See bottom of this page for info about wildflower seeds...
Seed cards now available with Texas wildflower seeds!
The Story Behind Sierra's Bat Mitzvah Invitations
This project was born when Sierra and Sandy had the wonderful idea of creating personalized handmade paper invitations that would not only help the environment (by recycling) but even add back to the world by being recycled again into compost and wildflowers! These invitations were in keeping with Sierra's theme of Tikuun Olam (Hebrew phrase meaning "repairing the world") and even used papers that were recycled from Temple Beth Sholom. As an added bonus, Sierra was able to be part of the whole process of turning trash into a work of art...We hope you enjoy the story and photos from our papermaking day!
Seed cards now available with Texas wildflower seeds!
The Story Behind Sierra's Bat Mitzvah Invitations
This project was born when Sierra and Sandy had the wonderful idea of creating personalized handmade paper invitations that would not only help the environment (by recycling) but even add back to the world by being recycled again into compost and wildflowers! These invitations were in keeping with Sierra's theme of Tikuun Olam (Hebrew phrase meaning "repairing the world") and even used papers that were recycled from Temple Beth Sholom. As an added bonus, Sierra was able to be part of the whole process of turning trash into a work of art...We hope you enjoy the story and photos from our papermaking day!
Below is Sandy, Alexa, and Sierra tearing up the tissue paper used in the invitations.
The next step was blending the recycled paper into a pulp and shredding the snippets of Hebrew. Below is Alexa adding tissue to the blender.
Sierra poured the paper pulp into the mold, added a pinch of shredded tissue, a half teaspoon of wildflower seeds, and a pinch of Hebrew snippets. (By the way, no chemicals or any other additives were used in this paper!) Below is Sierra blending the mixture by hand.
Next, Sierra patiently drained the water from the pulp in the mold.
Below Alexa, Sierra, Alina, and I are carefully removing excess pulp from the paper edges.
Here is the paper after being removed from the mold and before pressing.
Alina and Sierra are preparing the mound of freshly made handmade papers for pressing.
After pressing, the new paper is left overnight to dry.
Some of the dried paper ready for a final pressing.
A NOTE ABOUT THE WILDFLOWER SEEDS USED IN THE HANDMADE PAPER...
The seed mixture we used is called "Southeast Wildflower Seed Mix" from Eden Brothers website. You can click on this link for a complete list of wildflowers in the mix as well as planting instructions should you need them. http://www.edenbrothers.com/store/southeast_wildflower_seed_mix.html
I suggest just tearing your paper into several smaller pieces, planting under an inch of good soil in plenty of sun, and watering often.
The beautiful artwork on the invitations was drawn by Sierra's amazing, beautiful, and talented grandma, Betty!
Thank you for letting us share our story with you. Please feel free to call me at (941) 586-8698 or email me at karen.naismith@gmail.com if you have questions or comments about this project or would like to discuss ordering your own custom invitations!
