Papermaking in Doesburg

There are dozens of hobbyists and a handful of professional papermakers in the Netherlands. Ewald Weijers creates paper professionally in his workshop in Doesburg. Before starting a creation process, he first thinks about what kind of paper it should become. With professional machines that make paper pulp, such as the Hollander beater, he makes the right kind of paper pulp. For example, he can make paper from vegetable waste.

 The Papiermakerij Doesburg (Doesburg Papermakery) is open weekly for visitors and people come for workshops, master classes and courses where they learn how to make paper.

In China the procedure for making paper developed at the beginning of the second century. Important raw materials were hemp, the bark of mulberry trees, waste silk and fibres from bamboo reeds. Arabs learnt to make paper from Chinese prisoners in the eighteenth century. In Europe paper making is known since the end of the twelfth century. As far as we know, the first paper mill stood in the Southern Netherlands in 1405.

 In the nineteenth century more and more paper was made mechanically. As of around 1850 paper was made of vegetable materials, like straw and wood. By mechanisation and the associated higher manufacturing speed, and because of the use of less expensive raw materials, paper became much cheaper and thus more accessible for more purposes. Next to mechanically manufactured paper hand-scooped paper was still produced. This paper, made of rags, was used for official purposes. Around 1920 the last departments for hand-made paper were closed in the paper factories.

 In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in papermaking, in some schools children are making paper. The appreciation for the craft and all kinds of special papers is increasing again. Sustainability also plays a role, for example the water used during a papermaking process is filtered so it can be reused. Paper is increasingly being made out of residual materials from horticulture.

• Provide more workshops at various levels, from fun to professional.
• Link up with educational culture projects at primary and secondary schools, such as the project “Reis door de tijd” from Erfgoed Gelderland, so that more children come into contact with papermaking.
• Digitise archive materials such as recipes, handouts and course material and store them in a digital cloud where the public can also access them.
• Set up a Guild together with two other professional papermakers, allowing more cooperation and better securing and developing of papermaking.
• Together with the owner of a day-care centre in Zevenaar, offering clients papermaking as a day-care activity in a sustainable way, e.g. by using rainwater instead of tap water or electricity through solar panels.
• Realise an intangible cultural heritage spotting production for papermaking, in cooperation with the two Guild partners, to make the craft visible throughout the year.
• Offer papermaking workshops for children who have little or no money to spend.
• Grow our own raw materials in a landscaped vegetable garden.