Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Green Crafts: Making Paper Outta Lint

I stumbled across this Instructable on a craft blog -- it gives you step by step instructions on how to make paper out of lint. I usually compost my dryer lint, but am going to start collecting it to try this out. I'm not sure I have enough at home right now (I don't remember how recently I emptied the container into which I usually stuff it). Depending on how fine the screen mesh needs to be, I may at least be able to make a deckle and mold this evening. I think that I still have the screens from the old recently-replaced windows from the back of my building. I'm not sure of how practical this finished paper actually is. I suspect that it may be tricky to write on it. It could be used to make mattes for photos or to make decorative wall hangings or to add to collages. I'll have to think about this for a bit or Google some more.

Other uses for dryer lint (according to various tips online) include: using it to cushion small parcels you mail, making stuffed animals or leaving it hanging from trees in the spring for birds to use for their nests. You can even make dryer lint clay or papier mâché. And then there are folks like these who take it to a whole other level.

The nice thing about dryer lint is that it's easy to get your hands on it. Especially from people who'd otherwise just throw it out with the trash.

3 comments:

jessy said...

i've gotta check this out! we just toss our dryer lint in our compost pile, too - but making paper out of lint sounds like a great way to reuse! wahoooooooo! thanks!

M said...

I'm going to have to ask some friends for surplus lint to try this over the weekend. Not only don't I have enough, but it just hit me that since I tend to wear dark clothes, my dryer lint's sort of a dark grey -- probably not the best thing to make link paper. :-)

jessy said...

ahahaha! i never would have thought about that - the darker lint and such. our lint varies a bit, but i have a lot of red lint from when we wash our towels - which is pretty cool - and some green lint from our sheets and comforters. the rest kinda varies. now i'm even more excitedface about paper from lint! w00t!