up filtered pulp, so that the handmade paper’s surface is flat and even.

15. Scoped up filtered pulp is left on a flat surface, then wait the water drop finish drop off.

16. Next, move the frame to another station, where a clean and dry cloth is ready to dry the handmade paper. Turn the frame upside down carefully in technical way.

 

17. Press the frame hardly and evenly to let the filtered pulp take off from the frame easily without spoiled the wet handmade paper.

 18.  After took off the frame. The wet handmade paper is left on a dry cloth.

19. Next, use a straw to suck out the bubbles that appeared on the surface of wet handmade paper to produce a flat surface banana handmade paper.

20. Then put another dry cloth on the wet handmade paper to prepare the next piece wet handmade paper.

 21. After done all the wet handmade paper that scoped up using frame, and then put the dry cloth that the wet handmade paper is stick firmly on it, technical way put on flat surface and pulled off the dry cloth, to let the wet handmade paper dry naturally.
 

22. Flatten the surface of wet handmade paper using roller. Roll the surface smoothly and softly, please do not push or press the roller to roll over the handmade paper, because in that way, you will tear off the fragile wet handmade paper.

23. The wet handmade paper also can let it dry on frame after scope up filtered pulp, and put it on a flat surface under a sunny weather. The frame is lifted higher a bit to let the excesses water in the wet handmade paper drop off and the wet handmade paper could dry faster. 

 24. After banana handmade paper is put under sunny weather for 2 to 3 days, it was fully dried off.  A metal ruler is used to take off the dried handmade paper in a technical way. In this process, if the paper is just take off after it just dried, please handle it carefully, because the paper is very fragile under a hot sun. If the paper is left for an hour after it dried, the fragility is decreased.  

 25. Next, put the banana handmade paper under compress machine with pressure 200kg per square, and temperature is 70 to 95 degree Celsius. Then press COMPRESS button.

26. After the metal compress move up and compressed, press RETURN button then press STOP. Take out the banana handmade paper, and you complete your first paper !