You can make paper from leaves by breaking them down into a pulp, spreading that pulp onto a screen, and letting it dry into a flat sheet. The process takes a few hours of active work plus a day or two of drying time, and the basic supplies are inexpensive. The results won’t look or feel like printer paper, but leaf paper has a beautiful, textured quality that works well for art projects, journaling, cards, and bookbinding.
Which Leaves Work Best
Not all leaves produce usable paper. The key ingredient is cellulose, the same plant fiber that commercial paper is made from. Leaves generally contain between 7% and 30% cellulose by weight, which is much less than wood or cotton. That means you need to choose your leaves carefully and expect a more delicate final product.
Fibrous, tough leaves tend to work best because they contain longer fibers that hold together as a sheet. Good options include banana leaves, pineapple leaves, iris leaves, yucca, corn husks, and daylily leaves. Corn husks alone produce fibers that are too short and powdery to form strong paper, but mixing them with longer-fibered plants like banana or pineapple leaves solves that problem. Soft, thin leaves like lettuce or spinach won’t work at all since they break down into mush with almost no usable fiber.
Young leaves from broadleaf trees can also work. Young elm leaves, for example, can yield over 20% cellulose, with even higher concentrations in the leaf veins. If you’re experimenting, look for leaves that feel leathery or stringy when you tear them. That stringiness is the fiber you’re after.
What You’ll Need
Gather these supplies before you start:
- Leaves: About a pound of fresh leaves (they’ll weigh much less once dried and cooked down)
- Washing soda (soda ash): Available in the laundry aisle of most grocery stores
- A large stainless steel or enamel pot: Don’t use aluminum, and designate this pot for crafts only
- A blender: Again, dedicate one to this project rather than using your kitchen blender
- A mould and deckle: Two matching frames, one with a screen stretched across it
- A plastic tub or basin: Large enough to submerge your mould and deckle
- Cotton towels or blotting paper
- Rubber gloves, scissors, a kitchen scale
How to Build a Mould and Deckle
The mould and deckle is the tool that shapes your paper. The mould is a frame with a screen stretched across it. The deckle is an identical frame without a screen that sits on top, acting as a border to keep the pulp from sliding off the edges. Together, they work like a tiny window screen that catches pulp fibers as you lift them out of water.
The simplest version uses needlepoint stretcher bars, which are about ¾ inch by ¾ inch and snap together at the corners. Buy four bars that are 1½ inches longer than your desired paper length and four that are 1½ inches longer than the desired width. So for 5½ x 8½-inch sheets, you’d buy four 7-inch bars and four 10-inch bars. Assemble them into two rectangular frames and tap two small nails into each corner to keep them from shifting.
On one frame, stretch fine mesh window screening across the surface, pulled taut, and staple it once every inch around the perimeter. Layer a piece of hardware cloth (heavy wire mesh with ¼-inch openings) underneath for support. Trim both mesh layers flush with the frame edges, and run duct tape around the rim to cover the staples. That’s your mould. The other frame stays bare as your deckle.
Cooking the Leaves
Start by cutting your leaves into small pieces, roughly ½ inch to 1 inch. Remove thick stems or woody midribs unless they’re flexible enough to cook down. Weigh the cut leaves after letting them dry for a day or so, since the washing soda ratio is based on dry weight.
Measure out washing soda equal to 20% of that dry weight. For one pound of dry fiber, that’s about 3½ ounces of washing soda dissolved in roughly 2 gallons of water. You need enough liquid so the leaf pieces can float and move freely while cooking. The washing soda is alkaline, and its job is to dissolve lignin, the natural glue that makes plant material stiff. Once the lignin breaks down, you’re left with soft cellulose fibers.
Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Wear rubber gloves when handling the alkaline water. Cook for 2 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. The leaves are ready when they feel soft and pull apart easily between your fingers. Tougher leaves like yucca or iris may need closer to 4 hours. Drain the liquid, rinse the cooked fibers thoroughly in clean water using a mesh strainer, and squeeze out excess moisture.
Turning Fiber Into Pulp
The cooked fibers need to be broken down further into pulp, a slurry fine enough to form a smooth sheet. You have two main options: a blender or hand beating.
A blender is the fastest approach. Add a handful of cooked fiber to the blender jar, fill it about two-thirds with water, and pulse in short bursts. Blend just until the mixture looks like a thick, even slurry with no visible leaf chunks. Over-blending chops the fibers too short, which makes the paper weak and crumbly. For most leaf types, 15 to 30 seconds of blending is enough.
Hand beating with a wooden mallet or smooth rock on a flat surface gives you more control. It takes longer, sometimes 20 to 30 minutes of steady pounding, but it preserves longer fibers and typically produces stronger, more textured paper. If you’re working with a delicate leaf like mulberry, hand beating followed by a very quick blender pulse gives a good balance of smoothness and strength. For tougher plants, either method works well.
Pulling Sheets
Fill your plastic tub with several inches of water and add the pulp. The ratio is loose: start with about two blender loads of pulp in a half-full tub, and adjust from there. More pulp makes thicker paper, less makes it thinner and more translucent. Stir the water with your hand before each pull to keep the fibers suspended evenly.
Place the deckle on top of the mould, screen side up, and hold them together firmly. Dip them into the tub at a slight angle, then level out while submerged. Lift straight up, keeping the frames level, and let the water drain through. You’ll see a thin, even mat of fiber on the screen. If it looks too thin or has gaps, slip the pulp back into the tub, stir, and try again. Give the mould a gentle side-to-side shake as the water drains to help the fibers interlock.
Once the water stops dripping, carefully remove the deckle. You now have a wet sheet of paper sitting on the screen.
Drying Your Paper
The drying method you choose determines whether your paper comes out flat or curled. There are two reliable approaches.
For stack drying, flip the mould face-down onto a damp cotton towel or blotter and press gently to transfer the wet sheet off the screen. This step is called couching (pronounced “COO-ching”). Layer alternating sheets of paper and towels into a stack, then place a flat board and heavy books on top. Change out the damp towels every few hours. Full drying takes 24 to 48 hours depending on humidity and paper thickness.
Restraint drying is faster and produces very flat results. Instead of transferring the sheet to a towel, leave it on the mould screen or press it onto a smooth, non-porous surface like a piece of Plexiglas, a window, or a laminate countertop. The paper dries while adhered to the flat surface, which prevents curling. Once fully dry, it peels off easily. This method works especially well in warm, dry conditions.
Tips for Better Results
Leaf paper will always be more fragile than commercial paper, which is made from much longer wood or cotton fibers. Research comparing plant-based handmade paper to commercial paper found tensile strength values roughly 20 to 50 times lower. That’s fine for decorative use, but worth knowing if you plan to write on it or run it through a printer.
To make your sheets stronger, mix in a handful of recycled paper pulp (junk mail blended with water works well) alongside your leaf pulp. The processed wood fibers in recycled paper act as reinforcement. You can also add dried flower petals, threads, or thin leaf fragments to the pulp tub for visual texture. They’ll get trapped in the sheet as you pull it.
If your first sheets come out lumpy or uneven, the most common fix is simply stirring the tub more thoroughly before each pull. Fibers settle fast, and an unstirred tub produces sheets that are thick at the bottom and thin at the top. Keep experimenting with pulp concentration and cooking time. Every leaf variety behaves a little differently, and the best results come from adjusting as you go.