Jake and Marge the special opportunity on our return trip from AIC (American Institute of Conservation) Conference in Montreal to visit David Carruthers and Denise Lapointe at the Saint-Armand Paper Mill.
Wow, this mill is great. David was so gracious to take himself away from the beater to give us an informed and thorough tour of the mill.
David opened the mill in 1979, having come from a family of paper makers, he was ready to leave his office job and combine his knowledge of technology and paper. As the mill prospered he was able to purchase the thousand-pound Hollander beater and a Fourdrinier paper machine.
The mill was loaded with bales of rag and we were able to observe the rag being processed into pulp. Although the Fourdrinier was not being used at the time, David activated it and we could see the process of which the machine made papers were dried, deckled and finished.
David and Denise work really hard to produce the wonderful array of handmade printing, drawing and book papers as well as a beautiful assortment of machine made papers and pads that the St Armand mill is noted for. What came away with an great appreciation of the papers that we stock and sell from this mill.
Click here to see a video of the Hollander beater machine in action.
I want to buy the best paper to do marbling various size coated already or I coated I will put alum on my self
Hi Edward, I would suggest purchasing a few different types of paper to see which you like best. Many of the decorative marbled papers we sell are made on Ingres paper from various mills – Hahnemuhle, Canson, Fabriano, Zerkall etc.