Had a couple really great questions and comments on my first post about making homemade paper using Cow Manure, along with a few great ideas.
So one of them was that in the UK they sell Welsh Sheep Poo Paper, and the other was if you could use bleach to lighten your paper..
I had never used sheep poo, when I took my course years ago, it was explained that all would work but she recommended cow or horse so that was all I had tried until this week.
well, the first thing I noticed, more work picking up for less return, and more of a poo smell, where as the cow poo really does not smell much, the third thing I noticed, much smaller finer fibers then the cow manure has.
So I did the first boil, and rinse out, then I bleached them, this did lighten the fibers, you can see that there is quite a diffence in the color compared to the first post, and in the prepared water with fiber.
Now at this point, I was quite excited, I was not happy with the smell but the rest was working like a charm, until I went to screen it and it went down hill at that point.. I have a fine screen that I have no issues with when used with cow or horse fibers but at least half the sheep fibers were small enough that they just shifted though.. and living an hour from the nearest craft store that “might” have a smaller size screen, I didn’t just hop to town to go get a new one but worked with what I had.. I got a small amount of very thin paper done.. It was way to fragile, I took a photo for you to show you the final color.
Things I learned, I would not do sheep poo without adding extra thicker fibers, either by a) doing a mix with Cow Manure or buying the bag of paper fibers from the craft store and going at least 50 percent of other. B) Need to find a different screen size for sheep manure fibers.
I will see if I can find a better screen for this kind of fiber type and will do a follow up at a later date, but my next project is to do another batch of cow fibers to make card stock with wild flower seed pressed into it, so the gift tag is also a bio-composting flower packet, so the tag is part of the gift itself.
Keep those questions and idea’s coming my way.
Fantastic to see you had a go at sheep poo paper too!! I can well understrand the collecting is much less productive, but maybe with the smaller fibres it could make a more delicate paper (screen permitting)? I have some paper from that firm and it is definitely mixed with other fibres too (old rag fibres they say).
I like the flower tag idea. Who knows, perhaps with a bigger sheet and careful placement of different seeds, you could make a pattern, or spell out a name or initials.
I’m glad I’ve stumbled upon your post as I’ve been investigating this myself and will be trying this with my goat and alpaca manure….What was the approximate ratio of water to manure? And about how long did you boil the mixture? Many thanks, Kristalyn
I normally use a ratio of 1 part manure to 4 parts water. I boil the mixture the first time typically for 30 min or so, less for the second one.
We are researchers and we need some information from you. May we know the detailed procedure how you process the sheep poo into paper with measurements? Thanks in advance!
hello, I am sorry I can not help you in the way you want, I have never created measurements, I am free form, I collect as much as I want o process at that time and I make as much paper as I want, sometimes I make thinner, sometimes thicker, and sometime I dry the fibers and use at a later point.
have you read the cow poo paper article on here, it goes into it step by step with good photos its the same process by I still do not track messurements
Did you ever try this again with a smaller screen or a cheese cloth? Added other manure?
I have never tried it again with a smaller screen but I have done a mix of sheep/horse at 50/50 and gotten a very nice result from it.