Masses of paper embossed with molds were already used in the 14th/15th century for the decoration of cards, medallions, boxes made of thin split wood, small paste boxes or little devotional images.

Cards with mold-embossed paper reliefs are still a special personal surprise as Christmas greetings, good wishes for the New Year and many other occasions in Europe.

The oldest historical records on the manufacture of mold-embossed paper reliefs can be found at the Nuremberg (Germany) Municipal Library and date back to 1510.

Directions
Ingredients and Tools

• 1 10x10 inch cotton linter sheet (available in our store)
• Cooking spray
• Blender
• Tea Strainer
• Sponge
• Springerle molds
• Paper towels

Preparation
Note: If you ever plan on using your molds for cookies, please only use non-toxic ingredients in your molds for crafting. For this “recipe”, we are recommending a cooking spray as the release agent because it is non-toxic. After this project the molds can be cleaned easily in soap and water, and you have no fear of any toxic residue when later baking.

Tear the linter into small pieces about ½ inch square and place in two quarts of water for about an hour to fluff up and break apart naturally. Using a soup ladle, fill your blender no more than ½ way with the pulp mixture. Make sure you keep plenty of water in the mix. Put on the blender cover. Pulse the mixture until it turns into a fine mush (pulp). Put this pulp in a 3 quart bowl. Continue processing the rest of your linter/water mixture in the blender.

Spray the Springerle mold with a little bit of non-stick cooking oil. Strain a generous amount of paper pulp with a tea strainer and place it on the mold. It is best to do this in a clean sink with a drain strainer inserted to catch any loose pulp. Add more loosely strained pulp until the mold is full of pulp. Use a sponge to squeeze most of the water out of the pulp in the mold cavity. Don’t get it too dry at this stage because you will need to add more pulp in a minute and you want the water to help bind the new layer. Press the paper pulp into the mold cavity carefully with your fingers so that the pulp gets firmly into all the nooks and crannies. Add more pulp and repeat with the sponge and your fingers. Add more pulp again until you have filled the mold firmly and developed a “lip” about ½ across over the sides of the cavity. This lip will help you extract the paper casting out of the mold and will serve as a decorative deckle edge.

Now press out the remaining water using the sponge and paper towels until it is as dry as possible. Pluck off the excess paper at the edge of the mold, using tweezers or your fingers until a deckle edge is created. Carefully remove the paper casting from the mold using a knife or tooth pick to loosen the edges. Do not gouge the mold with the knife. Be gentle, the image is fragile. Let air-dry for two days.

Attach the well-dried paper casting to the desired object with hot glue.

Paper reliefs from the molds «Sun» (7200) and «Rose Oval» (2219) pasted to colored cards