1. Beat it to a pulp
Paper can be made from many kinds of fiber: wood, cotton, banana leaves, whatever. The first thing in papermaking - if not in life in general - is to beat the stuff to a pulp. "That expression came from papermaking," Arnold said.
He doesn't make his own pulp; he buys it from a place in Indiana, in five gallon buckets. He gets a pulp made of 75% cotton fiber and 25% banana leaves. You can order the pulp in different grades of coarse or fine. Arnold has been using coarse, but today he is using fine for the first time.
When he first started making paper, he tried to make his own pulp in a blender, but wasn't satisfied with the product. Beating has a different effect than chopping on the molecular level, he explained, and the best results come with an industrial beater. That's why he's buying pulp now.
2. Two styles
Arnold will demonstrate two styles of papermaking: European and Tibetan. He had been making paper for a few years with the European method when he attended a workshop in Oakland by Tibetan monks. Although the actual techniques don't appear that different, a subtle shift in the process - basically whether the pulp is mixed in to the water and then the frame scoops it up or the frame is inserted in clear water and the pulp mixed within the frame - gives Arnold a significantly different experience and result.
3. European papermaking
Arnold mixed a cup or two of pulp into about three gallons of waterand stirred it up with his hands.
Next,
he added a little vegetation - dried bamboo flowertops and pink fresh petals
from a flower he plucked in front of his house.The Full Deck | The Jewel in the Lotus
Photos and text by Peter Rashkin All rights reserved. 2004
OK, now the frame. A mesh fabric stretched over wood. And another one, just an open rectangle. He holds them together, puts it into the tup vertically and rolls to horizontal. Then lifts. The water drains off, leaving a flat film of pulp with randomly embedded plant parts. This will be paper.
He held it up to check for uneven spots. 
4.
Tibetan papermaking
In the Tibetan method, the frame is one piece, a shallow box with a mesh
floor. It is submerged in the tub and the pulp is added on top of the frame:
Notice that his hands are free to work as the frame floats in the water. After
he has the consistency correct, he'll start dropping in the accents. Unlike
in the European method, he can linger on this step as long as he wants - days
or weeks - and place leaves, stems or flowers with precision and thought.
5.
In the sun to dry
6. Greeting cards
Here an ancient handicraft meets modern technology. Arnold uses Adobe Photoshop to extract images from his photographs, and prints them on handmade stock with an inkjet printer.
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