How do u make papyrus

UK US. Free Resource Download a free printable resource PDF , including information, photos and a reading response worksheet about papyrus in Ancient Egypt.

Download Free. Papyrus Making Instructions. Step One Rip a brown paper bag into one inch wide strips of equal length. Step Two In a bowl make a mixture of half glue and half water. Thin strips were produced either by slicing the pith lengthwise, or by using a needle to peel the pith, like unrolling a coil, from the outside to the center.

Modern experiments have shown that both methods are possible and that great skill is required to create thin and uniform strips. Individual sheets were formed by laying the strips side by side, first in one vertical layer, and then in a second horizontal layer. It is generally accepted that no adhesive was used; however, using more damp or pre-soaked strips of papyrus leads to better adhesion between the layers, perhaps by facilitating physical bonding as the moisture causes the parenchyma cells to swell and then lock into each other upon drying.

Some modern researchers have found that pressing until dry is critical for sheet formation, but Pliny claims that sheets were pressed together and then dried in the sun; the exact method of pressing and drying by the Egyptians is unknown.

Sheets of papyrus were then made into rolls; a common size is twenty sheets to a roll. This was done by overlapping sheet edges by 1—2 centimeters and adhering with a flexible starch-based paste.

Blank rolls were produced, but occasionally already inscribed papyri sheets were added to previous rolls, or adhered together to make a new roll, among other alterations. Papyri were always rolled with the vertical-running pith on the outside because of the natural tendency of the sheet to curve in that direction; inscriptions and illustrations on a papyrus roll are generally on the horizontal side of the sheet, where they would be protected when rolled up The text of a papyrus was written by a scribe in black and red ink The black ink contains a carbon-based pigment, made either from incinerated vegetable material or from soot.

The red ink tends to be either red iron-oxide anhydrous oxide of iron or red ocher hydrated oxide of iron. Numerous variations on the pigments used for the Egyptian color palette have been discovered by conservators and scientists but generally, these colors often include white, made from calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate; blue, a copper silicate which is the earliest synthetic pigment, called Egyptian blue; green, often another silicate called green frit, similar to Egyptian blue, or copper chloride—based green pigment; yellow, either yellow ocher or orpiment; red, occasionally a more orange-red pigment called realgar in addition to the iron-oxide or ocher reds; and various iron-oxide or ocher browns.

Less analysis has been done to identify Egyptian pigment binders for a number of reasons, including difficulties in evaluating greatly aged samples and the requirement for destructive analysis of samples, even the tiniest of which can be prohibitive in a material as precious as a painted papyrus scroll. Your fingers will thank you. Now take your strips and peel off the green bark picture 5.

You can do this with your fingers, or carefully with an exacto knife. Picture 3 from Wikipedia. I forgot to take a picture of soaking the strips, but I think you get the picture. This step is essential because it activates the natural glue in the plant which makes this paper possible! While I didn't notice any smell or mold, you can change the water daily. After 3 days of soaking, the natural glue in the papyrus is ready. Lay out some paper towels and put some of the papyrus strips on it.

Place another layer of paper towels on top of this and use the rolling pin to squeeze out the water. Repeat this for all the strips. Now for the fun part. Papyrus has a distinct look because of it's layout pattern picture 2. There is no need to weave the strips together because of the natural glue. Repeat the process for the top layer, but facing perpendicular to the bottom layer. Overlapping the strips is important because the strips shrink as they dry. I did not overlap enough, and so my paper has some small square gaps.

Picture 2 is from Wikipedia. Take two wooden boards that are roughly as big or bigger than your papyrus sheet. On each board, put an old dish cloth followed by some paper towels sheets. Place your papyrus in between both sheets to make yourself a nice papyrus sandwich! There are reading passages as well as true or false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple-choice and matching activities. I spent just a couple of minutes studying, and because of well-structured text, then I understand it entirely.

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