Learned something new

Our family attended the Minnesota Renaissance Festival yesterday. I went to a paper making, print making and bookbinding demo. It was very informative as to the history behind paper and books. They were making all the paper at the festival at the mill where this giant hammer type thing pounded cotton clothing until it was back to fibers. They used wool felt as the couching sheets. They also had a basket that you could donate an article of clothing to go be made into paper. I really want to try this process with cotton but am not sure how I'm going to pound my cotton into oblivion.

The printmaking was cool for the history but didn't learn anything I
could use.

The Bookbinder showed us a 200+ yr old book from Spain and explained that the pages were made from 100% cotton. The pages were still quite white and in excellent shape. I tried to volunteer to be the apprentice bookbinder but the guy picked a cute young girl that wasn't even volunteering...figures. She got to keep the blank journal that she made.