Plant Fiber Paper

Paper is made from many kinds of plant fibers. Paper can be made from nearly any fibrous plant and indeed, throughout history, it has been. Paper starts out as plant fiber, which is then beaten and/or immersed in chemicals until the fibers are separated and collapsed. In this way, each fiber offers the maximum surface area for bonding to the other fibers. This material is called pulp, and the process is called pulping. Cotton is the most common fiber used to make paper. Long stringy fibers are a bit difficult to work with but make stronger paper.

The fiber characteristics of each plant vary. All plant fibers contain strands of cellulose called microfibrils, and these are generally grouped into a bundle that forms the fiber. The fibers are oriented roughly parallel to one another like string cheese. These fibers are held together and interpenetrated by lignin, the presence of which reduces the strength and diminishes the optical brightness of paper.

Depending on the plant fibers used for making handmade papers, these papers are classified into tapa paper, cardstock, chiri paper, lokta paper, lupa paper, washi paper, mulberry paper, etc.