Do you want to write a mysterious message, draw a treasure map or make an interesting postcard? For this, it is best to use aged sheets of paper. They will look original, beautiful and at the same time slightly mysterious.
Learn how to age paper with your own hands at home. You can do this in a few simple and quick ways.
- Take a regular sheet of A4 paper or another size.
- Brew coffee. For a more intense color, you can also use coffee grounds. Wait until the liquid has cooled so that you do not burn your fingers on it during operation.
- Now you need to take a baking dish of a suitable size. Put the piece of paper that you plan to age there. At the same time, it should fit completely from all sides, without looking out.
- Add some plain water to the container, creating a small puddle under the leaf. Please note that it should not be completely covered with water.
- Start pouring the reagent into the mold. It is advisable to add coffee not in the center, but from the corner of the container so that it does not fall directly on the leaf.
- Leave the paper in the mold for 5 minutes so that it is well saturated. Make sure that the liquid is on the entire surface. If needed, add a little more coffee to the specific area with a spoon.
- At this time, start preheating the oven to 90 degrees. While the paper is soaking, the oven will reach the desired temperature.
- Press lightly on the paper with your fingers so that it adheres to the form. Then you need to drain the remaining liquid by tilting the container over the sink. If you have another form of a suitable size, you can transfer the sheet to it.
- If you want to add special features to the paper, such as scratches or jagged edges, you can do it right before baking. While the leaf is soaked, it will be better to succumb to various influences. Try running your fingernail in some places to create scratches, or make prints with hard objects, tear the edges of the sheet in several places.
- Place the mold with the prepared material in the oven, it is advisable to mark it in the middle.
- Bake the sheet for 5-7 minutes. At the same time, watch how the paper changes during heating. As soon as its corners begin to curl, you can turn off the oven and remove the leaf.
- After you take the paper out of the oven, wait until it cools down. This will take about 15 minutes.
- Your aged paper is ready! You can start writing or drawing a postcard on it.
You can also use regular tea as a reagent for this method. Dip the bag several times in warm water to get a light dye. If you want a more intense shade, you can make a strong brew from black tea.
There are also other ways to quickly artificially age paper, you can easily find videos and photos of these options on the Internet. For example, you can act on the sheet with fire or heat it on an electric stove. But with such methods you need to be extremely careful, they can hardly be called safe.
Now you know how to age a sheet of paper with coffee and tea, and you can safely start creating beautiful old sheets. The process itself will not take much time, and very soon you will get the finished result.
As in real life, in photos and in movies, aged paper looks very beautiful, it will help to give your message a mysterious and intriguing look. After all, how nice it will be to write on such a piece of paper the lines of your favorite verse with gentle words or a pleasant wish for a loved one.
Do-it-yourself papyrus scroll step by step with a photo
Ancient Egyptian illustrated scrolls are a type of papyrus graphics, which are amazing examples of drawings and texts of various content. During the entire existence of this type of art (XV BC - III century BC), a huge number of copies were created, from the most primitive to chic examples of illuminated papyrus. The golden age of papyrus scrolls came in the New Kingdom. At this time, works of various content and style are created. The most famous was a collection of funeral texts called "The Book of the Dead". The name is very conditional, and in fact, it is translated as "Chapters on the exit to the light of day." The collection contains a story about overcoming trials by the soul of the deceased in order to come out to the light and be resurrected.
Scroll of Nekbed from the Louvre, 18th dynasty. Accompanied by his mother and wife, Nebked meets the god of death, Osiris.
Marahina Anastasia Borisovna, lecturer visual arts at the CRR "Flying Ship"
Description: This master class is intended for schoolchildren, teachers additional education, and all those interested in the Ancient World.
Purpose: work can become a project for a history lesson or MHK, interior decoration
Target: Creating a quality imitation of an illustrated papyrus scroll
Tasks:
1. Get acquainted with papyrus graphics ancient egypt
2. Study the canons and stylistic features of ancient Egyptian drawings
3. Based on the provided material, come up with an artistic concept and the content of the scroll
4. Learn to imitate the texture of a scroll
5. Learn to tint paper
6.Learn to use the watercolor fill method and outline
7. Develop fine motor skills of hands
8. Cultivate a sense of aesthetics
9. Develop imagination
ten*. Use a master class for associative study of historical disciplines.
Necessary tools and materials
1. Printouts of illustrations and an ancient Egyptian dictionary
2. Sheet of watercolor paper
3. Paperclip
4. HB pencil and eraser
5. Watercolor
6. Synthetic brushes 3 and 5
7. Scissors
Introduction:
Before proceeding to the master class, it is worth saying a few words about the features of the art of Ancient Egypt and demonstrating visual materials.
The art of Ancient Egypt is represented in architecture, painting, sculpture and other artistic activities. You all probably have an idea about Egyptian pyramids. And who knows their purpose? That's right, the pyramids were the last refuge of man on Earth and the beginning of his new journey in the Kingdom of the Underworld. All ancient Egyptian art is associated with the cult of death: there are tombs with painted walls, and sarcophagi, and mummies, as well as hymns and various texts of the funeral content. Today we will get acquainted with illustrated papyrus scrolls, which are most fully represented in the so-called. "Book of the Dead".
Weighing of the Soul by Osiris and Horus
"Book of the Dead" by Hunefer. "The rite of opening the mouth and eyes." Papyrus.
The technology for creating a papyrus scroll was created in Egypt and then spread throughout the ancient world, but was soon lost. It could only be recreated in the 20th century! The main material for creating a papyrus scroll is a plant from the Sedge family - Papyrus.
As you can see, here the hieroglyphs are accompanied by illustrations depicting people and gods. Tell us what you see special in the construction of the human figure, the composition as a whole? Immediately striking is the lack of a direct perspective, as well as the general schematic nature of all forms. This is due to the fact that the ancient masters sought to show the essence of an object or person, hence the image at the same time in front and in profile. Perspective binds to the moment and to the place, Egyptian images exist, as it were, outside of time and space. Now let's look at the hieroglyphs. Each character stands for a specific word or even phrase. By using short dictionaries you yourself will try to compose the text and create an image using the canon.
Because we don't have real papyrus, we'll try to imitate the texture with a paper clip.
With the tip of a paper clip, we scratch on the surface of the sheet, first horizontal, and then vertical lines.
Then we start toning. Papyrus is a natural material, which means that tinting should be done in earthy natural shades (ocher, umber, khaki, etc.)
While the future scroll dries after tinting, you can think about the composition and content. In our master class, we start from the "Book of the Dead" only as an artistic source. To help us, found on the Internet, canonical images of gods, ordinary inhabitants and other objects and symbols common to the ancient Egyptian papyrus pattern.
Using the image data, we can create our own composition.
And with the help of a dictionary of hieroglyphs - supplement the illustrations with explanations.
*At the end of the master class, children can be asked to decipher each other's scrolls.
Let's start sketching. First you need to decide on the orientation of the image, then divide the sheet into zones: fields, hieroglyphs, drawing.
Many scrolls are divided into two tiers. I will also use two tiers. On the upper "floor" I will place a chariot with an archer, and on the lower "floor" there will be seated people, in the remaining vertical segment on the right I will place a deity.
I sketch all the acting characters.
Then I work out the details.
After that, you can start filling. We choose colors that are local, bright, we try to apply color without gradations. To do this, take a round brush and apply color to it, well diluted with water. You will most likely need to use multiple layers. Do not forget that to apply each subsequent layer, you must wait until the previous one dries, otherwise you risk thinning the paper.
Last year, my friend visited the country of the pharaohs, Egypt, and, as expected, brought a souvenir - a decorative papyrus depicting Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, and Nefertiti. Everything is very beautiful, one "but" - it's just a piece of papyrus and it turned out to be a real problem to adapt it somewhere. After a long rest on the shelf, I decided to still give my mind to the gift. Bamboo, of course, would suit such an image, but where can you get it? In hardware stores, it is sold only in bundles, and this is not a cheap pleasure. I did not rack my brains for a long time and looked on the Internet. The proposal to make bamboo from cardboard rollers (from cling film, for example, or from foil, parchment paper) also did not please me, because as a rule, you always throw away all this treasure, but in vain. And so, with these thoughts, I was looking for a way out. Once I was walking past a garbage can (yes, no need to laugh) and saw an ordinary plastic water pipe. I gladly brought it home, laundered it, and began to work on a mat for Egyptian papyrus.
For work, I needed the following materials and tools:
- plastic pipe;
- linen cord;
- corrugated cardboard;
- black fabric (preferably velvet);
- PVA glue;
- paints;
- putty;
- acrylic lacquer;
- sandpaper "zero";
- saw;
- scissors and a clerical knife;
- brushes.
We take corrugated cardboard and cut out the base by 5 cm (on each side) over size papyrus.
We cut the fabric to the size of the base with an allowance of 3-4 cm in order to wrap around the edges of the cardboard.
Glue the fabric onto cardboard and set aside to dry. We cut the plastic pipe in half lengthwise. We measure and cut off segments 5-7 cm larger than the base (cardboard).
Now we make imitations of bamboo knots or so-called ribs with linen twine. To do this, we simply wind the twine on the pipe in several layers, so that we get a rather high tubercle, about 0.5 cm in height.
This should be done approximately at a distance of 15-20 cm, but it is not necessary to measure the intervals with a ruler. The uneven spacing between the ribs will give our bamboo a natural charm.
After drying and polishing, you need to paint over the bamboo ribs. This should be done as follows: the first stage is to paint the bamboo with brown paint, let it dry, the second stage is to highlight the most convex element of the knot with black or dark brown paint.
Then cover the entire bamboo with a lighter paint and wipe off the paint in several places with a dry brush. Varnish. Dry.
In the meantime, we paste our papyrus on the finished passe-partout (cardboard pasted over with cloth). Leave to dry again and take on the dried bamboo. Now I will call the pipes that way, because they really look like him. We need to make a frame. To do this, take the twine, and tie the sticks crosswise. You need to tie very tightly!
Here is our frame.
Using a needle or an awl, we pierce the mat from all sides at the same distance of 0.5 cm from the edge. We thread the twine into the holes, clasping the frame. In the end it turns out like this.
This is how, with a small investment of finances and time, you can get an exclusive, unique, designer piece of furniture.
Almost all of us have a word "papyrus" associated with Ancient Egypt - with its Sphinx, pharaohs and scarabs. And this is natural, because much of what we know about the Egyptians, their spiritual and Everyday life, humanity learned thanks to papyrus.
It first appeared around the 3rd millennium BC and was actively used by representatives of the ancient Egyptian civilization, and later by all the states of the ancient world. What is papyrus? From what and how was it made?
What is papyrus?
In the era of Ancient Egypt, there was no such thing as paper. It is only in the XII century, but the need for writing material arose much earlier - when in early civilizations there was a need to maintain documentation and engage in literature. In this regard, people had to use for writing the material that was at hand.
In Babylon they invented cuneiform writing on clay tablets, in Normandy they carved runes on huge stones, and in Egypt papyrus became the main material. It was very comfortable and had a long shelf life. In European countries, papyrus scrolls were kept for over 200 years, while in Egypt, with its dry, hot climate, they were practically eternal.
What was papyrus made of?
For the production of papyrus, the Egyptians used a reed plant from the sedge family, which grew in abundance on the banks of the Nile. 
It had soft stems as thick as a human hand and reached a height of up to 3 meters. In ancient times, not only writing material was made from it, but also shoes, fabrics and even boats. By the way, the famous Norwegian traveler Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlantic on a papyrus shuttle.
In the wild, papyrus formed real thickets along the coast, but during the heyday of papyrus production, entire plantations were assigned for its cultivation. The owners of such lands were considered wealthy people and made good money by renting out individual plots.
In Egypt, there are ancient documents indicating that one of the largest plantations was owned by a resident of Alexandria, who, in addition to rent, took armfuls of plants from tenants.
How was papyrus made?
The technology of making papyrus has come down to our days thanks to the historian Pliny the Elder, who described the manufacturing process in his work Natural History. According to him, the material was made on special tables, which were constantly moistened with water from the Nile. Muddy muddy water significantly enhanced the adhesive properties of papyrus and lengthened its "life". 
The stems of plants were cut into strips and neatly straightened, then applied to each other. New strips were placed across them, which were glued with Nile water or wheat flour and sent under the press. The resulting sheets were laid out in the open air and dried, after which they were glued together in the form of a ribbon and folded into scrolls.
What was papyrus used for?
Papyrus was used primarily for writing and served as an excellent material on which the Egyptians recorded their astronomical knowledge, skills in medicine and mathematics. Among the surviving scrolls there are archival and historical documents, hymns, prose.
On one of the sheets was read interesting story, on the basis of which the composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera Aida. In addition to its written purpose, the material performed a number of other functions. In particular, many mummies found in Egypt were wrapped in papyrus sheets.
They wrote on papyri with ink using a thin reed cut obliquely. To draw lines of different thicknesses, it was turned at different angles. Reading such manuscripts was a rather complicated procedure, since the scrolls had to be constantly rewound. Nevertheless, papyrus was the main writing material for many centuries - until the advent of parchment. 
For a long time, Egypt was the only country that produced the material, and from the 1st millennium BC, there was a royal monopoly on its production. Despite the advent of parchment, papyrus was used until the 12th century, when it was finally replaced by Chinese paper.
