Farhan Hossain

Grassroots Paper

In June 2024, Sohan Kobiri and I made paper by hand from cut grass.

We started with cut grass.

Once it dried, we picked it up.

How we made it

  1. A hand reaching down into dry, straw-coloured grass clippings on a strip of lawn
    Picking up the clippings

    Collecting the grass

    We picked up the dry clippings by hand and put them in a bag.

  2. A large steel pot on an electric stove, full of grass stems in boiling water
    The grass in the pot
    A hand pouring baking soda from an orange box into a steel pot of water on the stove
    Adding baking soda

    Boiling the grass

    We boiled the grass in a pot of water with baking soda to soften it.

  3. A kitchen blender full of green pulp, with a hand holding the lid down
    The blender

    Blending it into pulp

    We blended the soft grass with water until it was a thick pulp.

  4. A hand stirring foamy green pulp in a white plastic tub
    Mixing by hand
    Water from a garden hose running into a tub of green pulp while a hand stirs it
    Adding water

    Filling the tub

    We poured the pulp into a tub, added water and mixed it by hand.

  5. A wooden frame held under the surface of the green pulp in the tub
    Dipping the frame
    A wooden frame lifted out of the tub, with water running off one corner
    Lifting it out

    Forming a sheet

    We dipped a wooden frame with a screen into the tub and lifted it out with a thin layer of pulp on the screen.

  6. A hand pressing a pink sponge on the screen of a wooden frame lying on a flowered cloth
    Pressing with a sponge
    A frame lifted away from a flowered cloth, leaving a wet, dark green rectangle of pulp
    A wet sheet

    Pressing out the water

    We turned the frame over onto a cloth and pressed the water out with a sponge. When we lifted the frame off, the sheet stayed on the cloth.

  7. Rows of wet green sheets on flowered cloths laid out across a concrete floor
    Drying on the floor
    Two hands pressing a green sheet flat on a cloth over a baking tray
    Pressing a sheet flat
    A tray with three smooth stones on top of the cloths, pressing the sheets underneath
    Stones on top

    Drying the sheets

    We laid the sheets out to dry and pressed them flat under another tray with stones on top.

  8. Hands peeling a flowered cloth away from a dry, yellow-green sheet of grass paper
    Peeling off the cloth
    A dry sheet of grass paper held up, rough at the edges, with fibres visible all through it
    A dry sheet

    Peeling off the sheets

    When the sheets were dry, we peeled them off the cloths.

  9. Close-up of white glue being squeezed from an orange-tipped bottle onto the fibres of a sheet
    Gluing
    Hands folding a sheet of grass paper into the shape of a bag
    Folding
    Two sides of the bag laid flat, each with a twisted paper handle attached
    The handles

    Making the bag

    We trimmed a sheet, glued it and folded it into a bag. We twisted strips of the same paper into handles.

The finished bag, cut out of its photo and shown standing in painted grass

The finished bag

We made the bag from one sheet of the paper.

The bag standing on a black kitchen counter next to a potted plant
The original photo

The paper

Every batch came out a bit different. The sheets made from fresh grass were darker. We could make thick card for boxes and thin paper for packaging.

A pale yellow sheet of grass paper A grey-green sheet of grass paper A bright green sheet of grass paper
Sheets from three different batches
A hand holding two sheets: a thick, pale khaki card on the left and a thin, bright green paper on the right

Thick card for boxes

Thin paper for packaging

A hand spreading fresh green grass clippings over a screen
Fresh grass clippings
Dark green sheets of grass paper on flowered cloths
Sheets made from fresh grass

Cut and framed pieces

We cut some of the sheets into smaller pieces and framed a few of them.

Pieces of yellow-green grass paper cut into rectangles and strips, laid on a white cloth outdoors, with trees behind
Three small wooden frames standing on a lawn, each holding a piece of grass paper
A sheet, a trimmed rectangle, two thin strips and four small squares of grass paper on a white cloth

The company

After this, we started a company called Grassroots Paper to make paper and packaging from grass and leaves that cities collect. It is not running now.

grassrootspaper.com