Seed Paper

Seed Paper!
So yeah, I have a slight issue with paper, containers, pens, ok office supplies kinda of covers most of it. Paper though, oh how I love paper. As much as I adore it in it's many crinkly forms, textures, colors and designs, the making of paper is a pretty harsh industry.

What you see above though are the leftovers of a printing company's mistakes and some lady's scraps. Into a blender went shredded paper and a lot of water, buzzed around ruthlessly until it made a grayish sludgy glop. It was poured into a big container and food coloring was added. Then she added seeds from various flowers. Mixed it a bit, dipped in her screen gently shaking to draw them up collecting the colorful sludge in an even layer. She made seed paper.

From that many hearts and butterflies were cut out and used for cards and decorations for the impending arrival of a very loved and soon to be born baby girl's party.

Somehow the scraps made their way to me. Unfortunately the amazing paper maker was not a gardener, so after depositing the seeds into the vat of watery sludgy pulp, the packets were tossed. So all I know is that there are "red flowers, purple flowers, some cute blue ones, some pink ones, some white ones"... etc. Biiiig ol' mystery. Well, who doesn't love a good mystery every now and then?

So I am soaking the paper in a container with water. After 3 days there is quite a bit of germination. So now I am hunting for flats to continue this. I am a big enough dweeb to try to sort these by what the seeds look like if only to try to get more clues. Annuals? Perennials? Who knows!!???

What I do know is this... my recycling bin will be a lot more empty of paper products once I talk my husband into making me some screens.