Turning ALGAE into paper?! | Will it paper #4 

I’m not an expert but I knew someone who made paper out of pond algae (she called it pond scum) she mixed it with newspapers and used envelopes to make a blended pulp it was always a very awesome process to me. She used the pond scum because of the vibrant green colors. If you try this I’d love to know how it turns out. Thanks

Lisa basically made a nonfood-grade version of nori!!!

With the holidays coming up it’s probably an obvious idea, but I’d really like to see you do wrapping paper for this series.

I really enjoyed the 4 videos in this series. Looks like you haven't posted in a year, but if you come back, please do more will it paper! This was so fun!

Hoping that your way of making paper out of recycled things or something that will be useful to make a unique sheets of paper, will encourage people to recycle the useful one and lessen the waste. Anyway, thank you for not giving up to make this algae to paper, disregard the struggle you have 🥰, GOOD JOB 👏👏🤗💖

I know you could make paper with cardboard boxes, but I really would love to see how you'd go about the process and how much paper a box would make

Hello, try it to cook with baking soda for a while. In an online course I've seen - about 2-4 hours - 1-2 spoon and at least twice water or more (more is better... 5x-6x.. ) . Baking soda is for changing bounds in plants, its critical. After cooling down it suggested to wash it over in cold water - and some vinegar to neutralize it. Then you can blend it (pulp) and makin paper with new bounds. You can use it with other plants too: grasses, leaf, bambo, etc... After cookig with baking soda, it will be paper...

I’m wondering what would happen if you didn’t blend the algae and just worked with it in its stringy raw form? Seems like it might have more structural integrity since the fiber chains would still be intact

It seems like the pulp fibers were getting stuck in the mesh because they were so small - same reason you could barely feed them after blending. Maybe it would work better (not stick) with a finer mesh, or if you made the pulp more coarse? Maybe dry out the algae first, then break it up by hand into a powder/fine mulch kind of situation... that might get you bigger pulp fibers and make it stick less to the mesh. I might be totally wrong, or it could be super fragile, but if you try again, I’d love to see the result. If that doesn’t work, you might be able to use the algae to add a green color to other recycled paper by adding some into the other pulp. If you don’t fully blend it first, you might even get some fiber strands in the paper which could add a nice visual appeal and even some strength.

a 50/50 with paper could give you something more useful and maybe a beautiful colour as well

What if you mix the algae with recycled paper I think that would help

What a fun but slimy experiment! I wonder if you added in some paper pulp and then a quick spray on the screen with vegetable oil before dipping in the water?

This definitely left me surprised! After the failed attempts I did not expect it to work that well! Well done!

Since the algae is a raw material, it might need more processing to turn it into a good paper than some of the recycled materials you've had success with. And because water is its natural habitat, that might be messing with your ability to turn the raw algae into a good pulp. If you want to try this again, maybe start with drying out the algae, or boiling it (or both!) before you turn it into pulp. Also, considering how difficult it was to get the algae paper off of your molds, you may need a much finer mesh. As far as I can tell, there are actual processes for turning algae into paper or into sheets, but the process itself is patented. Still, I am impressed by your dedication and ingenuity! And now I'm wondering if different algaes would produce better results.

Hello, thanks for this video, I came across it after looking at some algae in my own pond and wondering whether it would provide suitable fibre for paper making or other uses. Congratulations on your efforts. I have a little experience of making paper from plant fibre and I have a few thoughts on what might make for a better outcome (you said you wanted them). I'm certainly no expert though so I offer this in all humility: Normally when making paper from plant fibres there's a preliminary stage before shredding the fibres in which the material is broken down using some kind of alkali, typically a solution of either caustic soda or hardwood ash. You either boil the fibres in the solution or just leave them a long time (months). That stage degrades the goop and leaves you with just the fibres, which in normal plants or wood would be cellulose. I wonder whether skipping this stage might be the cause of your problems with the pulp sticking to the deckle, as you haven't removed all the stuff from the algae that you don't want. One thing I'm not sure of is whether the fibre in algae is cellulose or something else. If it's not cellulose then you might find that the alkali just eats everything and a different approach might be required. I think it would be worth a try though. Another thing that occurs to me is the that blender might be too much for those fibres. Typically you want the fibres in paper to be as long as possible as that makes for the strongest paper, maybe your blender is just shredding them too much and you need a gentler process. Ideally the fibre is pulped using a crushing and tearing action, whereas a kitchen blender will tend to chop the fibres into little bits. You could try mashing them up with a pestle and mortar, or if you could improvise a ball mill that might do it. Otherwise you could just give them a less thorough blend. You might also want to consider adding some sort of sizing agent such as gelatine, this could greatly improve the ink taking properties of the paper, adding a size is the norm in plant based paper making. If you google you will find that there's quite a bit of interest in using algae fibres for various things such as the production of paper and composites and there are academic papers about the processes used, so you might find something of use there too. Good luck with your ongoing endeavours!

Green algae is mainly constructed from starch which is a smaller molecule of sugar than cellulose which paper is primarily made of. Starch is also soluble in water which cellulose isnt. It was like making paper with corn starch. This is why it took ages to drain and was sticking.

I’d definitely mix it with regular paper pulp. I’m sure it would be successful and you’d get a really nice muted green color maybe.

Would it work to put the cloth over the mesh before shaping? It already drains slow. Maybe the cloth would drain well enough and enable you to remove the sheets easier?

Hi, I really enjoyed this project and I think that you definitely have to keep improving the method. Maybe instead of drying out the water from the "paper" you could try to do the opposite, wetting everything so that maybe it will come off. Another thing that I think you could try is to bleach everything in order to obtain a whitish product and to combine a part of recycled paper, just to inforce it. This project has a lot of potential if you can manage a method to improve the straining process and the rest, you could sell it and you're also going to help the planet by growing algae, as the absorb a lot of CO2. Keep going, you're doing great!

This is so interesting! Also love your makeup in the intro

Freshwater algae come in various types. Green - you may have heard of spirogyra - and blue-green which are actually not algae but a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria. These latter can produce external poly saccharide which make them slimy. Spirogyra is not slimy at all. Both types consist of chains of cells so blending will fragment the chains and the longer you blend the smaller the chains of cells will become. So maybe try blending for a bit less time than you would say for grass which breaks down very differently. When the paper dries on the deckle the polysaccharides dry out but they are sticky so thats why they adhere strongly to the mesh. So you could do two either of two things. Spray the mesh with a teflon spray to reduce adherance or add a little white polyvinyl acetate glue into the tank. When this dries the paper might be stiffer but will resist water much better. You will need to experiment with quantity. Get hold of somebody who knows about pond life and see if you can grow the two types I mentioned separately in tanks at home and make paper out of each to show the difference. Someone mentioned Nori- its true its much like that but slightly different in that the polysaccharides are quite different. You might like to try making paper with kelp to se how different it is. The paper you made was very attractuve and looks like it could be very good as a base for pastels. Good luck

That eye makeup looks amazing!

Very much enjoyed watching your trials and successes in this series, and your voice is really pleasant to listen to. Going to try the tea bag version since I drink so much tea!

Please make more, "Will it paper?"!

I’m a paper recycle maker myself and I love your videos keep up the awesome work 💚

I’d love to see you try out different plants like rose petals or something!

omg I just wanted to say this is a very relaxing process I've always been a fan of craft like this and you rock it ^_^

I recommend adding actual paper in with the algae because I think it would come off better and the algae could add color and interest throughout the paper!

I am just now seeing your videos! Please make more will it paper!

this is sooooo satisfying, i love it! did you try this with autumn leaves? i bet it would be really beautiful if it works

Wow!! How can u think of a such a unique thing:))BTW loved it

I would try sun drying it, grind to a powder then mixing it in. You're still working with a live medium if you use it the way you did and in the wild it latches on to whatever to survive. It's texture is made that way. I would sun dry it then try to use it. I came here from Tik to and love your ideas. Thank you

Maybe it had to do with the issue of algae being a water plant. Maybe you can try to learn about how to make nori sheets and come up with a different idea for the paper? But I would let the algae dry, shred it, make a batch of "normal" pulp, add the dried and shredded algae and create a pattern instead of pure algae paper xD

What about banana peels? Would they paper?

Use the algae blended water with other recycled paper for the awesome effect!

I'd love to see you do this with receipts!

I wonder how the eatable kelp snacks are made… if you pour all your algae water into your garden- the plants will love it. Algae is full of nutrients.

This is so cool to watch

Love this series! I wonder if it would be possible to make a good toilet paper out of recycled paper lol. I'm always looking for a more eco friendly alternative

Nice eyeshadow!! ☺️

This was so unique!😁

This is rlly cool! I bet u could leave it out in the sun and it would become a few shades lighter - just like beached agae :) the green is pretty tho

Wow, I really love you love on this channel! I'm waiting to get the materials to do some recycledpaper by miself. I have one question, do you think it could be possible to do paper from some dried leaf? it would be cool to have a notebook made by some dried leaf with autumn design :D Also, the algar paper looks good, what a shame that it isn't woth to do.

Perhaps a spray of silicone on the screen to make it release the paper. Depending on what material the screen is made from, the dry silicone coating may do the trick.

I wonder how it would have worked if you had dried the algae in the sun for a day or baked it before soaking and blending. I think the sliminess would be reduced and make the process smoother.

I think maybe rinsing the algae to get rid of the slime, dry it before pulling and doing it by hand so you have bigger fibers might help intake a easier to remove sheet. However I also think the slime might be part of what was holding it together.

Incredible!

Can you try doing paper from used coffee grounds?I like the idea of a coffee-smelling paper that looks vintage, because it is brownish

The paper is great ,just different 👌

I just found your channel today and am now falling down the rabbit hole, I'm very curious if receipts can be made into paper

You had a good idea, just a slight modification would be better add a cloth in-between your mold and decel then leve the algae to dry completely then peel off the cloth

Could you try making paper from Christmas tree needles please

Well, now i know how to make nori (but with seaweed) XD Thanks for trying this!

Thanks for including your failures along with your successes.

A big well done with your experiments outstanding performance girl well done

I think you should do a mixture of paper and algae. Although you should blend it less.

Maybe you could mix it with some regular recycled paper pulp and it may work better!

you should try with dead leaves!

If you do another episode, I’d be curious about onion skins

Green algae has way more cellulose than brown or red algae and also if you boil the algae it will help break it down. Boil it before you blend it.

thank you. good.

Have you ever tryed using vegetables like spinach and so on I think it would be interesting but what concerns me is would it start to mold after some time the paper I mean

Cellulose in the algae is acting glue. Actually don't think it is any tough fiber in it. Maybe you should not filter it at all or blend it so finely.

Okay l've been binging your videos lately and it is just me or does this reminds me of the dryer lint paper?

I wonder, if you strained the algae fibers and put them out to dry, then blitzed them and added them to the water, would it work better? Just some thoughts

Hello! Rapid increase of water hyacinths can also be a threat to a lot of aquatic species, and there are already a lot of studies which made these species to be transformed into something valuable such as bags, charcoals and etc.. I would be grateful if you'll consider my humble request to you ma'am. I would be very interested if you'll perform paper making using water hyacinths. Is it possible? :)

can you blend it with other fibers?

how about using cotton/linen scraps the next time? especially from thrifted clothes/materials

Great experiment. The paper turned out beautiful. Too bad it's so delicate and can't write on it. I like the way you always experiment.

This was fun! Do keep in mind that some algae are poisonous though.

Hey lisa,can you try use grass to make a paper

Perhaps mostly paper pulp and then SOME algae for color?

Get fishing string or sewing string slide it under the paper ,it works

I'm pretty sure the problem is that algae does not have cellulose. Or not much. The proteins, lipids, and peptide chains, that algae are composed of, are significantly different from cellulose in many ways: Cellulose is literally a thicker molecule. It has a larger diameter. Cellulose is a far stronger molecule. It was the evolution of cellulose that allowed trees to grow tall and strong. Algae is so weak that it literally just be supported by water to grow. Cellulose is a far stiffer molecule. Part of the reason your algae was sticking to the mesh was that micro-stands of the algae were just flopping down through the holes of your mesh, and then literally wrapping around the threads of the mesh. When you make recycled paper out of manufactured paper, the sticky part of the wood pulp, the lignin, has already been removed for you. The sticky part of algae IS the proteins, lipids, and peptide chains. So, ALL of the algae. Therefore, the stands stick to everything, including your mesh and the cotton transfer cloth. Yes, they stick to each other better, but they are very weak, so they just break when pulled. Source: I was a biology major in college, and an amateur naturalist throughout my entire childhood and high school years. You might have better luck with seaweed, because it has evolved some stronger fibers to hold the seaweed strands together. I am not positive if that is cellulose or not. I lived by the woods not the ocean. You could also simply experiment with various different plants. I'm thinking maybe this plant called hemp might work out pretty well. I don't know. I don't know if anybody's tried it before for paper. 😋

It seems like it will paper. Perhaps there are additive materials you could try? I'm not familiar with the history of paper, other than how it was historically made. Thanks for the video

I was wondering, how badly did it smell? xD Maybe with all the water the scent got diluted, but still. I enjoyed seeing this! You're not giving up and I love to see that!

I was thinking about threads of cotton and scrap fabric, will it paper ?🤷‍♀️

What if you added the algae to paper pulp. Just to see if the algae will stick to the paper parts. It might drain better too.

Did the algae paper have a pond smell?

Subscribing for “will it paper” cause you beat me to the idea 😢

I don't know much about making paper but it's weird to mix filtered thing again with its water

What about paper coffee cups?

A new method of making nori? 😄

Mam can you please make paper with cotton for water colour painting ,if you make it,it was so helpful for me🙏🙏🙏

Looks like seaweed!

Mix with paper pulp

Try a 60 40 blend 60 percent paper and 40 percent alge

strijder!

Before I had my hysterectomy in 2016, the tampons I used had paper wrappers. I feel like they should be recycled, but nobody does it. Maybe try to make paper with the wrapping?

Interestingly, that blender won't be enough to destroy any of the cells of the algae meaning your paper is literally alive

I wonder if stinky trees would work? edit: Stinky Trees like the car air fresheners

you can put rice inside and make a sushi

Maybe you blended the algae too long braking up the fibers in too small pieces. It partly got through the mesh and stocked to it. If the fibers were longer, maybe it would have stayed more on the top of the mesh? Also if you tried to let the frames dry upside down, maybe the fibers would not sink into the mesh even more while drying but rather fall out of the mesh when you blow dry it... So if any one wants to try it out, maybe try these? Lol idk

Wont there have been loads of tiny water creatures in the algae?

This is basically making seaweed 😂😂

Use seaweed. Make nori.

Hi from Ireland Love...

It feels like you're writing on a Fruit Roll Up

Make a grass paper