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As a PM newbie, I decided pulp should be made infrequently and in large quantities. The first time I put shredded paper in an old pillowcase and ran it through the clothes washer. I got great pulp and a purple washing machine. Yesterday I made some more by putting the shredded paper in a 5 gallon bucket with hot, hot water and mixing it with my hands, then rinsing it in the kitchen sink. You guessed it - purple hands and purple sink. How do the rest of you pulp paper? Is there a way to do it that doesn't involve the color purple?? 
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The last batch I made, I soaked in water overnight, then put it in a blender with water. This was a very SLOW way to make it, as I couldn't add too much paper or it wouldn't whirl properly.
The only color I got was black, diluted to gray. Your source must use another type of print. I am assuming you used newspaper?
I would like to try a food processor, but haven't found a suitable one at Goodwill, yet.
Sue
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when im mixing up my pulp i usually soak the torn up paper overnight and then to a 20L bucket add 1/4 pulp and a 1/2 water and mix it with a paint mixer attached to a drill... with newsprint or cellulose insulation i get a medium fine pulp and with toilet paper I can achieve almost porcelain results with it
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I'm going to have to break down and buy one of those paint mixer things. People even use them for mixing concrete, and heaven knows what else.
Sue
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Sue,
You can get them for as little as $5. Though I haven't tried them for mache pulp I have used them with varying success to beat paper pulp (cotton fiber should literally be beaten for at least several hours); I have two, one with a "blade" (not sharp) and one that looks more like a plastic slotted cylinder, that I have not used at all because I can't get the handy "removable" plastic hanger cap off the bit end.
The metal blade type is available for $7.50 from www.magnolia.paper.com
To make you feel worse, today I bought a box of food processors for $4 at a bizarre moving sale. They're actually an Osterizer blender base with three full-sized food processor attachments; the seller made the helpful comment that they weren't compatible with each other. I already had an Osterizer blender for making paper, and several other kitchen-type appliances, including a full sized food processor, several so-called hand blenders (the kind you hold, submersing one end in the container, hoping it doesn't drop in, causing a fatal shock).
However, the single most useful one for papier mache is something that looks like an upside down coffee grinder. The bottom part is tiny, holding only a cup or so (but the top, ironically, holds one of the most powerful small appliance motors I've ever seen). It's complete overkill for any food I can imagine because the bottom is so small. It would be great for pulp if it were bigger.
Why is it so useful? For making paste. Unlike right-side up devices, which especially if small, tend to be fussy about putting together, fitting correctly to turn on, taking off and cleaning (thus more trouble than they're worth) this thing is about as user-friendly as a spoon and bowl. Maybe inverting it all is the secret: though the blade fits onto a small pin at the bottom, there's a stalk that sticks up through the lid. You put the motorized top on, press down and VOOM. Then you can pull up the blade by the stalk without touching it. The top fits on the stalk easily, the blade fits on the pin easily.
Possibly the idea either is or looks improbable for solid foods because although it's by Hamilton Beach, this one, which cost .50 at our village thrift shop. is the only one of its ilk I've ever seen, even during my food- and appliance- writing years. Who knows? Maybe it was originally sold for some improbable single use such as making peanut butter (however, I just flashed on hearing about a salsa maker a few years ago and this might well be one).
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Here are two suggestions from my reading about making paper by recycling paper, where there's no leeway for little pieces.
The first is a Foley mill, the old-fashioned kitchen thing where you turn a handle, moving blades that rub stuff (like apples) across a sieve, producing a smooth puree (like apple sauce). They work pretty quickly, you can take them apart for sharpening or cleaning, they're cheap, and best of all for mache purposes, you don't need to do a tiny amount of pulp with a huge amount of water. (A food processor is better than a blender but not that much better because it still needs a lot of water which is hard to strain because the paper part is so well assimilated--good for sheets, bad for mache pulp.)
I'm going to try my Foley mill the next time I make mache pulp.
The other, and I haven't tried it, sounds stranger. But since it was recommended in the 30s by Dard Hunter, maybe the single most respected U.S. authority on handmade paper, for schools to make pulp from cotton shirts, maybe the hardest task in all of papermaking, it's definitely worth a shot.
It's an old-fashioned Universal meat grinder, the kind that screws onto the counter and has a hand crank. I've seen them boxed in thrift stores with several blades for $5 or less (they seem to accrue in grandmothers' houses, and they're almost always stored in their boxes).
This would also have the advantage of being able to scoop up a handful of wet paper shreds and run them through without a huge amount of water.
Other papermaking books have suggested baby food mills and various puree devices. So haul the electric meat grinder out of the wedding present closet!
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Oh, Vinca, I just reread your original post, and noticed this part: "... I decided pulp should be made infrequently and in large quantities..."
If you aren't using the large quantities right away, and you're not drying the pulp for remoistening later for a project, you're probably going to have a mold problem. I've never been able to hold it for more than a week (barely a week) without it molding, even in the refrigerator. I haven't tried freezing it...
Sue
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I usually freeze it and I've got some toilet paper pulp that I dried and bagged. (People must wonder about my mental state when they come to the back door and there's a tray of wet toilet paper chunks on the stoop. ) Gwyneth - let us know about the Foley mill. I was wondering if a hand powered gizmo might work better.
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Hi everyone!
I saw on a TV show recently where a lady had somehow hooked up a garbage disposal that emptied into a large garbage can and she was using this contraption to made huge quantities of paper mache pulp. I am not at all sure how she did this and it seems like it could be somewhat dangerous unless handled properly but I thought it might be worth trying. 
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Ah, that brings back memories of the time I put sea weed (from a holiday lobster delivery) down the garbage disposal. That stuff plugged the works up so badly we had to remove all the plumbing under the sink, ream it out and reassemble it! It's an interesting idea, though, and I bet it would work.
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The garbage disposal method is commonly used for papercrete houses (& other stuff). I believe the garbage disposal is firmly mounted on a wood frame that fits over the garbage can, a metal feeder tube is put over/above the disposal, and wet paper is fed into the. There was something else (larger) where someone made a giant (maybe 18" across) blender-type blade that could be set in a container to beat up the pulp, or attached to some kind of rotating axle (I'm not mechanical, sorry), that could be pulled behind a vehicle. I saw some of this in a book on papercrete houses.
Sue
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Hi!... yes I agree with Vinca that pulp should be made infrequently & in large quantities... it's too
much hassle if you ran out of pulp and you just had an inspired idea you'd like to try out...
I usually make pulp when I'm angry... to blow off steam... with the appropriate angry music in the
background... Rammstein anyone?... well, just the idea that I ran out of pulp makes me angry...
I do it all manually... that's why... first, I tear up old newspapers to about the size of a penny
(thus the nickname human shredding machine), soak them up in a big washbasin full of water;
when it's full, I mash them up with bare hands 'til I get the right consistency... the whole process
takes about 2 to 6 hours depending on the amount of old newspapers I shredded...if I get too tired,I mash them up the next day...
I usually mellow down by the time I'm into the mashing part (the almost
right consistency part)... when I feel the pulp ooze between my fingers when I close my fists...
it's relaxing... by this time, I'm probably listening to Nora Jones, Sade, Tony Bennet or something...
I was thinking of using an electric handrill with an improvised extended drill bit attachment, like the
one used for making icecream, only if I can find a big enough metal container with a tight (dettachable) cover with a hole on top of it... I imagine the paper pulp flying all over the place when I turn it on without the cover... what do you think?... a screwy idea?... how about advising
me on how to end my anger therapy sessions?...
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How much pulp are you thinking of making? I was thinking about an old ice cream maker bucket (the metal inside bucket), the lid fits fairly tight and there is already hole in the top for the dasher.
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... about ten gallons... that includes the water of course... so, it isn't a screwy idea after all?...
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I don't think it is a screwy idea at all. I love paper mache, but I hate making pulp. I recently completed a five foot baby giraffe and by the time I finished enough pulp to cover her I had almost written off paper mache.
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Thanks Moni, you give me hope... I think that bucket size container will do, ten gallons is too much to begin with... maybe I could try those smaller
plastic containers with cover... about the "mold" problem when storing pulp... I just add bleach with disinfectant (a local brand- Zonrox)... that seems to take care of the problem, before I use to put ash, any ash... well cigarette ash mostly... seems to work... I even tried using those funky smelling pulp stored for ages, it's great on finishing the details, it's evenly smooth & horribly smelly... just think of the germs and bacterias lurking in that concoction... hope your'e not eating a sandwich when you read this...
I didin't seem to catch anything when I used it... or did I?... is there a doctor on the house?...
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Wow, wotalotofposts.
Domestic blenders etc are great for small amounts but take care. Any little bit of metal (staples) in it can kill the blades quite quickly.
I go with the electric drill method. I boil up a two gallon quantity of torn newspaper with plenty of water. Leave to cool; put in a plastic bucket and blitz it. I have two attachments (for my drill that is!). One is a paint stirrer, a long stem with a propeller like blade on the end. The other is a mortar/plaster mixer, probably a bit like the banded cylinder I think Sue mentioned. The paint stirrer works best.
Don't worry about having a cover for it. As long as you keep the blade below the surface, it should not spray but works like a whirlpool, gradually pulping the contents. Be prepared to add more water if it is too thick.
I then put it through a sieve before squeezing most of the remaining water out by hand.
If I'm not going to use it soon, I spread it out thinly on a fine net or grid and allow it dry totally. This makes a supply of 'biscuits' which can be moistened for use at any time in the future.
For extra fine work (other than using tissue paper) I break up the biscuits and put them through an electric coffee grinder. This produces a flock that make a very smooth modelling material. I only use this for finishing coats.
DavidO
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Just a question, I've read so much about the different type of mixers and stuff that you use to beat the pulp into a fine mush (so to speak). I'm wondering what would be best to use, and which one would be cheapest?
I'm a costumer on a budget (since the majority of the expenses is spent on the fabric and materials for the uniform/costume itself) and I would like to get something that can mix and beat the pulp, but I'm not sure what to get, or what's available to me at my expense. Any help?
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Go straight to your local thrift shop and buy a kitchen blender. Soak some torn paper overnight in a bucket of (initially) hot water, and run it through the blender the next day. It takes a lot of water to do a few handsful of paper, so have some kind of wire sieve to pour the mush into. Vinyl window screening inside a metal sieve is fine. For that matter, vinyl window screening pushed down into a bowl should work, too, you'll just have to gather up the screening and dump the water frequently. Squeeze out the extra water while the paper mush is in the screening, then dump it into a big bowl or something. When you've got enough pulp mush, add your adhesive and work it in.
Sue
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Sue, I think it would be more efficient for the quantity she wants to get a paint mixer attachment for a drill...the metal kind can cost less than five bucks, and even the very fancy, heavy-duty kind for drywall mud costs less than twenty five dollars.
The key is soaking the paper extremely well (overnight)..then it will mash like potatoes.
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I agree with you Gwyneth . . . but . . . Psycho(?) may not have a drill. Without that, it becomes more expensive. :twisted:
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I can probably check the two hardware stores that are within walking distance of my house. THey most likely will have a drill I can get. (Hopefully for not much....) And maybe they'll have the paint mix attachment as well.
Side note: I don't know of any thrift stores around here besides Goodwill /sob
How much can a drill be anyway? >.> If it's too expensive, I'll just go with the kitchen blender
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I recently bought a used mixer from Goodwill for $5. The paint stirrer alone will cost that. A drill motor heavy enough to use on pulp is probably going to cost at least $50 and can go up.... way up.
With your financial constraints, it would probably be best to start as simply and cheaply as possible.
Sue
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Our greatly missed and lamented Pat Little had a friend who soaked the newspaper, donned his wellington boots and mashed the pulp underfoot. The glues already in the newspaper were enough for adhesion. Of course, if you like tactile sensations, you could do it in bare feet(!?)
Probably the cheapest method - unless wellington boots are expensive chez vous. 
DavidO
(dopapier)
(aka the Ozzard of Wiz)
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I bought a blender at Goodwill, I'm hoping that will be enough for a start. I'm hoping to ask my parts for a mixer for Christmas :3 (XD They might just buy it too. It's better than me asking for more graphic novels)
But will this blender be okay to start off with?
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