the paper mold--simplicity and ingenuity

       This tool, the paper mold, is profoundly important to mankind. It was created in response to a particular need and, because of its basic design, has not changed appreciably in nearly twenty centuries. There have, of course, been a number of innovations, the most interesting of which was --in answer to the nineteenth century's demand for more and more paper--the Fourdrinier, or continuous web, paper-making machine. But it is the story of hand papermaking--the tool and the process--that concerns us here.
       Before describing the paper mold in detail, it may interest the student of etymology that some paper scholars claim that a term widely used today had its origin in the paper mold; namely, that "format," so bandied about these days in fields as far removed from papermaking as television and advertising, is derived from the French name for the tool--forme. Format, in the sense in which it was first used and is still used in France, refers to the size of a sheet of paper as formed in the paper mold.

       Handmade paper is formed in two ways. In the primitive manner, which is still practiced in some of the remote areas of the Orient, the pulp is poured upon a cloth of woven grass stretched taut by a frame of bamboo. This grass cloth is firmly affixed to its frame. The- wet sheet of paper thus formed remains on the surface of the mold and is left to dry. The second and more highly developed manner of forming paper is as disarmingly simple as the first process. In this, the mold is dipped into a vat filled with pulp, lifted, and rhythmically shaken to ensure even distribution of the pulp. The sheet is then dried.

A sketch of the most primitive type of mold of the Orient. The
 surface of the mold is mad of grass, giving it a "wove" formation. The
 four edges of the mold are constructed of the handiest material
available: bamboo. In this mold pulp is poured upon the surface.

       However, because the newly formed sheet of paper remained in the mold until dried, a mold was needed for each sheet. For a thousand sheets a thousand molds were required. As a result, a flexible, removable bamboo covering, which could be rolled off its frame, was developed. This simple, ingenious device enabled the early oriental papermakers to simply roll off the mold covering upon which lay the newly-formed sheet of paper, place the sheet in the sun to dry, return the mold covering to the frame, and repeat the process. The simple beauty of this tool, sometimes referred to as the "transfer" mold, is an excellent example of technology in its simplest form.

Chinese character for silk forms.

       The split bamboo covering of the transfer mold was held in place during the dipping process by loose sticks the same length as the short ends of the rectangular frame. These were grasped by the right and left hands of the papermaker, completing the right and left side of the deckle. The early Chinese papermakers followed a policy of using readily available material to make paper, and therefore used silk in both its raw or woven state before discovering the use of mulberry bark, bamboo hemp, and a wide variety of materials for the basic ingredient-pulp. It should not be surprising, then, that the Chinese character for silk forms part of their character for paper. 
       It should be mentioned here that we owe a very great debt to the Chinese for their contributions to the art of papermaking. Unfortunately, present strained relations do not permit correspondence with these people and make it difficult, if not impossible, to procure illustrative material and specimens from China. Since the variations between papermaking in Japan and China are slight, we take Japanese processes and tools as our model.

" Tutorial & instructions for making a mold and deckle

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