Making hemp paper follows the same basic logic as making any plant-fiber paper: break down the stalks into individual fibers, suspend those fibers in water, then collect them on a screen and dry them flat. Hemp is actually easier to turn into paper than wood because its fibers are roughly 91% cellulose (compared to about 50% for wood) and contain far less lignin, the tough compound that has to be chemically stripped away during conventional papermaking. That means less processing, fewer chemicals, and a naturally stronger sheet.
Why Hemp Works So Well for Paper
The cellulose content of hemp bast fiber runs between 70% and 91% depending on which part of the stalk you measure, while lignin sits at just 2% to 13%. Wood, by contrast, contains 21% to 31% lignin. Since lignin is what makes paper yellow and brittle over time, hemp paper resists aging better than most tree-based papers. It also means the pulping stage requires less energy and fewer harsh chemicals to produce a usable fiber.
One acre of hemp can produce as much paper as 4 to 10 acres of trees over a 20-year cycle, largely because hemp grows to harvest height in a single season rather than decades. For a home project, you only need a small amount of raw material to produce several sheets.
What You Need
- Raw hemp fiber: Dried hemp stalks, hemp hurds, or pre-processed hemp fiber (available from craft suppliers). About a handful of dry fiber produces a few sheets.
- Large tub or basin: Deep enough to submerge your mold and deckle. A plastic storage bin works well.
- Blender or food processor: Acts as your miniature pulping machine. An old or dedicated blender is ideal so you don’t need to worry about residue in your kitchen one.
- Mold and deckle: A flat screen in a frame that catches the pulp and forms each sheet. You can buy papermaking kits online or make your own from two matching picture frames with fine mesh (like window screen material) stretched tightly over one of them.
- Felt cloths or old towels: For pressing water out of freshly formed sheets.
- Sponge: To absorb excess water during pressing.
- Washing soda (soda ash): Optional but helpful for softening raw stalks. Available in the laundry aisle of most grocery stores.
Step 1: Prepare the Fiber
If you’re starting with raw hemp stalks, you first need to separate the usable bast fibers from the woody inner core. This separation process is called retting, and there are two main approaches.
Water retting involves submerging the stalks in a tank or bucket of water for 7 to 14 days. Bacteria in the water break down the pectin that glues fibers to the rest of the stem, releasing them cleanly. Water retting tends to produce higher-quality, more uniform fibers. Dew retting is the low-effort alternative: spread cut stalks on the ground outdoors and let moisture, fungi, and bacteria do the work over several weeks. It’s slower, less predictable, and weather-dependent, but requires no equipment. In both cases, the goal is the same: loosen the fibers without letting microorganisms start eating the cellulose itself, which weakens the final paper. Check the stalks regularly and pull them when the fibers peel away easily but still feel strong.
If you bought pre-processed hemp fiber from a craft supplier, you can skip retting entirely and move straight to cooking.
Step 2: Cook the Fiber
Cut or tear the retted hemp fibers into pieces roughly 1 to 2 inches long. Place them in a large pot, cover with water, and add about 2 tablespoons of washing soda per quart of water. Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Stir occasionally. The alkaline solution breaks down remaining lignin and pectin, softening the fibers until they feel slippery and pull apart easily between your fingers.
Rinse the cooked fibers thoroughly in a colander under running water until the water runs clear. This removes the dissolved lignin and any residual soda ash. What you’re left with is a clump of soft, pale plant fiber ready for pulping.
Step 3: Blend Into Pulp
Add a small handful of cooked fiber to your blender along with plenty of water, filling the blender about three-quarters full. Pulse in short bursts, then blend continuously until the mixture looks like a uniform, slightly chunky slurry with no visible clumps of intact fiber. This typically takes 30 to 60 seconds per batch, though some papermakers beat hemp for much longer to get finer, smoother sheets. The longer you blend, the smoother and thinner your finished paper will be. Shorter blending leaves more visible fiber texture.
Hemp fibers are tougher than many other plant fibers. Don’t be surprised if blending takes noticeably longer than it would for recycled paper or cotton. Traditional papermakers using a Hollander beater (a specialized tub with a rotating drum) sometimes process hemp for up to 6 hours to achieve very fine pulp. Your kitchen blender won’t match that, but multiple rounds of blending will get you close enough for a good handmade sheet.
Step 4: Form the Sheets
Fill your large tub about halfway with water, then pour in the blended pulp. The ratio of water to pulp controls sheet thickness: more water makes thinner paper, less water makes thicker sheets. Stir the mixture gently with your hand to distribute fibers evenly.
Hold the mold and deckle together (screen side up, open frame on top) and slide them into the tub at an angle, then level them out beneath the surface. Lift straight up in one smooth motion, keeping the frame level. Let the water drain through the screen for 15 to 30 seconds while giving the frame a gentle side-to-side shake. This helps the fibers interlock and produces a stronger sheet. You should see a thin, even mat of fiber sitting on the screen.
Remove the deckle (the top frame without the screen). If the sheet has thin spots or holes, slide it back into the tub, stir, and try again.
Step 5: Press and Dry
Place a damp felt cloth or towel on a flat surface. Flip the mold screen-side down onto the cloth in one confident motion, then press a sponge against the back of the screen to push out water. Lift the mold carefully, starting from one edge. The wet sheet of paper should release onto the cloth.
Lay another cloth on top of the sheet and continue pressing or rolling with a rolling pin to squeeze out as much water as possible. You can stack multiple sheets between cloths and press them together under a heavy weight (a stack of books, a board with a cinder block on top) for several hours.
Once well-pressed, peel each sheet from its cloth and lay it on a flat, clean surface to air dry. Drying takes anywhere from several hours to a full day depending on humidity and sheet thickness. For flatter results, you can iron the paper through a cloth on low heat once it’s mostly dry, or clip it to a board and let it dry under tension.
Adjusting Color and Brightness
Unbleached hemp paper has a warm, tan to light brown color. If you want whiter paper, you can lighten the pulp before forming sheets by soaking it in a diluted hydrogen peroxide solution (the 3% concentration sold at drugstores works, though it’s slow). Commercial hemp paper producers use concentrated hydrogen peroxide as a chlorine-free bleaching agent, sometimes at high temperatures and pressures to reach brightness levels comparable to conventional white paper. At home, soaking pulp in a mild peroxide bath for a few hours will lighten the tone noticeably but won’t produce bright white.
You can also go the other direction and add color. Coffee, tea, turmeric, or other natural dyes mixed into the pulp slurry before forming sheets will produce tinted paper. Dried flower petals, leaves, or threads pressed into the wet sheet add decorative texture.
Getting Better Results
The biggest variable in handmade hemp paper is how thoroughly you process the fiber. Under-cooked or under-blended fiber produces a coarse, fragile sheet that tears easily. If your first attempts feel more like a rough mat than paper, try cooking longer, blending longer, or both.
Sheet thickness is the other common frustration. If your paper comes out too thick or uneven, dilute the vat with more water and stir the pulp right before each dip. A consistent, quick lift of the mold produces more even sheets than a slow, hesitant one. Pressing firmly and evenly removes more water and creates a denser, smoother surface. Sheets that air dry without pressing tend to curl and wrinkle.
Hemp paper made at home will always have a handmade character: slightly rough edges, visible fiber, uneven thickness. That’s part of its appeal for bookbinding, art projects, letterpress printing, and decorative uses. For smoother writing surfaces, you can brush the dried sheet with a thin layer of starch sizing (cornstarch dissolved in water) and let it dry again. This seals the fibers and prevents ink from bleeding.