Why Does My Handmade Paper Stick to the Felt or Cloth?

The sheet came off the mould cleanly, but now it will not leave the felt. It tears, stretches, or takes the felt's fibres with it when you lift. Sometimes sheets have stuck to each other inside the post.

This is a different stage from a sheet that stays on the screen. Trouble that starts at the mould will show before pressing. If the sheet is fine until you try to peel it, look here.

A pressed sheet is still delicate. Ted Snider notes that a freshly pressed sheet holds over 65% water, and that the slightest touch with a finger will leave a mark. Much of what looks like sticking is really the sheet being handled too early or too hard.

Change one thing per post. Use sheets from the same vat so that the pulp stays constant.

1. Check the layers. Before you press, count felts against sheets. Every sheet needs a separator. Paperslurry notes that a post without them can press into one thick sheet.
2. Reduce the pressure. Press the next post noticeably lighter and compare how the sheets lift.
3. Change how you lift. Use a thin spatula at one corner instead of fingers.
4. Change the surface. Couch alternate sheets onto felt and onto interfacing.
5. Inspect the felt. Look for old pulp bits and dried fibre on it. Rinse it and press another post.
6. Change the wait. If you dry on cloth, leave one sheet in place until it is fully dry, then peel it.

Lower the pressure

Snider lowers the press very carefully and applies a very low pressure to a stack of sheets, warning that too high a pressure can make the stack block so the sheets cannot be separated, or even extrude and ruin them. Paperslurry's advice for thick, wet posts is the same: press incrementally and with caution.

Pressure also drives the sheet into the texture of the felt. Mary Tasillo notes that the more pressure you use, the more the paper picks up the characteristics of the couching material.

Lift with a spatula

Tease one corner up with a thin stainless steel spatula, then peel the sheet away while you support it. Snider uses this for sheets up to about 8 by 11 inches. For larger sheets, Snider describes padded holders with soft foam on one side, slipped under two corners so the sheet can be stripped off the felt without fingerprints.

Snider notes that the slightest touch with a finger or thumb leaves a permanent mark on a heavy, wet sheet, which is why the spatula and the padded holders matter.

Choose a smoother couching surface

Wool felt gives a textured sheet. Heavy non-fusible interfacing gives a smoother one. Couch a sheet on each and see how they come off. Tom Bannister's overview of felts lists Pellon and household linens as substitutes, with the note that they absorb less than true papermaking felts.

If sheets cling to a particular felt, it may be dirty. Helen Hiebert recommends rinsing felts or interfacing to remove pulp bits before couching the next sheet onto them. Brush wool felts often. Unbrushed felts leave lint and hairs on sheets.

Dry on the cloth when that suits the sheet

You do not need to separate wet sheets at all. Couch onto interfacing and leave the sheet on it to dry. Interfacing lets dry sheets peel off. Removing damp sheets from interfacing tends to increase cockling, so wait until the sheet is fully dry.

Separate a stuck stack

Work from a corner and peel in one fluid motion, as Hiebert does. If several sheets dried together in a spur, she splits it in halves, then halves again. If a dry corner will not release from a board, she uses a razor blade to lift it, carefully, so as not to damage the drying surface.

• Decide your press pressure in advance and keep it consistent.
• Use a separator between every sheet.
• Keep felts rinsed and brushed.
• Have a spatula on hand before you open the press.
• Write down the couching surface and the pressure on your batch log.

Sheets pressed together with no separator have likely bonded for good. Tear them up and re-pulp them.

A wet sheet that tears as you peel it goes back to the vat. Snider notes that a stack that has blocked under too much pressure cannot be separated. Lower the pressure and make the batch again.