NETTLES

Artist Grete Rokstad is experimenting with plants as a material for handmade paper. Nettles have been used for hundreds of years for making textiles, ropes, and wall hangings. Grete produced pulps from different parts of the stem fibers. When couching the paper, the addition of onion skin and other herbs and flowers resulted in compositions with a variety of colors and patterns. Her process reveals some interesting aspects in non-woody raw materials in papermaking.