Two Rivers Paper Mill 05 Feb 07

A couple of weeks ago my daughter Louise and I visited the Two Rivers Paper Mill in Somerset. They had contacted me just before Christmas after finding my web site and seeing my interest in paper making. So of course I was keen to get down to Somerset to see just how I should be doing it. Two Rivers Paper Mill is run by Neil Hopkins and his colleague Ruth. They specialise in high quality hand made Water Colour paper made from Cotton and Linen fibre but they also make paper suitable for printmaking, pastel and even oils. They also make bespoke paper forspecialist applications.

You can get more information from their web site which is at www.tworiverspaper.co.uk.

While we were there I took a few pictures. One of their two Hollanders is drive by a water mill and Neil was kind enough to demonstrate it to us. Here are a few pictures I took.

	Here is Neil opening the sluice which diverts some of the water from the stream to drive the mill wheel.
	Here Neil has just opened let the water onto the mill wheel. You can see that it hasn't started to turn yet because the water is cascading over the top. A minute later and the wheel was whizzing around.
	Here is Neil lifting the deckle and mould out of the tub which holds all the pulp. As you can see this is quite a small sheet made for a special order. Two Rivers also make paper at Imperial and Half Imperial sizes. You need strong arms to make sheets that size all day.

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